The Defiant - DeFi Podcast: Recent Episodes
Camila Russo
The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.
Crypto’s next chapter isn’t a shinier coin—it’s invisible rails. In this episode, we sit down with Aryan Sheikhalian, Research Lead at CMT Digital, to unpack the shift from “crypto as an asset” to crypto as infrastructure: 24/7 markets, instant clearing and settlement, and new structured products that couldn’t exist before.
We talk about tokenized equities (wrappers vs. native tokenization and why dividends/governance matter), how identity layers and ZK proofs unlock mainstream distribution through banks and fintechs, and where regulation is pushing builders toward partnerships and licensed rails.
Chapters
00:00 Hook: crypto as infrastructure, not asset
01:15 Guest intro and research focus
02:06 Incentives, psychology, and mechanism design
04:03 ICO lessons, maturity, and red flags
07:09 CMT Digital’s thesis and “strictly better”
10:27 Tokenized equities drivers and demand
13:40 Wrappers vs native: dividends, governance
16:06 Fintech rails, velocity, cost efficiency
18:26 Banks, distribution, and competitive incentives
20:29 New assets: GPUs, data, energy tokens
23:23 Identity layers and ZK proofs for scale
25:55 State of crypto VC and fund trends
27:51 Overlooked sectors: DePIN and decentralized data
31:26 Prediction markets and resolution design
34:18 Regulation, licenses, and partnerships
39:45 Market outlook: TVL, stables, volatility
42:45 Founder advice: conviction and user focus
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital, to discuss the explosive growth of Solana, the future of stablecoins, and the evolution of digital asset treasury companies. Paul shares insights on Pantera's $1.2 billion Solana fund, the role of institutional capital in this crypto cycle, and why he believes Solana is poised to outperform Bitcoin and Ethereum. Tune in for a look into the next wave of blockchain innovation, from payments to gaming and beyond.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to stablecoins as a practical store of value
01:00 - Guest introduction: Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital
01:37 - Pantera’s $1.2 billion Solana fund: Why Solana?
02:36 - Evolution of digital asset treasury companies
04:13 - Pantera’s bullish stance on Solana: Technology and adoption
06:03 - Investment strategies for single-asset treasury companies
08:30 - Managing Solana in Helios: Staking, DeFi, and M&A
10:35 - Addressing Solana’s decentralization and downtime concerns
12:22 - Meme coins and their role in Solana’s ecosystem
18:18 - Stablecoins: A growing demand in Latin America
20:01 - Future use cases for Solana: Payments, AI, and Deepin
23:00 - The rise of specialized blockchains for vertical use cases
26:17 - Stablecoins as a payments hub: Key players to watch
28:14 - Altcoins’ potential to outperform Bitcoin in this cycle
33:15 - Crypto gaming: The underestimated vertical
35:37 - Closing thoughts: Solana’s future and Pantera’s vision
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Ben Nadareski, CEO and Co-Founder of Solstice Labs, to explore DeFi on Solana and why it’s becoming a magnet for institutional adoption. Ben shares how Solstice Labs is pioneering permissionless, institutional-grade yield strategies and launching the US token, a fully collateralized stablecoin designed to unlock new levels of trust and scalability in DeFi.
We dive into Solana’s unique advantages—speed, low costs, and composability—and how it’s shaking off its “meme chain” reputation to emerge as a serious contender in the blockchain space. Ben also addresses the challenges of scaling trust in crypto, the rise of yield-bearing stablecoins, and how DeFi is empowering users in emerging markets.
We also tackle: How can Solana maintain its edge in a crowded blockchain market? What’s being done to address past network outages? And how can regulation strike the right balance between protecting users and fostering innovation?
Chapters
00:00 – Scaling Trust in Crypto
00:22 – Solana’s DeFi Momentum
01:16 – Why Solana Stands Out
03:43 – From Meme Chain to DeFi Leader
05:57 – The Rise of Yield-Bearing Stablecoins
08:01 – Regulation and Trust in DeFi
12:45 – Solstice Labs and the US Token
18:19 – DeFi’s Role in Emerging Markets
25:13 – The Future of DeFi on Solana
33:08 – Building a Transparent and Scalable DeFi Ecosystem
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, to explore how StarkNet is revolutionizing blockchain scalability with ZK proofs. From Bitcoin staking to the creation of an "integrity web," Eli shares groundbreaking insights into the future of decentralized finance, Bitcoin's execution layer, and the role of StarkNet in shaping the blockchain ecosystem. Tune in to discover how StarkNet is leading the charge in decentralization, scalability, and innovation.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Eli Ben-Sasson & StarkWare
00:24 – StarkNet’s mission: Scaling blockchain with ZK proofs
01:30 – StarkWare’s achievements: $8B valuation & global impact
03:22 – BTC Phi: Bitcoin staking & $100M incentive program
07:05 – How Bitcoin staking works on StarkNet
17:11 – StarkNet as Bitcoin’s execution layer: The vision
27:21 – Verifying Bitcoin headers in milliseconds: A breakthrough
41:02 – StarkNet’s role in the "integrity web"
49:51 – Why corporate chains won’t work in crypto
51:53 – Closing thoughts: Decentralization, scale, and the future
Why did Game Square, the Jerry Jones-backed media powerhouse, bet $100 million on Ethereum instead of Bitcoin? In this episode of The DeFiant Podcast, Vinny sits down with crypto pioneer Ryan Zurrer to explore the strategy behind this bold move. Ryan, who co-wrote the MakerDAO whitepaper and now leads Dialectic, shares why Ethereum dominates 5 out of 6 real-world crypto use cases, from stablecoins to DeFi, and how it’s emerging as the financial substrate of the future. Learn how Game Square is leveraging Ethereum’s programmability to earn yields of up to 14% and why this strategy could set a new standard for corporate crypto adoption.
The conversation dives deep into the evolution of DeFi, the lessons learned from past crypto cycles, and the importance of decentralization and fair launches in building sustainable ecosystems. Ryan also shares insights into Dialectic’s automated DeFi machine, which uses hyper-diversification and risk-adjusted strategies to maximize returns.
Chapters
00:00 - Litmus Test for Crypto Projects
00:28 - MakerDAO and Stablecoin Innovation
01:23 - Game Square’s $100M Ethereum Bet
02:32 - Ethereum’s Real-World Dominance
05:09 - Dialectic’s DeFi Machine
06:12 - Compounding Yields with Ethereum
10:01 - Lessons from Crypto History
16:01 - The Evolution of Crypto Governance
28:02 - Polkadot’s Interoperability Vision
40:00 - Ethereum as the Corporate Crypto Blueprint
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Paul Faecks, CEO of Plasma Chain, discusses the platform’s approach to stablecoin payments and its potential to reshape global financial infrastructure. From gasless USD transfers to a $2 billion liquidity launch, Paul explains how Plasma Chain plans to compete with established players like Tron and Ethereum while focusing on emerging markets and decentralization. The conversation also touches on regulatory challenges, partnerships with Tether and Binance, and the broader future of stablecoins.
Chapters:
00:00 – The role of DeFi in stablecoin chains
00:30 – Why subsidizing gasless transfers makes sense
00:58 – Meet Paul Faecks and Plasma Chain
01:26 – From poker to crypto: Paul’s journey
02:28 – The vision behind Plasma and Tether’s involvement
03:00 – Stablecoins as a $1 trillion market opportunity
05:21 – Plasma’s technical innovations: Gasless USD transfers
07:19 – Why USDt is prioritized on Plasma
09:22 – Building a sustainable DeFi ecosystem
12:31 – $2 billion in stablecoin liquidity at launch
15:22 – Navigating regulations and the Genius Act
19:22 – The future of stablecoin payments globally
21:02 – Emerging markets as the biggest opportunity
26:23 – Plasma’s path to decentralization
39:02 – Launch timeline and ecosystem readiness
Stablecoins are no longer just a buzzword—they’re transforming the way the world moves money. In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Reeve Collins, co-founder of Tether, co-founder of WeFi, and chairman at STBL, to explore the groundbreaking evolution of stablecoins.
From their early days as a simple payment solution to their role in reshaping global finance, Reeve shares insider insights on how stablecoins are building trust, driving financial inclusion, and securing the future of money.
We’ll dive into:
✅ The origins of stablecoins and their $246 billion impact
✅ How stablecoins are revolutionizing cross-border payments and DeFi
✅ The rise of Stablecoins 2.0 and what it means for users
✅ Why major players like Visa and JPMorgan are entering the space
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction: Stablecoins and their impact
00:51 - Meet Reeve Collins: A Web3 trailblazer
01:34 - The origin of stablecoins: Tokenizing the US dollar
02:58 - Stablecoins today: A $246 billion industry
05:17 - The rise of Stablecoins 2.0
07:45 - Yield-bearing stablecoins: User benefits explained
10:01 - Tokenized assets in 401(k)s and traditional finance
12:28 - Major players entering the stablecoin space
14:04 - How stablecoins are transforming banking
17:10 - Blockchain’s promise: Removing the middleman
19:06 - Financial inclusion through decentralized banking
22:55 - Mobile-first, wallet-native financial solutions
25:27 - Building trust in underserved communities
28:16 - Stablecoins 2.0: Transparency and compliance
38:13 - Mass adoption: Public companies and crypto treasuries
40:27 - Closing thoughts: The future of blockchain
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In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Joseph Onorati, CEO of DeFi Development Corp, the second-largest Solana treasury company. Joseph shares the journey of transforming DeFi Development Corp into a Solana-focused treasury powerhouse, their innovative yield strategies, and why Solana's volatility and native yield make it a compelling treasury asset. We also dive into the broader case for crypto treasury companies, the risks and rewards of staking strategies, and the future of Solana in the blockchain ecosystem.
Plus, Joseph shares his bold prediction: Solana flipping Ethereum by market cap. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of DeFi, treasury management, and the Solana ecosystem.
Chapters
00:00:00 Why Solana as a Treasury Asset?
00:00:41 Volatility, Convertible Debt, and Cost of Capital
00:01:20 Introducing Joseph and DeFi Development Corp
00:02:10 The Evolution of DeFi Development Corp
00:03:56 Staking, Validators, and Yield Strategies
00:05:40 Breaking Down Solana Yield Strategies
00:10:10 Risks in Staking and Looping Strategies
00:12:03 The Case for Crypto Treasury Companies
00:15:03 Solana Per Share Growth and Fundraising Flywheels
00:20:02 Challenges with NAV Premium Compression
00:27:16 Solana’s Market Share in Treasury Companies
00:30:00 ETFs and Their Impact on Crypto Treasuries
00:36:01 The Future of Public Market Crypto Instruments
00:46:14 Risks and Controversies in Crypto Treasuries
00:54:16 Locked Solana and OTC Markets
01:06:15 DeFi Development Corp’s Treasury Accelerator Program
01:08:09 Bull Case for Solana and Price Predictions
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Fakhul Miah, Managing Director of GoMining Institutional and former Morgan Stanley executive, to explore the rapidly evolving world of Bitcoin mining in 2025.
From the rise of AI hyperscalers competing for energy resources to the financial engineering transforming miners into sophisticated operators, this conversation dives deep into the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of the industry.
Key topics covered:
- Why AI is Bitcoin mining’s most aggressive new competitor
- How miners are evolving with BTC-backed loans and convertible notes
- The shifting geopolitics of mining: U.S. vs. Latin America and Africa
- What $100B in Bitcoin ETFs and sovereign reserves mean for adoption
- The big picture: Bitcoin mining’s transformation into a global infrastructure industry
Whether you’re a crypto enthusiast, investor, or just curious about the intersection of technology, energy, and finance, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Bitcoin Mining Faces a New Kind of Competition
00:45 GoMining’s Role in Tokenized Bitcoin Mining
02:43 The Rise of AI Hyperscalers and Energy Market Disruption
03:15 Bitcoin Mining’s Flexibility vs. AI’s Energy Demands
06:15 Why AI Is a Formidable Competitor for Miners
08:09 The Power Struggle: Bitcoin Mining’s Future Amid AI Growth
09:02 Financial Engineering: How Miners Are Avoiding Liquidation
12:11 The Evolution of Bitcoin Mining into a Balance Sheet Business
16:57 Shifting Geopolitics: Latin America and Africa’s Mining Rise
20:36 U.S. Mining Dominance: Can It Adapt to Stay on Top?
24:50 Institutional Adoption: $100B in ETFs and Sovereign Reserves
28:40 Bitcoin’s Next Phase: Stability, Risks, and Financialization
31:10 Bitcoin as Digital Gold vs. Everyday Currency
34:51 The Role of Institutions and Whales in Bitcoin’s Future
37:00 The Big Picture: Bitcoin Mining’s Transformation by 2030
39:29 What Miners, Investors, and Policymakers Should Focus On
42:35 Closing Thoughts: GoMining’s Vision and What’s Next
📖 Learn more:
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Ondo Finance is at the forefront of the real-world asset (RWA) revolution, bringing traditional financial products like U.S. treasuries, stocks, and ETFs onto blockchain rails. In this episode of the Defiant Podcast, Ian De Bode, Chief Strategy Officer at Ondo Finance, dives into democratizing access to financial markets for a global audience. By tokenizing assets, Ondo enables 24/7 mobility, seamless DeFi integration, and enhanced investor protections, all while addressing the inefficiencies of traditional finance.
Ian also shares insights into Ondo's upcoming tokenized equities launch, their innovative approach to liquidity and pricing, and the broader implications of regulatory clarity for the RWA space. With a mission to create open, global financial rails, Ondo is not just building products but laying the foundation for the future of finance.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to the DefiantPodcast01:30 - Welcoming Ian, Chief Strategy Officer at Ondo Finance01:55 - What is Ondo Finance?02:22 - Tokenizing Treasuries, Stocks, and ETFs03:12 - Solving Accessibility and Mobility in Finance04:50 - The Evolution of Ondo’s Tokenized Assets: OUSD and USDY07:04 - Comparing Ondo’s Products to Competitors Like BlackRock12:26 - Growth of Tokenized Treasuries and Regulatory Milestones20:26 - Ondo’s Plans for Tokenized Equities28:24 - Challenges and Opportunities in Tokenized Stocks33:02 - Ondo’s Layer 1 Blockchain and DeFi Integration38:52 - The Future of Real-World Assets on Chain44:13 - Ondo’s Long-Term Vision for Global Finance
What if blockchain technology could be as seamless as swiping a credit card or streaming your favorite show? In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Prabal Banerjee, co-founder of Avail and Former Research Lead at Polygon, to explore how he’s working to make that vision a reality. Prabal shares his insights on tackling some of the biggest challenges in the blockchain space, from data availability and scalability to fragmentation and user experience. His mission? To make blockchain invisible to the end user.
We also dive into the multichain future and why interoperability is the key to mass adoption. Prabal explains how Avail is building the infrastructure to unify the fragmented blockchain ecosystem and shares exciting news about Avail’s acquisition of Arcana, a move that could redefine how developers and users experience Web3.
Chapters:
00:00 Imagine a seamless blockchain world: Introducing Prabal Banerjee and today’s themes
02:18 What is Avail? Tackling scalability and fragmentation in a multichain world
03:55 Why fragmentation matters: The case for interoperability over single-chain dominance
08:11 Making blockchain invisible: Lessons from Web2 and the user experience problem
10:04 Bridging pain points: Why blockchain meta-interoperability is the future
16:16 The role of wallets and abstracting complexity for mass adoption
25:08 Interoperability between rollups and sovereign chains: Unlocking new possibilities
36:02 Beyond 8 billion users: The rise of agents and verifiable internet interactions
40:48 Avail’s acquisition of Arcana: What it means for developers and users
50:02 Lightning round: Blockchain problems, overhyped trends, and Prabal’s favorite chain
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Ellio Trades, Co-Founder of BlackHole, the fastest-growing decentralized exchange on Avalanche. Ellio shares his insights on the current state of the crypto market, including whether we're entering a new altcoin season or witnessing a slower, more sustainable growth cycle. He dives deep into the maturation of the crypto space, the role of institutional investors, and why this cycle could be the most significant in crypto history.
Ellio also unpacks the innovative mechanics behind BlackHole, from its V3.3 DEX model to its focus on creating deep liquidity and sustainable revenue. He explains how BlackHole is reshaping the DeFi landscape and why Avalanche was the perfect ecosystem for its launch. Watch now to gain valuable insights on the future of blockchain, decentralized finance, and the next wave of crypto adoption.
Chapters
00:00 The $10 Trillion Question: Is Altcoin Season Here?
00:04 Traditional Cycles vs. A New Crypto Paradigm
00:42 The Maturation of DeFi and Institutional Adoption
01:30 Introducing Ellio Trades and BlackHole
02:33 Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Shift to Regulated Markets
03:45 Why Ethereum's Value Proposition is Finally Clicking
05:18 The Role of Wall Street in Crypto's Next Big Cycle
07:32 Balancing Supercycle Narratives with Traditional Cycles
10:33 DeFi's Undervalued Potential and Institutional Interest
12:23 Stablecoins and the Future of Blockchain Applications
16:04 Why BlackHole Chose Avalanche for Its Launch
18:42 BlackHole's Explosive Growth and Unique Features
23:03 How BlackHole's V3.3 Model Creates Deep Liquidity
30:28 Lessons from Past Projects and BlackHole's Innovations
35:02 The Long-Term Vision for BlackHole and DeFi
Step into the evolving world of virtual environments, where Decentraland is at the forefront of innovation. In this episode, we explore how interoperability is transforming the metaverse, enabling seamless integration across platforms and unlocking creative possibilities for users and developers alike. From NFTs and digital wearables to virtual real estate, we discuss how these advancements are reshaping the metaverse and fostering meaningful connections in a polarized digital age.
Join us as Kim Currier, Head of Partnerships and Marketing at Decentraland, shares insights on the resurgence of NFTs, the role of brands in creating immersive experiences, and the tools empowering creators to thrive. Whether you're a collector, a brand strategist, or simply curious about the metaverse, this episode offers a deep dive into the future of digital interaction and the cultural capital being built in virtual worlds.
Chapters:
00:00 The Rise and Fall of NFTs: From hype to utility
00:23 Driving Innovation in the Metaverse
00:33 Meet Kim Currier, Decentraland’s Head of Partnerships and Marketing
01:09 The Metaverse as a Social Hub: Immersive experiences for brands and users
01:30 Opportunities for Collectors and Brands
02:53 Cultural Shifts in NFTs: What’s fueling the 2025 resurgence?
04:45 Decentraland’s Unique Offerings in music, art, and social connection
08:03 Utility-Driven NFTs: Wearables, emotes, and smart wearables in Decentraland
13:17 No-code tools and community-driven innovation for creators
20:15 Virtual Spaces for Remote Teams: Offsites and community gatherings
27:33 Innovative builds in Decentraland
35:11 Brand Partnerships in the Metaverse
43:02 Onboarding the Masses: Decentraland as a gateway to Web3
47:10 Long-Term Vision: Building cultural capital and meaningful connections
In this episode, we’re joined by Marta Belcher, President and Chair of the Filecoin Foundation, to dive deep into the transformative potential of decentralized storage and its role in shaping the future of technology. Marta shares her insights on how Filecoin is enabling decentralized AI, preserving humanity’s most important data, and creating alternatives to big tech.
We explore the incentives and economics behind Filecoin, its critical use cases in journalism and human rights, and how it’s helping to build censorship-resistant systems. Marta also discusses the challenges and opportunities of governance in decentralized systems, the evolving regulatory landscape for crypto in the U.S., and the pivotal role of the market structure bill.
Chapters
00:00: The Decentralized AI Revolution
00:28: Filecoin’s Role in Decentralized AI
01:29: What is Filecoin?
02:14: The Importance of Decentralized Storage
03:29: Incentives and Economics of Filecoin
06:10: Filecoin for Journalism and Human Rights
08:25: Decentralized AI and Filecoin’s Infrastructure
13:10: Governance in Decentralized Systems
22:13: Regulation and Crypto’s Future in the US
29:02: Filecoin’s Growth and Use Cases
37:05: Filecoin’s Long-Term Vision
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Adrian Brink, Co-Founder of Anoma and Namada, to explore the intersection of privacy, sovereignty, and resilience in Web3. Adrian shares his journey from the early days of building Cosmos to building intent-based systems that empower communities and protect dignity at scale.
We dive into the challenges of designing for a fragmented world, the promise of cryptography, and the importance of local-first infrastructure. Adrian also discusses the Tornado Cash case, the role of intent-based systems in addressing regulatory concerns, and how cryptography can help communities defend against external threats.
From the evolution of Web3 to the future of AI-driven coordination, this conversation is packed with insights on building networks that bend toward freedom without breaking under the weight of reality.
Chapters
00:00: Setting the stage: intention, privacy, and protecting dignity in a digital world
03:39: Sovereign infrastructure: community defense and resilience against external threats
05:23: Reimagining privacy: moving beyond Band-Aid solutions to foundational change
07:24: The state of Web3: challenges, stagnation, and the need for meaningful innovation
10:02: Intent-based systems: reshaping privacy and sovereignty for individuals and communities
12:03: Flexibility and security: building adaptable systems for diverse global needs
15:13: Tornado Cash and regulatory challenges: intent systems as a potential solution
20:13: Navigating high-risk environments: sanctions, blackouts, and global regulations
25:20: The next 100 million users: making crypto accessible and practical for everyday life
30:05: Financial literacy and coordination: unlocking new possibilities for global commerce
35:00: Cryptography and trust: scaling trust systems for local and global communities
40:00: Societal transformation: blockchain’s role in reshaping politics, economics, and governance
45:00: AI and intents: the future of coordination in the age of artificial intelligence
48:12: Staying grounded: Adrian’s advice for navigating innovation and building for the right reasons
49:19: Closing thoughts: where to find Adrian and what’s next for Namada
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Paul Frambot, Co-Founder of Morpho, details how DeFi is transforming the financial industry by intersecting with fintech, shifting value to network users, and reshaping how lending protocols work. He outlines the evolution from early peer-to-peer lending to today's permissionless, immutable infrastructure, highlighting Morpho's product design, its approach to risk management, and specific use cases in institutional finance and global wallet integration. Discussions cover the role of risk managers, transparency benefits, the emergence of DeFi as backbone infrastructure for fintechs, and how platforms like Coinbase now use Morpho behind the scenes.
Paul reflects on how Morpho enables global liquidity, allows businesses and individuals to create custom lending markets, and how DeFi’s open competition leads to better rates and more efficient markets. The conversation wraps with thoughts on unsecured lending, the path to real-world financial product integration, and Morpho's long-term vision to become the foundational protocol for global financing.
Chapters:
00:00 Fintech disruption, DeFi’s impact on infrastructure
01:21 Founding Morpho: backstory and protocol design
03:04 Pushing for permissionless, immutable protocol infrastructure
04:16 Institutional adoption, wallet integrations, and B2B use cases
07:01 Managing risk and collateral in open protocols
10:32 Shift in institutional engagement and business adoption
15:20 Native on-chain fund issuance, regulations, and international frameworks
17:04 Equity and securities as next steps for on-chain finance
19:03 Real-world example: Coinbase leveraging Morpho for global lending liquidity
20:28 End-to-end DeFi integrations: wallet abstraction and feature parity
22:26 Four core benefits when fintechs use DeFi as backend
24:07 Transparency, self-custody, and proof of reserves in DeFi
25:06 Institutional desire for infrastructure ownership—not just distribution
26:29 Competitive rates: DeFi vs. traditional finance lending
27:51 Barriers for banks: regulation, compliance, privacy, and operational hurdles
30:00 Privacy on-chain: transaction anonymity vs. amount privacy
32:29 How DeFi lending markets evolved: competition and network effects
34:00 Differing visions: Morpho as infrastructure vs. Aave as integrated bank
37:12 Market size: overcollateralized and undercollateralized lending potential
38:04 How DeFi could unlock unsecured credit
41:24 Under-collateralized lending, trust, and on-chain identity primitives
44:28 Morpho’s long-term vision and the future of DeFi/fintech convergence
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Nicholas Kunkel, Founder of Chronicle Labs and a pioneer in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi). From his early days at MakerDAO, where he helped build the first oracles and decentralized exchanges, to launching Chronicle Labs, Nicholas shares his journey of innovation and problem-solving in the crypto space.
We dive into the challenges of building efficient oracles, the rise of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) with DeFi. Nicholas also discusses the technical and strategic differences between Chronicle Labs and other oracle providers, the role of tokenized assets in reshaping finance, and his ambitious vision for a future where decentralized and traditional finance merge seamlessly.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Niklas Kunkel, Founder of Chronicle
00:22 From MakerDAO to Chronicle Labs: Building the first oracles and decentralized exchanges.
01:23 The Birth of Oracles
05:27 Chronicle Labs vs. Competitors
10:11 Exploring the role of tokenized treasuries, private credit, and other RWAs in DeFi.
13:07 Challenges of RWA Integration: Data requirements, liquidity concerns, and the complexities of tokenizing real-world assets.
21:30 Convergence of DeFi and TradFi
25:33 Chronicle’s Business Model
30:24 Scaling tokenized assets to surpass crypto-native assets in total value secured.
34:19 Long-Term Vision
35:44 Closing Thoughts
On this episode of the Defiant Podcast, Charlie Hu, co-founder of Bit Layer, discusses the evolution of Bitcoin beyond its role as a store of value. The conversation addresses trends in Bitcoin programmability, the development of layer two networks, liquidity in DeFi, and adoption by institutions. Cami and Charlie discuss technical distinctions among Bitcoin scaling solutions and the integration of Bitcoin with other blockchain ecosystems. Then, they conclude by exploring practical considerations for developers and users interested in these changes.NOTE: At the time of publishing (Aug. 4) BitLayer TVL was at $400M, higher than at the time of recording which was at $300M, mentioned in the podcast intro. Chapters:00:00 Introduction; Bitcoin’s binary narrative debated 00:17 Potential impacts of low network activity 00:37 Bitlayer overview and recent platform developments 00:59 Bitcoin’s price rally and changing role 01:26 Guest background: early experiences in Web3 02:09 Lessons from Ethereum and cross-chain growth 03:15 Founding Bitlayer; motivations and industry context 06:06 Network sustainability and security considerations 09:59 Bit Layer’s technology focus and design choices 16:00 Bitcoin Virtual Machines and cross-ecosystem cooperation 30:08 Unlocking Bitcoin liquidity; DeFi adoption and risks 45:00 Institutional involvement and new use cases 52:00 Onboarding, governance, and next steps for the ecosystem
Dogecoin started as a joke, but could it become the foundation of a thriving app ecosystem? In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Jordan Jefferson, CEO of MyDoge and DogeOS, to explore why building infrastructure on Dogecoin is an exciting opportunity. We discuss the unique culture of the Doge community, the challenges of building on a meme coin, and how DogeOS is positioning itself as the app layer for the people's currency. Whether you're a DeFi enthusiast, a crypto trader, or just Doge-curious, this conversation is packed with insights, laughs, and a vision for the future of Dogecoin. Welcome to the moon.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Dogecoin's EvolutionA look at Dogecoin's journey from meme coin to movement.
02:04 Meet Jordan JeffersonCEO of MyDoge and DogeOS shares his vision for Dogecoin.
03:14 Why Build on Dogecoin?The unique opportunity Dogecoin offers for developers and users.
05:38 The Power of the Doge CommunityHow memes, vibes, and a strong community drive innovation.
09:07 DogeOS: The App Layer for DogecoinExploring DogeOS's features, from gaming to DeFi and beyond.
15:09 Gaming and Memes: Dogecoin's Secret SauceWhy casual gaming and meme culture are perfect for Doge.
20:00 DeFi on Dogecoin: Opportunities and ChallengesBuilding financial infrastructure for the people's currency.
34:20 Why DeFi Users Should Care About DogeBetter yields, safer leverage, and unique opportunities.
49:07 ZK Upgrades and the Future of DogecoinHow zero-knowledge proofs could unlock Dogecoin's potential.
54:31 Lightning Round: Fun with Jordan JeffersonQuick-fire questions about Doge, gaming, and digital cash.
On the 10th anniversary of Ethereum's genesis block, we sit down with Joe Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and CEO of ConsenSys, for an exclusive deep dive into the past, present, and future of the Ethereum ecosystem. From the concept of 'digital oil' to Ethereum's role as the foundation of a decentralized global economy, Joe shares his vision for the next decade of blockchain innovation. Tune in to hear his thoughts on staking strategies, the rise of DeFi, and why Ethereum is poised to become the substrate for the world's financial system.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction – Setting the stage for Ethereum’s 10th anniversary.
01:00 Joe Lubin’s Vision – Ethereum as civilization-scale infrastructure.
