As AI agents enter finance and DeFi, privacy tech is racing to keep pace. At the Privacy 2.0 Conference in Toronto, leaders from Silent Swap, Secret Labs, Kui.ai and Huddle Markets explored how confidential computing and decentralised tools could redraw the lines between transparency and surveillance. The panel leader was Michael Terpin
In the world of AI with receipts, your wallet is speaking, the question is, who’s listening?
The panel “AI’s Got Receipts: Is Your Wallet Telling on You?” brought together leading voices in privacy tech, DeFi, and AI infrastructure to explore how emerging technologies are reshaping financial privacy. Moderated by Michael Terpin, founder and CEO of Transform Ventures and author of Bitcoin Super Cycle, the discussion covered the decentralization of AI, the privacy paradox in Web3, and real-world solutions already addressing on-chain surveillance.
Panelists
- Michael Terpin (Moderator), Founder, Transform Ventures
- Cal, Product Lead, Silent Swap
- Alex Zaidelson, CEO, Secret Labs
- Jay Nasr, Founder, Kuvi.ai
- Kian Ravenshade, Co-Founder and President, Huddle Markets
Can Decentralized AI Compete?
The first question posed by Michael Terpin centered on whether user distrust of Big Tech is enough to drive adoption of decentralized AI systems, particularly when integrated with crypto wallets and agents.
Cal noted that Web3 levels the playing field. “In Web2, the big guys don’t have competition. But in Web3, everyone has the same data. That helps smaller teams move faster,” he said, pointing to DeepSeek as an example of outperforming OpenAI with fewer resources.
Alex highlighted Secret Labs’ work on confidential computing and noted, “The average user still doesn’t understand the privacy risks they’re taking every day. There’s a lot of education left to do.”
Jay explained how Kui.ai is creating a conversational interface for crypto actions, like a private ChatGPT for DeFi. “We are building an experience where users can trade, swap, and interact without revealing their data, but still easily.”
Kian brought a sceptical perspective. “Decentralization alone isn’t enough. Unless the product is better, users will stick with what they know. They want someone to blame if things go wrong.”
The State of Privacy in Web3
Michael’s second question tackled privacy directly: how is the landscape shifting, especially since regulators have backed off some aggressive stances, such as the Tornado Cash crackdown?
Cal said demand for privacy tools is surging, especially among institutional players. “Why can everyone see my money?” he asked, referencing concerns from hedge funds and VCs who are routinely front-run due to transparent on-chain activity.
Alex added that while interest is growing, the term “privacy” still scares off institutional players. “Try listing a privacy coin on a centralized exchange, it doesn’t happen,” he said. To change this, Secret Labs is helping to shape a new narrative: decentralized confidential computing. He cited a new Messari report that includes Silent Swap and other players as proof that the category is maturing.
Michael agreed, making a distinction: “Privacy is your right to selectively unveil your information. Secrecy is about hiding everything.” The legal nuance, he noted, is key.
Jay shared a realistic outlook: “AI makes privacy worse. It’s really good at tracing, profiling, and uncovering things we thought were private.” But he emphasized that technologies like Secret Network provide a path forward “it’s a problem we can fix.”
Kian focused on the hedge fund use case. “In traditional finance, you can manipulate visibility to influence markets. In DeFi, everything’s exposed, so that strategy doesn’t work.” He argued that as DeFi volume grows, protocols will need to allow for some degree of privacy in order flow.
Practical Solutions and Ecosystem Impact
Each panelist then shared the solutions they are building or supporting to improve financial privacy:
Cal introduced Silent Swap, a fully decentralized, non-custodial cross-chain swap protocol that ensures sender and receiver identities are not linked. “Most of our customers are hedge funds. We solve the problem of being tracked and front-run,” he said. Built using Secret Network, Silent Swap’s founder created the tool for his own use after realizing how exposed he was when moving funds.
Alex explained how Secret Network enables confidential smart contracts via SNIP-20, their private token standard. “You can hold and transfer assets without anyone seeing the details,” he said. He also described Shade, a DeFi suite offering private trading without MEV.
Jay reiterated Kui.ai’s mission: to make privacy convenient by default. “We’re not trying to hide things from governments, we’re just enabling default privacy in crypto through agentic interfaces.”
Kian spoke about Huddle Markets, a multi-manager hedge fund platform that tokenizes institutional strategies and distributes them via both DeFi protocols and traditional wealth channels. “We’re democratizing access to hedge fund strategies,” he said. While not explicitly a privacy tool, the model allows retail users to access previously gated investment vehicles, with privacy-preserving infrastructure becoming an important layer.
The panel ended with a consensus: AI, DeFi, and wallets are converging, and privacy is the missing piece. Whether through confidential smart contracts, non-custodial swaps, or intuitive agentic interfaces, the next evolution of crypto will demand privacy not as an option but as a default setting.
As the panelists reminded the audience, the battle is not between secrecy and transparency, but between surveillance and sovereignty. In the world of AI with receipts, your wallet is speaking, the question is, who’s listening?
