The fear of a mistake
Hoskinson pinned the industry's stalled mainstream adoption on a single problem: user fear of making mistakes. He pointed to Google Wallet, which has roughly 1.5 billion users, and contrasted its frictionless flow with crypto's current maze of private keys, gas fees, and chain-specific addresses. “People aren't avoiding crypto because they don't want it,” he said. “They're avoiding it because they're scared they'll lose it.”
" Translation: "El miedo a cometer un error
Hoskinson atribuyó el estancamiento de la adopción masiva de la industria a un solo problema: el miedo del usuario a cometer errores. Señaló a Google Wallet, que tiene aproximadamente 1.500 millones de usuarios, y contrastó su flujo sin fricciones con el actual laberinto de claves privadas, tarifas de gas y direcciones específicas de cada cadena. «La gente no evita las criptomonedas porque no las quiera», dijo. «Las evitan porque tienen miedo de perderlas».
" Note: "pinned" -> "atribuyó", "stalled mainstream adoption" -> "estancamiento de la adopción masiva", "frictionless flow" -> "flujo sin fricciones", "private keys" -> "claves privadas", "gas fees" -> "tarifas de gas" (common in Spanish crypto). Quotes: use angular quotes «» or regular quotes? In Spanish, angular quotes are typical but can also use straight. I'll use angular for consistency with original? Original used straight quotes. But Spanish style often uses «». I'll use straight to match original style? The instruction says "maintain exact meaning and tone" but not necessarily punctuation style. I'll use straight quotes as in original, but in Spanish it's common to use angular. However, to be safe, I'll use straight quotes since the original did. Actually, original used curly quotes? It shows “ ”. I'll use “ ” as well. Note: In Spanish, the opening is “ and closing ” but that's fine. I'll keep as original. Third paragraph: "Abstraction's upside — and its catch
He credited Ethereum for pushing forward account abstraction and chain abstraction standards, and singled out Near Protocol as an example of embedding that logic at the protocol level — noting $71 million in transaction fees over the past year and billions of dollars traded through Near intents. But Hoskinson also warned that abstraction comes with a trade-off. It delegates complexity to third parties, giving them visibility into assets, transactions, preferences, identity, and business data. That's a privacy leak most users don't see.
" Translation: "El lado positivo de la abstracción — y su trampa
Reconoció a Ethereum por impulsar los estándares de abstracción de cuentas y abstracción de cadenas, y destacó a Near Protocol como un ejemplo de incorporación de esa lógica a nivel de protocolo — señalando $71 millones en tarifas de transacción durante el último año y miles de millones de dólares negociados a través de intents de Near. Pero Hoskinson también advirtió que la abstracción conlleva una compensación. Delega la complejidad a terceros, dándoles visibilidad sobre activos, transacciones, preferencias, identidad y datos comerciales. Eso es una fuga de privacidad que la mayoría de los usuarios no ve.
" Note: "account abstraction" -> "abstracción de cuentas", "chain abstraction" -> "abstracción de cadenas", "Near intents" -> "intents de Near" (keep as is). "trade-off" -> "compensación" or "intercambio"? "Compensación" works. "privacy leak" -> "fuga de privacidad". Numbers: $71 million -> $71 millones, billions -> miles de millones. Fourth paragraph: "How Midnight Passport works
Midnight Passport tries to avoid that leak. It's a mobile-native system that combines key management, recovery, self-sovereign identity, selective disclosure, wallet credentials, name services, and multi-chain signatures. The user scans a QR code, the phone's trusted execution hardware handles the cryptography, and off-chain data is encrypted client-side. The result is a wallet that works across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP without a central server holding the keys — or the data.
" Translation: "Cómo funciona Midnight Passport
Midnight Passport intenta evitar esa fuga. Es un sistema nativo móvil que combina gestión de claves, recuperación, identidad autosoberana, divulgación selectiva, credenciales de billetera, servicios de nombres y firmas multicadena. El usuario escanea un código QR, el hardware de ejecución confiable del teléfono maneja la criptografía, y los datos fuera de la cadena se cifran del lado del cliente. El resultado es una billetera que funciona en Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana y XRP sin que un servidor central tenga las claves — ni los datos.
" Note: "mobile-native" -> "nativo móvil", "key management" -> "gestión de claves", "self-sovereign identity" -> "identidad autosoberana" (common term), "selective disclosure" -> "divulgación selectiva", "wallet credentials" -> "credenciales de billetera", "name services" -> "servicios de nombres", "multi-chain signatures" -> "firmas multicadena", "trusted execution hardware" -> "hardware de ejecución confiable", "off-chain" -> "fuera de la cadena", "client-side" -> "del lado del cliente". Fifth paragraph: "AI agents need privacy too
Hoskinson also looked ahead to the next wave: AI agents. He argued that within a few years, these agents will handle most searches, transactions, and online activity. That makes privacy an even harder problem, because agents will need access to user data to execute tasks. Midnight Passport, he said, is being built for both humans and agents, letting rules govern identity, data access, and execution — so the agent doesn't turn into a data sieve.
" Translation: "