02:19 Staking Strategies – Insights into ConsenSys’ ETH accumulation and staking.
05:08 Overcoming Challenges – Scalability, usability, and regulatory hurdles.
10:08 Decentralized Stablecoins – The need for ETH and BTC to support DeFi growth.
15:11 DeFi and TradFi Convergence – How Ethereum is reshaping finance.
22:08 Ethereum’s Role in the Global Economy – Becoming the substrate for trust.
30:00 Multi-Chain Future – Why Ethereum will remain foundational.
40:00 The Next Decade – Joe’s predictions for Ethereum’s growth and impact.
45:00 Closing Thoughts – Celebrating Ethereum’s 10th birthday.
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Sam MacPherson, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix Labs, to discuss Spark (SPK)—the DeFi protocol making waves in the cryptocurrency world. From its groundbreaking subDAO model to its recent $10 billion TVL milestone, Spark is reshaping decentralized finance. We dive into the latest developments, including the Ignition Airdrop and institutional adoption. Tune in to explore how Spark is bridging the gap between traditional finance and DeFi, and what the future holds for this rapidly evolving ecosystem.Chapters00:00 - IntroductionMeet Sam Macpherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, and the vision behind Spark.01:23 - Spark’s Rapid GrowthHow Spark became one of the biggest DeFi protocols with $10B TVL.05:10 - The SubDAO ModelBalancing decentralization and nimbleness to scale effectively.08:05 - Why Decentralization MattersSam’s passionate defense of decentralization as a core principle for global infrastructure.12:00 - Challenges of Traditional DAOsThe limitations of flat governance structures and how Spark overcame them.15:30 - Ignition Airdrop and Overdrive PhaseHow staking incentives are driving SPK adoption and price action.20:00 - Institutional AdoptionSpark’s partnerships with Coinbase, BlackRock, and the rise of tokenized RWAs.24:00 - Spark Liquidity LayerEnhancing governance and liquidity.27:16 - Spark Token LaunchGovernance, staking, and how SPK empowers the community.30:00 - Transparency in DeFiSpark’s commitment to making every layer of its ecosystem visible.35:00 - The Future of StablecoinsWhy scaling stablecoins requires diverse collateral types.38:00 - Bitcoin-Backed LoansTapping into new markets with OTC Bitcoin loans and institutional interest.42:00 - Bridging DeFi and Traditional FinanceHow Spark is integrating with fintechs and creating seamless user experiences.45:00 - Ethereum’s Role in DeFiSam’s thoughts on Ethereum’s evolution and its renewed optimism.
The crypto world is buzzing with the passage of the Genius Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that sets new standards for stablecoins and crypto exchanges. In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, host Vinny dives deep into the implications of this law with Diane Magince, Senior Marketing Officer, and Breno Sperandio, VP of Partnerships at Biconomy.com. Together, they explore how this act is reshaping the industry, the opportunities it unlocks, and what it means for the future of digital assets.
Chapters:
00:00 Big News in Crypto: The Genius Act is signed into law
01:49 Introduction to Diane Magince, Breno Sperandio, and Biconomy.com
05:19 Market trends, altcoin season, and the role of AI in trading
11:48 Marketing in a Regulated World
19:17 Stablecoins and the Future of Finance
27:26 How the Genius Act is driving legitimacy, transparency, and trust
33:18 Mobile-First DeFi
45:49 Upcoming developments and partnerships for Biconomy.com
54:16 Coming Up Next Week
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we explore the global shift toward Bitcoin as digital gold with Jeff Garzik, Co-Founder of Hemi, the largest programmable Bitcoin sidechain. Jeff shares his journey as a crypto OG, from contributing to Bitcoin in its earliest days to building innovative scaling solutions for Bitcoin. We discuss macroeconomic trends driving Bitcoin adoption, the evolution of decentralized finance, and how Hemi is shaping the future of BTCFi.
Chapters
- 00:00: Intro to the episode
- 00:06: Why the world is turning to Bitcoin
- 01:00: Meet Jeff Garzik: A crypto OG’s journey
- 03:06: From Linux to Bitcoin: Lessons in decentralization
- 06:08: Scaling Bitcoin: The evolution of sidechains
- 09:05: Hemi’s approach to Bitcoin security and DeFi
- 12:17: The rise of Bitcoin as a global reserve currency
- 15:16: Hemi’s innovations: Proof of Proof mining and beyond
- 20:20: Bitcoin DeFi: Challenges and opportunities
- 25:00: Macro trends driving Bitcoin adoption
- 30:00: The future of Bitcoin DeFi and Hemi’s roadmap
- 35:00: Bitcoin’s role in a decentralized financial future
- 40:00: Closing thoughts and where to find Hemi
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Hasu, strategic advisor to Lido, to explore their cutting-edge developments in Ethereum staking. From the introduction of dual governance to the game-changing Lido V3 upgrade, Hasu breaks down how Lido is enhancing decentralization, liquidity, and security for stakers. We also dive into the evolving role of Ethereum in DeFi, the future of staking for institutions, and the broader implications of programmable money.
Chapters
00:07 Introduction
01:22 Introduction to Lido and Its Importance
02:49 Governance Changes in Lido
06:03 Understanding Dual Governance
08:51 Participation and Engagement in Governance
11:46 Systemic Risks of Centralized Staking
14:37 Decentralization and Node Operators
17:50 The Future of Lido and Ethereum
20:39 Becoming a Node Operator in Lido
23:46 Distributed Validator Technology (DVT)
29:32 Understanding DVT and Its Impact on Ethereum
31:54 The Debate on Staking Caps for Ethereum
39:50 Ethereum's Role in DeFi and Beyond
47:40 Introducing Lido V3: A New Era of Staking
55:38 Future Integrations and Growth of Lido
Privacy in the digital age is more than a feature—it's a necessity. In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, host Vinny sits down with Georgi Koreli, co-founder and CEO of Hinkal Wallet, to explore the cutting-edge innovations shaping Web3 privacy. From Georgie’s fascinating journey from professional wrestling to crypto entrepreneurship, to the challenges of public blockchains and the solutions Hinkal Wallet offers, this conversation dives deep into the future of decentralized finance.
Discover how privacy stacks, invisible wallets, and decentralized coordination are transforming the financial ecosystem, and learn why privacy is the key to unlocking mass adoption in crypto. Georgi also shares insights on regulatory challenges, the role of compliance, and how enterprises can prepare for the next wave of blockchain innovation.
Chapters:
00:07 Transparency vs. Privacy: The paradox of innovation and exposure in Web3.
03:05 Introduction to the podcast and Georgie Corelli.
03:22 Georgi’s Background and Journey to Crypto
04:27 Public Blockchains and Privacy
05:16 The Concept of Invisible Wallets
10:01 Regulatory Perspectives in Europe
12:58 The New Privacy Stack
15:42 Public vs. Private Blockchains
17:18 Privacy and Compliance
20:08 Lessons from Recent Data Breaches
24:02 Decentralized Coordination and Privacy
28:15 Preparing for Mass Adoption of Crypto
32:08 The Future of Privacy in Finance
39:22 Closing Thoughts
In this episode of the Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Michael Bentley, co-founder and CEO of Euler Labs, to explore one of the most remarkable comeback stories in DeFi history. From a devastating $200M exploit in 2023 to surpassing $1B in outstanding loans, Euler Labs has redefined resilience and innovation in the crypto space.
Michael shares the emotional and technical challenges of navigating the exploit, the process of recovering funds, and the lessons learned along the way. We also dive into the evolution of Euler Labs, the launch of V2, and their groundbreaking innovations in DeFi lending, borrowing, and stablecoins.
Whether you're a crypto enthusiast, a DeFi builder, or just love a good comeback story, this episode is packed with insights, inspiration, and a behind-the-scenes look at the future of decentralized finance.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:27 - Meet Michael Bentley: CEO of Euler Labs
02:03 - The Early Days: From PhD to Crypto
04:02 - Founding Euler Labs: Hackathon Beginnings
08:10 - Innovations in DeFi Lending
13:00 - The 2023 Exploit: What Happened?
20:33 - Recovering $200M: Negotiating with the Hacker
33:04 - Picking Up the Pieces: Team Resilience
36:41 - Launching V2: A New Chapter
42:29 - Differentiating Euler Labs in DeFi
45:24 - The Future of DeFi: Institutional Adoption
50:43 - Lessons for Founders: Resilience and Security
52:24 - Closing Thoughts: The Hard Things Are Worth It
Join us for an in-depth conversation with Steven Goldfeder, Co-Founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, the parent company of Arbitrum—the leading Ethereum Layer 2 solution by Total Value Locked (TVL).
In this episode, we explore:
- How optimistic rollups work and their role in Ethereum's scalability
- The ZK vs. optimistic rollup debate
- The future of Ethereum L2s and their impact on the Ethereum ecosystem
- Steven’s insights on DeFi growth, ETH vs. BTC, and the importance of neutrality in tech stacks
The episode kicks off with a special clip from AJ Warner, Co-Founder of Arbitrum, recorded at EthCC, before diving into Steven’s journey into blockchain and his vision for the future of Ethereum scalability.
00:00:00 – Why Ethereum Made Rollups Too Cheap to Ignore
00:00:31 – Meet AJ Warner, Co-Founder of Arbitrum (Live from EthCC!)
00:00:45 – Robinhood’s Big Crypto Announcement: What It Means for Ethereum
00:06:10 – Transition to Steven Goldfeder: The Visionary Behind Arbitrum
00:07:05 – Steven’s Journey: From Academia to Blockchain Pioneer
00:13:24 – Optimistic Rollups 101: How They Supercharge Ethereum
00:21:06 – ZK vs. Optimistic Rollups: The Great Debate
00:29:34 – How Ethereum L2s Are Strengthening the Ethereum Mainnet
00:36:20 – What More Can Ethereum Do to Support L2s?
00:38:57 – The Status of Stage 2 L2s: What’s Next?
00:40:12 – Enshrining L2s: The Future of Ethereum Scalability
00:40:25 – Infrastructure Trade-Offs: Making the Right Choices
00:46:35 – Bridging the Gap: Interoperability Between L1s and L2s
00:51:38 – What Sets Arbitrum Apart from the Competition?
00:56:51 – Neutrality and Fairness: The Cornerstones of Tech Stacks
01:04:52 – DeFi’s Next Chapter: Steven’s Predictions for ETH, BTC, and Beyond
01:08:37 – Closing Thoughts: The Road Ahead for Ethereum and Arbitrum
Don’t miss this deep dive into the world of Ethereum Layer 2s and the innovations shaping the future of blockchain.
Explore the unfolding landscape of crypto and blockchain innovation in our in-depth interview with Stuart Popejoy, CEO of Kadena and former head of JP Morgan’s Center for Blockchain Excellence. Guided by the following chapters, this conversation illuminates the journey from the earliest days of institutional blockchain to Kadena’s latest breakthroughs:
- 00:00 – Defiant Intro
- 00:07 – When cost savings alone couldn’t revive crypto’s promise
- 00:55 – Meet Stuart Popejoy: Kadena’s vision, shaped by lessons from JP Morgan
- 06:00 – JPM Coin’s evolving roadmap
- 07:35 – Early hurdles building enterprise blockchain at JP Morgan
- 10:38 – Why technology alone isn’t enough—it must disrupt
- 13:57 – Kadena’s own answer: scalability, chainweb, and the art of possibility
- 16:25 – The real challenges builders face in scaling dApps
- 16:56 – Bitcoin proposals lost to time
- 17:50 – Braiding chains: scaling without losing stability
- 23:27 – Kadena’s bold $50 million grant program—fueling a new era for developers
- 25:15 – The role of real-world assets (RWAs) in blockchain’s evolution
- 29:00 – Public blockchains as a frontier for finance and technology
- 30:00 – Closing infrastructure gaps on the road to mass adoption
- 33:00 – How do we inspire an active, not passive, crypto user base?
- 35:42 – Why self-custody is the change we need in consumer behavior
- 38:10 – Next-gen adoption: getting all ages onchain
- 40:13 – What traditional finance keeps getting wrong about blockchain
- 42:48 – Kadena’s next moves after making waves at EthCC
- 44:20 – Reflections and closing remarks
From the keys of disruption and the quest for scalability to transformative grant programs and the vision for a blockchain-powered future beyond EthCC, this is crypto at its most reflective and real.
🔗 Links & Details:
Explore Kadena’s grant program https://www.kadena.io/grants
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Vlad Tenev, Co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, to explore how Robinhood is bringing tokenized U.S. stocks to the EU, launching an Ethereum L2 with Arbitrum tech, and shaping the future of finance. From tokenized private shares to the long-term vision of blockchain adoption, Vlad shares insights on regulation, innovation, and the battle between Robinhood and Coinbase. Is crypto the backbone of global finance? Tune in to find out!
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: How do you get people in the U.S. excited about stocks onchain?
00:52 Introduction to Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder and CEO of Robinhood
01:30 Tokenized U.S. stocks, private company stocks, Robin Hood blockchain, USDG, and other announcements
02:35 Robinhood offers tokenized U.S. stocks to customers in the EU
06:52 Primary market for private companies’ tokenized shares
13:55 Robinhood launches Ethereum L2 using Arbitrum tech
18:45 Will Robinhood launch a token?
20:00 What regulation will need to happen in the U.S. to launch these products here?
24:47 How do these crypto announcements fit into the long term vision of RH?
28:43 RH chain as an enabler for this vision of global adoption
30:45 Will crypto remain a niche asset class or become the backbone of finance?
35:10 Robinhood vs. Coinbase
37:10 The DeFi Mullet: UX and DeFi on Robinhood
41:55 What makes Vlad a believer in crypto innovation?
46:10 Closing remarks
Looking to understand stablecoins, onchain yields, and the future of DeFi?
Join us as Vikram Arun, CEO of Superform, shares expert insights on stablecoin yield strategies, the role of Web3 technology in automation, and whether 20% onchain yields are truly sustainable in today’s crypto economy.
Plus, we explore the impact of the GENIUS Act on the crypto industry and discuss the intersection of innovation and regulation in shaping the future of digital assets.
Topics Included:
- The evolution of stablecoins as a financial tool
- Why automation is critical for DeFi growth
- The long-term potential of yield-generating assets
- The fading stigma of crypto and its real-world financial integration
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Info
00:41 Introduction to Vikram Arun, Founder and CEO of Superform
01:31 Crypto is a better form of money
03:30 Early AMMs as an entry into crypto
05:44 Stablecoins and yield
07:35 20% onchain yield on Superform: is it sustainable?
11:03 Web3 tech with Web2 functionality
13:23 Automation in stablecoin yield
15:51 The GENIUS Act’s effects on the crypto ecosystem
17:30 GENIUS and decentralization
21:20 The importance of demand in ideating crypto products
22:55 Circle, Stripe, Paypal, and public sentiment towards stablecoins
24:27 Interest rates hold steady, what’s the impact on crypto?
26:40 Speculation and the memecoin resurgence
30:00 Yield-generating assets and age demographics
32:05 Integrating wealth building into people’s mindsets with DeFi
33:45 The next phase of onchain yield
36:25 Will this innovation be enough to defeat crypto’s bad reputation?
37:48 Crypto’s rising tide into TradFi and daily life
39:55 NFTs in the next DeFi summer
41:48 Advice for people who want to start earning yield
43:00 Lightning round!
43:55 Closing remarks
What does the future of blockchain look like, and where do multi-chain systems fit in? On this episode, we're joined by Emin Gün Sirer, CEO and Founder of Ava Labs and one of the most prominent figures in blockchain innovation. Emin unpacks how Avalanche is reshaping the decentralized world with its groundbreaking consensus protocol, multi-chain scaling, and commitment to maintaining blockchain’s core values.
We also discuss:
- Avalanche vs. Bitcoin and Ethereum
- Gaming and DeFi innovations on Avalanche
- Fighting centralization and the challenges of scale
- The role of stablecoins and central banks in Avalanche’s ecosystem
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant intro
00:07 If the future of blockchain is centralized, I don’t want to be here
00:54 intro to Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO of Ava Labs
04:29 Building the fastest consensus protocol on the market
04:43 How is Avalanche different from Bitcoin?
08:10 Avalanche vs. other multi chain systems
12:16 L2 scaling vs. multi chain scaling
16:55 Evaluating Ethereum’s promises
19:45 Interoperability on Avalanche
20:25 What’s the narrative behind Avalanche?
23:47 Avalanche’s long term strategy 💫
26:25 Gaming example: OTG
29:16 How flexible are Avalanche chains?
31:13 How do you maintain the tenets of blockchain across chains?
33:05 What's the liquidity breakdown between these L1 chains?
34:54 Avalanche’s TVL vs users and adoption
38:00 Fighting centralization on Avalanche
43:15 AVAX value and uses
45:58 Increased activity on Avalanche
48:00 It’s been a Bitcoin story: where do alt projects fit in?
53:33 Stablecoins and exciting catalysts for DeFi
53:15 Assets want to be digital
55:35 How do stable coins fit into Avalanche?
56:19 Prediction: central banks getting into stablecoins
57:11 Challenges with central banks getting into stablecoins
59:13 The next major milestones for Avalanche
01:06:52 Closing Remarks
Ethereum Staking ETFs are gaining traction—but what does this mean for crypto investors? Evan Weiss, COO of Alluvial, breaks it down. Get key insights on regulation, institutional staking infrastructure, and the financial benefits for everyday users. Plus, learn how institutional players are driving change in the staking ecosystem and the potential for ETFs to revolutionize and democratize crypto investments.
From Capitol Hill to the crypto ecosystem, Evan Weiss dives into the growing momentum behind Ethereum Staking ETFs.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:07 Intro Quote
00:43 Intro to Evan Weiss, COO of Alluvial and Founder of POSA
03:09 Proof of Stake Alliance, staking, and regulation
05:57 POSA on Capitol Hill
08:26 Ethereum ETFs gaining momentum
12:31 Case study: 3iQ Ethereum Staking ETF
13:53 Staking, liquidity, and better returns for consumers
15:17 REX Shares proposes Ethereum staking ETF classified as a C-corporation
18:16 How Pectra has influenced institutional staking infrastructure on Ethereum
21:51 Normalizing staking for everyday users
25:41 How staking democratizes transaction fees
28:19 SEC’s May 29, 2025 Staking Statement
29:33 Staking is not a small business
30:34 Staking industry coming together on regulation
32:17 Increased security and rewards in crypto investing
34:59 Key steps for institutions and governments in regulating crypto
37:52 Will Ethereum Staking ETFs be as common as stocks?
38:16 Tradfi’s creativity meets crypto technology
39:00 The role of liquid staking evolving with institutional activity
40:23 Closing Remarks
What happens when traditional finance and decentralized finance collide? Join us in this insightful interview with Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, as we explore the firm’s groundbreaking crypto experiments, DeFi-enabled opportunities, and the future of tokenized money market funds.
Key Topics Covered
- Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund
- How evolving crypto infrastructure is reshaping TradFi
- New TradFi products enabled by crypto
- Tokenization vs. stablecoins
- Supply chain and enterprise resource management powered by DeFi
- Regulation, obstacles, and the merging of TradFi and DeFi
Get a front-row seat to how one of the world’s leading financial institutions is driving innovation in the space.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
01:04 Introduction to Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton
06:56 Franklin Templeton experimenting with crypto to save costs
08:11 Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund
09:26 Evolving crypto infrastructure from 2019 to today
11:42 What do institutions look for when planning to launch a product onchain?
13:41 Choosing blockchains based on use cases
16:15 Three new TradFi offerings enabled by crypto
19:56 Additional applications for DeFi: supply chain management
21:56 Additional applications for DeFi: enterprise resource management systems
22:49 Tokenized money market funds vs. stablecoins
25:11 Product bundles and asset classes
28:31 Obstacles to offering more crypto products
31:26 What clarity are you looking to regulation for?
34:16 Complex DeFi products being accepted in TradFi
35:13 DeFi and TradFi need to support one another
37:04 Regulation will open up new pools of assets and value
38:56 What will the merging of TradFi and crypto look like?
41:10 Will the back of house for these firms move onchain?
42:55 Consumer demand for crypto products
47:15 Payments outside of fiat
48:34 Incorporating crypto into Franklin Templeton model portfolios
50:35 What is the demand for current crypto offerings?
54:30 What does success look like for Franklin Templeton?
55:30 Closing Remarks
In this episode of the Defiant Podcast, Vinny speaks with Alex Estorick, Editor in Chief of Right Click Save, about the evolving landscape of NFTs and digital art. They discuss the convergence of art and technology, the financialization of culture, and the role of artists in a world where art and finance are increasingly intertwined. The conversation also touches on the emergence of meme coins as cultural artifacts, the diversity within the crypto community, and the challenges artists face regarding royalties in the NFT space.
Highlights of this episode include:
- The convergence of art and technology
- The emergence of meme coins as cultural artifacts
- Diversity and challenges within the crypto and NFT space
- Opportunities for artists in DeFi and Web3
- The role of AI, tokenized data, and decentralized ownership in the future.
00:00 Episode Intro
03:08 Introduction to Alex Estorick and the NFT Revolution
04:55 Financialization of Art and Culture
08:37 The Role of Artists in a Financialized World
12:13 Cultural Moments and Meme Coins
15:38 Diversity of Habits and Politics in the Crypto Community
17:40 Takeaways from Conversations at NFC
19:10 Is the Battle for Blockchain Dominance Necessary?
20:25 Renewed Bullishness on Ethereum
22:45 Reactions to the Debate Around Royalties
28:30 The Evolution of Value in Digital Art
30:20 Exploring DeFi Opportunities for Artists
35:35 The Intersection of Crypto and AI
37:25 Tokenizing Personal Data and Personhood
42:01 Decentralized AI and Data Ownership
45:05 The Future of Crypto in a Dystopian Landscape
48:15 Navigating the Complexities of Web3 and Digital Economy
50:15 Closing Remarks
In this conversation, Camila Russo interviews Tomasz Stanczak, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, discussing the evolution of Ethereum, addressing criticisms, and the foundation's strategic initiatives. They explore the importance of communication, the restructuring of the foundation, and the focus on scaling Ethereum through L1 and L2 dynamics.
Tomasz shares insights on the vision for Ethereum as a global economy, balancing user needs with core values, and the foundation's treasury management and DeFi strategies. The conversation concludes with a look at future developments and milestones for Ethereum.
Takeaways:
- Ethereum has evolved significantly since its inception, focusing on scaling and communication.
- The Ethereum Foundation has faced criticism regarding its communication strategies.
- Restructuring within the foundation aims to enhance protocol development and management.
- Funding and support for developers are crucial for the ecosystem's growth.
- The relationship between L1 and L2 is vital for Ethereum's scaling strategy.
- Ethereum aims to position itself as a global economy hub.
- User needs and core values must be balanced for long-term success.
- Treasury management strategies are evolving to include DeFi protocols.
- The foundation is committed to transparency and community engagement.
- Future milestones include significant scaling and security improvements.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:07 Episode Teaser
01:24 Hero Quote
01:35 Introduction to Tomasz Stańczak, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation
03:18 Community Criticism and Foundation Response
06:45 Strategic Actions by the Ethereum Foundation
09:39 Building a Supportive Ecosystem for Developers
13:50 The strengths of Ethereum as a Network
17:17 Scaling Ethereum: L1 and L2 Dynamics
20:55 The One Trillion Security Initiative
23:00 Specific Milestones in the Short Term
25:53 Navigating the Tension: World Computer vs. Store of Value
29:15 Ethereum as a Global Economy
30:43 Will Solana Become An Ethereum L2?
32:43 User Priorities: Decentralization vs. Usability
37:02 Treasury Management and ETH Sales
36:55 The Role of Stablecoins in Ethereum's Future
39:55 The Impact of Ethereum Foundation's DeFi Allocations
42:00 Guiding DeFi Protocols Towards Security and Decentralization
51:10 The Future of Ethereum: Use Cases and Community Expectations
54:50 Upcoming Milestones for Ethereum
56:50 Closing Remarks
This week, we spoke with Rob Viglione, Co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs, to explore the groundbreaking potential of Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) in safeguarding digital privacy, bridging TradFi and DeFi, and creating income streams for consumers that empower them through the ownership of their own digital data.
From balancing transparency and onchain privacy to the intersection of AI and Web3, Rob dives into the critical role cryptography will play in reshaping how we share and protect data. Learn how ZKPs can combat data misuse, empower individuals to monetize their information, and reimagine compliance as we step into a world where privacy is a fundamental human right.
Key Highlights:
-
How ZKPs protect medical records and financial history
-
Will banks adapt, or become irrelevant?
-
The role of cryptography in privacy-centric AI systems
Don’t miss this thought-provoking discussion packed with insights on the future of data, privacy, and decentralized innovation.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:07 Podcast Teaser
00:52 Hero Quote
00:59 Introduction to Rob Viglione
01:34 The beauty of ZKPs
02:40 How to balance transparency and privacy onchain
04:00 Why it’s so easy to overshare data
04:50 Living in an age of constant data leaks
06:34 The concept of wealth is fundamentally different now
07:33 Google adopts ZKP to verify age
09:00 A world of a trillion proofs
09:30 How can Web3 handle growing volumes of proofs?
10:09 Will Web2 relinquish their chokehold on our data?
11:52 Monetizing data as an incentive to online privacy
12:45 New opportunities for earning a living by monetizing your data
14:14 The intersection of crypto and AI
16:17 ZKPs and data protection
18:00 ZKPs and AI in medical records and financial history
20:18 How can ZKPs act as a safeguard against misuse in AI
22:15 Hackers and scammers are a certainty; how do we fight them?
22:36 Cryptography, ZKPs, and privacy-centric AI systems?
25:13 Why is privacy a human right?
26:25 Institutions, privacy, and Web3
26:45 Institutions coming onchain
28:30 Better communicating privacy as a human right in the context of Web3
30:30 Will ZKPs change the way people interact with the internet?
32:11 Marketing in the age of AI
33:24 ZKPs and KYC
35:40 Why ZKPs are bad for bad actors
37:38 Government regulation vs. Web3 companies regulating the industry themselves
39:00 It doesn’t make sense for politicians to be anti-crypto anymore
41:53 Can ZKPs redefine compliance and how it’s enforced?
43:13 How can ZKP tech support institutional privacy and consumer data?
44:45 TradFi onchain as a stepping stone to DeFi
46:39 Lightning round! Favorite existing use case for ZKP
46:54 Lightning round! Favorite potential use case for ZKP
48:04 Lightning round! Best advice for keeping your data safe online
48:49 Closing statements and where to follow Rob
Explore the world of crypto payroll and stablecoins with Megan Knab, cofounder and CEO of Franklin. From tackling crypto volatility to how stablecoins can reshape global economies, this episode dives into the challenges and opportunities for crypto-native payment infrastructure.
Megan Knab shares her insights on crypto’s role in building a better financial ecosystem. We discuss everything from stablecoin-backed paychecks to how DeFi tools enhance accessibility. Tune in to understand why this innovative tech could be the foundation for a healthier society.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:07 Teaser
00:28 Pull Quote
00:36 Introduction to Megan Knab
01:08 The path from Wall Street to crypto
03:31 Building back offices within Web3
04:53 How to tackle crypto’s volatility with payroll and paying bills in fiat
06:00 Labor laws and crypto
06:41 ERC-20 tokens in payroll
07:35 Eliminating intermediaries in the payroll business
09:12 Benefits to employers and employees beyond cross-border payments
10:54 Payroll as a building block for a healthy society
11:39 How do you calculate a paycheck?
13:14 The GENIUS bill and the future of stablecoins
15:02 Reserve of assets to back up the value of issued stablecoins
16:22 Fixed income and payment giants getting into crypto
16:55 The effects of big brands getting into stablecoins
18:05 Backwards views of crypto adoption
19:12 Democratic backlash to the GENIUS bill
20:25 The need for more effective crypto regulation
22:29 The points for and against crypto regulation
23:18 Crypto is not a political technology
23:52 The biggest winners in crypto have been lawyers
26:10 How do you determine which stablecoins to utilize for business?
28:36 MakerDAO as a major crypto innovation
29:33 How DeFi makes financial tools more accessible to the public
31:33 Stablecoin infrastructure in developing economies
33:30 Stablecoins as a means of USD dominance worldwide
35:09 Challenges for governments having assets onchain
36:06 Future legislation in crypto and investment
39:55 Lighting round!
Music: Future Highway by Picratio is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License.
