What Bitcoin Did · Nov 2, 2026 · 1h 12m · 66m saved
With Misha Komarov, Co-Founder of [alloc] init · Clara Shikhelman, Head of Protocol Research at [alloc] init
If a government starts buying Bitcoin for its treasury, the trade is no secret for long. Misha Komarov, co-founder of the cryptography research firm [alloc] init, told Danny Knowles on What Bitcoin Did that once a transaction like that is visible on-chain, rival states and speculators alike will race to get ahead of it.
Most of Bitcoin's privacy debate has been about individual users hiding their wallets. Misha and his colleague Clara Shikhelman, [alloc] init's head of protocol research, argue the more urgent case is institutional: central banks and sovereigns about to become Bitcoin's next big holders, with no way to transact privately on the base protocol.
"Imagine tomorrow you hear that the US government started putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet. Guess what happens next? Everybody tries to front[-run] it. Everybody and their mother tries to front[-run] it." — Misha Komarov
Misha and Clara are the researchers behind Shielded Bitcoin, a proposal to bring Zcash-style privacy to ordinary Bitcoin transactions without changing Bitcoin's protocol at all.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 72 minutes of audio, 6 minutes of reading.
Here are the 5 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Governments buying Bitcoin will be front-run the moment the trade is visible, Misha says
He expects rival states specifically trying to front-run the US Treasury
Shielded Bitcoin hides the sender, receiver and amount with no fork required
Clara calls it "our regular good old Bitcoin," just sent privately to a chosen party
The idea behind it predates Zcash itself
It was originally meant for Bitcoin before its authors, Sean Bowe and Zooko Wilcox, built Zcash as its own chain instead
The design has no operator for regulators to target, unlike Samourai Wallet
Misha says a user with enough storage could run the whole process alone
Shielded Bitcoin's quantum resistance is capped by Bitcoin's own cryptography
Clara says it can't be more quantum-secure than Bitcoin's underlying signature scheme
1. Governments Need Privacy
Danny opened on why Bitcoin needs privacy tools at all, given how long the network has run without them. Misha's answer centered on who is about to start using Bitcoin, not who already does.
Rival states will specifically try to front-run the US Treasury, Misha says
"There will be countries who will be trying to front run the US Treasury." — Misha Komarov
He argued Bitcoin's resistance to protocol change is part of what makes it trusted as a "safe harbor" for governments and institutions, and that this next wave of holders will need transaction privacy the base protocol doesn't offer today.
