Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
In the 66th episode of Colors of Web3 and Entrepreneurship, host Lam Trinh is joined by Kee Jefferys, the technical co-founder of Session. Kee shares his journey from university dropout to building a decentralized, censorship-resistant messaging network with over 2,200 global nodes and 1.2M+ monthly users. We dive deep into onion routing, proof-of-stake infrastructure, the economics behind Session’s token incentives, and how privacy-focused tools are crucial in the age of surveillance and AI.
⌛ Timestamps:
00:00:00 Episode trailer
00:00:28 Intro & Kee’s self-intro
00:01:53 Kee’s background
00:02:56 Privacy tech & Session idea
00:04:13 Internship & company launch
00:05:27 Why degrees matter less
00:07:11 Getting into Web3 without CS degree
00:08:32 How Kee first learned about Web3 (Mt. Gox)
00:10:57 Early Bitcoin education
00:12:51 Market cycles in crypto
00:13:42 Kee's hobbies: Coding & rock climbing
00:15:01 Favorite programming language & AI tools
00:17:29 AI's role in developer work
00:20:00 What is Session?
00:21:44 Decentralized network architecture of session
00:25:35 Censorship resistance property of Session
00:27:24 How metadata is stored in Session
00:29:47 Onion routing explained
00:32:55 Tor vs. Session
00:34:12 Privacy in routing
00:35:40 Spam protection
00:37:37 Token farming issues in messaging apps
00:39:11 Organic user growth
00:40:15 Who uses Session?
00:45:06 Consensus mechanism for the nodes
00:47:31 Why Session decided to fork Monero
00:48:25 Technical challenges in early days building Session
00:49:53 Rewards on the node network
00:52:13 Node economics
00:55:05 Tokenomics over time
00:56:26 Team & contributors
00:57:38 How Session co-founders meet
01:00:55 Business model: Session Pro
01:03:02 Name system & monetization
01:04:27 Scaling challenges
01:07:02 Growth comparison to Web2 messaging apps
01:08:14 Web3 messaging apps' future
01:10:31 Possible future of AI in messaging apps
01:12:57 Kee's advice for Web3 founders
01:14:54 Where to follow Session
01:16:17 Episode outro and next episode preview
Follow Kee and Session:
Session Website: getsession.org
Session Twitter/X: https://x.com/session_app
Kee's Twitter/X: https://x.com/JefferysKee
My social media:
Twitter/X: twitter.com/LamWeb3
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lamweb3/
Website: https://lamtrinh.xyz
My old article about the 2-3 prevailing narratives of 2024-2025: substack.com/home/post/p-143541984
If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to stay updated on our upcoming episodes with industry experts and innovators in the Web3 and Entrepreneurship spaces. Thank you for listening!
In the 66th episode of Colors of Web3 and Entrepreneurship, host Lam Trinh is joined by Kee Jefferys, the technical co-founder of Session. Kee shares his journey from university dropout to building a decentralized, censorship-resistant messaging network with over 2,200 global nodes and 1.2M+ monthly users. We dive deep into onion routing, proof-of-stake infrastructure, the economics behind Session’s token incentives, and how privacy-focused tools are crucial in the age of surveillance and AI.
⌛ Timestamps:
00:00:00 Episode trailer
00:00:28 Intro & Kee’s self-intro
00:01:53 Kee’s background
00:02:56 Privacy tech & Session idea
00:04:13 Internship & company launch
00:05:27 Why degrees matter less
00:07:11 Getting into Web3 without CS degree
00:08:32 How Kee first learned about Web3 (Mt. Gox)
00:10:57 Early Bitcoin education
00:12:51 Market cycles in crypto
00:13:42 Kee's hobbies: Coding & rock climbing
00:15:01 Favorite programming language & AI tools
00:17:29 AI's role in developer work
00:20:00 What is Session?
00:21:44 Decentralized network architecture of session
00:25:35 Censorship resistance property of Session
00:27:24 How metadata is stored in Session
00:29:47 Onion routing explained
00:32:55 Tor vs. Session
00:34:12 Privacy in routing
00:35:40 Spam protection
00:37:37 Token farming issues in messaging apps
00:39:11 Organic user growth
00:40:15 Who uses Session?
00:45:06 Consensus mechanism for the nodes
00:47:31 Why Session decided to fork Monero
00:48:25 Technical challenges in early days building Session
00:49:53 Rewards on the node network
00:52:13 Node economics
00:55:05 Tokenomics over time
00:56:26 Team & contributors
00:57:38 How Session co-founders meet
01:00:55 Business model: Session Pro
01:03:02 Name system & monetization
01:04:27 Scaling challenges
01:07:02 Growth comparison to Web2 messaging apps
01:08:14 Web3 messaging apps' future
01:10:31 Possible future of AI in messaging apps
01:12:57 Kee's advice for Web3 founders
01:14:54 Where to follow Session
01:16:17 Episode outro and next episode preview
Follow Kee and Session:
Session Website: getsession.org
Session Twitter/X: https://x.com/session_app
Kee's Twitter/X: https://x.com/JefferysKee
My social media:
Twitter/X: twitter.com/LamWeb3
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lamweb3/
Website: https://lamtrinh.xyz
My old article about the 2-3 prevailing narratives of 2024-2025: substack.com/home/post/p-143541984
If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to stay updated on our upcoming episodes with industry experts and innovators in the Web3 and Entrepreneurship spaces. Thank you for listening!
