In this episode, Yitzy is joined by Yehuda Lindell—founder of Unbound Security (acquired by Coinbase), longtime professor and one of the earliest researchers in secure multiparty computation (MPC).

We trace his journey from Australia to Israel and from theory to industry, then dive into how Coinbase secures customer assets using layered cryptography: MPC, secure enclaves, HSMs, cold elements, and rigorous review processes. Yehuda explains MPC in plain English (with a great DNA example), why “defense-in-depth” beats any single fortress, how insider threats are modeled, and what Coinbase’s production bar looks like.

We also talk CS education in the age of AI, and why students should learn to program with AI rather than fear it. Yehuda closes with a pointer to CB-MPC, Coinbase’s open-source MPC engine, and a broader call for rigor when turning cryptography papers into production systems.

Resources and Links:

Yehuda on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yehudalindell/

Yehuda on X: https://x.com/LindellYehuda

Coinbase's CB-MPC library: https://github.com/coinbase/cb-mpc

Timestamps:

• 00:00 — Intro & Yehuda’s background

• 05:43 — What is cryptography (for non-experts)

• 16:00 — MPC 101 (privacy, correctness, shard thresholds)

• 19:36 — Real-world key splitting; surviving full IT compromise

• 23:38 — Coinbase’s defense-in-depth philosophy

• 24:34 — What secure enclaves are (and side-channel realities)

• 28:52 — Cold elements, cross-domain guards, layered participants

• 31:31 — Coinbase’s production bar & independent reviews

• 35:54 — CS, AI, and training “with” AI
  41:59 — CB-MPC and parting advice

  
  

In this episode of Beyond the Code, Yitzy sits down with Steve Epstein — a distinguished systems/cybersecurity & AI engineer with roots at Bell Labs (alongside Peter Shor & Lov Grover), decades at NDS/Cisco/Synamedia, and currently working at Rafael, in Israel’s defense sector.

Steve explains, in plain English, why quantum computing threatens today’s internet (RSA, ECDH, ECDSA), what Q-Day means, and when [it might be] coming, and how post-quantum cryptography (PQC) must be rolled out across clouds, hardware, supply chains, and especially blockchains.

We cover the journey from satellite-TV smart cards and anti-piracy cat-and-mouse, to Netflix’s cloud migration and account-sharing detection (one of Steve’s 40–50 patents), to the stark reality of “harvest-now, decrypt-later”.

Bottom line: crypto agility and PQC migration have to start now if we want banking, messaging, and crypto ledgers to survive the 2029–2035 Q-Day window.

Topics & Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro — who is Steven Epstein (Bell Labs → NDS/Cisco → Rafael; 40–50 patents)

• 07:45 Smart cards, satellite TV security, and why hardware upgradability mattered

• 12:20 Cloud era: Netflix, AWS, microservices — and the collapse of legacy pay-TV models

• 18:45 Piracy at scale: finding and knocking down illegal streams (and why it barely works)

• 23:30 Quantum 101: Shor’s algorithm, RSA/ECDH/ECDSA risk, Q-Day timelines

• 31:40 PQC overview: Kyber, Dilithium, Falcon, SPHINCS+, HQC; crypto-agility in practice

• 36:50 Harvest-now/decrypt-later and why blockchains are uniquely exposed

• 41:50 Migration realities: cars, routers, military systems, supply chains

• 47:30 What to do now: prioritize PQC for wallets, ledgers, key exchanges, and messaging

In this episode, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein (Tokyo Vice) joins Yitzy to discuss his newly published book, The Devil Takes Bitcoin, a front-row narrative of the Mt. Gox collapse, where ~850k bitcoin went missing, and the cast of characters that shaped crypto’s formative years—from exchange founder Mark Karpelès to law-enforcement sleuths and the corrupt agents who derailed the Silk Road case.

We trace Jake’s path from police beat reporting in Japan to human-trafficking investigations, dig into what Jake refers to as Japan's “hostage justice” system, and debate regulation vs. libertarian ideals in crypto.

Enjoy!

Links:

Substack: Tokyo Paladin (Jake’s essays and investigations): https://tokyopaladin.substack.com/

Wikipedia overview (bio, books, and TV adaptation of Tokyo Vice): ⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Adelstein

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Takes-Bitcoin-Cryptocurrency-Connection/dp/1964992176

X (Twitter): https://x.com/jakeadelstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeadelstein/