Hi!

Welcome to the "DeFi Punk 101: Finance with Cypherpunk Values" course!

This course is based on a talk by Hsiao-Wei Wang, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, at DappCon 2025.

Why it matters: her talk introduced the idea of DeFi Punk applying cypherpunk values like privacy, decentralization, and openness to today’s DeFi protocols. The Ethereum Foundation now uses these principles to guide its treasury strategy and funding decisions.

What you’ll learn:

• The 8 principles of DeFi Punk
• A simple scoring system to check if a protocol is truly decentralized and freedom-preserving

Time required: ~20 min

By the end, you’ll be able to answer:

• What is DeFiPunk?
• Why it’s important?
• Score how Punk is any DeFi project

One last thing ✨

The Privacy Academy is still in Beta which means we’re building it together with you.
If you notice any issues, problems, or bugs, please let us know in our Academy Telegram chat: Join here.

But it’s more than a bug channel, it’s a space to:

• Meet other students,
• Share reflections & scores,
• Ask questions, and
• Shape the future of the Academy with us.

And don’t forget: if you want to save your progress, you’ll need to register or log in here.

Happy learning 💜
- The Web3Privacy Now team