Joshua Maddox is the Chief Ecosystem and Partnerships Officer at COTI, a layer 2 solution built on Ethereum and designed for digital payments using its own proprietary blockchain protocol. Under his leadership, COTI has made major strides in implementing garbled circuits — marking the first time this privacy-preserving technology has been deployed live onchain. This advancement enables secure multi-party computation, allowing participants to jointly compute functions over their inputs while keeping those inputs private. COTI was recently selected to participate in the Central Bank of Israel’s CBDC pilot, joining a cohort that includes industry leaders such as PayPal and Fireblocks. Founded in 2017, the project has raised over $500 million from prominent backers, including Cardano’s cFund, Borderless Capital, and Cardstarter. Before joining COTI, Joshua served as Head of Developer Ecosystem and Grants at the Provenance Blockchain Foundation. There, he designed and led the largest grants programme for regulated financial services on blockchain, distributing over $50 million to support innovation in the space.
How did you get into crypto — was it a natural move from traditional finance?
I started digging into blockchain professionally while working at Acumen, a capital fund focused on companies serving low-income communities. I was leading engineering-to-marketing strategy, tracking emerging technologies like AI and blockchain.
We had early access to ChatGPT-2 and -3, and I was exploring Cardano around the same time. That’s when I realised I could make more impact working directly in the blockchain space.
You’ve spent time in China and Southeast Asia. Did that influence how you approach growth at Coti?
Absolutely. There’s real energy in places like Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. The younger population is really eager to build.
You see the same drive in Dubai. As Western and Chinese populations age out, this region is only picking up steam. That hunger for innovation is something we channel into our growth strategy at Coti.
Privacy used to be one of crypto’s core values. How does Coti think about it today?
We’re focused on what we call ‘compliant privacy’. That may sound contradictory, but it’s the future. Everything onchain is public, and most users don’t realise how exposed they are. We think people deserve privacy, but it needs to align with regulation.
That’s where garbled circuits come in: they allow encrypted computation on public blockchains, but with the option to share keys with regulators when required. It’s a middle ground that works for users and compliance alike.
Can you explain the difference between garbled circuits and ZK proofs?
ZK proofs let you prove something without revealing the data itself—yes/no answers, essentially. Fully Homomorphic Encryption lets you compute directly on encrypted data.
Garbled circuits combine elements of both. They’re fast, lightweight, and ideal for mobile or real-time dApps. You get secure computation and proof, without the heavy performance hit.
Coti started out in payments. Why the pivot to privacy?
We realised privacy was the biggest roadblock to adoption. When I was at Provenance, we’d get deep into talks with big institutions, then hit a wall due to privacy limitations.
The only options were going offchain, building private chains, or walking away. Coti’s tech lets us bring privacy to public chains without breaking regulatory compatibility.
Provenance is still one of the biggest RWA platforms, right?
It is, with over $30 billion in transactions, $14 billion in TVL. You wouldn’t know it from the front end — they hide the crypto well.
That’s when blockchain wins— when users don’t even know it’s there.
Is the average DeFi user less concerned about privacy now?
They are, but only because they don’t realise what’s happening. Imagine if your bank history and private messages were public forever.
That’s what’s happening onchain. It’s our job to build privacy tools that work by default, so users don’t have to think about it.
You’ve said tech isn’t enough without a community. What are you doing to build one?
We launched stay.coti.io to onboard non-developers into the space. We teach people to build with AI tools, even if they’ve never coded before.
We pair them with developers to reinforce best practices in security and smart contract design. In the next couple of years, AI-native builders will outnumber traditional devs. We want Coti to be their first choice.
How far off is mainstream AI-powered dApp development?
MVP-level apps are already being built. Market-ready apps? I’d say 12 to 36 months. Maybe 24 is the sweet spot, but things are moving quickly.
Any standout examples from your AI transformation work at Coti?
Our head of marketing had never written a line of code.. Over a weekend, she built an AI system that recognises quilt patterns and teaches others how to replicate them.
That’s the power of AI — you can go from idea to prototype with zero development background.
You recently got over 700 ambassador applications. How do you vet them?
We look for people with real-world privacy use cases. Many don’t realise they need privacy until they run into problems.
Our program helps them understand that and supports them in building solutions.
What did you learn from your time with Cardano and Provenance?
Honestly, we’re not dev-friendly enough yet. The lesson was: get there fast.
That’s why we launched on EVM. Tools and documentation matter — if they’re missing, builders won’t stick around.
Any praise for other ecosystems?
Solana deserves credit. Chase Barker, their dev lead, worked hard to improve tooling and community support.
He once said he’d step down when Solana no longer needed him, and he actually followed through. That’s real commitment.
Coti recently launched USDC support. Will there be more stablecoins?
Yes. USDC came first because there was demand for it, but we’re open to other stablecoins, especially if privacy is something they’re exploring.
For us, it’s about aligning liquidity with use cases.
What excites you most about the future of Coti?
A few things. Stay.coti.io is growing fast. We’re also a founding member of the Saudi Blockchain Center and the Africa Tokenisation Council.
Governments are starting to back tokenisation in a big way, and we’re positioned to be at the centre of that.
Are you running events or hackathons to support new builders?
Yes — weekly livestreams, bi-weekly competitions, and quarterly real-world events.
In August, we’re hosting a pop-up city in Thailand focused on AI-augmented builders. A small cohort, full immersion.
What kind of support do builders get after these events?
We’ve launched the ABC Fund — Ambassadors, Builders, Creators. It offers grants, marketing help, and investor introductions.
Projects need more than money — they need guidance, visibility, and access to capital pathways.
Beyond privacy and Coti, what are you most bullish on?
Tokenisation. Some reports project $60 trillion in tokenised assets by 2030. Provenance alone has already done $30 billion in volume.
It’s a small drop compared to what’s coming.