Author of *The Network State*, Balaji: 2025–2030 will be the era of rebuilding global privacy infrastructure. In a recent podcast appearance, *The Network State* author & former Coinbase CTO Balaji outlined his view of the crypto industry's development in 'three eight-year cycles': - 2009–2017: The industry spent eight years proving Bitcoin's feasibility. - 2017–2025: The rise of Ethereum, proving the viability of on-chain programmability and scalability. - 2025–2030: The third phase—the Privacy Era. Balaji believes that over the next five years, the core narrative of crypto will shift away from assets and programmability to the reconstruction of all financial and identity processes using Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK): ZKYC, ZK DEX, ZK smart contracts... The entire system will only expose the 'minimum necessary information.' He pointed out that the technical depth of ZK is on par with AI. Built on different mathematical foundations, it will attract top talent and could reshape traditional finance, regulation, and digital identity infrastructure. The crypto community, on-chain identity systems like ENS/SNS, and even the concept of 'network states' will all evolve together during this cycle. Balaji stated bluntly: Privacy is not a supplementary narrative—it’s the foundational answer for the next generation of the crypto world.