Galaxy Brains | Zero Knowledge & Quantum w/ Eli Ben-Sasson

Podcast: Galaxy Brains
Host: Alex Thorn (Head of Research, Galaxy Digital)
Guest: Eli Ben-Sasson (Co-founder & CEO of StarkWare, co-founder of Zcash)
Date: January 22, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Alex Thorn sits down with Eli Ben-Sasson, a pioneering cryptographer, co-founder of StarkWare and Zcash, to discuss zero-knowledge technology, the evolution of blockchains, privacy, scalability, and the looming challenge of quantum computing. The conversation explores the technical heart of blockchain innovation, the market fit of decentralized applications, the current regulatory and market environment, and urgent security threats.

The episode also opens with a market update from Bimnet Abibi of Galaxy Trading, reflecting on Bitcoin’s price movement and broader macroeconomic trends.

Market Check-in with Bimnet Abibi (Galaxy Trading)

[03:10]–[10:41]

Key Points

• Bitcoin’s Price Action

  • Recent rally from 87k to 98k BTC fully retraced; now range-bound around 87–88k.
  • Bimnet highlights the reflexive nature of Bitcoin: “once you start going up, it’s a little bit easier to go up. But once you start going down, it also works in both directions as we’ve mentioned.” ([06:10])
  • M. Saylor’s major Bitcoin purchase mentioned, though questions about the sustainability of such buys arise.
  • “We’re in a structural downtrend.” ([07:03])

• Global Macro Trends

  • Gold has become increasingly attractive as worries about “the long term debt profile of the world” surface.
  • Incremental moves by investors and sovereigns away from U.S. assets to gold as a long-term store of value.
  • “The biggest risk to markets is runaway inflation and devaluation of the assets you currently own.” ([09:40])

• Market Sentiment and Humor

  • Banter about weather events, blame for market moves, and the inside joke:
    • “If you’re not long, you’re short. Satoshi is going to come on there, laugh hysterically, go quiet.” ([00:12])

Eli Ben-Sasson Interview | Zero Knowledge, StarkWare, & Quantum Threats

Eli’s Background and the Evolution of Cryptography

[10:42]–[14:57]

• Academic to Applied Cryptographer

  • Transitioned from theoretical work (IAS Princeton, Harvard, MIT) to practical blockchain R&D after presenting at Bitcoin 2013.
  • “I came off the podium and a whole bunch of core devs… asked, ‘Okay, where’s the code? We want to use it tomorrow.’ That changed my life.” ([11:19])
  • Left tenured academic post for hands-on blockchain and cryptographic engineering.

• Crypto’s Inflection Point

  • Blockchains enabled new business cases for cryptography—especially ZK proofs.
  • “Outside of blockchain, it’s very, very hard to see a good business case for ZK proofs.” ([13:51])

StarkWare & StarkNet: Technology and Ecosystem

[14:57]–[18:19]

• What is StarkWare Building?

  • Underpins top decentralized perps exchanges and high-scale infrastructure.
  • “Today, three of the top eight perps exchanges and the only ones running on truly decentralized infrastructure are running on our technology.” ([15:08])

• StarkNet’s Role

  • Described as more than a layer 2—an “interoperability layer,” “integrity web,” or “connecting tissue” for multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana.
    • “I would like to view it as… the integrity web, like this thing that… gives them more expressibility, better UX, lower fees, and high scale.” ([16:31])

• DeFi and On-chain Use Cases

  • DeFi remains the dominant product-market fit, but Ben-Sasson predicts a resurgence in blockchain gaming.
  • “I would even go further and say that blockchain as a whole does not yet quite have product market fit, even on the financial layer.” ([18:19])

Product Market Fit & The Future of Blockchain Applications

[18:19]–[21:13]

• Gaming’s Renaissance
  • Prediction: “Games are going to get a lot of attention, at least temporarily, once again in 2026." ([18:19])
  • Recommends “Loot Survivor” on StarkNet as "a very fun game to play." ([19:07])
• NFTs and RWAs
  • Expects NFTs to experience a comeback “in some other form.” ([20:23])
  • On tokenized real-world assets: “I don’t know if RWAs are going to be big or not.” ([21:05])

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK): Scaling and Privacy

[21:08]–[25:33]

• How ZK Works and What It Delivers

  • “ZK gives you integrity through math. It allows you to know that the right thing is being done even when you’re not watching.” ([21:24])
  • Scaling: “Packing a million transactions into one transaction.” ([24:50])
  • Two "superpowers": privacy and scalability; platforms can prioritize either, as with Zcash (privacy) or StarkWare (scaling).

• Privacy: Necessity or Criminality?

  • Ben-Sasson debunks myths: “Legitimate businesses need privacy. We all need privacy.” ([25:47])
  • Real-use example: Employee payrolls and supplier payments aren’t feasible on public blockchains without privacy.

Market Dynamics: Zcash & Privacy Coins

[26:32]–[28:53]

• Zcash’s Price Surge—Why?