Explore the cutting-edge intersection of AI, cryptocurrency, and startup culture in our latest episode. We spoke with Shaw Walters, Founder of Eliza Labs, about the exciting possibilities and challenges of AI agents in digital worlds, the crypto ecosystem, and token launches. Discover how these technologies are shaping a fairer, more inclusive future for investing and why real products and vision matter more than hype.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant introduction
00:07 Episode summary
00:54 Introduction to Shaw Walters and Eliza Labs
02:27 AI agents in digital worlds
10:56 Eliza as a framework for providing what GPT doesn’t
11:25 Writing actions for AI agents
14:10 Use cases for AI agents
14:55 Moving from one-on-one to group settings
16:33 Connecting Eliza to the crypto ecosystem
19:20 Pros and cons of AI agents in financial services
21:25 AI agents as an interface
24:53 auto.fun and launching AI agents
30:08 Fairer than fair token launch
31:58 A new age of investing in startups
32:32 The government does not trust you with your own money
34:33 Crypto workarounds for investing in startups
35:43 The Trump administration and our path to regulation
36:57 Changing laws around investing in startups
38:32 Decentralized AI and opening investment to the public
39:30 What will bring AI agents back to the forefront?
44:25 How to structure better launchpads for startups
46:00 Crypto markets in their current state are casinos
49:24 Jeffy Yu and Zerebro
53:36 Why the crypto culture needs to change
55:31 Real products and real vision
58:00 Closing remarks
This week, we spoke to Patrick Amadon about the complex intersections of digital privacy, surveillance, censorship, and the potential of decentralized AI. Amadon offers a critical perspective on some of the most pressing issues in technology, from the role of digital disobedience to the regulatory challenges surrounding cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.
Key topics include:
- The potential of decentralized AI and Ethereum's pivotal role
- The impact of censorship on free speech in the digital era
- How AI and blockchain technology can empower individuals and artists
- Risks posed by centralized AI and the push for decentralization
- Strategies for protecting digital privacy and countering AI surveillance
Amadon also examines how the framework for success in the digital age is shifting, emphasizing the importance of data ownership and financial independence. This conversation offers valuable insights for those interested in the evolving relationship between technology, freedom, and the pursuit of a decentralized future.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:07 Decentralized AI is a win for Ethereum
01:30 Introduction to Patrick Amadon
02:08 Digital disobedience and decentralized ecosystems
04:10 Challenges in modern discourse
07:40 “No Rioters” and threats to free speech
10:10 The place for disruption
12:00 The paths to success are changing
13:05 Crypto and data ownership
13:32 Meaningful AI Legislation
14:20 The race to AGI and why we need to beat China
16:48 Regulating crypto and AI
18:34 The failure of the stablecoin bill
22:08 “Passive Observer” and the role of the public in geopolitical events
27:50 Art as resistance to homogenizing the narrative
30:10 When crypto starts making sense to normies
30:55 The fight to decentralize AI
33:25 The risks of centralized AI
35:40 Our lack of digital security and privacy
37:32 Why should AI belong to the people?
38:00 AI’s effects on the job market
41:25 How to get under the hood of AI
45:00 AI lowers the barrier to entry for art, technology, and more
46:30 AI and the arts
49:20 The pros and cons of decentralization
50:32 Decentralized infrastructure, currency, and economy
52:15 The Pectra update
54:35 The power of owning your own currency
55:18 How will wallets as smart contracts affect artists?
55:40 The NFT art space only works as it imagines a new art world
58:00 Pectra and the future of meaningful technologies
58:55 A digital renaissance
01:00:58 Counter AI surveillance technology
01:05:00 Why is digital privacy so important?
01:12:15 VeilPNG and hiding data
01:13:20 Closing remarks
In today’s episode with cypherpunk and artist Gus Grillasca, we explore the intricate crossroads of cryptocurrency and global economics. From the propaganda of inflation to Bitcoin Ordinals and the NFT controversy, this episode challenges conventional narratives and opens up new perspectives. Hear Gus' insights on navigating the Ethereum ecosystem, the financialization of Bitcoin, and privacy coins in the digital age.
We also talk about the evolving role of crypto in Latin America, reflect on the surprising dynamics of meme coins, and uncover gaps in financial literacy that could shape the next chapter of blockchain adoption. Whether you’re captivated by the promise of stablecoins, intrigued by NFT permanence, or pondering crypto’s place in an unstable world, this episode offers thought-provoking insights and artistic freedom at its core.
INFLARE: https://scarce.city/goods/inflare
Fierro Viejo: https://superrare.com/artwork/eth/0xb932a70A57673d89f4acfFBE830E8ed7f75Fb9e0/34374
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
00:10 Inflation is bankers’ propaganda
00:50 Introduction to Gus Grillasca
01:38 Gus’ Journey into blockchain
02:35 Banking challenges for travelors
04:44 Rare Pepes, Ethereum NFTs, and Bitcoin Ordinals
07:44 Changing views on the Ethereum ecosystem
09:04 Bitcoin Ordinals, memes, and the NFT Controversy
10:30 Bitcoin Ordinals and NFT permanence
14:53 The controversy around updates to the Bitcoin protocol
16:28 “INFLARE” and The Space by Art of Freedom
17:25 Inflation as a monetary phenomenon
21:06 Global inflation, purchasing power, and the role of crypto in an unstable world
25:37 Is the financialization of Bitcoin good or bad for crypto?
27:25 Bitcoin Reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile
30:36 Thoughts on $TRUMP and other meme coins
34:45 Changing expectations of investing in NFT
38:18 Crypto’s role in Latin America
45:35 “Fierro Viejo,” NFTs and intellectual property
50:00 A gap in financial literacy
53:18 Ethereum’s changing roadmap
57:25 Privacy coins
59:40 The need for privacy in the digital age
01:03:05 Stablecoins, financial products, and exciting prospects in crypto
01:05:56 Final Thoughts
Are crypto ETFs set to reshape the investing landscape? Join us on The Defiant as we dive deep into the future of crypto assets, the evolving regulatory environment, and the rise of index-based investing. Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, shares his expert insights on what these changes mean for investors and how crypto ETFs could revolutionize access to digital assets.
Chapters:
00:00 The Defiant Intro
00:10 Why tariffs could be bullish for Bitcoin
00:41 Intro to Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise
01:35 The impact of U.S. interest rates on crypto markets
04:00 Tariffs and their effects on crypto
08:24 How USD fluctuations affect global crypto trends
10:15 Investor reactions to a weaker dollar
11:58 Bitcoin as a hedge against volatility
14:58 The role of traditional investors in driving Bitcoin’s price
20:54 Regulatory insights and which assets stand to gain
22:10 Crypto ETFs
24:50 What sets Bitwise apart in the crowded ETF space
26:52 The rise (and slow start) of Ethereum ETFs
29:00 How will ETH staking play into demand?
30:21 How will an ETH staking fund be structured?
32:30 Top crypto assets to watch for the next wave of ETFs
35:25 How index funds are influencing the future of crypto investing
36:50 Crypto native investors
38:38 Index funds and the SEC
40:11 Ethereum’s coming of age and shifting goals
43:45 What can get 1000x users on Ethereum?
46:28 Ethereum vs. Solana and the next big trends
48:31 Where and how different blockchains thrive
51:30 Predictions for 2025
53:10 Closing Remarks
Immerse yourself in the future of decentralized infrastructure in this exclusive interview with Amira Valliana from the Solana Foundation. Perfect for Web3 enthusiasts, this episode unpacks how onchain solutions are redefining physical networks, policy, and global collaboration.
Chapters & Key Topics:
- 00:00 Introduction to decentralized infrastructure onchain
- 00:33 Podcast & guest welcome
- 03:16 Amira Valliana’s policy work at Solana Foundation
- 09:19 Shaping blockchain policy and its real-world impact
- 12:31 What is DePIN? (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks)
- 15:25 Case Study spotlight: Geonet
- 18:19 Current tech limits for onchain assets
- 20:21 Experiments in tracking real-world objects via blockchain
- 22:00 Supply chain challenges and onchain opportunities
- 24:08 Using crypto to coordinate worldwide networks
- 25:38 Helium Network deep-dive
- 29:00 Future applications for Helium
- 31:05 Exploring Hivemapper
- 34:15 Bridging DePIN and AI innovation
- 38:27 Decentralized AI and infrastructure synergy
- 42:32 Macro trends (interest rates, tariffs, resources, and more) and their effect
- 45:43 What’s next for decentralized physical infrastructure?
If you’re curious about DePIN, policy in Web3, or the next wave of decentralized AI, you’ll get actionable insights and real-world examples to fuel your curiosity.
Subscribe and hit the bell for more interviews with leaders shaping the decentralized future!
Lending and borrowing onchain has quickly become one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing sectors in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Among the leaders in this space is Maple Finance, a platform that has already facilitated over $800M in assets, showcasing the growing adoption and practicality of tokenized private credit for institutions. By bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized systems, Maple Finance is demonstrating how institutions can leverage blockchain technology for more efficient and transparent lending solutions.
In an insightful conversation, Camila Russo sat down with Maple Finance’s CEO, Sid Powell, to delve into the potential of real-world assets (RWAs) within DeFi, the evolving role of stablecoins in this ecosystem, and strategies to unlock new lending markets onchain. Their discussion highlights the rapid innovations taking place in the DeFi space and sheds light on the future of decentralized credit markets.
Explore the future of intellectual property on the blockchain in this insightful interview with Jason Zhao. Discover how Story Protocol is revolutionizing the way creators protect, share, and license their work. By bringing IP and copyright onchain, the protocol streamlines the process, ensures compliance with state and national laws, and secures rights in an innovative, transparent manner. Perfect for Web3 creators and blockchain developers ready to push boundaries and unlock new possibilities.
Chapters
00:00 - Intro: Jason Zhao, Co-founder and Chief Protocol Officer at Story Protocol
00:45 - How Story Protocol is revolutionizing IP management on blockchain
01:16 - Case study: Acquiring Justin Bieber's "Peaches" song rights
02:34 - The vision: Making IP as programmable as stablecoins
05:15 - Jason's background: From AI at DeepMind to blockchain
08:58 - Story's technical architecture: Custom Layer 1 blockchain
11:13 - Proof of Creativity Protocol explained
13:15 - Storing full IP rights and metadata (beyond NFTs)
18:47 - Legal framework and enforceable IP licenses
21:36 - Mainstream IP vs. native Story Protocol IP
24:07 - DeFi integration: Royalties and liquid IP markets
27:31 - How creators monetize their work on Story
29:50 - Tokenomics and the Big Bang staking event
33:51 - Roadmap: IP Portal and future upgrades
37:23 - David Goyer (Dark Knight trilogy) launching new IP on Story
38:28 - Fraud prevention and attestation services
45:02 - Staking mechanics and validator system
49:08 - Meme coins and IP-backed tokens
54:20 - The long-term vision: "HTTP for IP"
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Will Robinson, VP of Engineering at Coinbase, explores the company’s expanding role in decentralized finance (DeFi), highlighting the launch of Bitcoin-backed USDC loans through Morpho and Coinbase’s broader efforts to integrate DeFi solutions. He explains how Coinbase is working to connect centralized finance (CeFi) with DeFi by incorporating decentralized protocols while prioritizing security and regulatory compliance. Robinson also discusses the introduction of cbBTC as an alternative to WBTC, the company’s approach to multi-chain development, and its plans for further DeFi integrations. Additionally, he addresses ongoing debates about Ethereum Layer 2 networks and their impact on the main chain, emphasizing the importance of improved cross-chain interoperability. He also provides insights into Coinbase’s asset listing process, the role of meme coins in the crypto ecosystem, and the company’s broader mission to support a more open and accessible financial system.
Chapters
00:00 - Intro: Will Robinson, VP of Engineering at Coinbase
00:45 - Coinbase’s expanding role in DeFi
01:16 - Bitcoin-backed USDC loans powered by Morpho
02:34 - How Coinbase enables BTC holders to access liquidity
05:15 - Risks involved in Bitcoin-backed loans
08:58 - Liquidation risks and loan-to-value ratios
11:13 - Early demand and adoption of the product
13:15 - cbBTC vs. WBTC: Why Coinbase launched its own Bitcoin wrapper
18:47 - How cbBTC is issued and traded
21:36 - Coinbase’s approach to self-custody and wallets
24:07 - The role of Coinbase Wallet in bridging CeFi and DeFi
27:31 - Coinbase’s long-term DeFi strategy and future integrations
29:50 - Will DeFi become a mainstream part of traditional finance?
33:51 - Coinbase’s evolution from exchange to financial institution
34:34 - The rise of Base: How Coinbase grew its Layer 2
38:28 - Are Layer 2s parasitic to Ethereum?
49:08 - The role of meme coins in crypto and Coinbase’s listing process
54:20 - The future of on-chain finance and economic freedom
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Bill Barhydt, Founder and CEO of Abra, discusses the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency markets and investment strategies in this week's The Defiant Podcast. He attributes Bitcoin’s price movements to macroeconomic factors, including U.S. monetary policy and liquidity cycles, and notes a growing trend of companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Barhydt also examines Ethereum’s scalability challenges and the increasing role of DeFi in financial systems, suggesting that decentralized infrastructure could eventually become the standard for banking. Additionally, he expresses optimism about potential regulatory clarity in the U.S., particularly regarding stablecoins and digital asset classifications.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction: Bill Barhydt & Abra
00:48 - Barhydt’s Background in Crypto & Finance
02:23 - How Abra Manages Crypto Wealth
05:45 - Bitcoin Loans & Prime Brokerage Explained
10:10 - Crypto Market Volatility & Macroeconomic Factors
13:24 - Bitcoin Dominance & Altcoin Cycles
18:11 - Solana vs. Ethereum: Market Trends & Adoption
24:29 - U.S. Crypto Regulations & Policy Predictions
36:05 - Trump’s Crypto Involvement
39:04 - Institutional Interest in Bitcoin & ETFs
50:18 - The Future of DeFi & Traditional Banking
52:14 - Barhydt’s Price Predictions
54:12 - Final Thoughts & Closing Remarks
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, discusses the evolution of DeFi and the trade-offs required to improve user experience while maintaining decentralization. He explains how Infinex aims to offer a more accessible, centralized exchange-like interface while remaining non-custodial, addressing long-standing UX challenges in DeFi. Warwick also reflects on Synthetix’s recent governance restructuring, competition from Hyperliquid, and the potential shift back to a stablecoin-focused model. Looking ahead, he highlights the importance of regulatory clarity, improved infrastructure, and greater accessibility in driving the next phase of DeFi growth.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Kain Warwick
00:15 - Kain’s history in DeFi
01:26 - Motivation behind Infinex and staying in crypto
02:21 - Challenges of bull and bear markets
05:55 - The idea behind Infinex and UX innovation
08:40 - Trade-offs in building a user-friendly DeFi platform
17:05 - Passkeys and the seamless user experience
24:26 - Adoption metrics and user growth
26:51 - Future roadmap: Bitcoin, XRP, and Doge integration
33:08 - The Patron NFT sale: Lessons learned
37:19 - Synthetix updates: Governance and structural changes
39:27 - The role of attention in crypto success
47:50 - Synthetix’s stablecoin pivot and liquidity strategy
51:14 - Differentiating Synthetix’s stablecoin from others
54:03 - Avoiding the pitfalls of past algo stablecoins
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer, joins The Defiant Podcast this week to discuss his role as a plaintiff in the high-profile Tornado Cash lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). He described how the sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash impacted legitimate users seeking privacy on Ethereum and underscored the significance of a recent appellate court ruling questioning whether smart contracts qualify as “property” under U.S. sanctions law. Van Loon also noted the possibility of a friendlier regulatory environment in the United States, suggesting that changing policy stances could spur crypto innovation. Finally, he addressed ongoing discussions within the Ethereum community about development priorities, governance structures, and the challenges of maintaining a decentralized protocol as the ecosystem grows.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Background
01:15 - What is Tornado Cash?
04:00 - Why Tornado Cash Was Sanctioned
06:45 - Filing the Lawsuit
09:50 - Court Ruling and Implications
14:00 - Next Steps in the Legal Case
18:00 - Privacy Rights and Crypto
24:00 - Impact on Builders and Industry
34:00 - Ethereum's Role and Future Challenges
50:00 - Community Feedback and Leadership
55:00 - Closing Remarks
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax Finance, outlined the development and goals of FraxUSD, a decentralized stablecoin designed to integrate with both traditional finance and decentralized ecosystems. The upgraded FraxUSD offers redeemability through custodians like BlackRock and SuperState while providing competitive yields through diversified strategies. Kazemian described Frax’s broader vision as building a digital economy anchored by its flagship stablecoin and Fraxstool, a high-performance Ethereum Layer 2.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:48 - Founding Story and Differentiation of Frax
02:01 - Vision for Decentralized Stablecoins
02:41 - Features of FraxUSD
08:51 - Best of Both Worlds Design for FraxUSD
13:08 - Future of Stablecoins
23:05 - Yield Strategy of FraxUSD
34:16 - FraxUSD in Real World and On-Chain Usage
42:02 - Stablecoins as the Gateway to Crypto
47:12 - Roadmap and Future of Frax
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Zhouxun Yin, the Co-Founder of Magic Eden, joins The Defiant Podcast to discuss the evolution of one of the largest NFT marketplaces. In this episode, he shares the story behind Magic Eden’s founding, their decision to focus on Solana early on, and their multi-chain expansion strategy. Z dives into the challenges of navigating the bear market, enforcing royalties, and launching a token to unite their ecosystem. He also explores the future of NFTs, their integration with AI, and Magic Eden's ambitious shift toward becoming an all-encompassing on-chain trading platform.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Founding Magic Eden
03:40 - Surviving FTX and Solana’s Challenges
07:20 - Navigating the NFT Bear Market
12:00 - The Bitcoin Ordinals Bet
16:00 - Multi-Chain Expansion
24:30 - Launching the $ME Token
32:00 - Addressing Airdrop Challenges
46:50 - The Royalty Debate
54:10 - Long-Term Vision for NFTs
01:03:00 - On-Chain Trading and Future Goals
01:10:35 - Closing Thoughts
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Sandy Peng, co-founder of Scroll, tells us the journey of building one of the most anticipated Ethereum Layer 2s, their focus on ZK rollups for scalability, and the unique value proposition of high security, decentralization, and low costs. Sandy discusses Scroll's transition from general purpose chain design to supporting specific use cases driven by ecosystem builders and founders. They explore challenges and lessons from Scroll's recent token airdrop, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, equitable distribution, and fostering a vibrant community. Sandy highlights the Scroll Open initiative and their long-term vision to create a thriving "city" for innovation and talent in the blockchain space.
Chapters
00:00 - Sandy Peng on Scroll's Rise
00:30 - Scroll’s Evolution and 2025 Vision
01:30 - The Founding Story of Scroll
02:30 - Why ZK Rollups?
04:00 - Scroll's Unique Edge in the L2 Space
07:00 - Transition to Use Case-Specific Chains
09:00 - Scroll's Vision for Builders and Founders
11:00 - Sub-Cent Costs and High Security Explained
15:00 - Decentralization: Scroll’s Progress and Plans
20:00 - Governance and the Role of Scroll Tokens
25:00 - Airdrop Lessons and Community Feedback
35:00 - Reflections on Token Distribution Trends
46:00 - Layer 2s and Ethereum’s Value Narrative
50:00 - Scroll Open: Building the Future Economy
58:00 - Scroll's Big Picture Vision
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Johann Kerbrat is the Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, leading the charge in bringing crypto to millions of retail investors. In this episode, Johann shares the journey of Robinhood Crypto, from its early days of launching in 2018 to its recent innovations, including staking, self-custody wallets, and a potential shift towards a full-fledged crypto exchange. He discusses how Robinhood is leveraging blockchain to enhance efficiency, lower costs, and expand access to financial instruments.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:14 - History of Robinhood Crypto
01:23 - Why Robinhood Added Crypto
02:42 - Robinhood's Perspective on Crypto
07:12 - How Robinhood Monetizes Crypto
12:31 - Competing with Crypto Exchanges
14:22 - Token Listing Strategy
16:53 - Balancing Features and Asset Expansion
18:17 - Staking in the EU and Regulatory Concerns
21:22 - Staking Demand and Customer Education
24:08 - Robinhood Wallet Features
27:23 - Self-Custody Wallet Metrics
28:49 - Meme Stock Frenzy and Decentralized Trading
31:42 - Blockchain for Settlement and Efficiency
39:08 - Marketplace vs. Exchange Transition
41:49 - Upcoming Milestones for Robinhood Crypto
43:19 - Market Trends and Future Vision
44:49 - Long-Term Vision for Robinhood Crypto
46:00 - Closing Remarks
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
In this episode, Dimitry Gusakov, Community Staking Lead at Lido, discusses the protocol’s efforts to enhance decentralization and accessibility in Ethereum staking. He explains the launch of the Community Staking Module, which lowers barriers for individual validators while addressing concerns about centralization within the Ethereum ecosystem. The conversation also explores potential impacts of proposed Ethereum staking changes and Lido’s roadmap for further decentralization in 2025. Tune in to gain insights into the evolving landscape of liquid staking and its role in securing Ethereum.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:14 - What is Lido and Liquid Staking?
02:20 - Liquid Staking Use Cases in DeFi
05:33 - Addressing Centralization Concerns in Lido
08:25 - Community Staking Module: Decentralization Efforts
10:49 - Requirements to Become a Home Validator
13:26 - Rewards and Entry Barriers for Home Validators
16:12 - Hardware Setup for Validators
23:39 - Socialized Rewards and Offline Allowances
26:38 - Higher Rewards for Running a Node
34:23 - Impact of CSM on Lido’s Decentralization
41:13 - Ethereum Security and the Importance of Decentralization
52:19 - Ethereum Issuance Proposal: Implications for Lido
01:06:07 - Future Developments for Lido in 2025
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake dives deep into the Beam Chain proposal, a transformative upgrade aimed at accelerating Ethereum’s roadmap and enhancing its consensus layer. Justin explains how the Beam Chain would incorporate key innovations like SNARK proofs, quantum security, and single-slot finality to boost decentralization, security, and scalability. He also discusses incremental upgrades like staking caps and pre-confirmations, which aim to improve Ethereum’s performance and user experience in the near term. The conversation explores Ethereum’s competition with Solana and Bitcoin, highlighting how Ethereum’s long-term focus on robustness and scalability positions it to thrive as the foundational layer for the decentralized internet.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction: Justin Drake
01:03 - What is the Beam Chain?
02:41 - Why Ethereum Needs Acceleration
05:06 - Lessons from the Merge for the Beam Chain
07:06 - Solving Ethereum’s Technical Debt
15:58 - Faster Confirmation Times
18:11 - Pre-confirmations in Ethereum
24:14 - Layer 1 and Layer 2 Pre-confirmations
30:41 - Big Ticket Changes in the Beam Chain
31:04 - Snarkification of Consensus Layer
33:31 - Single Slot Finality
39:00 - Trustless Bridges Between Blockchains
49:00 - Native Rollups and Execution Sharding
54:04 - Ethereum vs. Solana on Performance
01:10:00 - Near-Term Upgrades to Watch For
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Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA, discusses Across’s mission to enable fast, low-cost asset transfers between Ethereum layer twos, with a focus on creating a seamless user experience. He explains how the protocol’s “intent architecture” leverages third-party solvers to improve cross-chain interactions, offering a cohesive way for users to transfer assets and execute transactions across different Ethereum networks. Lambur also emphasizes the importance of Ethereum’s upcoming account abstraction upgrades in achieving a unified ecosystem, allowing actions on any Ethereum chain from a single wallet. He envisions a future by 2025 where Ethereum feels like a unified network, improving user experience significantly.
Chapters
00:04 - Introduction to Hart Lambur
00:14 - Hart’s Background and Motivation for Building Across Protocol
00:50 - Integration with Uniswap
10:34 - Challenges in Ethereum Interoperability and Gas Fees
12:03 - Ethereum’s Scalability Achievements and New Issues
18:04 - Account Abstraction: ERC-7702 and Its Role in Ethereum
27:02 - Intents Architecture
41:00 - Current User Experience Issues in Ethereum and Solutions
52:32 - Hart’s Vision for Ethereum as a Unified Network by 2025
57:08 - Closing Thoughts on Ethereum’s Future and Overcoming Fragmentation
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Nana Murugesan, President of Matter Labs and former VP of Business Development at Coinbase, joins Camila Russo in this week’s podcast to discuss the latest updates from ZKsync, including the recently launched Elastic Chain. He explains how ZKsync’s approach to interoperability and customization aims to make Web3 infrastructure as seamless as Web2, emphasizing the importance of user-friendly experiences for mainstream adoption. Nana also highlights Matter Labs' partnership with Buenos Aires to bring ZK-backed digital identity to millions of citizens, showcasing a promising model for government and Web3 collaboration. Finally, he shares upcoming milestones for ZKsync, with new chains and collaborations in Latin America, gaming, and the creator economy.
Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
0:17 - ZKsync and Elastic Chain
2:57 - Evolution of ZKsync
5:22 - Interoperability and Customizability in Web3
7:30 - User Experience
10:16 - The Role of Governments in Blockchain Adoption
14:41 - Digital Identity on the Blockchain
17:18 - Why Zero-Knowledge Proofs Matter
21:02 - Cost and Throughput Advantage of ZKsync
25:07 - UX and Interoperability Challenges
27:05 - ZKsync in Latin America
30:05 - Upcoming Projects on Elastic Chain
32:39 - Future Focus for Matter Labs
33:46 - Closing Remarks
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
In this week’s podcast, Dylan Kawalec, Head of Developer Relations at Goat Network, discusses the Goat Founders Club, which is a new initiative aimed at empowering developers and entrepreneurs to build on the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem. He explains how the program incentivizes builders through a unique points reward system that can be converted into tokens, fostering a more developer-centric community. Dylan also dives into the technical aspects of the Goat Network, including its decentralized sequencer model and use of zero-knowledge rollups, to enhance Bitcoin's scalability and interoperability. Lastly, he shares his personal story of how Bitcoin transformed his life, highlighting his unwavering passion and optimism for the future of the network.
Chapters
00:00 - Dylan Kawalec and GOAT Network
00:16 - What is the GOAT Founders Club?
03:46 - About GOAT Network: Bitcoin Layer 2 Overview
05:12 - Differentiation from Other Layer 2s
07:00 - Founders Club Tracks for Developers
11:03 - Governance Token: Future Role of GOAT Token
12:28 - Role of Bitcoin on GOAT Network
15:07 - Sequencer Model and Bridging to Other Chains
21:00 - Dylan’s Personal Bitcoin Story
24:56 - Inspiration Behind Founders Club
42:11 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Adeniyi Abiodun is the co-founder of Mysten Labs and a major contributor to the Sui blockchain. In this week’s podcast, he discusses Sui's unique positioning as a "global coordination layer for the internet," emphasizing its decentralized nature and its technical advancements such as parallel execution and the use of the Move programming language. He highlights the expertise of the team behind Sui, their focus on scalability, and the potential for Sui to revolutionize payments and digital asset ownership. Abiodun also addresses challenges like decentralization concerns and outlines future growth areas, including gaming and DeFi.
Chapters
0:00 - Introduction with Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-founder of Mysten Labs
0:42 - What is Sui and how it's different from other L1s
1:50 - Addressing the centralization problem of the internet
3:52 - Scalability and throughput advantages of Sui
5:24 - How Sui solves scalability and throughput challenges
7:31 - Move language: A better approach for Web3 development
10:33 - Object-based model vs account-based model in blockchains
16:00 - Sui token's recent price surge and adoption trends
19:16 - Native USDC launch and its impact on DeFi growth
22:11 - Sui's low latency and fast transaction speeds
33:19 - Expanding Web3 adoption and onboarding billions of users
45:37 - Sui’s vision for the future
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
John Avlon is a congressional candidate for New York, advocating for bipartisan support of emerging technologies like cryptocurrency. In this week's podcast, John emphasizes the need for clear and reasonable regulation to foster innovation without stifling it, while warning against making technology a partisan issue. Avlon critiques the current regulatory landscape, including the approach of figures like Gary Gensler, and highlights the potential risks of pushing innovation overseas. He advocates for Democrats to embrace technology as a key driver of U.S. competitiveness, underscoring that this election will shape the trajectory of the nation's future.
