
Behind the Screens
Epiphyte is a startup founded by Randy Waterhouse and his partners in the sci-fi book Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, considered by many the ultimate geek novel. It aims to use cryptographic technology to facilitate anonymous and secure data transfers. The book inspired us to view cryptography not as a dry mathematical discipline, but as a kind of alchemy—a bridge between abstract theory and real-world information. That’s why we’re exploring its potential in the realm of neural networks, where cryptographic principles can not only safeguard models and data but also shape the way machines learn, reason, and communicate in an increasingly interconnected world.