  • Four factors: improved products (Zashi wallet), increased scarcity via halving, friendlier regulatory environment, boosts from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
  • “There was an uptick in market interest… from KOLs. One of the most famous… has been MERT from Helios Labs. Obviously a big Solana guy.” ([28:11])

• Anticipating More Privacy-Driven Applications

  • “One of our main efforts… very soon is going to be an amazing set of new privacy based products… on StarkNet.” ([28:21])
  • Suggests privacy will become a greater priority in the next wave of blockchain apps.

Decentralization, Scaling, and the Multithreaded Future

[29:41]–[35:23]

• Centralization in L2s—StarkNet’s Approach

  • StarkNet is “truly committed… to decentralizing its layer of…sequencers, validators.” ([29:41])
  • Introduces staking for both STRK and Bitcoin to incentivize decentralization.

• Innovation: Multi-Threaded Blockchains

  • “All of the blockchains are basically single threaded… On StarkNet, we’re going to very soon have the ability of anyone from their basement… running a sequencer.” ([31:07])
  • Multi-threaded design brings scale, privacy, and democratization—anyone can build blocks, not just those with large stakes or hardware farms.

• Quote:

  • “It gives you scale, it gives you privacy, it gives you democratization of this very profitable economic activity, which is sequencing… And it gives you much more control...” ([34:43])

Quantum Computing: Existential Threat

[35:33]–[44:19]

• Quantum as a Real Risk

  • Ben-Sasson: “I’m very worried… It will not break ZK Starks. So ZK Starks are post-quantum secure… and we have the tools to make Bitcoin post-quantum secure if Bitcoin is willing to… upgrade.” ([36:22])
  • Criticizes complacency: “The reason Y2K wasn’t a problem for Microsoft was because Bill Gates said, guys, let’s fix it… I expect [Michael Saylor] to say… I am supporting and putting people to work on it.” ([36:46])
  • “You do not need to fix it yourself by writing the code, but you need to be saying, you know, putting resources on it, supporting these things.” ([37:45])

• The Bitcoin Upgrade Challenge

  • “I’m really worried about Bitcoin readiness.” ([38:13])
  • Fundamental bottleneck is not technology, but “consensus” on adopting soft forks and protocol upgrades.
  • “It’s not the change. Solutions won’t be created and proposed. It’s the consensus protocol. To me it's completely broken.” ([41:45])

• Urgency: How Soon Could Quantum Matter?

  • “I would not rule out that before the next [U.S. presidential] election there’ll be some announcement of a cryptographically relevant quantum computing device.” (Scott Aaronson, cited by Ben-Sasson, [43:48])
  • “It could be that urgent. But it is already this urgent.” ([43:54]) — points to institutional investors like Jefferies citing lack of quantum readiness as reason to drop Bitcoin exposure.

Ending: Hope and Excitement for StarkNet’s Future

[45:06]–[46:20]

• Reasons for Optimism
  • “One metric that is not reflecting this yet is the price of the STRK token… But if you look at TVL, amount of activity, size of the ecosystem, the novelty of the applications—it is going places. That gets me extremely excited.” ([45:13])
  • “I’m extremely excited about this democratization of block production that we’re working on.” ([46:13])

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Once you start going up, it’s a little bit easier to go up. But once you start going down, it also works in both directions as we’ve mentioned.”
  —Bimnet Abibi [06:10]

• “Outside of blockchain, it’s very, very hard to see a good business case for ZK proofs.”
  —Eli Ben-Sasson [13:51]

• “Blockchain as a whole does not yet quite have product market fit, even on the financial layer.”
  —Eli Ben-Sasson [18:19]

• “Legitimate businesses need privacy. We all need privacy.”
  —Eli Ben-Sasson [25:47]

• “You democratize block building in this way… That’s been a struggle for a lot of blockchains.”
  —Alex Thorn [34:24]

• “I’m very worried… I expect you to say it’s not going to be a problem. Here’s why: I am supporting and putting people to work on it if it’s ever needed.”
  —Eli Ben-Sasson [36:46]

• “It could be that urgent… It is already this urgent. Because if a very important investor from Jefferies is saying this, others will say the same thing.”
  —Eli Ben-Sasson [43:54]

• “There are a lot of bitcoiners who say we’re skeptical it’s that big of an issue. But surely if it is an issue, it will get solved. And you’re putting your money where your mouth is on trying to solve it, which I respect a lot.”
  —Alex Thorn [45:06]

Key Takeaways

• StarkWare is pushing the boundaries of zero-knowledge technology on both scalability and privacy, while staying committed to true decentralization and post-quantum security.
• The blockchain industry, especially Bitcoin, faces significant risks due to complacency on protocol upgrades for future-proofing against quantum attacks.
• Decentralized block production (“multi-threading”) is likely to be a major blockchain paradigm shift.
• Privacy use cases are not only for “criminals,” but essential for legitimate, large-scale business adoption.
• While crypto gaming and NFTs may see cyclical resurgences, financial applications still rule the roost for market fit.
• Quantum risks could manifest much sooner than many in the community expect, and credible warnings are already impacting market sentiment.