Common S3nse 2026: every Cryptofocus interview, day one

Every Cryptofocus interview from day one of Common S3nse 2026, Friday 4 September, at De Hallen Studio's, Amsterdam: 12 conversations recorded on the floor with the people building privacy tech, and published the same day. The interviews from day two are collected here. The story that runs through all of them, both days in one piece: Privacy as security: Common S3nse 2026 in sixteen interviews.

Watch them all in one place: the Common S3nse playlist on YouTube. Organised by CryptoCanal; Cryptofocus is media partner.

Nym’s Casey Ford: your free VPN behaves like malware

I expected a VPN pitch. What I got was a philosopher telling me that the app most people install to protect themselves is the thing reading them. Casey Ford runs communications at Nym and holds a PhD in philosophy. He… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Superteam NL wants a crypto workshop in the Tweede Kamer

I asked a Solana community lead what the Dutch government could actually do for crypto, and he answered by telling me what his own friends think he does for a living. Mick Peters-Sengers founded and runs Superteam… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Firo’s Reuben Yap: the frozen account behind the argument

He was a lawyer for ten years, he pays his taxes, and a couple of months ago a Malaysian bank shut his account for a full year after a stablecoin payment reached him from someone who had scammed a third party. Reuben… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Aaron Day used AI to win a court order without a lawyer

Three days before I sat down with Aaron Day in Amsterdam, a federal judge ordered the state of New Hampshire to put him on the Senate ballot. He had sued the state, argued the case himself and says he built it with AI.… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Satochip’s Bastien Taquet: no screen, no battery, no KYC

I asked a man who sells hardware wallets how his company stays credible, and his answer, in effect, was that I do not have to buy one from him. Bastien Taquet co-founded Satochip, the Belgian company behind a smartcard… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Maxime Desalle on Zcash: “Bitcoin is a surveillance machine”

Maxime Desalle sat across from me at Common S3nse and called Bitcoin, an asset his own employer lists in its portfolio, “effectively a surveillance machine”. He is an investment analyst at Winklevoss Capital, the family… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Sebastien Guillemot on Midnight privacy as quantum insurance

The most useful thing Sebastien Guillemot told me had nothing to do with hiding. He is the CTO of the Midnight Foundation, the chain from the Cardano camp that switched its mainnet on in March, and I expected the… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Monflo’s Chhay Lin Lim: an anarchist with a MiCA licence

I asked a man whose crypto firm is licensed by the Dutch regulator what he makes of a state that says it surveils you to protect you. He answered in two words, then said them again. Chhay Lin Lim founded Monflo, an… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Why CryptoCanal’s Eléonore Blanc keeps Common S3nse small

The Wi-Fi network at Common S3nse is called “taxation is theft” and the password is “fiat is a scam”. That is the building Eléonore Blanc built. She founded CryptoCanal in Amsterdam in 2019, ran three editions of… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

AZTEQ Metaverse’s Sam: ‘We do overpromise sometimes’

I had tried four times to get Sam into this chair, and when the co-founder of AZTEQ Metaverse finally sat down at Common S3nse he said the sentence founders are coached never to say on camera: “we do overpromise… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

James Walford, Inferenco: self-taught with AI, no vibe coder

The man who builds the wallet a Dutch metaverse runs inside wrote his first line of code in 2023. James Walford told me that without a flicker of apology, and then gave me the line I have been repeating all evening: “I… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.

Martin Strobl of Logos: you assume no one is looking

I asked a privacy researcher what it costs to be transparent, and he answered with a number from the stock market rather than from crypto. Martin Strobl researches at Logos, a stack that wants to run a whole society off… Read the analysis or watch the full interview.