Luca Carter

Host of | Focus. Discipline. Growth.

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

1/
the privacy trade has been one of the few bright spots in a stagnant market

zec ran to a nine-year high in november, ~28x off its 1y low, then tanked when zcash's core dev team announced their exit over a governance fight. xmr has taken over the privacy trade since

analysis by @veryBN

breaking down how zcash and monero actually differ, ahead of our episode with @zooko next week 👇

2/ origin stories
the core difference is where they started. @monero was born on forums, @Zcash in universities

monero launched in 2014 as "bitmonero" from an anonymous user, thankful_for_today, built on cryptonote. the community took it over early. no ceo, no office, funded entirely by voluntary donations through the ccs. a small core team stewards repos and funds but doesn't set the roadmap

3/
zcash traces back to 2013 academic work at johns hopkins, where cryptographers built the zerocoin protocol. it evolved into zcash, launched 2016 by @zooko wilcox and the electric coin company. unlike monero, zcash chose to work alongside regulators, not against them

4/
those origins shaped their reputations. monero's mandatory privacy made it the darknet default. per @trmlabs, nearly half of new darknet markets in 2024 used xmr exclusively. zcash barely shows up in ransomware or darknet reports

5/
that reputation cost xmr listings. binance dropped it feb 2024, okx jan 2024, kraken pulled it for eu users oct 2024. zcash dodged the big delistings: binance removed its monitoring tag july 2025, okx relisted nov 2025

6/ privacy, simplified
think of a transaction as a message. monero mixes yours into a crowd, you speak at the same time as ~15 others so nobody can prove it was you. zcash's shielded transactions put your message in a locked box only the recipient can open

7/
monero's three tools:
ring signatures hide the sender, mixing you with ~16 decoys already onchain
ringct hides the amount, encrypting values while proving no coins were minted
stealth addresses hide the receiver with a one-time address per transaction

8/
zcash uses zk-snarks. a shielded transaction generates a proof that it's valid without revealing sender, receiver, or amount. you prove you can spend the coins without exposing a single detail

9/ mandatory vs optional
monero: privacy is forced, no transparent transactions. every transaction looks identical, herd immunity. the logic, optional privacy isn't real privacy, because if only "suspicious" people use it, they become the targets

zcash: privacy by choice. zec moves transparent or shielded. still, the shielded pool keeps growing, ~30% of supply now, up from 8.7% a year ago

10/ consensus and supply
monero runs randomx pow, asic-resistant and cpu-friendly for home miners. it has tail emission, infinite supply at ~0.6 xmr per block forever, so miners always have a reason to secure it

11/
zcash runs equihash today, asic-optimized, and is moving to crosslink, a hybrid pow/pos. miners still produce blocks, stakers add finality that makes transactions permanent. like bitcoin, zcash caps at 21m with a halving every ~4 years

12/ what's next
monero is building fcmp++ to replace ring signatures. instead of ~16 decoys, you'd mix with the entire chain history. the anonymity set goes from "crowd of 16" to "crowd of everyone"

13/
zcash has tachyon for scaling plus crosslink for the pos transition, and ux upgrades through new wallets and near intents integration

one note: zcash's privacy layer is quantum-resistant, monero's ring signatures aren't. monero plans to fix that with fcmp++ and later upgrades

14/ different tools, different bets
it comes down to adoption, and adoption rides on organization and reputation

zcash's corporate structure enabled fast r&d and cutting-edge crypto, but the ecc exit exposed concentration risk. monero's decentralized contributor model is slower to coordinate, but no single departure breaks it

15/
on reputation the tradeoffs are sharp. zcash's optional privacy and compliance-friendly design kept it on major exchanges, at the cost of weaker network-level privacy. monero's mandatory privacy made it the darknet leader, and pulled in delistings and regulatory heat

16/
the "one true privacy coin" debate comes down to what you're optimizing for. monero has stronger privacy today but steeper adoption headwinds. zcash has a path to broader adoption but needs users to actively choose privacy, and most don't

both came back from dormant years. now each has to hold the spotlight and prove its architecture can outlast the other