Chapters
0:00 Intro to John Avlon
1:02 Pivotal Moment For Crypto
3:50 US Crypto Policy
8:40 Regulatory Framework
17:40 Trust In Kamala Harris
26:30 Crypto Lobby
31:21 Balance In Regulation
44:05 John Avlon's Bags
47:12 Threat To Democracy
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Jack Booth is the co-founder of TON Society, a grassroots initiative driving community engagement in the Ton blockchain ecosystem, closely integrated with the Telegram messaging app. Booth explained how TON is evolving as a Web3 super app, bringing decentralized applications and financial tools to a global audience. He discussed the ecosystem’s unique structure, built on Telegram’s open mini-apps platform, enabling users to seamlessly access crypto services. Booth also emphasized TON's vision of onboarding millions of new users into crypto by creating simple, user-friendly applications and fostering mass adoption outside the U.S.
00:00 - Introduction & TON's Relationship with Telegram
02:35 - TON's Vision for Web3 & Telegram Mini Apps
05:15 - The History of TON and Regulatory Challenges
07:22 - Telegram Integrates TON Wallet
09:56 - TON’s Focus on Emerging Markets
13:07 - TON Society & Community Building
17:30 - TON Blockchain's Sharding Model
21:11 - Scaling Challenges
24:20 - TON’s Deflationary Potential
29:25 - Pavel Durov's Arrest & Impact on TON
39:31 - Power of Telegram's Announcement Channels
44:01 - Centralization vs. Decentralization in TON
49:01 - TON as a Web3 Super App
53:19 - Tap-to-Earn Apps & Airdrops
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho Labs, explains how Morpho is a decentralized and permissionless lending protocol that allows users to create customized lending and borrowing pools. Unlike traditional DeFi platforms like Aave, Morpho externalizes risk management, giving users control over their risk exposure and liquidity. Frambot shares how Morpho started as a rate-optimizing solution and evolved into Morpho Blue, a more scalable protocol with over $1 billion in deposits. He discusses the advantages of building in Europe, Morpho's vision to make financial infrastructure a public good, and how fintech partnerships could drive future DeFi adoption. We also touch on Morpho's upcoming token launch and its long-term strategy to compete with other major DeFi protocols.
0:00 - Intro to Paul Frambot
0:30 - What is Morpho and How it Differs from Competitors
2:00 - Paul's Background and Entry into DeFi
3:30 - Early Development of Morpho Optimizer
5:00 - Transition to Morpho Blue and Permissionless Lending
8:00 - Managing Risk, Liquidity, and Customization
11:00 - Real-World Assets and New Use Cases in DeFi
14:00 - Challenges and Advantages of Building in Europe
18:00 - Morpho's Long-Term Vision: Financial Infrastructure as a Public Good
23:00 - Future of DeFi: Fintech Integration and Token Launch
28:00 - Competition with Aave and Growth Strategy
33:00 - The Role of Fintech in Scaling DeFi
38:00 - Long-Term Vision for DeFi and Fintech
43:00 - Morpho's Upcoming Tokenomics and Governance
48:00 - Future Trends and Adoption in DeFi
52:00 - Closing Thoughts and Paul's Outlook on DeFi
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Joe Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and Consensys, explores the evolution of blockchain technology and the expanding role of the Ethereum ecosystem in this episode. He discusses Consensys' pivotal work in building foundational infrastructure, such as MetaMask and Infura, while outlining the strategic direction for future applications and decentralized technologies. Joe delves into Layer 2 solutions, regulatory challenges with the SEC, and the broader implications for the industry. He offers a forward-looking perspective on the maturation of Ethereum, emphasizing scalability, decentralization, and the development of Web3.
0:00 - Evolution of Consensys
3:00 - Growth of Ethereum Infrastructure
6:30 - Scaling Ethereum & Layer 2 Solutions
9:00 - Joe Lubin's Beliefs
11:00 - Regulatory Challenges & SEC Lawsuit
14:30 - Future of Ethereum & Regulation
18:00 - Decentralizing Consensys and Network States
21:30 - Ethereum's Layer 1 & Layer 2 Architecture
28:00 - Impact of Layer 2 on Ethereum Mainnet
36:00 - Transitioning Products to On-chain Governance
39:00 - Network States and Decentralization
43:00 - Preparing for the Next Wave of Applications
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Alex Cutler, Co-Founder of Aerodrome, shares the story behind Aerodrome, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem. He explains how Aerodrome incorporates the best features from existing DEXs, such as Uniswap and Curve, to create a more efficient, unified platform for liquidity providers, traders, and token holders. Cutler emphasizes the strategic choice to focus on Ethereum L2s, predicting their growth as faster, cheaper alternatives to Layer 1 while maintaining Ethereum's ecosystem benefits. He also highlights Aerodrome's tokenomics, where protocol revenue is fully redistributed to participants who lock tokens and vote to direct emissions.
00:00 - Aerodrome Founding Story
03:26 - The Move to Layer 2 and Partnership with Coinbase
05:22 - Layer 2s vs Layer 1s
11:01 - Combining the Best Features from DEX Models
14:07 - Improving Tokenomics and Incentivization
20:22 - Revenue Distribution and Protocol Emissions
41:05 - Base’s Exponential Growth and Long-Term Vision
45:47 - Coinbase’s Role in Building the Future of Decentralization
58:00 - The Role of DEXs and the Coming Use Cases for On-Chain Activity
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Sebastian Serrano is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ripio, one of the largest crypto asset platforms in Latin America. In this episode, Sebastian discusses Ripio's evolution from a retail wallet to a comprehensive crypto platform that includes an exchange, OTC desk, and B2B services. Serrano also highlights Ripio's strategic partnerships with major companies in the region and the development of a stablecoin for Mercado Libre. He shares his insights on the future of crypto adoption in Latin America, emphasizing the potential of tokenization and real-world assets.
0:00 Ripio.com
2:56 Sebastian Serrano
6:41 Retail to B2B
14:21 Latin America
28:54 Argentina As A Crypto Hub
35:45 Future Outlook
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Redouane Elkamhi is the Economics Lead at GOAT Network, a project focused on developing a decentralized financial market on Bitcoin. In this episode, we discuss the project's goals, including the creation of a Bitcoin-based Layer 2 ecosystem with a focus on sustainable yield, decentralized sequencers, and economic incentives. Elkamhi outlines the potential impact of GOAT Network on Bitcoin's future and its approach to yield generation.
0:00 GOAT Network
7:02 Building on Bitcoin
20:25 Earning Yield
33:30 Tokenomics
39:52 Getting Involved
41:36 Future of GOAT and Bitcoin L2s
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TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Yat Siu is the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, a leading force in the Web3 gaming industry. In this episode, Yat Siu shares the story behind the rise of Animoca Brands, discussing its pioneering work in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and the broader Web3 ecosystem. He delves into the company's mission to bring true digital ownership to users through innovative games and platforms. Yat also provides insights into Animoca's strategic investments and its role in shaping the future of the open metaverse, highlighting the transformative potential of Web3 technologies for gaming, culture, and digital property rights.
0:00 Animoca Brands
6:14 Animoca Investments
10:00 Mocaverse
19:32 "Content as a platform"
24:04 Web3 Social
42:55 NFTs
55:25 Metaverse
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Muneeb Ali is the co-founder of Stacks, which is a L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applictions to be built on top of Bitcoin. Muneeb is an early adopter in the blockchain industry with over a decade of experience. He offers a unique and insightful perspective on the current landscape of leading Layer 1 blockchains. In our conversation, we explore his views on the role of Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin, how it compares to Ethereum and Solana, and why Bitcoin holds a unique position as sound money. We also delve into broader industry trends and what the future might hold for scaling solutions.
0:00 Bitcoin L2s
4:07 Muneeb Ali
8:03 Stacks
24:42 Bitcoin VS Ethereum
27:42 Ethereum VS Solana
38:35 Bitcoin As Money
50:40 BitVM
54:24 Rollups on Bitcoin
56:00 DeFi On Bitcoin
1:03:28 EVM
1:05:55 Getting Started With Stacks
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Tory Green is the Co-Founder and CEO of io.net, which is a decentralized computing network that powers ML applications and a prominent project in the DePIN category. Their primary mission is to unlock fair access to computing power by assembling over 1 million GPUs from independent data centers, crypto miners, and projects like Filecoin and Render, aiming to decentralize the AI stack and reduce big tech's dominance in the AI industry. They recently made headlines when their CEO stepped down just days before their token launch. In this episode, Tory shares the behind-the-scenes details of this departure and provides an in-depth look into everything io.net.
0:00 What Is io.net?
3:13 Tory Green
7:52 Ahmad's Departure
12:34 io.net Stats
20:45 Competitors
22:38 Participation
31:20 IO Token
35:30 AI x Crypto
43:40 DePIN
45:45 io.net Vision
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Evgeny Yurtaev is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zerion, which is is an investing tool that enables users to manage their DeFi and NFT portfolios. Recently, Zerion announced the launch of a new Web3 wallet and a Layer 2 solution, Zero Network. These new products aim to enhance the user experience in DeFi by providing a friendlier user experience cost-effective transactions. In our conversation, we dive into the latest updates from Zerion and explore the exciting developments in the DeFi space.
0:00 Zerion Overview
1:50 Evgeny Yurtaev
3:50 Building Zerion
7:16 Zerion Business Model
9:10 Zero Network
27:14 DeFi
32:42 Wallets
44:24 Zerion Vision
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Kain Warwick is the founder of Synthetix, an OG DeFi protocol which allows users to mint and trade a wide variety of synthetic assets, including cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, commodities, and stocks, providing liquidity and exposure without the need for traditional financial intermediaries. His latest project, Infinex, is focused on solving crypto’s UX problems, aiming to make the user experience more intuitive and accessible for all. During EthCC[7], we had the opportunity to interview Kain to dive deeper into Infinex and the solutions they’re planning to solve Crypto UX.0:00 Synthetix and Infinex4:05 Incentive Schemes8:00 Crates11:35 NFT Governance Token15:21 Integrations17:40 Infinex Vision23:00 Passkeys28:30 Infinex Business Model36:46 Synthetix 38:35 DeFi
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Benjamin Jones is the director of the Optimism Foundation, which is dedicated to scaling Ethereum and the team building Optimism Layer 2. Currently, Optimism sits in third place among Layer 2s with $6.42B in Total Value Locked. In this episode, we dive deep into the Superchain Thesis and explore how Optimism aims to optimize Ethereum scalability. We start by discussing what Optimism is and its mission to scale Ethereum, moving on to the foundation's end goal and its vision for the future. We also take a closer look at Benjamin Jones, his role, background and contributions. We also compare various scaling solutions, assess their effectiveness and potential, and discuss the future of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). Benjamin also explains the philosophy underpinning Optimism's Retro Funding approach.
0:00 What Is Optimism?
2:04 End Goal
3:44 Security
5:50 Benjamin Jones
10:00 Open Source
13:02 OP Token
16:25 1 Human = 1 Vote
20:32 Scaling Solutions
30:00 Is ZK The Future?
36:27 Optimism Superchain
49:00 Retro Funding
57:34 Arbitrum
01:01:27 Building On Optimism
01:05:52 Mainstream
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Our guest today is Noah Seidman, who has an impressive systematic view on crypto and how crypto fits into the overall macro market. Noah is a technologist with a career spanning two decades. He has a unique perspective on the intersection of crypto and finance, garnering him a reputation as a thought leader. While most on Crypto Twitter are talking about memecoins and the next few months, Noah has been thinking about crypto over a long time horizon. We talk about his macro views, how he chooses to build his portfolio, advice he has for someone starting out, maybe in their 20s, and the secret to him staying on top of all of the market news. He understands things like the monetary premium and categorizes tokens in a very interesting way. Before we dive into this, we discussed what Noah is focused on on his day to day.
0:00 Captain Rational
1:47 Global Macro
4:45 Before Crypto
5:52 Entering Crypto
11:20 Crypto In Macro
17:30 Bitcoin As Reserve Currency
21:13 L1 Value
22:25 Long Term Narratives
25:22 Investment Strategy
28:30 Self Realization
38:45 Decentralization
45:30 Time
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Daniel Fogg is the CEO of RootstockLabs, the organization behind the Rootstock sidechain, which is a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution designed to enhance Bitcoin's capabilities with smart contract functionality. Rootstock was launched in January 2018, becoming the first Bitcoin sidechain, and is secured by Bitcoin's hashing power through a merged mining process. The sidechain leverages Bitcoin's security while enabling Ethereum compatible smart contracts, aiming to reduce transaction costs and improve scalability0:00 Rootstock's Story7:11 The Architecture14:52 Use Cases21:25 Bitcoin Community27:00 Ordinals and BRC2030:32 BitVM36:00 Merged Mining41:17 Competition
Our sponsorhttps://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=defiant_podcasthttps://zkverify.io/?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=pd&utm_campaign=ad_1https://www.karpatkey.com/?utm_source=Youtube_des&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Defiant ✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers herehttps://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha✊ Follow The DefiantTwitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnewsDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Suji Yan is the founder of Mask Network, a platform that brings privacy and benefits from Web3 to traditional social media like Facebook & Twitter. Suji Yan launched Mask to provide users with tools to encrypt their social media interactions and protect their online privacy. His goal is to create an internet where individuals have more control over their digital presence. In our conversation, we get into the current SocialFi landscape, its limitations, and the importance of decentralized social media for everyday users.0:00 Intro0:40 Mask Network9:30 Web2 + Web3 Social Media22:05 Content Creation36:11 Adoption45:15 Problems With SocialFi54:07 Why Should We Care?57:23 Current SocialFi LandscapeOur sponsorhttps://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=defiant_podcasthttps://zkverify.io/?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=pd&utm_campaign=ad_1https://www.karpatkey.com/?utm_source=Youtube_des&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Defiant ✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers herehttps://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha✊ Follow The DefiantTwitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnewsDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Gabby Dizon is the Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized autonomous organization that invests in virtual world assets. Yield Guild Games focuses on creating a global community of gamers who earn rewards by playing blockchain-based games. YGG operates on the play-to-earn model, allowing players to generate income through in-game activities and ownership of digital assets.
0:00 Intro
1:23 Yield Guild Games
4:34 New Games
5:42 Gabby Dizon
8:39 Ronin
10:21 YGG Token
15:30 Criticisms
18:05 Protocol Transition
24:15 Onchain Guilds
33:33 Badges and Onchain Reputation
40:25 Gaming and NFT Activity
44:40 Building in 2024
48:35 Mass Applications
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Johann Kerbrat is the Crypto General Manager at Robinhood, one of the largest exchanges in the world. In today's episode will delve into his journey with Robinhood Crypto. His thoughts on the future of the industry and the groundbreaking work they are doing to democratize finance for all. They have launched a lot of products recently, including a self custodial wallet, staking, Web3 games and more. Before we dive into this, Johann tells us about his background and responsibilities at Robinhood Crypto.
0:00 Intro
0:42 Johann Kerbrat
1:21 Robinhood
1:52 Entering Crypto
2:59 Robinhood Products
4:16 Feedback
6:00 Web3
8:39 Fees
9:46 Crypto Exchanges
11:00 Regulation
14:55 Tokens
16:21 Self Custody Wallet
17:46 DeFi
18:35 Staking
19:48 What's Next?
21:00 Robinhood Chain
21:54 Tokens
24:13 Tokenization
25:33 How Are You Defiant?
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David Schwartz is the CTO of Ripple, a Layer 1 blockchain that has been an established name in the cryptocurrency industry since 2012. Ripple is the platform behind XRP, one of the original cryptocurrencies, which currently ranks eighth in market capitalization at $30 billion. Known for its numerous legal battles with the SEC, Ripple has also recently announced the launch of a new stablecoin. In this podcast, we will explore all of the latest developments and more, starting with the founding story of Ripple.
0:00 Intro
1:04 Founding Story of Ripple
5:20 RippleNet
8:05 XRP Tokenomics and Incentive Model
12:56 Bad Actors
15:11 Network Attacks
17:55 XRP Distribution
26:45 Use Cases
39:25 Ripple Stablecoin
48:18 DeFi On XRP Ledger
53:33 Smart Contracts
57:56 SEC Case
1:05:30 Ripple in the Future
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Jose Fernandez da Ponte is the Head of Crypto at PayPal. PayPal's entry into the crypto market dates back to 2020 when they announced the integration of various crypto assets, enabling users to buy, sell, and hold digital currencies. Since then, they have progressively expanded their crypto offerings and adopted more ambitious strategies to incorporate blockchain technology. In this podcast, we'll explore PayPal's motivation for entering the crypto space, the current crypto applications available on their platform, the creation and purpose of their stablecoin, PYUSD, and their approach to facilitating mass adoption of blockchain technology.
0:00 Intro
0:58 PayPal Enters Crypto
6:27 PayPal Crypto Payments
16:58 Fees
20:16 PayPal Wallet
22:28 PYUSD
36:43 PayPal Yield
40:23 Stablecoin Competition
48:57 Multichain
53:25 Adoption
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Lukas Schor is the Co-Founder of Safe, is an onchain asset custody protocol, securing ~$100 Billion in assets today. Originally developed under Gnosis as a smart account for securing digital assets, Safe eventually became an independent project after spinning off on its own. Today, Safe has a TVL of over $100B. In this episode, we go over the recently launched $GNO token, its use cases, early days of Gnosis as an onchain prediction market. Later, Lukas discusses the impact of quantum computing on blockchain security and the future potential of smart accounts. He also explores the challenges and opportunities in achieving mainstream adoption of Web3 wallets. The episode concludes with insights into Safe's upcoming features aimed at supporting a billion Web3 users.
0:00 Intro
1:05 Safe Founding Story
3:30 Gnosis Prediction Markets
5:17 Lukas Schor
7:21 $GNO Token
18:47 Smart Accounts
25:16 Quantum Computing
33:33 Web3 Wallets
37:25 How is Safe safe?
39:23 New Features
47:52 Billion Web3 Users
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Carlos Domingo is the founder and CEO of Securitize, a platform for issuing and trading security tokens or digital securities on the blockchain. Securitize aims to modernize the traditional financial markets by leveraging blockchain technology to provide greater accessibility, efficiency, and transparency in securities trading. Securitize recently partnered up with BlackRock to explore innovations in tokenizing assets and broadening access to the private capital markets. In today's podcast, we uncover all the details behind this collaboration and explore what the future holds for tokenized innovation.
0:00 Intro
1:09 BlackRock BUIDL Fund
3:22 Onchain vs Offchain
5:01 Institutional Investors
5:36 Secondary Market
7:26 Carlos Domingo & Securitize
12:10 Future of Tokenization
15:35 BlackRock's Impact
22:15 Use Cases
30:12 Investors
33:19 Tokenized Innovation
37:53 Real World vs Crypto Economy
47:27 Web2 vs Web3
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Stani Kulechov is the founder of Aave, which has become the largest lending protocol in DeFi. Aave has evolved under a new umbrella called Avara, incorporating additional projects like Lens, a Web3 social media protocol, and a family and Web3 wallet. Stani has previously discussed these developments on our show in 2020 and 2022, and with each appearance, the Avara family has expanded significantly. As a prominent leader in the DeFi and Web3 space, Stani's insights are always highly anticipated. In this podcast, we start with a refreshener on Stani and his journey, then dive into the specifics of the protocols he has developed.
0:00 Intro
1:15 Stani Kulechov
4:40 DeFi + Web3 Social
8:53 Lens Protocol
14:28 Developer Community
17:48 Lens Applications
19:58 Lens Stats
25:20 Monetization in Web3 Social
30:27 Token Integration
34:05 Permissionless
37:15 Farcaster
41:10 Lens Token
43:10 Aave
47:10 Competition
48:52 Lens + Aave
50:04 Reaching Mainstream
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Hello Defiers! Today, I'm bringing you a very special episode from a session I moderated at SXSW this year. SXSW is a massive festival annually held in Austin, Texas, that merges music, film, and tech into an exciting blend of creativity and innovation, drawing artists, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts from around the globe. At SXSW, I had the opportunity of leading a session with Chris Dixon, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where we focused on his recent publication, "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet." This book is an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the essence of the Web3 movement. Dixon has a way of making complex topics accessible to all. I'm excited for you to hear our conversation and dive into the insights Chris shared. Let's dive in!0:00 Intro0:50 Panel with Chris Dixon 1:50 Read, Write, Own6:55 Tokens14:33 Hyperfinancialization19:01 Main Use Cases of Crypto27:14 Plutocracy 33:42 Corporatization in Web342:20 AI Content50:05 POS Blockchain Risks54:13 CBDC's 56:08 Future Applications✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers herehttps://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha✊ Follow The DefiantTwitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnewsDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
Li Jin is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. She is the co-founder and managing partner at Variant Fund, a venture firm that invests in Web3 and the ownership economy. Before founding Variant, Li Jin worked at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, where she helped to shape the firm’s views on the emerging tech landscape, including the gig and passion economies. In today's discussion, we delve into memecoins, Web3 social media, and the evolving landscape of token models, examining how these elements are shaping the future of digital economies and influencing user interaction in decentralized networks.
0:00 Intro
1:11 Variant Fund
3:20 Li Jin
4:55 Benefits of Blockchains at Consumer Level
7:55 Web3 Social Media
12:50 Speculative Media
18:20 Memecoin Products
24:24 Censorship
25:47 Web3 GTM Strategy
34:30 Token Models
47:41 Governance Tokens
52:00 Trends
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In today's podcast we host Mike Silagadze, founder of ether.fi, an Ethereum restaking protocol, and Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder of Aethos, a decentralized policy engine being built on EigenLayer. Liquid restaking has recently emerged as a significant trend in the Ethereum ecosystem. In today's podcast, we'll delve into the use cases that restaking unlocks via Active Validating Services (AVSs) through EigenLayer, shedding light on how this innovation is shaping the ecosystem.0:00 Intro 2:08 ether.fi7:40 Aethos13:15 Economic Security 18:28 AVS Allocations23:20 Aethos Revenue30:08 Risks of AVSs39:40 Rehypothecation 43:07 Depeg Risk54:14 ether.fi Roadmap57:28 Aethos RoadmapOur sponsorshttps://www.solanacrossroads.com/https://summer.fi/?utm_source=Defiant&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_content=Synfutures: https://oyster.synfutures.com/✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers herehttps://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha✊ Follow The DefiantTwitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnewsDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
TN Lee is the founder of Pendle Finance - a DeFi platform that enables users to tokenize and trade future yield on Ethereum assets. Pendle has shown remarkable expansion since the beginning of the year, elevating its TVL from $250 million to over $3 billion in just a few months. In this podcast, we explore the fundamentals of Pendle Finance, providing a comprehensive understanding of one of DeFi's most complex and innovative products. We start off with a background into Lee, then breakdown Pendle's core concepts and gradually dive deeper into Pendle's use cases, risks, and future plans.
0:00 Intro
0:53 TL;DR Pendle
2:06 TN Lee
7:30 Pendle V1
12:13 Growth of Pendle
22:04 Pendle Basics (PT, YT)
30:53 Use Cases
36:25 Pendle Users
38:25 Risks
48:43 Learnings From Kyber
49:39 TradFi vs Pendle
51:20 $PENDLE
58:19 What's Next?
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Tomer Weller is the VP of Product at Stellar, one of the earliest alternative Layer 1 chains that existed before Ethereum. Stellar recently launched Soroban, its smart contract platform, designed to enhance the blockchain's functionality with efficient, developer-friendly tools for building sophisticated applications. In today's conversation, we dive deep into Stellar, overview their fundamentals, reflect on its decade long journey as a Layer 1 blockchain, and have a closer look into the current use cases.
Thanks to Stellar for supporting independent journalism.
0:00 Intro
0:58 Stellar Overview
2:01 Tomer Weller
3:48 Stellar Fundamentals
8:49 Being Early
12:06 Smart Contracts
17:26 Attracting Developers
23:09 Use Cases
29:52 Argentina
33:10 Franklin Templeton
36:49 Censorship Resistance
39:30 Scaling
55:17 Stellar Validators
1:00:58 What's Next?
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Erica Kang is the CEO and founder of KryptoSeoul, a leading community building team in South Korea that focuses on blockchain projects. Erica has been a bridge between the East and the West for a very long time, and today we get to dive deep into her journey. She grew up in Korea, then moved to the United States and did a stint in Vietnam. She has not only reshaped the blockchain landscape, but she's also championed a new era of community driven empowerment. Before we dive into all of that, Erica will share a little bit about how she first got involved in the crypto community.
0:00 Intro
0:48 Community in Crypto
5:16 Erika Kang's Personal Journey
8:03 Differences in Culture
13:12 BUIDL Asia + ETH Seoul
15:47 Crypto Projects in Korea
20:30 Kimchi Premium
22:20 Information Flow
26:55 BTC as SOV
30:09 Terra's Implosion
33:00 KryptoSeoul Community
38:17 Events in Asia
40:50 How are you defiant?
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In today's podcast we host two guests: Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin, and Meg Lister, GM at Gitcoin Grants Labs. Gitcoin is a platform that connects developers with open-source projects for funding, collaboration, and building digital public goods through various forms of contribution like coding, design, and more. In our conversation we learn about the origin story of Gitcoin and breakdown the main funding mechanisms, such as quadratic funding and retroactive funding, benefits of onchain capital allocation over traditional funding mechanisms, and we delve into Allo Protocol, an open-source protocol that enables groups to efficiently and transparently allocate pooled capital.
0:00 Intro
1:37 Kevin Owocki and Meg Lister
4:12 The Story of Gitcoin
12:39 Quadratic and Retroactive Funding
18:21 Main Usecases
24:35 Grants Programs in the Bull
28:44 Onchain Capital Allocation
33:53 Allo Protocol
37:33 Gitcoin Token
38:17 Revenue
41:01 Ultimate Vision
49:05 Fiat Onramps
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Evan Cheng is the Co-founder & CEO at Mysten Labs, which is the team behind Sui Network. In their words, Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform "designed to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible". In our conversation we explore the potential of this up and coming Layer 1 by learning about the underlying motivation of the founder, what makes it different from other blockchains, in particular Aptos, the current main uses cases, and more.
0:00 Intro
1:06 Who is Evan Cheng
8:32 Why Web2 doesn't work
12:05 Lessons from building Libra
15:46 Sui vs Other Layer 1s
27:11 Modular Blockchains
28:50 Sui Use Cases
33:51 Challenges of usng Move
36:43 Future of DeFi
44:00 Bull Market 2024
46:12 Incentive Program on Sui
51:30 Future of Blockchains
53:50 What's Next for Sui?
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Guy Young is the founder and CEO of Ethena Labs, which is the entity behind Ethena, the synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum. Ethena also introduces a universally available dollar-linked savings option known as the 'Internet Bond'. Ethena introduces an innovative stablecoin model. Throughout our discussion, we thoroughly explore the mechanics and intricacies of Ethena, gaining a deeper understanding of its operation and the risks involved.
0:00 Intro
1:24 Guy Young's Background and Ethena Origin Story
5:33 How is USDe Different?
11:56 Off Exchange Provider Risks
20:23 ETH Short Positions
31:08 Insurance Fund
38:35 USDe Scalability
42:44 New Collateral
45:35 Staked ETH Depeg
48:48 Stablecoin / USDe Use Cases
57:33 Ethena Airdrop
1:00:00 Biggest Risk
1:02:42 Success for Ethena
1:05:40 Revenue
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Avery Ching is the co-founder and CTO of Aptos, which is a Layer 1 blockchain developed by former Facebook employees that launched towards the end of 2022. Aptos uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism and aims to achieve high throughput and high security for smart contracts. In our conversation, we cover the fundamentals of Aptos, with Avery highlighting the unique features that set Aptos apart from other Layer 1s, we delve into the technical aspect, focusing on the concept of Dynamic Parallelism, Avery addresses the concerns surrounding the significant venture capital investment in Aptos, we also explore the current and potential future use cases, including the introduction of the Aptos Phone.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:45 What makes Aptos different?
10:15 Trilemma
15:07 Aptos fundamentals
17:45 Aptos VS Sui
20:07 Dynamic Parallelism
23:30 VC Chain
25:15 Points and Airdrops
27:05 Aptos Labs + Foundation
28:27 Aptos Use cases
38:17 Verifying Content On Chain
42:30 Aptos Phone
48:33 Future of Blockchain
51:45 Success for Aptos
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Brendan Farmer is the co-founder of Polygon, which is a project that is focused on scaling Ethereum.
