John Reynolds, Product Manager for Aleo, on ZK Tech, Privacy, and Safeguarding Personal Information

John Reynolds is a Product Manager for Aleo with years of experience as a cybersecurity professional. After 3+ years in the United States Air Force as a Cyber Operations Officer, he gained an understanding of the need to safeguard autonomous systems apart from central authorities while also upholding privacy and fostering accountability.

At Aleo, John is responsible for product development and project management. Prior to joining Aleo, John was the Strategic Deployment Lead for Blend. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the United States Air Force Academy and a master’s degree in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

In this conversation, we discuss:

- Common misconceptions about ZK technology
- Zero knowledge proofs: applications, use cases, and common misconceptions
- Privacy + safeguarding personal information
- Identity
- Mining ETH back in the day
- The grand vision for Aleo
- Z-Prize; Aleo’s hardware-based ZK competition
- John’s background in the US Air Force
- Every day privacy tips
- Leo programming language