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

"what happens when someone inside one of the most iconic retail platforms of the last cycle sees its limits up close?"

our host @M4rcusHale speaks with @jayendra_jog, co-founder of @SeiNetwork, tracing his path from the early robinhood days in palo alto, through hypergrowth, the ipo era, and the gamestop moment, into crypto

we get into how seeing the mechanics and constraints of tradfi infrastructure firsthand reshaped his thinking, why the buy suspension during one of retail's defining episodes stuck with him, and how that pushed him toward systems that are more open, more resilient, and less dependent on centralized control

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

"high-performance infra only matters if it expands what users can actually do onchain, and makes that accessible at scale"

@Angelaxbt sits down with @jayendra_jog, co-founder of @SeiNetwork, on why parallelized execution keeps getting more important for the next wave of onchain apps

from trading and defi to high-frequency activity that breaks in low-throughput environments, we get into how lower fees and more execution capacity reshape the experience, especially for smaller players who usually get priced out

we also look at how this shows up in practice with projects like bancor's carbon defi, where sei has become the ecosystem driving the strongest activity and volume. performance turning into real adoption

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

"virtual machines are like cities. once they hit critical mass they turn into magnets that are incredibly hard to displace"

our host @mariawilliamsmp catches up with @jayendra_jog, co-founder of @SeiNetwork, to unpack it. why flawed systems still dominate, simply because that's where the activity, liquidity, and people already are

from new york and san francisco to onchain worlds like the evm, we get into how network effects compound over time, why newer ecosystems struggle to pull users away even with better tech, and what it actually takes to break that inertia

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

this week on melon: jayendra jog (@jayendra_jog), founder of @SeiNetwork

we get into jay's path from robinhood and tradfi into building sei, and how markets, users, and product feedback shaped the way he thinks about blockchain infra

we compare established cities to virtual machines. why the evm is so hard to displace, what makes devs stay, and what a new ecosystem has to do to earn attention

then throughput. why web3 needs more of it, how parallelization pushes past today's limits, and why scale is the thing between crypto apps and real users

and jay on memecoins. less pure speculation, more community movements that show how culture, attention, and network effects form onchain

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

selling crypto to cover expenses hurts. you trigger taxes and lose your exposure in one move

defi borrowing fixes both. instead of selling your eth, lock it as collateral, borrow usdc onchain, spend like cash, stay long. not a taxable event in the us

and now you can do it straight from the coinbase app

analysis by @SunwooHajin

this is an integration i'd hand to my own family. @coinbase is one of the most trusted and easy exchanges to navigate, and @Morpho is one of the most proven lending protocols in defi. put them together and you borrow against your eth without leaving the coinbase app

assuming you already hold eth on coinbase, here's the flow:

1. tap your eth balance to open your ethereum dashboard
2. scroll to the "borrow" tab and hit "start"
3. read the primer: your borrow up to amount (set by your eth on coinbase), the variable rate (interest morpho charges), and the liquidation ltv (the loan to value point where your eth gets liquidated to repay). then "continue"
4. enter how much usdc you want, tap "review loan"
5. check the details, hit "borrow now," then "accept and continue." it can take a minute or two to finalize in the coinbase ui

that's it

to manage it later: open the "cash" tab, find "borrow," tap "manage loans." the "repay" option lives there to pay your usdc back over time

these eth backed loans run on a flexible term. no fixed amounts, no set schedule. repay whenever, in whatever size suits you. just watch your loan health so you don't get liquidated

one note: usdc you borrow on coinbase can't buy crypto on coinbase. this lane is for cashing out and spending

as far as defi onramps go, this is about as simple and safe as it gets. if you or someone you know hasn't borrowed against eth yet, start here

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

"gary gensler was teaching a class while i was on campus. i skipped it, and i've regretted it ever since"

our host @M4rcusHale links up with @annakaz, founder of @Vana, on the small early moments that quietly shape how you think. brushing up against future regulators, and realizing way too late which rooms you should've been in