Brendan's contributions have been instrumental in the research and development of key scaling technologies within Polygon's framework, including Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, and Polygon Miden. Our conversation begins with an exploration of the foundational elements that constitute the Polygon ecosystem. We then delve into the realm of ZK technology, discussing its advantages as a preferred scaling solution, its comparison with optimistic rollups, and the intricacies of Polygon's Aggregation Layer and CDK. We also discuss how the future of blockchain activity can be made more efficient and optimized with Aggregation Layer.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:13 Polygon's Products
7:55 Zero Knowledge Proofs
11:15 ZKP vs Optimistic Rollup
15:42 Aggregation Layer
38:00 Non-EVM Chains x AggLayer
41:40 Monolithic Chain
47:40 Consumer Apps
50:30 Polygon in 2024
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Alex Blania is a cofounder of Worldcoin alongside Sam Altman and Max Novendtsern. Worldcoin is aiming to become the world's largest digital identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. Worldcoin could be considered the frontrunner in terms of ambition, leveraging unique methods to accelerate the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency technologies globally, to a point where critics have labelled it as "dystopian". In our conversation we dive into the controversial aspect of Worldcoin, get a better grasp of what the project is about and its founding story, the $WLD token, the (new) Orb, how scanned data is stored, and much more.
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0:00 Intro
1:20 What is Worldcoin?
7:52 $WLD Token
8:35 Who is Alex Blania?
12:04 The Orb
22:28 Dystopian Scenario
27:16 How Scanned Data is Stored
31:08 Bribing with Crypto
33:40 $WLD Utility
34:36 UBI
36:00 Usecases of Worldcoin
48:20 Bigger Issues
50:55 The New Orb
53:30 Decentralizing
54:50 The End State
56:30 Biggest Risk
57:30 Treasury
01:00:50 Doing things differently
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⚠️IMPORTANT NOTICE ⚠️
Today we're joined by Chris Amani, who's the CEO of Terraform Labs. Our conversation with Chris unfolds in two parts. Initially recorded on January 17th, we begin by catching up on the latest developments and the new strategic direction of the Terra ecosystem following its collapse in May 2022. Intriguingly, just days after our initial dialogue, Terraform Labs announced its filing for bankruptcy. In the latter part of our discussion, we delve into the intricacies of this voluntary decision to explore the potential implications and expected outcomes stemming from the bankruptcy filing.
Chapters
0:00 Important Notice
0:49 Podcast Intro
1:50 Terra Reborn
5:55 The Day of the Crash
18:58 Terra Recap
31:20 The SEC Trial
36:30 Terra Classic vs Terra 2.0
41:04 Terra 2.0 Vision
54:02 TFL Treasury
58:00 Lessons from Building in Crypto
1:13:00 Terra 2.0 Roadmap
1:15:28 EXTENSION: Terraform Labs Files for Bankruptcy
1:22:54 Ideal outcome
1:26:13 Impacts on Roadmap
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Today we're joined by Mustafa Al-Bassam, CEO and Co-Founder of Celestia Labs. 15 years after Satoshi, we finally have what a blockchain actually is Celestia provides the ability to publish data and make sure that data is available. Celestia had what many are calling one of the best launches of 2023, and they are the first Data Availability Layer live today. In our conversation we get into how Mustafa built Celestia, other Data Availability Layers in the space, how Celestia can be thought of as a bulletin board for computers with some cryptographic and economic assurances - computers posting info so everyone can see it. It's so simple. It's an obvious fundamental building block. Yet they were the first to do it. Prior to Celestia, Mustafa was generally known for his expertise in ethical hacking. He had the US government at the age of 16 and was sentenced for it. We get into this and so much more, but first to ground the conversation, Mustafa shares what he is focused on at Celestia today.
0:00 Intro
1:10 Mustafa Al-Bassam
8:45 Hacking the US Government
10:47 Lazy Ledger
14:13 Colab with Vitalik
16:00 Challenges
18:00 DA and Celestia within Blockchain
19:27 Modular Blockchain
21:54 Monolithic Chains
24:55 Celestia within Cosmos
25:40 Celestia technicals
29:08 Requirements to run a node
35:05 The Graph vs Celestia
36:42 Developer experience
38:23 Starting fresh
40:21 Advice for teams
41:10 Celestia's culture
43:27 Payments
45:10 Decentralized Stablecoins
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Matt Hougan is the CIO of Bitwise, which is a crypto index fund manager and one of the issuers of Bitcoin ETFs. Hougan is a renowned figure in the financial sector, known for his expertise in cryptocurrency and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In our conversation we get into Matt's initial reaction to the BTC ETF launch, the expected inflows for 2024, and the often underestimated impacts of these developments. We also discuss unique Vanguard's stance, the evolution of Bitcoin ETFs, why Bitwise maintains the lowest fees, Matt Hougan's background, possibility of Ethereum ETFs, and the growing understanding of Ethereum in traditional finance. Finally, we touch upon the centralization risks of Bitcoin, the future of Bitcoin ETFs, and Bitcoin price forecast.
0:00 Intro
0:46 Initial thoughts on BTC ETF launch
2:17 Inflows for 2024
4:37 Underestimated impact
8:11 Vanguard is goofy
9:40 Self sovereignty
12:30 History of Bitcoin ETFs
16:53 Why Bitwise has the lowest fees
20:20 Matt Hougan's background
23:10 ETF hate
26:45 Crypto ETFs
29:08 Ethereum ETF
31:07 TradFi understand Ethereum better than Bitcoin
36:30 Normalizing Bitcoin
42:00 Centralization risk of Bitcoin
45:47 What's next for Bitcoin ETFs
47:20 We're in a bull market
48:40 Bitcoin price forecast
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Today we're joined by Jason Bailey, Co-Founder and CEO of ClubNFT. ClubNFT provides solutions to help collectors analyze, monitor, and protect their NFT collections. Jason is an O.G. in the NFT space and today he shares many stories from back in the day. He was an early collector on SuperRare. He created the first NFT IRL drop at Christie's art event back in 2018. He'd been Red Pilling traditional art collectors before the term NFT was even coined. In our conversation we get into Jason's background in both art and tech, his views on generative art, as well as a deep dive into ClubNFT and the solutions they help solve for. But first, Jason tells us why he's passionate about the NFT space.
Chapters
0:53 Passion for NFTs
2:52 Blockchain x Art
7:22 IRL NFT Airdrop
11:42 TradArt vs Crypto Art
17:20 Problem with NFTs
22:34 Arweave
24:40 ClubNFT
33:28 NFT standards
35:30 NFT culture
41:25 AI
43:39 Hopium for NFT space
48:30 Embracing crypto art
50:55 Imposter syndrome
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Illia Polosukhin is the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, which is a sharded, proof-of-stake, Layer 1 blockchain. Originally conceived as an Artificial Intelligence endeavor, NEAR underwent a transformation, pivoting its focus to become a crypto project. We begin our conversation by exploring NEAR's shift into crypto, and later gain deeper insight into NEAR's core principles, underlying technology, the users, builders, as well as anticipated new features in the near future.
Chapters
1:04 Who is Illia Polosukhin?
4:04 NEAR’s design
7:52 Mini Blockchains
9:30 Consensus mechanism
10:29 NEAR token
12:30 Participating in NEAR Network
13:11 Physical shards
18:10 Delegation
19:32 Liquid staking on NEAR
20:50 Goal & Design
26:23 Ideal use cases for NEAR
33:54 Bridging
39:38 Attracting users and builders
44:38 New crosschain mechanism
48:10 Future of Blockchain
54:31 Future of NEAR
59:15 AI run governance
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Jameson Lopp is the CTO of CasaHODL, a company specializing in Bitcoin security solutions. He has played a pivotal role in developing products and services that empower individuals to safeguard their digital assets. Jameson is a globally recognized voice from his written work on cybersecurity, privacy and the social implementations of Bitcoin. Trigger warning for those in the Ethereum community and beyond as this is a spicy episode that gets gritty with the importance of individual privacy and protecting personal info in the digital age.
0:54 Casa
1:50 The Bitcoin Journey
4:34 Time at BitGo
5:41 Blocksize Wars
9:24 Disappearance of Satoshi
10:49 F*ck You Money
12:17 Bitcoin's major accomplishment
13:12 Why did Bitcoin survive?
14:30 Why did Satoshi not touch his Bitcoin?
17:04 What happens after all Bitcoins are mined?
22:09 Jameson's passion towards crypto
24:10 Bitcoin node syncing
29:50 Decentralization
31:10 Privacy on Bitcoin
32:31 Setting up a home node
33:31 The Swatting Story
43:03 More on Casa
51:36 Self custody
53:10 Casa supporting Ethereum
56:10 Thoughts on Ethereum
59:41 Is $ETH Money?
1:02:06 Bitcoin developers
1:05:06 Evolution of Bitcoin/crypto
1:0838 Bitcoin's Roadmap
1:15:00 How is Jameson Defiant?
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Chris Bradbury is the CEO of Summer.fi (previously oasis.app). Summer.fi is the 6th largest DeFi protocol that enables users to borrow, lend, and multiply assets across multiple DeFi protocols. In our conversation we dive into the basics of Summer.fi, the rebrand from oasis.app, learn about popular strategies within the platform and their risks, UX updates, competition, and much more.
0:04 Intro to Chris Bradbury
0:50 TL;DR Summer.fi
2:26 Rebrand from oasis.app
9:20 DeFi in one frontend
16:20 Popular DeFi strategies
30:30 Risks of looping strategies
40:40 Risks of leverage
47:40 DeFi vs CeFi
57:26 UX changes coming for summer.fi
1:02:55 Summer.fi competition
1:06:55 noob vs degen
1:09:01 wen token?
1:09:45 Summer.fi in 10 years
Paradigm announces the launch of the Paradigm Policy Lab, a collaborative space for academics, policy experts, lawyers, and technologists in the crypto sector.
The lab, a first in the field, focuses on research and analytical thinking applied to policy in the crypto world. Over the last year, Paradigm has become a policy leader, involved in legal battles, hosting discussions, and publishing research.
The Policy Lab, guided by three principles, aims to impact the crypto policy landscape through evidence-based advocacy, interdisciplinary research with technical depth, and a commitment to humility, iteration, and crypto expertise.
Matcha recently launched cross-chain swap functionality, allowing users to swap one asset on a particular chain for an new asset on a separate chain with one transaction. Cross-chain swaps on Matcha are available on 7 chains: Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base and BNB Chain.
1:05 Will's background
4:41 Matcha origin story
8:30 USP of Matcha
11:30 Cross-chain swaps
19:13 Bridge security
25:00 Supported chains
35:40 Mainstream catalyst for DeFi
40:03 Hopes for the upcoming bull
42:42 Biggest learnings of Matcha
44:07 Monetization of Matcha
49:25 Developments and Milestones
Today we're joined by Arjun Bhuptani, founder and CEO of Connext Labs. We get an in-depth look at Connext, an important component in the Web 3 stack. In a world of many Layer 1s and Layer 2s, connecting the chains is so important, especially doing it in a secure way. We get into how they approach security, we dive into the nuance of Vitalik's post on bridging, we talk about rollups-as-a-service, how Connext abstracts away the hassle from a user standpoint around interacting with multiple chains, their proposal for bridged assets, as well as they're recent launch and so much more. But first, Arjun tells us about what he's focused on at Connext.Chapters
0:50 What is Arjun focused on?
1:37 History of Connext
4:26 Arjun's vision on Web3
8:42 Improving UX
12:54 Connext Users
14:55 Bridging
18:05 Where does Connext fit in Web3?
20:25 Connext Security
24:46 Connext Roadmap
27:33 XRC20
32:10 Competition
37:22 $NEXT Launch
40:41 $NEXT Utility
44:23 Connext DAO
46:24 What surprised Arjun the most
49:30 Decentralization
53:08 How is Arjun Defiant?✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers herehttps://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha✊ Follow The DefiantTwitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnewsDiscord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
David Gogel is the VP of Strategy and Operations at the dYdX Foundation.
In today's podcast, David will discuss the recent milestone of the foundation operating on its independent app chain. This transition involved multiple stages and intriguing tokenomics mechanisms, marking a significant moment for the organization.
In our conversation, we will delve deeper into the evolution of this move and its implications, offering insights into dYdX's journey going forward.
This conversation between The Defiant and Rune Christensen was recorded during Devconnect 2023 in Istanbul.
Chapters
0:28 Why Rune is in Istanbul
1:02 Crypto Adoption in Türkiye
5:03 Interest for DeFi in Türkiye
8:09 Emerging Markets
10:50 Regulatory Landscape in Türkiye
24:15 MakerDAO Rebrand
27:51 MakerDAO Endgame Update
33:57 MakerDAO's Exposure to T-Bills vs Macro Conditions
38:00 Different Stablecoins
47:14 MKR and Governance
This conversation between The Defiant and Vitalik Buterin was recorded during Devconnect 2023 in Istanbul. Chapters0:18 First time in Türkiye?1:20 Significance of crypto in Türkiye3:40 Key takeaways from Türkiye4:56 Türkiye as a crypto hub7:20 Vitalik's favorite Turkish dish8:25 Ethereum roadmap update12:03 Can the roadmap be dynamic?14:25 Dencun upgrade16:34 Rollup risks & costs18:25 Scaling rollups19:30 UX problems22:27 Ethereum Security23:25 Solution to centralized servers26:53 Client centralization33:18 Scaling with Plasma 39:50 L2 fragmentation42:02 Sharding / Danksharding44:40 Future of Ethereum 47:12 Vitalik responds to Anatoly51:42 Ethereum's core message56:09 Thoughts on DeFi✨ Check out our new website ✨https://thedefiant.io/
The cryptocurrency world has been buzzing with news of a potential Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in recent weeks.
The idea of a Bitcoin ETF has been around since 2013, with early proposals like the one from the Winklevoss twins facing repeated rejections by the SEC.
However, the recent optimism stems from BlackRock's involvement in the application process. This prominent financial institution's interest has reignited hope for the ETF's approval and sparked a new rally in the cryptocurrency market.
Investors see the ETF as a way to bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto, potentially increasing Bitcoin's value and adoption. The market eagerly awaits the SEC's decision on BlackRock's application.
This week's podcast features a number of interviews we conducted in Romania, during the xDay conference hosted by MultiversX.
In this podcast, we will hear from
- Beniamin Mincu - founder of MultiversX
- Bogdan Ivan - Romanian Minister of Digitalization
- Sheraz Ahmed - Managing Partner at Storm Partners
- Sunny Aggarwal - Co-Founder of Osmosis
- Sergiu Biriș - Head of Product at MultiversX
- Grigore Rosu - Founder of Runtime Verification
- Danilo Carlucci - Founder and CEO of Morningstar Ventures.
In this episode, we discuss the current state of MultiversX and the transition from Elrond, crypto adoption in Romania, Universal zkRollups and its benefits, upcoming trends and narratives, challenges lying ahead for MultiversX, and much more.
But first, Beniamin will introduce us to xDay.
Darren Langley is the general manager of Rocket Pool which provides liquid staking services for ETH holders.
Liquid staking on Ethereum has been a major trend this year as it enables ETH holders to earn rewards by staking on the Ethereum network while additionally allowing stakers to seek financial opportunities with their staked ETH.
In our conversation, we will get into the Rocket Pool story since their ICO, details of what it takes to become an Ethereum validator and node operator, the utility of their native token, the issue of centralization among liquid staking protocols, and more.
But first, Darren will begin with an introduction to Rocket Pool.
Lucas Vogelsang is the founder of Centrifuge, a credit platform that brings Real World Assets onchain.
Real World Assets (RWAs) have been a growing sector in DeFi over the last year.
In our conversation, we’ll talk about how RWAs bridge the gap between tradfi and DeFi, how the process of beginning on institutional lenders and matching with real-life borrowers works, what protections are in place in case of loan defaults, and what the future looks like for this sector.
But first, Lucas will provide an overview of Centrifuge.
Alex Shevchenko is the CEO of Aurora Labs, which is a Layer 2 scaling solution built on Near. Alex has a doctoral degree in math and physics.
Today, we get into the details behind Aurora Labs, the difference between Aurora Cloud and the Aurora EVM, how they have survived the market crash, Alex's vision of Ethereum Layer 2s, his conviction in an AppChain future, and so much more.
We begin our conversation with Alex's focus at Aurora Labs.
Today we're diving deep into the mind of Spencer Bogart, who is a partner at Blockchain Capital.
Spencer has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of decentralized technologies and digital assets over the last decade.
We get into his journey impact in the blockchain sector, their investment thesis around the controversial WorldCoin, how he's continued to thrive among many economic downturns, and we get into their recent news of a $580 million for two new funds.
But first, Spencer tells us about the history of the firm.
This week, we were joined by Christian Montoya, Senior Product Manager for Metamask Snaps
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Erik Marks is the director of product for permissionless innovation at MetaMask.
MetaMask, the popular non-custodial wallet owned by Consensys, has been in the spotlight following the launch of Snaps on open beta. You can think of Snaps as plugins that allow developers to add new and different apps that we can use in MetaMask.
One of the biggest implications of this is that Snaps will connect MetaMask to non-Ethereum chains, including Bitcoin and Solana.
In our conversation, we dive deep into the vision and the broader implications of Snaps.
Sean Li is the CEO and Co-founder of Magic Labs, which is a wallet that enables passwordless login and Web3 onboarding without seed phrases.
Despite not being as well known as other Web3 wallets, Magic Labs recently raised $52M from PayPal Ventures, onboarded mainstream brands like Mattel and 7-Eleven, and have over 25 million wallets installed.
In our conversation, we will dive into how they've built enterprise-friendly wallet solutions, their major collaborations, the onboarding process of Web2 brands and how they're using Web3 technology, how DeFi can be more palatable for the mainstream, and much more.
But first, Sean will get us started with Magic and describe how it's different from the other wallets.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
This week, we were joined by Will Warren and Ashley Ebersole from 0x to discuss the CFTC's recent enforcement actions against three DeFi protocols.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
This week, we were joined by Anatoly Yakovenko, founder and CEO of Solana.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
In this episode of The Defiant podcast, we are joined by Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino.
We discuss Tether's banking partners, its reserve composition, its latest attestation, and why the stablecoin issuer still hasn't presented an audit. Ardoino puts some of the blame on auditing firms.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Today we're joined by the driving force behind a venture that has redefined the concept of modern travel and community: Jon Hillis, the founder of Cabin, a network city for remote workers in nature, who is actively working to grow a global network of neighborhoods for people interested in community-centric living and working.
Cabin exists today and they have many different locations around the world. Cabin is a great example of merging the digital with the physical and using Web 3 tools in real life.
We delve into the purpose behind Cabin, how the COVID lockdowns inspired and allowed room for a Cabin to emerge, the shift in the remote work mindset, the different governance structures that exist within the DAO ecosystem, why Cabin chose polycentric governance, the best DAO practices, how you can get involved in Cabin communities and so much more.
But first, Jon will introduce us to Cabin.
This week, we dived into liquid staking and LSTFi, which has been the hottest narrative of 2023.
With special guests:
Amit Gajjala - cofounder, Stader Labs
Daniel Dizon - founder, Swell Network
Ken Chia - institutional sales, Pendle
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Jesse Pollak is the creator of Base, which is a Layer 2 scaling solution from Coinbase that launched last week.
Base has quickly become a trending topic this summer, attracting more than $200M of value in its short life. Coinbase is the world’s second-largest crypto centralized exchange by volume, and now it’s moving to the on-chain world, so it’s worth watching.
In our conversation, we dive into the origin story of Base, why opt for a Layer 2 and not start a new Layer 1, why go for Optimistic rollups, how Base is unique in the already crowded Layer 2 space, their decentralization road map and more.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Today we are joined by Erick Calderon, founder of Art Blocks. You may also know him as Snowfro. Erick is not only a talented artist but also a tech innovator and entrepreneur who has redefined the limits of artistic expression in the digital era. Today we get into how Art Blocks fosters creativity and community via the platform, how they differ from other projects, Erick's views on why you should even buy art in the first place, as well as his passion for generative art and decentralization. We also get into his views on the NFT market fluctuations and he shares a bit about the community of curators that are curating art on Art Blocks and how you can get involved there. But first, Erick will begin by telling us about his crypto origin story and early involvement in the Crypto Punks community.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Aya Kantorovich is the co-CEO and co-founder of Fractal, which is an infrastructure provider enabling institutions to clear, settle, and margin digital asset trades on-chain.
In today's podcast, Aya shares her founder journey at Fractal, the impact of the FTX collapse on institutional players, DeFi growth since many CeFi companies imploded, how Fractal is red-pilling institutions, as well as her prediction on how many institutions will be cosseting crypto and having tokens on the balance sheet in 5 to 10 years time and so much more.
But first, Aya tells us about her crypto journey thus far.
Nicolas Liochon is the Global Lead for Linea, which is a new zkEVM rollup by Consensys. Rollups play a crucial role in scaling Ethereum as they reduce computational load on the main network by processing transactions off-chain. The two prominent rollups currently available on Ethereum are ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups, and Linea is the latest ZK Rollup to launch.
In our conversation, we will explore how Linea sets itself apart in the already highly competitive Ethereum Layer 2 landscape. But first, we will begin our conversation with an introduction to Linea.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Mike Silagadze is the founder and CEO of ether.fi, which is a new player in ethereum staking space, which allows stakers to control their keys while delegating their stake. A reminder that Ethereum now runs on Proof of Stake, which requires users to deposit, or stake, their ETH. Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade introduced the ability for early stakers to withdraw their ETH, which made Ethereum staking and the projects around it one of the hottest themes of crypto this year. Tokens that function as a receipt of staked ETH, called Liquid Staking Tokens, grew in popularity, as did concerns about centralization. We will begin our conversation with an introduction to ether.fi, followed by their differentiation in the already competitive liquid staking sphere.
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IPOR Protocol, the home of interest rate benchmarks, derivatives, structured products, and some of the best stablecoin yields in DeFi.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Neal Gorevic is the Chief Marketing Officer at ConsenSys, which drives Ethereum ecosystem development. ConsenSys is behind key pieces of Ethereum infrastructure, including Metamask and Infura. In today's podcast, Neal discusses his transition from web2 marketing at Spotify, to web3 marketing. He goes into why ConsenSys is rebranding and provides insights into the strategic vision for the company. But first, we begin our conversation with an introduction on why Neal decided to make the jump to crypto.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Parcl, the decentralized real estate trading platform is making it easier to get exposure to global real estate. For a limited time get 10% back on your first trade.
- Asymetrix, a decentralized, non-custodial protocol offering asymmetric yield distribution from staking. Stake your ETH for a chance to reap substantial staking rewards, while always earning ASX tokens at a solid 20% APR, no matter the outcome.
- Arch, crypto asset management platform that helps you maximize returns with diversified and gas-efficient investment strategies. Learn more at https://www.arch.finance/best-of-web3
- IPOR Protocol, the home of interest rate benchmarks, derivatives, structured products, and some of the best stablecoin yields in DeFi.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant. This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts.
Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Today, we're joined by Caitlin Long, the founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, which provides payment rails and custody services for digital assets.
We explore the recent surge of institutional interest in crypto, regulatory pressure in the US, and whether US regulators are prioritizing investor protection or incumbent interest.
But first, we start by delving into Caitlin's journey as an early adopter of blockchain tech.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant.
This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts. Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Today we're joined by Coinbase's head of cryptography, Yehuda Lindell. He has big news to share as Coinbase just released WaaS which is an MPC wallet. Some are calling this one of the most exciting products from Coinbase yet. Yehuda has an impressive track record. He's a former professor and the former CEO of Unbound Tech, a cybersecurity company specializing in privacy and key management solutions. Unbound Tech, the company Yehuda co-founded, was acquired by Coinbase. Yehuda leads the cryptography team at Coinbase, driving innovation in the field of secure computation and increased privacy and data security. On today's podcast, we dive into the cryptography team at Coinbase, the new innovative wallet that might just be the key to mass adoption for crypto, bringing self-custody to the masses where we're expecting tech giants to jump on this new wallet opportunity, how WaaS compares to holding crypto on exchanges and Multisigs, Coinbase Self-Custody and beyond. We also get into Yehuda’s advice for aspiring cryptographers and so much more. But first, Yehuda tells us what he's focused on inside of Coinbase.
Today we are joined by Alex Gluchowski, the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs. Matter Labs is the initial team behind zkSync. Alex is a renowned physicist and entrepreneur. Today we dive into the founding story of zkSync, the launch of zkSync, why they chose to help scale Ethereum, and if they stand by that decision today, the zkSync mission, alpha around getting into zkSync today, when token, as well as new use cases on zkSync and so much more. But first, Alex is going to tell us the founding story of zkSync
Steven Goldfeder is the founder of OffChain Labs. OffChain Labs is a company focused on Ethereum scaling solutions and known primarily for building Arbitrum, which is currently Ethereum's biggest Layer 2. In our conversation, Steven will explain how OffChain Labs is addressing the scalability challenges of Ethereum by utilizing off-chain computation and optimistic rollups. We get into the Arbitrum airdrop, its governance drama, the big vision for Arbitrum and Layer 2s as a whole, and what the next milestones are for the scaling solution. But first, Steven starts the interview by explaining the basics of Arbitrum.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant.
This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts. Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant.
This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts. Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
Today we are joined by the cofounding forces behind Goldfinch, Blake West and Mike Sall. They share with us about what they learned from over 70 user interviews from everyone from Blackrock, Apollo to retired nurses, as well as their excitement around the user experience improvements for the entire Web3 and crypto space and how that UX and UI improvement will impact the Goldfinch Protocol. They also dive into how they saw 162% year-over-year growth in 2022 with no defaults. Blake and Mike give us insight into their thoughts on how crypto will reshape the global economy, expanding access to capital around the world and what they're building to make that possible. But first they give us the TL;DR of Goldfinch as well as what they're both focused on.
Today we're joined by Jacob and Marcin, co-founders of RedStone. RedStone is an oracle in the crypto space picking up steam. We get into the nitty-gritty details of oracles, how RedStone is going up against the oracle monolith Chainlink, how they differentiate, and they share an exclusive update with us. But first, we begin with Jakub and Marcin's introductions and what they're working on inside of RedStone.
Weekly Recap is your one-stop show for the most compelling news of the week, brought to you by the writers at The Defiant.
This series delves deeper into our reports, revealing further insights and perspectives that help you make sense of the latest developments.
Every Friday, we go live on our YouTube channel, offering a unique mix of analysis and commentary. Stay informed and ahead of the curve by tuning into our weekly broadcasts. Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel for a regular dose of content that keeps you in the loop!
This week's episode stars Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon. We get into the juicy details behind what went on with the zkEVM launch a few months back, Mihailo’s thesis on Layer 3’s, how Polygon secured brand deals with the NFL, Starbucks and others, and what he's most excited about in 2023. But first, Mihailo shares what he's been focused on at Polygon.
Taylor Monahan is the founder of MyCrypto, an Ethereum wallet, and today she’s helping build MetaMask. As part of her job, she has become a full-time blockchain detective. She’s also a character in my book, The Infinite Machine! Taylor is the first one who alerted us to the fact that in the past several months, a mysterious hack has taken over crypto wallets, draining $10 million worth of ether from OGs in the space. We begin our conversation with Taylor breaking down the hack from the beginning and also the latest in this saga. Then we go over her own, long history in the space, she gives risk management advice for crypto users and developers, and ponders some deep questions on whether code is law and whether DeFi should really be immutable.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsor:
Stader Labs, a multi-chain liquid staking platform with 40k+ DeFi partnerships across 6 chains, is coming to Ethereum soon. Sign up to get alpha on ETHx—their ETH LST. Be the first to know about $1M in DeFi rewards!
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
Today we are joined by the all-around dev phenomenon Nader Dabit. Nader has become a household name across the developer community with his combination of to-the-point tutorials, live coding demos and interviews focused on modern web development, Web 3, AI, cloud computing and more. He's always learning and experimenting in public. Nader is currently the Director of Dev Relations at Aave/Lens. Today, he'll get to do some details behind his journey into Web 3 starting with The Graph, decentralized social media, the devs building on the Lens Protocol, Lens infrastructure and he'll give us a mini deep dive into gasless transactions via Lens. But first, Nader tells us about what it was like being early to AWS before he made his switch into Web 3 full-time.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Stader Labs, a multi-chain liquid staking platform with 40k+ DeFi partnerships across 6 chains, is coming to Ethereum soon. Sign up to get alpha on ETHx—their ETH LST. Be the first to know about $1M in DeFi rewards!
Today we are joined by the ma behind ENS - the Ethereum Name Service. Since we last chatted with Nick in 2021, he has made ENS a household name across the crypto industry and beyond. Nick and I get into the details behind the ENS roadmap, including the latest V3 announcement, what it was like for Nick to go from Google to the Ethereum Foundation to founding ENS, and the inside scoop on last year's drama with Brantly and the current culture at ENS and so much more. But first, Nick is going to tell us the founding story of ENS and how he managed to go from Google to Ethereum to founding ENS.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
Stader Labs, a multi-chain liquid staking platform with 40k+ DeFi partnerships across 6 chains, is coming to Ethereum soon. Sign up to get alpha on ETHx—their ETH LST. Be the first to know about $1M in DeFi rewards!
