2026-06-14 –, Volksbühne (Saal 4)
Kate will guide panelists in a semi-structured discussion reflecting on the "state of privacy in Web3," a year on from the fanfare around the Ethereum Foundation's announcement of prioritizing privacy. Vital infrastructure and tooling, from ZK to TEEs, are only at the beginning of their maturity and usefulness. Just as it feels like the blockchain industry as we know it is collapsing, there are more opportunities than ever for mass adoption (or at least reaching outside our bubble) with these innovations in private, secure communications and transactions.
Meanwhile, it's harder than ever for values-driven projects to get funding as previously reliable supporters turn away from open source. How do we optimize for resilience and durability to steward public goods, while adapting strategies and budgets in the "post-PGF" landscape?
As surveillance capitalism encroaches both physical and digital environments, how can we be strategic in collaborating with regulators and lawyers to protect our digital rights and freedoms? And, when circumstances call for more direct action, how can privacy-preserving tech protect our identities and assets?
Many such questions!
We'll explore them through panelists' perspectives from decentralized social, verifiable wallets, VPNs, and scalable encrypted money, and assess where we stand at "the intersection of hope and cope".
Panelists: Kimmo Sirén, Polymutex, Igor Mandrigin, Marina Markezic, Max Hampshire, Connor O'Hara
Moderator: Kate Stapleton
polymutex wishes to push the Ethereum wallet ecosystem forward through Walletbeat, an L2BEAT-like wallet evaluation framework inspired by Ethereum values.:Security, privacy, self-sovereignty, transparency, and ecosystem alignment. Inspired by Vitalik's blog posts on Ethereum ecosystem alignment legibility, and ""What I would like to see in a wallet"", this maps well to CROPS values.
Walletbeat is an open-source, permissively-licensed database of data about Ethereum wallet. All attributes it looks for in wallets are based on verifiable wallet behavior, from simple presence of UI features all the way down to packet-level wallet network traffic analysis to look for privacy/metadata leakage.
Igor serves as the Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO) and is a co-founder of Gateway.fm. As a highly versatile builder and seasoned engineer, he brings a comprehensive understanding of systems architecture, possessing deep, hands-on experience across the entire spectrum of the network stack. His technical background bridges the gap between traditional Web2 and modern decentralized systems, spanning everything from browser-level engineering to the deployment of massive, large-scale cloud computing services.
His technological journey eventually led him to become deeply entrenched in the Web3 space. Notably, Igor has contributed directly to the foundational layer of the industry as an Ethereum core developer—focusing specifically on the highly efficient Erigon client—while also serving as a dedicated blockchain protocol researcher. Today at Gateway.fm, his leadership is instrumental in designing and implementing resilient, large-scale distributed infrastructure services capable of supporting enterprise demands. Crucially, Igor also spearheads the development of the Open Privacy Suite, where he pioneers practical, interoperable privacy tools designed to bridge the gap between absolute network confidentiality and ecosystem transparency.
Cryptographic engineer interested in unstoppable private money. Currently focused on ZCash's Tachyon upgrade, the next generation shielded protocol and ZK proof system for ZCash for planetary scale. I write blogs about math, life, and autodidacticism, and do Twitter psy ops.
Previously worked in the Cosmos, Solana, Ethereum, TradFi, and performing arts education worlds; wrote code in Rust at all of them. Private money is necessary for dignity and freedom, but more importantly, it is inevitable. Victory is not when they give us permission, it's when they lose the ability to stop us. Excited to eat donor kebaps and drink Club Mate.
Marina is the director and co-founder of the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI), a European advocacy group focused on crypto regulation. Since 2017, Marina has been working with crypto projects on governance and legal matters with a focus on decentralization, DeFi and NFTs. Marina is an expert on key crypto regulatory topics and follows the recent regulatory developments and their influence on the industry.
Kimmo Siren is Head of Product for Lens and Orb at Mask Network. He has a PhD and a background in applied machine learning.
Kate Stapleton is Head of Ecosystem at Fhenix, where she works to advance privacy-preserving technologies and expand the next generation of decentralized applications. With a background spanning cybersecurity research, red teaming, blockchain education, and ecosystem development, Kate brings a multidisciplinary perspective to building more accessible, resilient, and user-centric technologies.
Born and raised in Toronto and now based in Montreal, Kate holds degrees in Business Administration from York University and English Literature from Concordia University. Her path into Web3 began through cybersecurity and evolved into leadership roles across the blockchain ecosystem, including serving as Vice President of the Blockchain Education Network and helping grow some of the industry's most active developer and community networks.
Passionate about privacy, decentralization, and education, Kate is driven by a belief that emerging technologies should empower individuals while remaining accessible to those traditionally excluded from technical spaces. She is a frequent speaker, community builder, and advocate for a more open and equitable digital future."
Max Hampshire is a technologist, researcher, and developer advocate working at the intersection of privacy, decentralization, and digital autonomy. Currently Senior Developer Relations at Nym Technologies, he helps developers build privacy-preserving applications and infrastructure for a more secure and surveillance-resistant internet. His work spans developer tooling, education, protocol design, and the practical adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies.
Based in Amsterdam, Max has spent over a decade exploring the social, political, and technical implications of decentralized systems. He is a co-founder of terra0, an experimental project investigating autonomous ecosystems and machine ownership through blockchain technology, and has contributed to research initiatives including the RIAT Institute for Future Cryptoeconomics and the Institute of Network Cultures.
Combining a background in blockchain engineering, political philosophy, and technology studies, Max's work bridges theory and practice—from building developer infrastructure to advancing the cypherpunk vision of privacy, sovereignty, and collective resilience. His talks and projects have been featured at events including Transmediale, Ars Electronica, Devcon, and Web3 Summit.