"How Artists and Hackers Can Save the Internet Together" - Kassandra, Silviculture Society

Thu, Oct 2, 2025, 12:00 AM

In this conversation, Kassandra, a passionate Ethereum community member, shares his unique journey from theater and choreography into cryptography and Ethereum development. He reflects on the intersection of art and Web3, the ideological roots of cypherpunk culture, and the emerging concept of "care-punk" as a new framework for digital resistance. The interview explores how privacy can be reframed as an act of self-care and envisions a future internet where state power is balanced by decentralized infrastructure and community values. Timecodes: 00:00 – Introduction: Who is Kassandra & her path to crypto 01:35 – From choreography & theater to programming & Ethereum 03:24 – Silviculture Society: what it is & why it exists 05:15 – Crypto values: openness, coordination, and mental models 07:25 – Cypherpunk to Carepunk: reframing privacy through softness 10:02 – Care as resistance: emotional labor & online safety 12:20 – Design, UX & ethics: why wallets should protect users 14:35 – On building privacy tools with love and intention 17:22 – Privacy as self-care vs. paranoia 20:04 – The role of artists, activists & writers in crypto 23:02 – On aesthetics, interfaces, and building meaningfully 25:14 – Power of language in Web3: naming, framing, resisting 27:41 – Critiquing the surveillance society through beauty 30:02 – Vulnerability, community, and staying human online 32:55 – Hope, despair & the complexity of being privacy-aware 35:11 – ZK & emotional architecture: intimacy vs data-mining 37:22 – What’s worth protecting? Privacy, expression, connection 39:45 – Advice for newcomers: don’t be afraid of technicality 42:10 – Decentralized governance & systems of care 44:38 – Final reflections: joyful resistance & digital dignity 47:10 – Cultural recs: science fiction, soft resistance & more 49:33 – Closing thoughts: build with love, build with others This conversation is part of Privacy Academy Interviews – a peer-to-peer knowledge project exploring the most important ideas in Web3, privacy, and digital freedom. Learn more: https://academy.web3privacy.info/p/interviews A W3PN Media House production. Directed by Federico Marchi https://x.com/BabyBitProd Interview by Peter Farbey https://x.com/0xfarbey Let privacy be with you!