Sidney Powell is the co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance. Maple is a DeFi platform that offers uncollateralized loans and facilitates interactions between institutional borrowers and lenders. In our conversation we dive into Sidney’s background, how uncollateralized loans work, how the bear market affected Maple, the benefits of blockchain-based financial systems and more. We begin our conversation with Sidney giving us an intro to Maple Finance.
Also, if you’d like to have a say in The Defiant Podcast, and ask questions to the following guests, please join our discord channel or sign-up for a Premium account, by following this link.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Stader Labs is a non-custodial multi-chain liquid staking platform with 40k+ DeFi partnerships across 6 chains. Sign-up for our ETHx alpha list today and be the first to know about $1M in DeFi rewards!
- This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
Harsh Rajat is the founder of Push Protocol and a leading figure in the world of decentralized messaging. Push Protocol is a messaging protocol that utilizes the power of decentralized networks to create secure, private, and efficient communication between dApps and Web3 users. In our conversation we dive into Harsh’s background, the founding story of Push Protocol, their business model, the intersection of Web3 and AI, challenges in Web3 UX, and more. We begin our conversation with an introduction to Push Protocol from Harsh.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
Today we are joined by the dynamic Ethereum KZG Ceremony Duo, Carl and Trent of the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies. With Carl and Trent, we dive into the KZG ceremony, why it's important for scaling Ethereum, the ETH roadmap, demystify jargon like Dank Sharding, IP 4844, and we talk about the culture of the Ethereum Foundation, why Ethereum has become a bit more adversarial with time, how they plan to continue scaling without sacrificing decentralization or censorship resistance and so much more. But first, they tell us their origin stories about entering crypto, why they joined Ethereum and what they're focused on today.
Timestamps
00:00 Crypto Journey
04:57 Ethereum Foundation Work Culture
08:08 Question from a Twitter follower
11:30 Near and Long-term Roadmap
18:06 Next Steps
25:41 Question from a Twitter follower
28:55 EIP-4844
31:58 Danksharding
33:31 Staking Withdraws
36:47 ETH Governance
41:44 Proposer Builder Separation
45:42 Single Slot Finality
49:17 Use Cases
55:33 Impact
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
- web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Dan Finlay, the co-founder of MetaMask - one of the leading Web3 wallets.
In our conversation, we dive into Dan’s background prior to co-founding MetaMask, where Dan sees MetaMask heading in the upcoming years, their privacy policies, a potential MASK token, and much more.
Dan shares his hopes and dreams for the next bull run. But first, Dan tells us the origin story of MetaMask.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
- web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
- This episode is brought to you by Orbs Layer-3. Trade DeFi like a pro using decentralized TWAP order type on SpookySwap, SpiritSwap, and Pangolin. Learn more: https://www.orbs.com/dtwap/
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
This week on The Defiant podcast, Tegan Kline hosts Jesse Pollak, senior director of Engineering at Coinbase, Eva Beylin, the director of the Graph Foundation, and Ben Jones, the director of the Optimism Foundation, to give us a deep dive into the launch of Base, Coinbase's recently-launched Layer 2 blockchain.
Base is an Ethereum Layer two that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone anywhere to build decentralized applications.
In this episode, we talk about the evolution of Base from inside a Fortune 500 company, the importance of decentralized tools like the Graph and Optimism, and the importance of thinking positive sum, not zero-sum.
Jesse discusses decentralization inside a centralized company and how Coinbase plans to onboard millions of dapps and a billion users.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Tegan Kline chats with Sreeram Kannan, the founder of Eigen Layer and the director of the University of Washington's Blockchain Lab.
His research at UW focuses on distributed computing, information theory, queuing theory, networking, coding theory, and game theory of blockchain systems.
Eigen Layer is a proof of stake validation marketplace that reuses state capital and existing validation infrastructure. With Eigen Layer. Ethereum can enable permissionless and modular innovation across all blockchain layers.
Today, we dive into Sreeram's background in academia, how the blockchain space piqued his interest, and the hype around Eigen Layer.
But first, Sreeram is going to tell us exactly what he's up to at Eigen Layer and how he merges both a data availability layer and a restaking platform.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- MetaMask Learn is an educational and entertaining platform designed to immerse you in the world of web3: what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. You will learn core concepts in visually engaging lessons from the world’s leading self-custodial wallet.
- web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Matthew Gould, the founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains.
Unstoppable Domains is a service that facilitates the creation of blockchain-based domains that users own to build and verify their digital identity and login into applications, games, metaverses, and much more.
In our conversation, we unpack the concept of digital identity in Web3 and discuss where the market is headed.
But first, Matthew explains the importance of having a blockchain-based domain name service.
This episode is brought to you by:
- MetaMask Learn : an educational and entertaining platform designed to immerse you in the world of web3: what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. You will learn core concepts in visually engaging lessons from the world’s leading self-custodial wallet.
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Tegan Kline chats with Kain Warwick, crypto OG and founder of Synthetix.
Synthetix is a new financial primitive enabling the creation of synthetic assets, offering unique derivatives and exposure to real-world assets on the blockchain.
Today, we dive into what's next for Synthetix with the latest V3 launch, and what will cause the next big leg up in DeFi - what we’re calling DeFi Summer 2.
We go on to discuss the differentiation between different perpetual products that exist in crypto, and how Synthetix made the decision to launch on a Layer 2 so quickly and burn all bridges behind them. And it gets pretty spicy with some tea on FTX and 3AC.
Before we dive into it, Kain tells us what he's been up to since we last spoke to him about what it takes to scale Ethereum.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Andre Cronje, the co-founder of Fantom, a Layer 1 blockchain, and also the founder of Yearn Finance, one of the first yield aggregators in DeFi.
Andre is certainly a key figure in the DeFi space who, at times, has been seen as a rockstar, and also been criticized for his controversial takes.
We start by talking about Andre’s backstory: How did he get into crypto in the first place, and why did he decide to build in DeFi?
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- MetaMask Learn is an educational and entertaining platform designed to immerse you in the world of web3: what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. You will learn core concepts in visually engaging lessons from the world’s leading self-custodial wallet.
- Store your tokens safely. Go self-custodial with 1inch Wallet.
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the hottest news of the week and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the hottest news of the week and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Tekin Salimi, the founder of dao5, a Web 3 investment fund founded last year. Tekin was previously at Polychain Capital.
Dao5 is an experimental cryptocurrency investment fund with plans to convert into a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.
We dive into the biggest DAO drama from the last year, why Tekin is so bullish and excited about DAOs.
We also discuss Tekin's investment thesis while he was at Polychain, his switch to focus mostly on the Ethereum ecosystem at dao5, Web 3 infrastructure, NFTs, regulations, his thoughts on FTX, and so much more.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by the Glo dollar, a new stablecoin that reduces extreme poverty as its market cap goes up. With Glo, you can lift people out of poverty just by holding a stablecoin. To join the waitlist, visit https://www.glodollar.org/defiant
- Store your tokens safely. Go self-custodial with 1inch Wallet.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Tal Tchwella, Product Manager of Products Engineering at Solana Labs.
In our conversation, we dive deep into Tal's work on crypto inside Facebook (Meta), his transition to Solana, the resurgence of NFTs on the network, and all the hype with the $BONK meme coin.
We also discuss what it’s like working full-time in Web3, the Solana Phone, as well as the future of Solana after the collapse of FTX.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by the Glo dollar, a new stablecoin that reduces extreme poverty as its market cap goes up. With Glo, you can lift people out of poverty just by holding a stablecoin. To join the waitlist, visit https://www.glodollar.org/defiant
- Store your tokens safely. Go self-custodial with 1inch Wallet.
Microsoft is a Web2 giant producing software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.
Yorke shares his experience working at Microsoft in a strategy and transformation role in blockchain and Web3 technology, specifically focusing on producing a blockchain-based full-stack application within one of the largest supply chains in the world.
We dive into what Microsoft is doing within the blockchain space, how Microsoft is using NFTs internally, and the use-cases of Ethereum and IPFS inside the company.
We also talk about the different CEOs that have led Microsoft over the years and even get into the rumors of Google choosing their slogan "Don’t Be Evil" because of Microsoft.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by the Glo dollar, a new stablecoin that reduces extreme poverty as its market cap goes up. With Glo, you can lift people out of poverty just by holding a stablecoin. To join the waitlist, visit https://www.glodollar.org/defiant
- Store your tokens safely. Go self-custodial with 1inch Wallet.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms. Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we discussed SBF getting bailed out of jail, stablecoin adoption, Visa's plans for non-custodial auto-payments, and more.
Hope you enjoy it! Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Adam Cochran, an investor at Cinneamhain Ventures, who's probably most known for his extensive Twitter threads.
We kick off our conversation by asking Adam if he expected to turn into a meme in the crypto community for his long-winded tweets.
The primary driver behind crypto this year has been traditional macro markets. Crypto markets have been at the mercy of inflation and rising interest rates and the FED recently raised interest rates by half a point. Adam talks about where he thinks rates and inflation are headed and how will that impact crypto.
The coins mentioned on Adam’s shopping list from December 2021 have approximately lost 80% of their value this year. For comparison, Bitcoin has dropped 60%. We talk about the thesis behind the list and whether he’s changing it for next year. Adam says that he adjusted to the market conditions and had been shorting throughout the year, compensating for some of his long positions.
Finally, Adam shares some trade ideas for 2023.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
- Minimais a new mobile-native layer 1 blockchain. Join over 400,000 node runners on Minima's Incentive Program, to start earning $MINIMA every day until Mainnet launch. Get started at minima.global/get-involved
- This episode is brought to you by the Glo dollar, a new stablecoin that reduces extreme poverty as its market cap goes up. With Glo, you can lift people out of poverty just by holding a stablecoin. To join the waitlist, visit https://www.glodollar.org/defiant
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms. Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we discussed SBF getting arrested, the Binance investigation, Trump NFTs and more.
Hope you enjoy it! Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Mike Belshe, the CEO of BitGo, a digital asset custodian, wallet, and issuer of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
We start our conversation with an overview of BitGo and Mike's crypto journey.
Wrapped Bitcoin is the most successful representation of Bitcoin on Ethereum. There’s about 200K Bitcoin in BitGo's custody, which is the equivalent of $3.4B. WBTC is an important piece of the ecosystem as it enables Bitcoin holders to interact with DeFi. We dive into the recent selloff that saw WBTC lose its peg to Bitcoin.
In the final part of our conversation, we discuss the role of custodians in the crypto space. Especially after what happened this year with FTX and various other centralized entities, crypto has been given a wake-up call to bring transparency and disclosures to CeFi. We explore the biggest lessons we can take away from this year.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
- Minimais a new mobile-native layer 1 blockchain. Join over 400,000 node runners on Minima’s Incentive Program, to start earning $MINIMA every day until Mainnet launch. Get started at minima.global/get-involved
- Railwayis the first DeFi wallet to integrate the powerful RAILGUN privacy system built using zero-knowledge cryptography and available on Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms. Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we discussed SBF agreeing to testify before Congress, Vitalik's favorite things, Apecoin and Link staking, and the Ethereum roadmap.
Hope you enjoy it! Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Sam Williams, the co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a 'collectively owned hard drive' that enables users to store data, applications, and documents on-chain, forever.
We start by learning about Sam's crypto journey, from discovering Bitcoin in 2010 and going on to invest in the Ethereum ICO and finally, starting Arweave.
Sam thinks we're seeing a renewed focus on decentralization as the debate over censoring transactions continues. He believes it's essential to keep a neutral historical record that future generations can learn from.
We go on to dive into the varied use cases of Arweave, what Sam says to those that say Arweave might be too expensive to store certain files, how Arweave is used to store NFTs so that they can live forever, and how you can earn money with Arweave.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
- Minimais a new mobile-native layer 1 blockchain. Join over 400,000 node runners on Minima's Incentive Program, to start earning $MINIMA every day until Mainnet launch. Get started at minima.global/get-involved
- Railwayis the first DeFi wallet to integrate the powerful RAILGUN privacy system built using zero-knowledge cryptography and available on Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms. Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we discussed SBF's recent public appearances, the ongoing manhunt in The Bahamas, Uniswap’s NFT marketplace and more. Hope you enjoy it.
Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Juan Benet, the founder of Protocol Labs and the inventor of the InterPlanetary File System.
Juan is also the creator of Filecoin, a storage network incentivized by crypto. Both of Juan’s ventures are hugely ambitious as they are in direct competition with the basic rails of the internet, with protocols such as HTTP and data giants like AWS. We begin our conversation with Juan explaining what led him to start IPFS and Filecoin.
Juan points out that all of the layers of the internet that run below the application layer, rely on trust. He believes that the promise of web3 is to be able to upgrade the whole stack with trust-minimized public verifiability primitives.
One of the key innovations of IPFS is in data addressing, which increases the efficiency of data fetching. But there’s more to IPFS than just this, and we talk about some of the other features of IPFS.
Juan says universities would be a good next step to expand the user base of Filecoin since they deal with large amounts of data and run intensive computations. We go on to discuss Filecoin's plans to encourage the adoption of its technology beyond web3 users.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
- Minimais a new mobile-native layer 1 blockchain. Join over 400,000 node runners on Minima's Incentive Program, to start earning $MINIMA every day until Mainnet launch. Get started at minima.global/get-involved
- Railwayis the first DeFi wallet to integrate the powerful RAILGUN privacy system built using zero-knowledge cryptography and available on Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms.
Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we went through all the latest on FTX, discussed MetaMask collecting user addresses, update on arrested Tornado Cash developer and more. Hope you enjoy it!
Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Tegan Kline speaks with Bogdan Alexandrescu, co-founder and VP of Engineering at SAGA.
SAGA is focused on lowering the barrier of entry for building in Web3 so that developers can spin up a blockchain in a single click, and the company places emphasis on the metaverse.
In this conversation, we dive deep into Bogdan’s departure from Apple after six years to work full-time in crypto, any advice that he has for anyone looking to make a similar switch, what the metaverse is, more about SAGA, and the current innovator program they’re running.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms. Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we went through all the latest on FTX, how far the contagion spread, and discussed how DeFi benefited from the recent events. Hope you enjoy it.
Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Tyrone Lobban, the head of blockchain at JPMorgan’s Onyx, a business unit focused on digital assets.
In the craziness of the past couple weeks, it’s easy to overlook or forget good news and positive developments. JP Morgan recently made history by becoming the first major bank to execute a live DeFi trade. The trade involved tokenized forex and government bonds and it all happened on the Polygon blockchain.
In our conversation, we dive into the details of the trade and discuss the implications of major banks like JP Morgan and the rest of TradFi using DeFi, and start by getting a better understanding of Onyx.
JP Morgan’s first DeFi transaction took place on 2 November 2022 and was facilitated by Project Guardian, a pilot initiative of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The trade had a lot of moving pieces and was rather complex. Tyrone takes us behind the scenes and walks us through the steps taken to ensure adherence to KYC/AML standards.
Due to regulatory and privacy concerns, JPMorgan is currently running its DeFi experiments on a permissioned sidechain. We discuss the likelihood of a shift from private infrastructure to a public blockchain.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Circle, the sole issuer of USDC, and a leader in crypto that’s held to a higher standard. Learn more at https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
- Aave Grants is a community-led grants program, focused on growing a thriving ecosystem of contributors within Aave by funding ideas, projects and events that benefit the protocol or surrounding ecosystem. Head to aavegrants.org to learn more and apply for a grant.
- Now for the first time, you can keep your crypto and NFTs safe with tech the “big guys” have used for years, thanks to ZenGo. Download the ZenGo app from the App Store or Google Play and use code defiant to get $20 back on your first purchase of $200 or more. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details.
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
Dear Defiers,
In addition to our weekly podcast series, we are happy to now bring our Weekly Recap show to all podcast platforms.
Weekly Recap is a show where we discuss the hottest news of the week together with The Defiant writers and share further insights from our reports. It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday.
In this week's recap, we went through the latest updates from the FTX / Alameda collapse and discussed how we ended up here in the first place. Hope you enjoy it.
Also, a quick side note, make sure to check out our YouTube channel to keep up with our regular uploads on DeFi news, market updates, monthly investigations and more to come soon.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Hamzah Khan, Head of Defi at Polygon. Polygon is one of the biggest players in DeFi with $1.5B in TVL and in the blockchain space in general. Hamzah begins by giving us a brief overview of the Polygon ecosystem.
Despite the bear market, Polygon has been forging high-profile NFT partnerships with companies like Instagram and Reddit. Its network was also used by JP Morgan’s Onyx unit to conduct the first interbank on-chain forex swap and was chosen by Robinhood to debut its Web3 wallet. We dive into the details of these partnerships with Hamzah.
Unlike its sidechain counterpart, Polygon zkEVM will be directly built on Ethereum to serve as a Layer 2. Hamzah goes on to explain the main differences between the two scaling solutions and breaks down the advantages and disadvantages of each.
And finally, Hamzah shares his insights into the DeFi ecosystem on Polygon —where most of the activity happens and the innovations he’s excited about.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Circle, the sole issuer of USDC, and a leader in crypto that’s held to a higher standard. Learn more at https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
- Aave Grants is a community-led grants program, focused on growing a thriving ecosystem of contributors within Aave by funding ideas, projects and events that benefit the protocol or surrounding ecosystem. Head to aavegrants.org to learn more and apply for a grant.
- Now for the first time, you can keep your crypto and NFTs safe with tech the “big guys” have used for years, thanks to ZenGo. Download the ZenGo app from the App Store or Google Play and use code defiant to get $20 back on your first purchase of $200 or more. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details.
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with A.J. Warner, the Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs, the builders of Arbitrum, one of the leading scaling solutions for Ethereum using Optimistic Rollups. We also welcome Tegan Kline, the co-founder of Edge Node, the initial team behind The Graph.
The Defiant’s Camila Russo and Tegan are co-hosting the podcast for the first time. Going forward, they will record shows together, and Tegan will also have her own Defiant podcast episodes.
Scaling is now a hot topic on Ethereum and throughout the blockchain ecosystem, as all of our listeners are likely aware. According to L2Beat, Arbitrum has nearly $2.7B in total value locked. AJ goes on to explain the dapps and protocols building on Arbitrum and how they’ve managed to make Arbitrum the leading destination among Layer 2s.
Arbitrum is one of the few scaling solutions that doesn't nod to the underlying technology it uses in its name. As AJ mentioned, their goal is to scale Ethereum without being a proponent of any scaling technology. Does this mean Arbitrum will have a zero-knowledge (ZK) component in the future?
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Circle, the sole issuer of USDC, and a leader in crypto that’s held to a higher standard. Learn more at https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
- Aave Grants is a community-led grants program, focused on growing a thriving ecosystem of contributors within Aave by funding ideas, projects and events that benefit the protocol or surrounding ecosystem. Head to aavegrants.org to learn more and apply for a grant.
- Now for the first time, you can keep your crypto and NFTs safe with tech the “big guys” have used for years, thanks to ZenGo. Download the ZenGo app from the App Store or Google Play and use code defiant to get $20 back on your first purchase of $200 or more. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details.
- Built by the team behind Avalanche, Core is an all-in-one command center for Web3 supporting Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, a rich ecosystem of dApps, Bitcoin & Ethereum bridges, NFTs, Subnets, and more. Visit core.app to download now.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs and a member of the LeXpunK group of crypto lawyers. He’s regarded as one of the most prominent voices on regulation in the crypto space, which has lately been a major point of discussion.
Recent developments include the latest draft of the DCCPA bill, Sam Bankman Fried’s industry standards proposal, the CFTC charging Ooki DAO, and the Tornado Cash sanctions. We begin our conversation with Gabriel sharing his thoughts on the current state of the crypto regulatory landscape in the U.S.
There are currently seven government bodies that govern crypto in the US. These are the SEC, CFTC, CFPB, IRS, FinCEN, OFAC, and Congress. We discuss how setting an overarching framework within which these bodies can operate could prevent them from regulating their own corners of the market.
In comparison to other DeFi projects that offer similar services, Ooki DAO is a relatively small player. With the CFTC coming after Ooki DAO, we explore the potential implications for the biggest players in the space like Aave and Compound.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Circle, the sole issuer of USDC, and a leader in crypto that’s held to a higher standard. Learn more at https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
- ZenGois a secure Web3 wallet, and the best place to keep your crypto, NFTs, and assets secure - it’s also fully recoverable using their Biometric recovery kit. Download the ZenGo app from the App Store or Google Play and use code DEFIANT to get $20 back on your first purchase of $200 or more.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z, also known as Andreessen Horowitz. a16z is an investment giant - they’ve raised $6.7B between their crypto funds in the last two years and are the largest crypto-dedicated fund in the world.
We start by discussing how a16z got its start in crypto - their first investment, where they channelled their focus, and how they evolved to where they are today.
According to Ali, we’re entering the Golden Age of blockchain applications. We talk about how building in the middle of the bear market is laying the foundation for the next bull run.
Ali notes several key developments he’s observing in blockchain that span from networking to usability at the application layer. These include innovations in privacy, programming languages, proof-of-stake, consensus algorithms, zero-knowledge proofs, scalability and interoperability.
An important takeaway from our conversation is that Ali believes in a future of multiple blockchains that coexist with each chain serving a particular purpose.
Will we see today’s biggest players maintain their dominance in the future? Or are the next generation of blockchains yet to launch?
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- This episode is brought to you by Circle, the sole issuer of USDC, and a leader in crypto that’s held to a higher standard. Learn more at https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
- ZenGois a secure Web3 wallet, and the best place to keep your crypto, NFTs, and assets secure - it’s also fully recoverable using their Biometric recovery kit. Download the ZenGo app from the App Store or Google Play and use code DEFIANT to get $20 back on your first purchase of $200 or more.
- Aleois enabling developers to build their own private and scalable apps. Currently in their third incentivized testnet phase, you can find more information at https://leo-lang.org/
This week’s Defiant Podcast is from a conversation I had with Alex Zhang at the Unfinished Live conference. Alex is the mayor of Friend with Benefits, or FWB, a prominent DAO of creatives.
Friends with Benefits started as an experiment when its founder minted and airdropped the FWB token to an early community. FWB holders gained access to private chat groups on Discord. From there, it developed into a community of thousands of members, live events and even proprietary software. Alex explains the evolution and growth of Friends with Benefits.
A common criticism of Web3 is that it over-financializes communities and social media. To join Friends with Benefits, a user must hold 75 FWB in their Ethereum wallet. At its peak, membership would have set you back $14,000. At current prices, it costs roughly $600, which can still be considered a prohibitive price for most people. Alex shares his thoughts on this exclusionary feature of Web3.
In the past two years, we’ve seen a boom in Web3 communities sprouting from DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs. As we’re still in an experimental phase in this regard, meaning there are no strict rules and practices, we discuss how Alex finds running a DAO in this environment, given the less hierarchical and structureless nature found in Web3 communities.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- ZenGoisa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
- Aleois enabling developers to build their own private and scalable apps. Currently in their third incentivized testnet phase, you can find more information at https://leo-lang.org/
- Oasis.app aims to be the most trusted entry point to the Maker Protocol and to DeFi. You can borrow DAI, multiply your exposure and earn. Try it Now!
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with David Micley, the business development director at Wintermute, one of the largest digital asset market makers in the world.
With all the macro headwinds pummeling markets, from the energy crisis in Europe, global inflation, and war in Ukraine, to the recent turmoil with Credit Suisse, we can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu about the 2008 financial crisis.
David believes we’re just in the first inning of what could be a multi-year crypto winter.
But he’s seeing that institutional investors are still signing up to trade with Wintermute’s OTC desk, which indicates that large players are still committed to the space this time around.
David also shares his views on the venture side of crypto. He believes some of the biggest bets right now are blockchain infrastructure plays. With funding getting harder to come by for crypto startups, he provides insights on where he sees the space evolving.
Finally, we discuss the $160M hack that Wintermute suffered recently and the lessons learned.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- ZenGoisa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
- Aleois enabling developers to build their own private and scalable apps. Currently in their third incentivized testnet phase, you can find more information at https://leo-lang.org/
- Oasis.app aims to be the most trusted entry point to the Maker Protocol and to DeFi. You can borrow DAI, multiply your exposure and earn. Try it Now!
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Uri Kolodny and Eli Ben-Sasson, the co-founders of Starkware, one of the leading Layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum.
Post Merge, Ethereum continues to rely on scaling solutions like Starkware and will continue to do so, according to the network’s long-term roadmap.
Visa processes 1700 transactions per second, and that number is often quoted as the Holy Grail for a blockchain to become a viable settlement layer for finance. They explain how that can be achieved with the help of Starkware.
In the early stages of building Starkware, Uri and Eli had decided not to launch a token. After two years of running Starkware and StarkNet being in alpha, is a STARK token on the horizon?
Currently, Starkware is solely used for scaling Ethereum. We talk about Uri and Eli’s plans to expand Starkware’s services to other Layer 1s.
Finally, we discuss the future of scaling solutions, decentralized applications, DeFi, NFTs, and more.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- ZenGoisa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
- Aleois enabling developers to build their own private and scalable apps. Currently in their third incentivized testnet phase, you can find more information at https://leo-lang.org/
- Oasis.app aims to be the most trusted entry point to the Maker Protocol and to DeFi. You can borrow DAI, multiply your exposure and earn. Try it Now!
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Ben Edgington, the product owner of Teku, an Ethereum 2.0 client being developed at Consensys.
It’s been a week since Ethereum switched from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and Ben has been heavily involved in the process. We start our conversation by taking a look at the aftermath of the Merge.
One of the biggest criticisms of The Merge was that Ethereum under PoS would become centralized. Proof-of-stake enables individuals to delegate their ETH to entities that stake on their behalf, as running a node might be inconvenient or infeasible. We discuss how roughly half of the staked Ether is held by a handful of validators and what Ben thinks about this.
Finally, Ben shares his thoughts on the future of Ethereum and what comes next, now that the Merge is complete.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- ZenGoisa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
- ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.
- Oasis.app aims to be the most trusted entry point to the Maker Protocol and to DeFi. You can borrow DAI, multiply your exposure and earn. Try it Now!
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Robert Lauko, founder & head of research at Liquity, an overcollateralized DeFi lending protocol and issuer of the LUSD stablecoin.
Following the fallout from CeFi services such as Voyager, BlockFi, and Celsius, the focus has shifted back to the core values of decentralization, which Liquity tries to apply to the fullest: LUSD is backed purely by Ether and Liquity is governance-free and has no centralized frontend.
Crypto mixer Tornado Cash was recently sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury together with addresses that interacted with the protocol. This prompted other DeFi protocols such as Aave and dYdX to blacklist those addresses in a bid to minimize legal risk. Robert discusses how DeFi projects can deal with censorship.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN.
ZenGoa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.
This week on the Defiant Podcast we speak to Stani Kulechov, founder & CEO of Aave, one of the first lending protocols in the DeFi space. He has been around since the inception of DeFi, now Aave Labs is the leading force in this completely new side to the web3 universe; social media. Lens aims to reimagine how social networks are built; providing an open protocol for applications to flourish, and giving users the freedom to own their information and take that data with them when they from one app to the next. Creators and influencers would monetize their content by reaching their audiences directly, and applications would gain revenue from these transactions, rather than relying on ads.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN.
ZenGoa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.
This week on The Defiant podcast we speak to Zooko, the founder of Zcash.
Privacy remains one of the hottest issues in crypto after the U.S. Treasury’s recent move to sanction Tornado Cash. Zooko believes the ability to consent to what information is made public is more about freedom than privacy and he thinks that eventually, this will be expected in the blockchain space.
We explore what a private transaction using ZEC actually looks like, with shielded addresses visible only to the sender and receiver.
Finally, Zooko talks about The Electric Coin Company’s future plans, which include moving Zcash from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and a standalone wallet.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN.
ZenGoa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Jake Chervinsky, the executive vice president and head of policy at Blockchain Association, a non-profit trade association representing the crypto industry in Washington DC. Jake is one of the most qualified to discuss the US Treasury Department sanctioning Tornado Cash, a development that’s caused shockwaves through crypto.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN.
ZenGoa crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys.
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak Will Warren, founder and CEO of 0x labs, one of the oldest and largest decentralized exchanges. 0x API is currently the 5th largest DEX by trading volume but is structurally different from other DEXs as it aggregates liquidity from multiple venues.
We talk about the effect this bear market has had on the DEX ecosystem and how sliding prices have affected DEX volumes in 2022.
