privacy, AI, and quantum: the future of blockchain with Dr. Anish Mohammed
What’s holding back institutions from embracing DeFi? It’s not regulation—it’s transparency.
That’s the provocative insight from Dr. Anish Mohammed in this special Web3 with Sam Kamani live episode from DevCon Bangkok. As co-founder and CTO of Panther Protocol, Dr. Anish is building privacy-preserving infrastructure to make DeFi both compliant and institution-friendly.
With a background that stretches from cryptography in India to helping shape early blockchain systems, Dr. Anish offers a rare, holistic view of how privacy, compliance, and innovation intersect in the crypto space.
The paradox of transparency in DeFi
We often hear that transparency is a core strength of blockchain. But for hedge funds, trading platforms, and institutional players, it’s a deal-breaker.
“Institutions don’t want their trading strategies exposed on-chain,” Dr. Anish explains. “You can’t operate with full transparency and still maintain a competitive edge.” This is where Panther Protocol steps in—offering selective disclosure tools that allow users to prove compliance (for taxation or regulatory purposes) without revealing everything.
It's about privacy, not secrecy—enabling decentralized systems that meet real-world needs.
CeFi meets DeFi: Building a bridge
Instead of waiting for institutions to adapt to blockchain, Panther is adapting blockchain to institutions.
By offering compliant privacy layers and plug-ins for hedge funds and trading platforms, Panther aims to make DeFi usable, not just ideological. This isn’t about escaping regulation—it’s about making privacy practical in regulated environments.
Dr. Anish calls this the “consumerization” of privacy tech, likening it to how cloud computing went from niche to mainstream once business needs aligned with better UX and reliability.
From AI to quantum: Tech collisions ahead
Privacy doesn’t exist in a vacuum—and neither does blockchain. This episode dives deep into how AI, large language models (LLMs), and quantum computing are set to collide with cryptography and change everything.
Quantum computing, for example, could break current encryption standards, and AI could be used both to enhance privacy and undermine it. For Dr. Anish, these tech stacks are converging faster than we think—and that convergence demands new cryptographic primitives, better governance models, and proactive design.
“Building future-proof privacy layers means thinking beyond blockchain,” he says. “It means designing for a multi-tech, multi-threat world.”
Lessons from Linux, warnings from the cloud
If the journey of Linux taught us anything, it’s that open tech thrives when the developer community builds for both ideology and usability. The episode draws fascinating parallels between blockchain and the early cloud ecosystem: the promise was there, but adoption only happened when abstraction improved.
Panther Protocol wants to be that abstraction layer for privacy—not making users choose between security and usability.
A call to action
Panther is open for collaboration. If you're building a DeFi application and need KYC/AML-compliant privacy, this might be the protocol for you.
As Dr. Anish notes, the tools we build today will decide whether blockchain remains a niche ideal—or becomes infrastructure for the next generation of finance.
“Don’t build for hype. Build for longevity.”
Listen to the episode:
- 🎧 Spotify: Listen here
- 🍏 Apple Podcasts: Listen here
About the Guest:
Dr. Anish Mohammed
- CTO & Co-Founder, Panther Protocol
- Background in cryptography, AI, and systems security
- Previously worked on projects ranging from healthcare to blockchain policy
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