Network School Founder Balaji Srinivasan: Understanding Zcash is Important for the Future, One Cannot Be Ignorant of Zero-Knowledge
Balaji Srinivasan, founder of Network School, stated that understanding Zcash is crucial for the future, and one cannot be ignorant of zero-knowledge. He announced that this year's Network Nation Conference will include the Zcash Zummit, where on-site participants will receive some free ZEC, though the amount has not been specified.
The conference will be held on October 9 in Singapore, immediately following Token2049, at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Level 5. On-site tickets are priced at $99, while remote participation is free. The free ZEC will only be given to on-site attendees. The conference page states that the theme is about founding, funding, and finding new communities.
The Zummit lineup, as noted by him, includes: Zooko Wilcox, Shielded Labs; Sean Bowe, Tachyon; Eli Ben-Sasson, StarkWare; Josh Swihart, Zodl; Josh Lee, Vizor; Dev Ojha, Zakura; Evan Forbes, Valar Group; Maxime Desalle, Winklevoss Capital; Tom Howard, Zcash Labs. The conference's official website also lists Wilcox as a co-founder of Zcash. The event page states that Zcash, as a cornerstone of financial privacy, has appeared at this conference over the years, and this year it has expanded into a dedicated session.
Other keynote speakers include Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Binance CEO Richard Teng, Polychain founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, Floodgate founder Mike Maples, and Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev. Representatives from the governments of Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and El Salvador, as well as Brian Armstrong, Ben Horowitz, and Arthur Hayes, are expected to attend the 2025 conference.
Srinivasan did not announce any new protocol upgrades, supply changes, or regulatory approvals. The dedicated session positions zero-knowledge alongside founders of privacy coins, proof system companies, and capital providers. StarkWare focuses on validity proofs on Ethereum, while Winklevoss Capital is an investor, not a protocol development team.
This is not about listing on exchanges. The buyers are on-site participants who pay $99 and may receive ZEC; the sellers are the organizers who aim to frame zero-knowledge as community infrastructure alongside the projects listed. The event is driven by the conference date of October 9, not by on-chain issuance. Beneficiaries include Shielded Labs, Tachyon, Zodl, Zakura, and Zcash Labs, which are included in the speaking lineup; those under pressure are other assets that are not part of this privacy narrative but are vying for attention at the same Singapore conference that week. The quantity of free ZEC has yet to be disclosed.
Source: Public Information
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Balaji Srinivasan transitioned from being the CTO of Coinbase and a general partner at a16z to writing "Network Nation," running Network School, and organizing the annual conference. His path is to frame the entrepreneurial community, passports, and judicial competition as a single product. Zcash has been featured in the speaking lineup of this conference from 2023 to 2025, and this year it has expanded into the Zummit. Wilcox initially worked on Zcash's shielded addresses and later moved to Shielded Labs; Bowe has long been involved in writing Zcash's zero-knowledge circuits and is now associated with Tachyon.
The capital path involves ticket sales plus token giveaways, rather than funding rounds. On-site tickets are $99, while remote participation is free, with giveaways only for attendees. Maxime Desalle from Winklevoss Capital being on the list means that an investor is present at the speaking table, rather than just participating in the secondary market. Eli Ben-Sasson from StarkWare has combined Ethereum's proof systems with the privacy coin session. The organizers aim to capture attention in Singapore after Token2049 on October 9, while the projects want to be recognized as essential infrastructure that "must be understood" for the future.
This can be compared to Ethereum developer conferences that consolidate research agendas during the event, and Bitcoin conferences that use cities and free tickets to attract holders. The difference here is that the organizers are not a foundation but part of the Network Nation project. The industry's position is not about launching new chains but about repositioning privacy from an optional feature to a community entry point. Buterin, Teng, and Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister are still part of the same day's agenda, while Zcash has secured a dedicated session rather than a full conference slot.
Structurally, narrative power is centralized. The mechanism is that zero-knowledge proofs are inherently difficult to explain, and the conference uses puns and free ZEC to convert understanding costs into attendance costs. Those who appear on this nine-person list represent "you cannot be ignorant of zero-knowledge" for that week. Protocol parameters have not changed; what has changed is which names are included in the future narrative.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Difficult technologies first become dedicated sessions.
Free tokens are given to attendees, not remote participants.
The list enters the future narrative faster than parameters.