We discuss the evolution of DEXs, having seen some massive innovations such as concentrated liquidity with Uniswap V3. Will goes on to talk about the major impact that miner-extractable value (MEV) has had on the DEX sector.
Finally, Will talks about 0x’s vision to see a world where all forms of value are tokenized on public blockchains, from fiat currencies, stocks and bonds, to video game items and airline miles.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto
0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Hart Lambur, co-founder of the UMA protocol. UMA is an optimistic oracle on Ethereum that aims to record any knowable truth onto a blockchain.
We discuss his take on the crypto market and how the current crisis is not a DeFi crisis, but rather a failure of risk management at centralized institutions.
We dive into UMA's plans for its 2.0 release, the risks posed by centralized cross-chain bridges and Outcome Finance, an upcoming brand that will encompass all the DAO tooling that the UMA team has been building.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto
0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
This week on The Defiant podcast we speak with Justin Drake. Justin is a researcher for the Ethereum foundation. He’s at the forefront of the biggest change to happen in Ethereum's history: The transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, also known as The Merge. We go into what the next steps are before this change happens, how exactly it will be executed, and what the risks are. Last week, right after we recorded this interview, fellow researcher Tim Beiko suggested the switch would happen in September.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto
0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
This week on the Defiant Podcast we speak to Arthur Breitman, the co-founder of Tezos. Created together with his wife Kathleen way back in 2014, Tezos mainnet was launched in 2018 as a proof of stake chain with smart contracts, a combo that has now become the industry standard. They were very much ahead of their time.
Yet, Tezos has been slower to pick up than other Layer 1s such as Ethereum & Solana. We discuss its upcoming upgrades and roadmap, and how Arthur sees a deeper DeFi and NFT ecosystem evolving on the network. He argues that with the hype and vanity metrics of the bull run fading away, Tezos approach of what he considers is more thoughtful building, will shine through.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
dYdX has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com
Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC.
Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling.
APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenization trend in Web3 with 'APwine'
Joseph Delong is the former CTO of SushiSwap, one of the biggest decentralized exchanges, and the founder of Astaria, a recently created NFT lending protocol. Joseph has been heavily involved in building and managing DAOs. With the recent controversial proposals surfacing on MakerDAO and Lido, we are once again reminded of the importance of DAO governance. We begin by talking about Joseph’s analogy on what would happen if a lemonade stand was run by a DAO and reflect on some of the DAO experiments that occurred over the last couple of years.
Thanking our sponsors:
dYdX has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com
Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC.
Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling.
APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenization trend in Web3 with 'APwine'
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Hasu, strategic advisor at Lido, strategy lead at Flashbots, MakerDAO delegate, researcher at Paradigm and host of the Uncommon Core Podcast. That’s a lot of titles and it goes to show just how deeply plugged into DeFi and crypto this anon researcher is. In this episode, we’ll focus on Lido, as it’s become a crucial piece of infrastructure for Ethereum.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
dYdX has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com
Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC.
Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling.
APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenization trend in Web3 with 'APwine'
Gmoney is one of the most prominent NFT collectors in the space, breaking into the scene with a splash when he bought a crypto punk for 140 ETH last year. He rose t become one of the best-recognized NFT collectors and is now becoming a creator himself. Given the current market crash is hitting all areas of crypto, Gmoney dives into how it's affecting NFTs. In his previous life, GMoney was a trader in traditional finance. We talk about how he went from trading stocks to trading non-fungible tokens full time and now starting his own project.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
dYdX has has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com
Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC.
Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling.
APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenisation trend in Web3 with 'APwine'
This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Mati Greenspan. Mati is the CEO & founder of Quantum Economics, a crypto research and advisory firm. Mati believes we’ll keep seeing pain in the market, with crypto and stocks remaining highly correlated, as long as inflation persists. Only those well-funded and committed teams will make it through, and any project that survives a bear will see huge gains in the next rally. A heads up that this interview was recorded last week, right before the Celsius debacle, in case you’re wondering why we didn’t speak about the elephant in the bear market.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
dYdX has has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com
Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC.
Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling.
APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenisation trend in Web3 with 'APwine'
Adriana Hoppenbrouwer-Pereira is the co-founder and CMO of The Fabricant, a digital fashion house for the metaverse founded in 2018. Their belief is that fashion is identity, and digital fashion is simply an extension of the digital identity we’re building in web 3. The Fabricant is one of the most prolific digital garment creators today and we discuss how (and if) these pieces are being used and whether the market slump has affected adoption. Adriana discussed The Fabricant’s collaboration with World of Women and how these two communities are seeking to make sure women feel represented and welcome in web3.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now!
- Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More and experience the benefits of the network.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.
Yoni Assia is the founder and CEO of eToro, one of the most successful crypto and stock buying apps with over 27 million users in more than 100 countries. Originally founded in 2007, it was one of the pioneering companies to incorporate crypto as early as 2013. Yoni speaks about what led to being so early and where the idea for Etoro stemmed from. He also dives into the importance of the user experience in creating a mainstream crypto trading app, and how including a social aspect to the product early on helped in accelerating growth.
We talked about the next phase for eToro and the role NFTs and DeFi will play in the platform, as he looks to integrate both. Yoni is convinced finance will become increasingly digital, and believes eToro’s role is to help investors diversify their holdings. He sees a change in investment attitudes as the younger generation is interested in taking a more active role with their assets, and trading is becoming a more social experience. Finally, we talk about some of the lessons he has learned about entrepreneurship and taking big risks.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now!
- Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More and experience the benefits of the network.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.
Kevin Zhou is the founder of crypto quant fund, Galois Capital and former head of trading at Kraken. Last week, Terra, one of the most prominent ecosystems in crypto, effectively disintegrated in days. Its native token Luna had over $40 B in market cap at its peak, and nearly all of it was wiped out while UST, which was supposed to be a stablecoin worth $1 crashed. It was a historical moment in crypto as never before had a project that big, crashed so hard, so quickly. Kevin was one of the few who saw it coming and predicted the fall just a couple of months ago. In this interview, he talks about the red flags that helped him get to that conclusion. We also talk about whether there’s any hope for algorithmic stablecoins and explore potential alternatives for this type of asset. Kevin discusses the ripple effects we’re already seeing in crypto and more broadly, what to expect for the coming bear market.
🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now!
- Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More and experience the benefits of the network.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.
This week we speak to Diego Fernandez, the secretary of innovation and digital transformation for the city of Buenos Aires. Recently, news broke that Buenos Aires will be taking tax payments via crypto, an initiative that Diego helped shape. We talk about what this means for residents of the city and how it works in practice. Diego also addressed critics’ response to the measure, who questioned why Argentines would spend crypto instead of holding it as a store of value. Diego dives into the city’s broader plans with crypto, including how it wants to leverage the tools and data at its disposal to build a blockchain-based identity system.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now!
- Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More and experience the benefits of the network.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.
BoredElonMusk is one of the most prominent Twitter personalities in the crypto space with over 1.7M followers at the time of recording. With decades of online gaming experience, he is now taking his skills offline with his new venture, Bored Box, a curation platform for blockchain games. BoredElon grew his Twitter profile by consistently tweeting wacky but relatable inventions. We talk about how he built out his brand on Twitter, at what point he was able to leverage and monetize his audience, and also his take on the OG Elon’s move to try to buy the social media platform. We also get into how he was able to transition to crypto, first through NFT artist collabs, next by investing in startups and now building his own project.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
- Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders. Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs. Try it yourself here!
Fabian Schär is one of the most prominent academics focusing on blockchains and specifically DeFi. He has a great deal of experience speaking with regulators and studying different laws and frameworks being applied to crypto. He argues regulators should not be using old laws to regulate new tech. He also says regulation should happen at the off and on-ramp level, and at individual businesses, but not in the non-custodial world of on-chain transactions. Fabian has the somewhat controversial opinion that regultaros should ditch consumer protection as a goal all together, and trust that each individual should be free to decide what to do with their money, and take responsibility for their decisions.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
- Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders. Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs. Try it yourself here!
Jill Gunter is the co-founder and chief strategy officer at scaling solution Espresso Systems and a venture partner at Slow Ventures. She became interested in Bitcoin via her experience with Latin American markets — which is somewhat of a pattern in the space. She was a debt trader at Goldman Sachs, focusing on Argentina and Venezuelan bonds, and saw crypto’s potential to help those in corrupt or repressive regimes. She continued exploring how crypto can help skirt currency controls and enable more global and efficient markets, and we discuss how those themes are playing out right now in the war in Ukraine. We talk about how Jill went from Wall Street to crypto, and from VC to founder. Her latest venture is Espresso Systems, which aims to bring scalability and privacy to web3.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
- Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders. Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs. Try it yourself here!
We have a special podcast episode this week — a live conversation between Defiant founder Camila, our head of video Robin, and our editor Alp, recorded directly from The Defiant’s video studio in the Netherlands. Robin and Alp were one of the very first team members working with Camila in making the best DeFi and web3 content out there. In this episode we hear their story, how they came to work together and what moves them. We also go behind the scenes on their intense production process and schedule. Together with Camila, they also try to make sense of the latest drivers behind the crypto market, including the war in Ukraine, last year’s massive bull run and the recent volatility.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.
- Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots.
- 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch.
- Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders. Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs. Try it yourself here!
Ethan Buchman is the co-founder of Cosmos, an ecosystem of interoperable blockchains which includes Terra, Osmosis and Crypto.org, and has the most value locked after Ethereum. It's a complex network with many moving parts, and in the past year it has exploded with activity. Cosmos was born out of Ethan’s research into a switch from proof of work to proof of stake, and his idea to enable each project and community to be able to build and secure their own blockchain. It was Ethan’s goal to bring about a community computer revolution, stemming from the personal computer revolution.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Zerionis Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5
- Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates.
- Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.
Ken Seiff is the managing partner of Blockchange Ventures, one of the longest-standing venture funds focusing on early-stage blockchain startups. One of his very first forays into crypto was as one of the investors in Ethereum’s token sale, as I describe in my book, The Infinite Machine. He went on to focus on various other Layer 1s at Blockchange, investing in Polkadot, Solana, Near and Flow, among others. Ken’s investments look to capture not just the potential value of the venture itself, but the overall growth of a space that is still in its infancy, and his bet is that taking exposure at the base protocol layer is the best way to do that.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Zerionis Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5
- Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates.
- Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.
Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin, which helps coordinate crowdfunding for projects and software developments on the Ethereum blockchain. With 300,000 builders and over 25,000 funders, Gitcoin has become a key pillar of the Ethereum nation, making sure public goods can thrive. We talk about how Gitcoin was born as a reaction to the ICO era, after Kevin realized many of the business models and funding mechanisms on Ethereum were broken. Open-source software is carrying a huge weight, while its builders are not being properly compensated or incentivized, and Gitcoin wants to change that.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Zerionis Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5
- Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates.
- Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.
Fabian Vogelsteller is a Blockchain veteran who was part of the Ethereum community in its very early days. He helped shape the Ethereum space, building an ETH Wallet and a web3 Browser, which were one of the first of their kind. Fabian is the co-founder of the Lukso blockchain and together with Vitalik Buterin, created the ERC-20 standard, a foundational building block for Ethereum. The next standard Fabian is excited about is ERC725, which he says will help introduce blockchain-based profiles as opposed to accounts. Fabian believes this approach would be a seismic shift, improving usability and protecting users’ assets.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Zerionis Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5
- Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates.
- Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.
In this week’s episode of The Defiant podcast, we speak to Laura Shin, the former senior editor at Forbes and host of the popular podcast Unchained, about her new book ‘The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze.’ In Cryptopians, Laura may have solved Ethereum’s biggest mystery; the identity of the DAO hacker. In this interview, she goes into the backstory of how she came up with the most credible suspect to date.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- Zerionis Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5
- Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates.
- Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.
Gavin Wood’s crypto journey started with Ethereum – he was one of the eight original founders and the project’s CTO in the early days. Today though, he’s busy building Polkadot, a chain that is attempting to improve where Ethereum falls short. Gavin wants to turn Polkadot into a multichain powerhouse where financial systems and web apps can run and interact seamlessly. To Gavin, Polkadot can be the base infrastructure for a web3 future, a set of technologies that can guarantee privacy, trustlessness and decentralization, which to him, will be crucial if the free world is going to survive.
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Oasis is a leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More
- ICHI enables crypto projects to create a sustainable economy that attracts users and keeps value locked in your community
- Eden Rocket RPC, providing the fastest private transactions on Ethereum (90%+ hashrate). Trade better anywhere on Ethereum with Eden Rocket RPC.
Edan Yago is a co-founder of Sovryn, a Bitcoin-based lending protocol. He’s maybe the first Bitcoin builder we have had on our show and that’s because DeFi on the first blockchain network has been slow to pick up — but Edan says that’s about to change. Ethereum and other smart contracts platforms have evolved over time with use cases like tokens, DAO’s and NFTs flourishing. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has mainly looked from the sidelines. Edan says there has been a gradual mentality shift, as Bitcoiners accept the first cryptocurrency should be able to support a wider array of use cases to become the backbone of a more decentralized financial system.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Oasis is a leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More
- ICHI enables crypto projects to create a sustainable economy that attracts users and keeps value locked in your community
- Eden Rocket RPC, providing the fastest private transactions on Ethereum (90%+ hashrate). Trade better anywhere on Ethereum with Eden Rocket RPC.
Vitalik Buterin wrote the Ethereum white paper when he was just 19. His aim was simple yet comprehensive, to create a ‘world computer’ that was designed to be a flexible base layer for all online applications without the need of any third party. Since its inception in 2015, Ethereum has become the most active and largest smart contracts platform, but has it achieved the ‘world computer’ goal?
Vitalik says yes and no. In the interview, it’s clear that to him, it’s almost a given that Ethereum will achieve this goal. The bigger concern is not whether the network becomes a settlement layer and decentralized engine for smart contracts used globally, but how much value and impact applications running on top of it will bring.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Oasis is a leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More
- ICHI enables crypto projects to create a sustainable economy that attracts users and keeps value locked in your community
- Eden Rocket RPC, providing the fastest private transactions on Ethereum (90%+ hashrate). Trade better anywhere on Ethereum with Eden Rocket RPC.
Griff Green is one of the co-founders of Giveth, which aims to build the future of charity using the Ethereum blockchain. It wants to become the gateway for non-profit organizations into web3, giving them the tools to grow their own communities via DAOs and crypto. The primary source of revenue for any non-profit organization is donations, but relying on individuals giving voluntarily can limit their impact, Griff says. He argues a system that better aligns incentives can allow non-profits to have a much larger role in society, potentially even stepping in where local governments are failing. The big vision is for donors and volunteers to become akin to investors in an organization, and be rewarded for their participation too.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Oasis is a leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi. Learn More
- ICHI enables crypto projects to create a sustainable economy that attracts users and keeps value locked in your community
- Eden Rocket RPC, providing the fastest private transactions on Ethereum (90%+ hashrate). Trade better anywhere on Ethereum with Eden Rocket RPC.
When Emin Gun Sirer first came on The Defiant in May 2020, Avalanche was not even on mainnet yet. Since then, it has risen to become one of the leading smart contract networks, while the AVAX token has risen over 7x in the last 12 months. We talk about how the project got here and how it wants to create a path for faster and more scalable decentralized network, amid heavy competition from other Layer 1 blockchains.
Emin makes the case for Avalache’s novel consensus mechanism, paired with subnets with their own virtual machines, and he also has scathing criticism for Ethereum and other Layer 2 scaling solutions. To him, once a platform starts building Layer 2s, it means they’ve run out of ideas on how to make a good Layer 1. We also discuss the big picture goal for Avalanche; Bitcoin centers around digital gold, Ethereum strives to create the world computer, and Avalanche wants to digitize all assets. If it's on a balance sheet, Emin says, it can be on a blockchain, and we discuss what it will take for it to get there.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Matcha: Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing orders across all the various DeFi exchanges, now with an integrated fiat on-ramp. Start trading at matcha.xyz/defiant
- Nexo.io: Nexo is a crypto lending and exchange platform where you can buy cryptocurrencies at the touch of a button and start earning double-digit annual interest that is paid out daily.
- Unstoppable Domains: Go to unstoppabledomains.com and replace your long, complex wallet address with YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5.
This week, we sit with Kain Warwick, DeFi OG and founder of Synthetix. In some ways, last year wasn’t a great one for the synthetic assets protocol. As many DeFi projects boomed, SNX’s price and TVL dropped. Kain says he was too optimistic about how soon Synthetix would be able to scale with optimistic roll-ups. If he were to do things again, he would probably use Polygon first and move to Optimism once the solution was ready. But last year was also a time to build on a strong foundation. He’s looking forward to the months to come, when all of that effort hopefully comes to light, with the protocol fully live on Optimism, with perpetual swaps expected to be launched too. He’s a firm believer that Ethereum and its Layer 2 solutions will capture the most value being built in DeFi and web3.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Matcha: Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing orders across all the various DeFi exchanges, now with an integrated fiat on-ramp. Start trading at matcha.xyz/defiant
- Nexo.io: Nexo is a crypto lending and exchange platform where you can buy cryptocurrencies at the touch of a button and start earning double-digit annual interest that is paid out daily.
- Unstoppable Domains: Go to unstoppabledomains.com and replace your long, complex wallet address with YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5.
Welcome back to The Defiant podcast! After a brief break at the end of last year, we’re back stronger and better than ever to continue chatting with the greatest and brightest minds in DeFi and web3. Our first guest is our very own Robin Schmidt, aka SuperMassive. Robin leads multimedia at the Defiant and produces our video content, which has become known for raising the bar way beyond what’s expected not just from crypto videos, but from all of YouTube. If you haven’t already, check out and subscribe to our channel. I wanted to do the first video of the year with Robin to get the chance to talk about The Defiant itself – what moves us, what sets us apart and what we’re expecting for this year. After over a year working together, I also wanted to finally shine the spotlight on the man behind the video host, and hear the story of how he got here.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
- ZerionZerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection
- Matcha: Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing orders across all the various DeFi exchanges, now with an integrated fiat on-ramp. Start trading at matcha.xyz/defiant
- Nexo.io: Nexo is a crypto lending and exchange platform where you can buy cryptocurrencies at the touch of a button and start earning double-digit annual interest that is paid out daily.
- Unstoppable Domains: Go to unstoppabledomains.com and replace your long, complex wallet address with YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5.
In this week’s episode I speak with Nick Johnson, founder and lead developer of Ethereum Name Service, or ENS. Nick talks about the journey of ENS, from an internal project within the Ethereum Foundation, to spinning off to become a public good for Ethereum and other blockchains, and recently decentralizing and becoming a DAO controlled by token holders. Nick talks about the big vision of ENS, which is to become the naming service for every digital resource in the world.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions.
- Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode I speak with Geoff Cook, co-founder of Base, a design studio with huge clients from all industries, including The New York Times, MoMA, ING Bank and large-scale projects like JFK’s Terminal 4 and the Meatpacking District in New York. Geoff hopes to soon add crypto to the list. He recently wrote an article stating that "For Crypto, Branding Could be the Highest Currency” as the success of these projects will rely on communicating complex concepts and features to gain mass adoption. We discuss that crypto is in its teenage years in terms of branding: crypto, and especially DeFi projects, are rebelling against traditional finance and web2, but they’re still seeking to belong to a group and are not expressing their own individual characteristics and values. This is making all DeFi brands look alike. Geoff says that a company, or in the case of crypto, a protocol, that wants to build a powerful brand needs to figure out the story they want to tell.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions.
- Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode I, speak with Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the founding members of the feminist punk rock protest collective, Pussy Riot. Nadya has been protesting against the repression of individual freedoms in Russia since she was 17. She started Pussy Riot to focus on women and non-binary people as she noticed leadership would always fall on men. The group started performing in the streets of Moscow and were being repeatedly arrested for a few hours at a time, until one day in 2012, Nadya was put in jail for two years, for performing in a church. She believes art is a more effective vehicle for influencing hearts and minds than politics and that’s why she continues to perform. This year, she discovered she can use cryptocurrency and NFTs as tools to amplify her art, and coordinate people and capital on a global scale.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions.
- Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
Zeneca is an NFT investor and content creator who grew his collection of non-fungible tokens from 0 to about 3,000 pieces worth millions in less than a year. He comes on the podcast to talk about how he went from professional poker player to full-time NFT trader, and what lessons from poker he has brought over to crypto.Zeneca believes the NFT market has hit a downturn amid rising crypto prices because it has become saturated with the same types of projects. He believes avatars will take a back seat to projects where NFTs have utility beyond displaying the art itself and being part of a community. That’s why gaming is setting up to be the next big movement in NFTs, he says. Still, he doesn’t believe we’ve seen a true bull and bear market yet — that will come when NFTs better integrate with DeFi and leverage comes into play.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions.
- Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
In this week’s episode I speak with Eric Wall, chief investment officer at Arcane Assets. He used to be known as the Altcoin Slayer, thanks to his brutal takedowns of non-bitcoin tokens in the 2017 ICO era, which made him popular among Bitcoin maximalists. But he’s not a maximalist anymore, and sees value in other blockchains as he has recognized they can fulfill use cases that Bitcoin can’t. He even argues Bitcoin risks being overtaken by Ethereum if it doesn’t adopt some ETH’s own features and developments, such as a fee-burning mechanism and a more expressive scripting language.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions.
- Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
In this week’s episode I speak with Scoopy Trooples, founder of Alchemix, a protocol that programs self-paying loans without the risk of liquidations. Think about that; here’s a DeFi application that promises to automatically pay users’ collateralized loans, and on top of that, guarantee they won’t be liquidated. Scoopy explains how something like that can work and it’s all about plugging into other money legos like Yearn Finance to earn yield off that collateral and use that yield to pay off loans. Scoopy also goes into Alchemix v2 and into what he believes is a new movement in DeFi, which he helped coin as DeFi 2.0. Scoopy says dapps will now have options besides yield farming to attract liquidity to their protocols, which will allow teams to better control assets in their smart contracts, increasing capital efficiency.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
In this week’s episode, I interview Adam Jackson, co-founder of Braintrust, a user-owned talent network. Think Fiverr for web3. Braintrust runs on Ethereum, has thousands of users, household names like NASA, TaskRabbit, Nike and Nestlé are clients, it has processed millions of dollars, yet not many people in the crypto community have heard of it. And it may be by design, as the team has focused on building the platform looking outside of crypto. Adam believes the so-called gig economy is broken because platforms are incentivized to extract as much value as they can, leaving workers feeling like they’ve been cheated. The way to fix it, he says, is through market-driven solutions using Web 3.0, DeFi and user-owned marketplaces.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
In this week’s episode I speak with Yam Karkai, the digital illustrator and artist behind NFT project World of Women. She’s had all sorts of odd jobs, before becoming a full-time illustrator, and none of them had anything to do with crypto. She was freelancing from gig to gig when she discovered NFTs this year and that’s when everything changed for her. For the first time ever, she had some economic stability, oddly thanks to volatile crypto.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
https://bit.ly/IntegralSIZE
In this week’s episode, I interview Jaime Rogozinski, founder of Wall Street Bets, the famous Reddit trading group which earlier this year organized to push up the price of heavily shorted stocks like Gamestop and AMC to create a short squeeze, which had the double benefit of amplifying the group’s gains and screwing over big hedge funds. Jaime goes over what led him to create the subreddit back in 2012 and how it grew into several thousands and then millions of members. He started Wall Street Bets to make money, but also because he believed the financial system was broken and so-called retail traders should have a chance against the big guys. A lot of those sentiments mirror ideals that fuel the cryptocurrency community and so it’s only natural that after his exit from Wallet Street Bets, he has found his way into crypto.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode we speak with Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, an asset management firm overseeing $80 billion, which has shifted its focus heavily into crypto. They started out with investments almost exclusively in Bitcoin, but now, with Matthew on board, the firm is becoming increasingly bullish on Ethereum and DeFi.
Matthew has a very methodical way of analyzing cryptocurrencies, applying the same rigorous methods used in traditional finance, and so it becomes even more compelling to hear him make the case for Ethereum’s market cap growing to $2 trillion. He also believes even after this year’s bull run, Ethereum and most DeFi protocols are trading cheaper than Web 2.0 and with better growth.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode I speak with Stephen Young, the founder and CEO of NFTfi, a platform for enabling NFT-backed loans. For some people, decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens sit on two separate worlds; DeFi on one end with its different lending, boring, and trading applications, and NFTs, with their digital art, music royalties and collectibles. Entrepreneurs like Stephen sit at the intersection, with a platform that uses NFTs to provide a financial product. He says volume on the platform is booming, as many new NFT owners find they can now get liquidity from digital property they don’t want to sell, while lenders can get more attractive rates for their crypto. Stephen believes this is just the beginning, and that eventually, real-world assets will also become digital property incorporated in the growing world of NFT and DeFi.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode, I speak with John Crain, the co-founder & CEO of SuperRare, one of the top NFT marketplaces. SuperRare wants to differentiate itself by being the NFT marketplace that best curates art, specifically. John believes the natural evolution for NFT platforms will be to specialize in verticals. The team recently launched a token and a DAO, and John explains how the move will be instrumental for SuperRare to scale its curation, as the original team gives up control and other participants propose and vote on what should go on the platform. We talk about the NFT boom more broadly, and how John believes NFTs are enabling the first artistic revolution since the internet.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.He started doing so well, collecting Axies, which are NFT tokens linked to digital, mystical animals, that he started renting out his NFTs. He realized this could lead to an entirely new business model, and that’s how Yield Guild Games was born.
In this week’s episode, I speak with Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, or YGG. Long before Gabby was into crypto he was into gaming, and that’s how he started playing Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based game where players earn cryptocurrency just for playing. Gabby eventually became a well-known figure in the Axie community, spreading the word especially in his home country, the Philippines, as he saw that crypto earned for playing was making a real difference in people’s lives.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.He started doing so well, collecting Axies, which are NFT tokens linked to digital, mystical animals, that he started renting out his NFTs. He realized this could lead to an entirely new business model, and that’s how Yield Guild Games was born.
In this week’s episode, we speak with Dan Morehead, the founder of one of the longest-standing and largest crypto funds. Dan founded Pantera Capital in 2003 as a global macro hedge fund. In 2013, Pantera began investing in Bitcoin and quickly shifted its entire focus into crypto. Today, Pantera manages $3.8 billion in digital assets and equity in blockchain companies. Dan said Pantera is planning on increasing the Bitcoin exposure on its liquid tokens fund from zero to somewhere in the teens, while its main bet will remain DeFi. Dan is most excited about what he views is a shift in institutions’ interest in crypto. Firms which had told him they would never come close to holding crypto, are now wanting to dip their toes. And in a still small market, that has the potential to make big waves.
Thanking our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode we speak with Ryan Selkis, CEO and founder of Messari, one of the most popular crypto data and research companies. Recently, Ryan has been very vocal about crypto regulation in the US. We talk about how he believes the infrastructure bill was a catalyzing event for the whole American crypto ecosystem. He believes while there are think tanks and corporate-led lobbying groups, the space is missing a grassroots entity that gives a voice to the millions of crypto users in the US that so energetically came to life against this bill. That’s why he’s creating a group to help mobilize voters in the crypto community to support pro-crypto candidates.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode we interview Nate Chastain, head of product at OpenSea. Opensea got its start back in 2017 when CryptoKitties launched on Ethereum. After those digital cats, the NFT space was pretty dead for the next couple of years. Now OpenSea is reaping the rewards of hanging through that NFT winter, as NFT summer explodes with punks, apes, penguins and more cats. Nate was openSea’s first product hire and now he’s making sure that what started out as a platform for essentially CryptoKitties and a couple of other projects, can deal with millions of digital assets. He talks about the scaling challenges OpenSea is facing and what’s next on the roadmap after raising $100M dollars in a round led by a16z. The daily records in volume and users, are proving the founders right in thinking maybe it’s not finance that will take crypto to mainstream, but something that looks like a cute game.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode, I speak with some of the creators and investors behind Stoner Cats, the NFT-infused adult cartoon show about a group of cats who become sentient from their owner’s marihuana. And there are famous humans behind these cats, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is one, and Jane Fonda is another. Ashton Kutcher’s VC fund is also involved. With all these big names, there was huge anticipation around this NFT sale -- so much, that the demand made Ethereum gas prices spike, so that many purchases didn’t go through and over $700,000 were lost in failed transactions. Ashton Kutcher said after this interview that the team is going to personally gift ETH to cover all failed transaction fees. Producer Lisa Sterbakov, investors Maaria Bajwa, Morgan Beller, and NFT creator Jonathan Howard, talk about the motivation behind Stoner Cats, how NFTs is changing the game for creators, what the chaotic launch was like for them, how they got Vitalik to join the show, and more behind the scenes scoops.