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

this week on melon: anna kazlauskas (@annakaz), founder of @Vana

we get into her jump from tradfi into decentralized ai, and what it takes to build a platform where people own their data and choose how it trains models. tokenomics as core infra, not a side quest

we hit the real startup stuff too: early hires, mission fit over resumes, staying focused when the narrative shifts every week

and we close on the ai data crunch. why private data is uniquely valuable, how data daos unlock it, and what separates a dao from a trust or a union

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

illinois just became the first us state to tax crypto transactions

gov pritzker signed sb 3019, a 0.2% "privilege tax" on digital asset activity. live january 1 2027

it hits brokers (exchanges, custodians), not you directly, but the cost flows downstream. sending assets to an exchange or an exchange moving funds between its own wallets can count as taxable

the murky part: does it reach self custody. transfers between wallets you control, metamask, rabby, defi routed through smart contracts, all unclear

out of state platforms get pulled in at $100k illinois revenue. unregistered brokers face felony charges

first state to try this. probably not the last

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

After moving from Berlin to Silicon Valley, I found myself bored at a new school, so I started spending time at my dad's SAP Lab: fast internet, endless reading, and the start of my love for technology."

Our host @M4rcusHale sits down with @michaelh_0g (@0G_labs) to trace his origin story. Early curiosity, a growing obsession with tech, his path into Web3, and the founding of his company.

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

After moving from Berlin to Silicon Valley, I found myself bored at a new school, so I started spending time at my dad's SAP Lab: fast internet, endless reading, and the beginning of my love for technology."
Our host @mariawilliamsmp sits down with @michaelh_0g (@0G_labs) to trace his origin story, from early curiosity and a growing obsession with tech to his path into Web3, and ultimately, the founding of his company.

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

Worth revisiting from last week: the SEC and CFTC dropped joint guidance on how crypto assets get treated under US law. First real framework instead of "everything's a security until proven otherwise."

Five categories now:

Digital commodities. 16 assets named directly as non securities, including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, ADA, LINK, DOT (lol). Value comes from function and supply/demand, not from an investment contract.

Digital collectibles. NFTs, memecoins, fan tokens. CryptoPunks, WIF, VCOIN named by name. Memecoins can graduate into commodities once they're "functional."

Digital tools. Soulbound credentials, tickets, identity badges, ENS domains. Stuff meant to be used, not traded.

Stablecoins. GENIUS Act compliant payment stablecoins are non securities. Until the Act kicks in this January, fully reserved "Covered Stablecoins" stay outside SEC reach.

Digital securities. The category that actually matters, and the blurriest one. Howey test still applies. Still facts and circumstances. SEC won't name a single asset that falls here.

The ambiguity didn't go away, it never does. But "assume it's a security" is finally not the default anymore.

Classification now comes down to use, marketing, and how a token evolves. Step in the right direction.

[Melon Podcast @MelonPodcasts]

New episode: Michael Heinrich (@michaelh_0g), founder of 0G Labs (@0G_labs).

Michael's building the first modular AI blockchain. We got into how an unconventional path, bored in high school to running a company, shaped how he leads and where he puts his focus.

Then the personal side: how meditation keeps him clear and disciplined when you're building for the long haul.

And the thesis: why AI infrastructure has to be decentralized. Data and compute owned by a community, not a handful of companies, and how 0G opens up storage, ML and AI for businesses and builders.

AI, crypto, data ownership, founder psychology, and why the next wave of AI should be decentralized from day one.

[Luca Carter @LucaPodcasts]

@BigTimeLaith @SatoshiVM @bounce_finance received my airdrop tokens. let's make waves in the crypto world together!

[Luca Carter @LucaPodcasts]

@CunamiDeFi @SatoshiVM @bounce_finance airdrops are like little surprises in the crypto world.

[Luca Carter @LucaPodcasts]

@SatosniVM @bounce_finance @SatoshiVM Joined the airdrop and thrilled to be part of this transformative journey. Let's make history!

[Luca Carter @LucaPodcasts]

@DDWirtschaft @BrowanDeFi @dymension Airdrops are an awesome way to distribute tokens fairly.

[Luca Carter @LucaPodcasts]

@SatosniVM @wayne_ga0x @SatoshiVM Airdrops make me feel like a crypto champion. Thank you!