Many thanks to our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification. Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
In this week’s episode, I interview Chris Blec, a researcher advocating for transparency in DeFi. He was first drawn to cryptocurrencies through Bitcoin. He decided to go into crypto full time, first consulting with a token project in the ICO days, and later, in late 2019, by creating a YouTube channel where he aimed to educate users on how DeFi projects work under the hood. Here is where he came across what has become his focus since; the actual centralization behind supposedly decentralized protocols.All these questions and what appears to be constant criticism inspired some in the DeFi community to try to raise $50M for him to quit crypto. Meanwhile, Cointelegraph wrote a feature piece calling him maybe the most annoying man in DeFi. Chris seems unphased. To him, he’s just doing his part so that we don’t waste this opportunity to make a new, better financial system.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode I interview Raoul Pal, who retired from the hedge fund world at 36 years old and has run financial media company Real Vision for the seven years since. He predicted the housing bubble, he was early to call the devastating effect the pandemic would have on the economy, and now he gives us his thoughts on what he sees is coming up in the next few months. Raoul believes the second half of 2021 will be worse than expected, but that the decline will be short-lived thanks to even more stimulus to be added to the global economy. This will cause risk assets to continue their climb, including crypto. And for that he’s well-positioned: he says 100% of his liquid net worth is in cryptocurrencies but if he had to own just one asset over the next 12 months, that would be ETH.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode we speak with Tim Beiko, who organizes the Ethereum core developers calls and knows all the intricacies and latest development of the world’s most active blockchain. We spoke right after Beiko had proposed a date for the implementation of one of the biggest changes expected to happen to the Ethereum blockchain in recent history EIP 1559. If you’re not 100% clear on what this means, fear not, because Tim explains in non-dev terms exactly how this change will reduce volatility in Ethereum gas prices and also reduce the uncertainty of whether user transactions are approved or not. Importantly, it also means that part of ETH paid per transaction will be burned. That means that if demand for ETH and use of the Ethereum blockchain are greater than ETH issued, it should put pressure on the ether price to increase.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode we speak with Dan Robinson, a research partner at Paradigm, one of the most active VC funds in DeFi and crypto. One of the fund’s investments is Unsiwap, where Dan also had a central role in the design of v3, the latest version of DeFi’s most popular decentralized exchange. Dan talks about why Uniswap was so exciting as an investment, and about what drove the change to v3. He believes the new design will impact DeFi and crytpo, while rolling back the very revolution Uniswap itself prompted by creating a more hybrid model.
** Because of connectivity issues, the sound cuts off at times – huge apologies for that. We're providing a public transcript to make up for it.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode we speak with Jess Sloss, the instigator of Seed Club, a DAO that builds and invests in community tokens. We talk about the emergence of the social token economy, and how that’s different from the creator economy or the gig economy; the difference is that social tokens and DAOs allow individuals to create wealth rather than create revenue. They’re tools for creators, and importantly, also for creator’ fans, to build something that’s similar to equity in a company, instead of having a salary. Another concept that describes this, Jess says, is the ownership economy. This is the idea that creators and fans can have actual ownership of their communities and platforms. Jess says we’re about to see billion-dollar communities on the internet.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode, I speak with Soona Amhaz of Volt Capital. Soona saw the value of crypto from very close when her family lost most of their savings after Lebanon’s currency crashed. She immediately told them to move their money to Bitcoin to protect themselves against further currency devaluation and currency controls.
She was working on a startup as an engineer while trying to learn about bitcoin and onboard others into the space, and she realized there was very little information about crypto. So she decided to start the newsletter called Token Daily. The newsletter went from being a network of information to a network of people thanks to live events. That’s how she got to meet great teams building interesting projects in crypto and see their progress before anyone else did. When she saw big funds come in and invest in the projects she also knew had potential, she realized she had an edge and decided to start her own fund, Volt Capital.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode I speak with Mariano Conti, the former head of smart contracts at MakerDAO. Mariano knows the value of having permissionless and uncensorable currencies first hand —he started earning in Bitcoin in 2014 in Argentina because pesos would instantly lose value and it was hard to get dollars. When he learned about Ethereum he went all in and started working at Makerdao before DeFi was even a thing in 2016. When Dai was created, he was one of the first to take out a collateralized loan against his ETH and used that loan to buy a car. It must have been the first DeFi loan used to buy an actual physical thing.
The crypto space has come a long way since with an entire financial system built out of money legos and this week with a huge milestone of El Salvador becoming the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Mariano talks about this historical moment and why it’s significant that it was a Latin American country to take this step.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode, I speak with Terry Crews, a legit star. He was a professional football player, has starred in multiple Hollywood films and currently leads in TV shows including America’s Got Talent. He is also a cryptocurrency enthusiast, minting his own social token called POWER. Terry has a very powerful story on how he got into crypto. It was at a design show in Milan. He wanted to support his friend at the show, but wasn’t able to withdraw money from his own American Express account. He realized a financial system that’s based on trusting a long line of intermediaries is broken. He thought, even when he did everything right, and he was already wealthy and famous, he still got the door shut in his face —so what’s left for the rest? All of that cemented his view that the financial system should be permissionless, transparent and global.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Colony, which makes it easy for people all over the world to build organizations together, online.
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode, I interview Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, an investment management firm focusing on digital assets. Jeff has been valuing assets for the past 20 years, from investment-grade bonds, to high-yield debt and equities, and now he’s doing the same for crypto. We talk about the recent selloff and he thinks the big crash is over but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the market bottom. Still, Jeff says this is a buying opportunity and he gives insights into which sectors will outperform and underperform. He believes we’re heading to a 10 to 20-year secular bull market in crypto, where there will be a decoupling of sectors and where DeFi continues to grow.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Kyber, whose Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, is designed to react to market conditions to optimize fees, maximize returns
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode I interview Kayvon Tehranian, founder & CEO of Foundation, a platform for minting, buying and selling non-fungible tokens. We talked about the future of the internet —Kayvon believes blockchains are adding property rights to the internet. He also thinks that instead of having to wait for old institutions to come online, new ones in the form of decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOS, will be built. He foresees a future when a lot of people will start saying, ‘why aren't you asking me to connect my wallet? Why do I have to log in this other way, that I don't have control over what I'm doing?’ I also believe that future is not so far away.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Kyber, whose Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, is designed to react to market conditions to optimize fees, maximize returns
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In today’s episode, we interview Preston Van Loon. Preston co-founded Prysmatic Labs, one of the main teams building Ethereum 2.0, and has been leading that team for the past three years. On top of that, he recently founded a DeFi project which bundles the entire crypto market cap in one token to allow anyone to easily buy something like a crypto index. Preston talks about the latest in ETH2 —he says Etheruem’s big migration into its proof-of-stake chain is about six months away, give or take two months. He says Ethereum may be at a disadvantage relative to other Layer 1s, which are launching with more scalable technologies. But he also believes it will be hard for other chains to build the community Ethereum has, faster than Ethereum will upgrade.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Kyber, whose Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, is designed to react to market conditions to optimize fees, maximize returns
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s podcast we interviewSantiago Siri, who has been working on improving the way democracy works for over a decade. He started from the inside, co-founding a political party in Argentina, his home country, but realized traditional politics would change him before he could change politics. So he started building better representation for the new world and foundedDemocracy Earth Foundation. It’s worth noting, that he’s been hacked by communists two times in the process.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Kyber, whose Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, is designed to react to market conditions to optimize fees, maximize returns
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
In this week’s episode, we talk with Varun Kumar and Pranay Mohan from Hashflow, a new decentralized exchange that wants to unbundle Uniswap. What this means is, they want to keep the non-custodial side and the liquidity pools, but instead of finding prices with smart contacts and a formula, they use market makers applying their highly specialized strategies and algorithms behind the scenes. Anyone can become a market maker, and some may open their pools so that others will be able to share their capital in exchange for a portion of trading fees. Their bet is that they will combine machines and humans in just the right way, to provide cheaper rates at lower prices.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
- Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets
- Kyber, whose Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, is designed to react to market conditions to optimize fees, maximize returns
In this week’s episode, we interview Do Kwon, cofounder of the Terra ecosystem which includes a payments network, a stablecoin, a lending protocol and a synthetic assets platform. We talk about how he was able to achieve what most crypto companies can’t which is to get a broad non-crypto native user base. Terra’s Chai payments system, which uses the Terra stablecoin, has about 2.6M active users in Korea. Kwon says there’s so much money to be made without bringing new people in, that many developers just settle with looking inwards in crypto.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week's episode we interview 0xMaki, an anonymous DeFi developer contributing to SushiSwap and Yearn Finance protocols. We talk about growing Sushi beyond its drama-filled beginnings as a fork of Uniswap, into a DEX that can hold its own as the second-most active trading platform in Ethereum DeFi. He goes into the main pieces that set SushiSwap apart with its margin trading and a soon-to-be-released smart contract suite to easily launch tokens. He says, it’s short-sighted for DEX competitors to be fighting among each other, as they should be fighting outwards, to bring more people into DeFi, and not inwards trying to win over the people who are already here.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode we talk with the DeFi artist of the moment. Pplpleasr got into DeFi drawn in by the crazy yields but really stayed when she resonated with the community —the gaming-like, niche subculture of memes and internet-native humor. She started making videos for many DeFi teams, from Yeran to Pickle Finance. Her latest and best-known work though is the video she made for the highly anticipated v3 of Uniswap. The clip of a unicorn in an otherworldly oasis, Ethereum dapp symbols floating about, gained her universal praise. But it’s what happened later when it gets really interesting. Pplpleasr decided, like many other artists these days, to sell the video as an NFT. But unlike most artists fetching big chunks of cash, she was set on donating the proceeds to charity. Also unlike other auctions, it was a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, created just for the occasion, what ended up winning the piece.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
Jim Bianco has decades of experience as a macro markets researcher. He's been leading his firm Bianco Research since 1990 and was at UBS and Lehman Brothers before that. It was after installing MetaMask, and doing some yield farming and NFT investing, that he realized, DeFi is a new financial system, and it will replace the old one. And the reason is simple: it’s just better. He has carefully brought this up to his clients, but it’s been tough. Those that don’t underestimate open finance, are waiting to retire before they have to catch up. But Bianco thinks DeFi is taking over sooner than they think.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
- Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode we speak with Antonio Juliano, founder and CEO of dYdX, one of the biggest decentralized exchanges on Ethereum, focusing on derivatives. dYdX recently made news by being one of the first major DeFi projects to move to Layer 2.
One of the main goals for his team this year will be to further decentralize dYdX, Juliano said, from the order book to the control of their smart contracts. So yes, for those reading between the lines, that means decentralized governance, and Juliano isn’t ruling out a dYdX token. Juliano believes derivatives are going to be the biggest products in crypto and so his long-term goal is for dYdX to become one of the biggest crypto exchanges, period. He knows DEXes are just 5% of total crypto volume, but that’s up from 0% two years ago. He says, a lot of people are seeing the writing on the wall.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode we speak with Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital. He started his career at Goldman Sachs and then led a macro hedge fund at Fortress, which was shuttered in 2015. He then went all-in on crypto, in part thanks to convincing from his college roommate Joe Lubin, and founded Galaxy Digital, an investment bank for digital assets. After grinding through the 2018 and 2019 bear market, Mike says he can finally breathe. He is convinced that Bitcoin is finally derisked.
While Bitcoin is firmly established as digital gold, to him, Ethereum is a venture bet because it’s not totally finished yet. It's getting there, and so the bet is it's going to happen, not that it's happened. Novo is wildly bullish DeFi. He says the threat to the banking system and payments is DeFi, not Bitcoin. But that also means the big guys are going to fight back with lobbying and regulation because protocols like Uniswap and Aave are going after their business.
About the hype and rally in the crypto market, Novo says this time it’s different. Unlike in 2017, he doesn’t believe we’re in a bubble. He says we’re in a movement.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
- Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode I interview Ameen Soleimani, one of the most prolific builders in Ethereum. He’s the CEO of SpankChain, a blockchain-based adult entertainment platform, the co-creator of MolochDAO, a DAO to fund Ethereum projects, and the co-founder of Reflexer Labs, which created RAI, a purely ether-backed stablecoin.
We talk about the need of a purely ETH -backed stablecoin, and how RAI is so cypherpunk it’s not only not backed by fiat, but it’s also not pegged to the dollar, it’s only pegged to itself, and stabilized by its own algorithm. It’s a pretty radical experiment and Ameen has very high hopes for it: The goal is for Rai to become a global reserve currency.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s podcast episode, we speak with long-time crypto investor Qiao Wang. Wang is a partner at the DeFi Alliance and former head of product at Messari. Unlike many Bitcoiners who get into crypto because of their ideological views, or Ethereans attracted by the possibility of building decentralized apps, Wang had been a quant trader for 10 years when he first learned about Bitcoin, and it was the asset’s volatility and potential upside what drew him in. Years later, he’s still actively trading.
We talk about his portfolio and which coins look the most promising. He looks at all sorts of metrics to come to his trading conclusions. In the end though, he says, the market is purely driven by memes and Twitter influencers. About the current bull market, Wang says he’s 90% confident prices will go a lot higher. And while he doesn’t like to give price estimates, he still told me what he thinks the top for BTC and ETH will be for this cycle.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s episode, we speak with Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, billionaire investor and Shark Tank star. It’s been hard to pin down if Cuban is a crypto skeptic or believer. He has questioned the value of bitcoin and called its price surges a bubble, but he has also accepted crypto payments for his basketball team, and tweeted about using Aave and selling NFTs. You’ll have no doubt after listening to this interview where he stands: Cuban is a crypto bull, but more specifically a DeFi and Ethereum bull.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In this week’s podcast episode we interview MetaKovan, the pseudonymous investor who holds the largest known NFT collection in his Metapruse fund, which he leads with his (also pseudonymous partner) Twobadour. MetaKovan made waves in the surging NFT space after buying all 20 pieces of the Beeple collection at auction for $2.5M. In this interview, we dive into how exactly he managed to get his hands in the entire collection and what the bigger purpose of holding those pieces was.
MetaKovan didn’t buy the 20 pieces to just hold them in his wallet. Instead he and Twobadour built sprawling museums across the metaverse, added original ambient music by 3LAU, bundled it all together, and tokenized it. The B20 tokens are now the keys to owning this experience
Big thanks to our sponsors:
- Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
- Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
- Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
In today’s episode, I speak with Erik Voorhees, long-time crypto advocate and founder and CEO of ShapeShift. In this interview, he talks about how he was able to stop gathering information about his customers and take the exchange back to its roots, by leaning into DeFi. His plan is to create a platform that connects with all of the different DeFi applications, starting with decentralized exchanges.
Voorhees holds probably the most extreme view of anyone who has come on this podcast. He thinks we will see the collapse of the US dollar within our lifetime. He argues the level of US debt and continuous erosion of the currency is untenable. When this happens an entire financial ecosystem built on open, immutable blockchains will be the solution. He believes today’s developers aren’t just building a product for their customers. They’re building a life raft for the world after fiat falls apart.
Justin Blau, better known as 3LAU, is a DJ who frequently plays at all the major festivals, he produces his own successful tracks, as well as remixes for pop stars like Rihanna and Katy Perry. He became interested in blockchain technology because it can provide a means for fans to provably to own and digital content and for artists to better monetize their work. He believes this innovation has the potential to revolutionize the music industry.
In this week’s episode I interview Fred Chesnias, the CEO of Atari. The video game company now has a token and plans to release a wallet and even an exchange. The token is an erc20, which Atari hopes will get used across any game, not just their own. With the token, users will be able to buy Atari NFTs, which include wearables to make a fashion statement in the metaverse. Fred believes blockchain and crypto can be a way to make it out of poverty, even leveraging video games themselves, reselling avatars and in-game items.
Beyond blockchains he also talks about business; Chesnias was able to take Atari out of deep financial stress and turn it around. He gives advice to founders and business owners going through difficult times. One of the three main lessons he learned was to oversimplify. Listen to find out what else!
In this week’s episode, I speak with Robert Sharratt, managing director at CrescoFin, a Swiss-regulated crypto firm which wants to become a bank alternative. He says Cresco’s objective is to replace banking with code. And while that sounds revolutionary, he’s the first to admit he’s in a “boring business.” He’s not building a yield farming platform that can get you 1,000x yield. He’s building a savings account that’s backed by real-world assets like invoices, for users to deposit fiat currency in exchange for returns of about 3%. Instead of Yolo-ing into untested smart contracts, he’s offering a product that’s insured by Lloyd’s of London. While this may sound a lot like trad-fi, Ethereum smart contracts are used as the one source behind it all.
In today’s episode I talk with Jeff Garzik, the Bitcoin core developer turned DeFi builder. Jeff comes from leading Bloq, a blockchain infrastructure company focusing on enterprises. As much as decentralized finance is exciting and groundbreaking, he believes its lacking professionalism. Jeff believes DeFi needs to be easy for retail users and for institutional users, not just for crypto natives. With that goal in mind, Bloq is launching Vesper, a decentralized protocol for users to gain passive interest on their crypto. The innovation relative to other yield bouncers, is that users can pick a risk level and the protocol will invest in different strategies accordingly. It both competes with, and uses Yearn Finance. We also talked about what’s next for DeFi, and how he believes the space will trend towards “hybrid finance,” where traditional finance will progressively adopt this infrastructure to become more open and global.
In this week’s episode I speak with Stefan George, the cofounder and CTO of Gnosis. Gnosis is one of the OG Ethereum projects. It was founded in 2015 by Stefan and Martin Koppelman as a prediction market platform on Ethereum and it’s now an ecosystem of financial applications, with a decentralized multi-sig wallet, called Gnosis Safe, and a decentralized exchange. Most recently, Gnosis announced it will join other DeFi projects and launch a DAO, where it would transfer a large chunk of the ether and GNO tokens in its treasury for the community to manage.
This treasury is sizeable at around $100M dollars, due to the rising price of the 250,000 ETH they raised in a 2017 ICO. And this stash has been the core of a dispute with one of Gnosis token holders, hedge fund Arca. Arca claims the Gnosis token is trading below the value of the Gnosis treasury, and so they have proposed that Gnosis buy back their tokens at a value that’s between the current market value and the value of the treasury —or the book value.
Stefan argues the GNO market cap is miscalculated because it’s not counting the actual number of tokens in circulation and should be higher. He also says the Gnosis DAO should drive more value to GNO holders.
In this week’s episode I speak with E.G. Galano, cofounder of Infura, an infrastructure provider for Ethereum and other blockchains. Many Ethereum applications depend on Infura to run their nodes, and it became apparent why that’s problematic recently, when the service provider was having trouble connecting to the Ethereum blockchain, causing much of DeFi to break down. E.G. dives into the recent outage; he goes into what went wrong and what Infrua is doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He also talks about DeFi from the backstage perspective of an infrastructure provider, and what he says might get you feeling even more bullish on this space.
This weeks podcast episode is with Mona El Isa, the co-founder of Melon, a decentralized asset management protocol. Mona tells the story of how she started her career at Goldman Sachs trading equities, derivatives, and all kinds of financial instruments, for a decade. She then went to work with one of Goldman’s hedge fund clients, where she managed a long-short portfolio. With all that experience and $20 million dollars from a seed investor, she ventured on her own to launch a hedge fund —but failed. The time, costs and administrative hassle were too much to handle even with an investment of millions, which in that world, is actually pretty tiny. She came to the conclusion that the next step for her would be to build a blockchain-based protocol so that nobody would have to experience what she did when trying to set up an investment fund. A platform that made the process so much cheaper, faster and easier, that anybody could become a hedge fund manager. That’s how Melon Protocol came about.
In this week’s episode, I speak with Illia Polosukhin, cofounder of the Near Protocol and Fernando Martinelli, co-founder and CEO of Balancer Labs. Near is one of the up and coming Layer 1 chains, Balancer is a prominent DeFi protocol and application on Ethereum that will now also be on Near and other blockchains. As for Near being labeled an “Ethereum Killer” Illia says Near is “not trying to kill anybody.”He thinks finance is just a stepping stone for all the use cases enabled by blockchains and that Near can be the place where those consumer apps are built. Fernando says DeFi will live on many different Layer 1s, but he sees the space expanding into less than 10, not hundreds of chains. He remains very bullish on Ethereum and is betting on a flippening with Bitcoin in the near future, which Illia agreed would be “totally possible.”
In this week’s interview, I speak with Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder and CEO of crypto liquidity provider Alameda Research and derivatives exchange FTX, and with Anatoly Yakovenko, the creator of the Solana blockchain. Bankman-Fried, recently announced the launch of Serum, a DEX built on the Solana blockchain. SBF has become known to be a ruthless trader, but he argues he’s simply using DeFi protocols for what they were made. For Anatoly, the end goal of Solana is to find the fastest and cheapest way to scale cryptography so that people are able to have ownership and participation in the applications they use, and so that the financial system can become more open efficient.
This week’s interview is with Trevor McFedries, who is behind Lil Miquela, a 19-year-old aspiring pop star with almost 3M Instagram followers, striking deals with Clavin Klein and Prada. But what’s more surprising is that she’s not human. She’s a computer-generated, character. The company that Trevor co-founded, called Brud, created her image and life story. It’s only fitting then that Lil Miquela, who lives in a digital world, will start to leverage digital tokens.
[Note: Trevor says in the interview a Miquela drop on SuperRare would happen on Oct. 30 or 31, but they’ve since changed the date to November 17. So you’re still on time to participate.]
The founder of Summa speaks to The Defiant about why he has become disillusioned with decentralized finance. Stories of financial inclusion are much rarer than stories of somebody raising hundreds of millions in a token sale or people throwing money at the latest yield farming protocol. Still, he’s encouraged by the fact that it is much easier to launch a financial service than it ever has been before.
In this week’s podcast episode I interview Tor Bair, the founder of Secret Foundation, an organization which promotes privacy-preserving technologies, with a focus on Secret Network. Secret Network is a proof-of-stake, Cosmos-based blockchain, which has the capacity to process private transactions and, notably, private smart contracts.
Tor says that for Web3 to develop into the open and permissionless system its builders want, privacy should be at the core. His biggest fear is that in a Web3 future, intead of having single corporations control our data, governments will have the same access too. Without private blockchains, Web3 could devolve to enable surveillance capitalism, where auditability is weaponized. Tor talks about the technologies that are being built today to stop that from happening.
I interviewed Simon Taylor. Simon has the rare quality of being very knowledgeable about decentralized finance but also about fintech. He is the co-founder at fintech consultancy firm, 11:FS, and he previously led blockchain research at Barclays. He also leads the excellent newsletter Fintech Brain Food. Simon points to a world where fintech and defi start to converge. All the capital and users in the traditional finance will have to bridged into crypto at some point and that bridge can be fintech.
Hello Defiers! In this week’s interview, I spoke with Gavin McDermott. He's an investor at IDEO CoLab Ventures, the venture arm of design firm IDEO, and he’s one of the creators of Fair Launch Capital. While the name might suggest otherwise, Fair Launch Capital isn’t an investment firm, or at least it’s not a traditional investment firm. Instead, it gives startups no-strings-attached funding so that they can afford security audits and launch their projects in a safe way. They’re asked to consider paying it forward by returning at least the same amount they got but ideally more, to fund the next project.
The idea came after the team saw that many founders in crypto were feeling forced to either sell tokens before their platform launched or raise venture capital as one option to pay for audits, or release their projects without the proper security checks. Gavin is hoping fair launch capital provides a viable alternative to venture capital, even if it does end up disrupting his fund's own business model. Since the group unveiled this new funding mechanism late august, the term “fair launch” has taken a life of its own, becoming a gold standard for any new DeFi venture.
In this week’s episode, I spoke with Dan Elitzer and Clinton Bembry, who were part of the founding team of Yam. Yam Finance is an experiment in rebasing cryptocurrencies, plus token incentives, plus full on-chain governance, plus a DAO-like treasury managed by token holders. It’s also testing the power of the emoji and opened the flood gates to meme-based DeFi tokens.
Dan and Clinton tell me the back story of how this crazy project was created, how the group loosely coalesced in a chat group and from there it was just 10 days until launch. They talked about how the project blew past all their wildest expectations, and about the absolute terror of having hundreds of millions of dollars flow into the unaudited code they had pushed into the world.
This week’s interview is with Jeff Zirlin, aka Jihoz, growth lead at Axie Infinity. Axie is a digital game built on Ethereum, which involves cute animals going to battle against each other and taking control of your digital assets. The big vision is that as we increasingly live our lives in the digital world, digital assets will become more and more important and applications like Axie Infinity, will become more than just games, but places where people work and socialize. The key value that blockchains and NFT tokens add to this picture is that we’ll be able to actually own these assets. There will be no company or centralized entity able to ban an account and take their assets away.
Hello Defiers! In this week’s interview, we chatted with Grammy Award-winning DJ Andre Anjos, aka RAC. Many have seen cryptocurrencies as a way to decentralize the financial system, thanks to the innovation of digital scarcity. RAC says that digital scarcity can also help disrupt the music industry. His experiments have so far showed how distributed networks can be the underlying infrastructure that helps artists can sell their creations directly to fans; how tokens on open markets can help more accurately price goods and help them benefit from secondary trading of their products; and now how digital assets can help strengthen communities.
Stani Kulechov the founder and CEO of Aave. When we spoke Aave was the second-largest DeFi protocol, but in the days after our conversation, it rose to overtake MakerDAO and become the DeFi platform with the most assets held in its smart contracts, at over $1B in digital assets. It’s been an exponential rise for Aave, which launched just eight months ago and in that short time was able to climb the famous Defi Pulse Total Value Locked ranking to the top. It’s done so pushing DeFi forward by driving innovation in interest-generating tokens, flash loans and delegated credit lines, which are all lowering the barriers of entry to users from all corners of the world to access financial applications. We also get into all the recent yield farming craziness, which he wishes was more restrained.
Santiago Roel is partner at ParaFi Capital, one of the most active investment funds in DeFi. Before going full crypto, Santiago worked at JPMorgan’s investment banking arm, and then invested in fintech and software at a venture fund. He now uses his more traditional VC frameworks to analyze open financial protocols and finds that even by those metrics, DeFi comes out ahead. We also talked about the seemingly crazy new DeFi meme tokens and Santiago says to not underestimate their value. Maybe part of the reason traders are pouring millions into these tokens comes from the human desire to connect with others.
In this week’s episode I speak with Alex Masmej, the first person to raise money by selling tokens not linked to any project, but linked to himself, in a sort of self-IPO. Much like shareholders taking dividends, Alex token holders can have a share of the entrepreneur’s future earnings. The money raised has helped him cover living expenses as he plans to move from Paris to San Francisco and start a tech company. He’s willing to try almost anything and see what sticks. In one of his experiments, he let ALEX holders vote on his daily habits, which is how he came to run 5km almost daily. Most recently, he announced token rewards in exchange for holders to add liquidity to exchanges where Alex is traded. We talk about how to better align token holders' incentives with his own, what mainstream personal tokens may look like, and the Black Mirrorish quality of it all.
Andre Cronje is the developer of the yearn platform and YFI token. There’s this sort of mysticism around Andre: The solo genius builder who relentlessly releases code even if it hasn’t always been properly audited or tested. The DeFi wizard capable of turning a token which he himself claimed to be valueless to be worth thousands of dollars in a few days. He talks about the actual paralyzing fear that comes with building money protocol, the huge responsibility he feels, and how finger-pointing has caused him to quit the space before. But he says the drive to continue innovating has helped him overcome that fear and keep building.
In today’s episode, I speak with Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee. He was already telling Wired magazine about programmatic finance back in 2016, so it’s no surprise Olaf is very excited about the growth and promise of DeFi. He thinks smart contracts are enabling different ways of organizing people and capital, turning traditional corporations into internet sovereign corporations. He believes that given a compelling underlying product, liquidity mining will be an incredibly effective mechanism for accelerating network effects, which will be applicable to many different types of business models even beyond financial services.
In this week’s epidose I speak with Bette Chen and Ruitao Su, who are building DeFi on Polkadot. While most of DeFi is being built on Etheruem, here is the team creating an entire new financial infrastructure on the decentralized network built by the Web3 Foundations and Parity Technologies —which was founded by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood. Their project called Acala, has been mostly known for its stablecoin, but they’re also building staking derivatives —a token that’s a derivative of staked DOT tokens and can be used in DeFi— and a DEX. Each one of these pieces is a huge undertaking on their own, but this ambitious team is making all of them at the same time.
In this week's episode, I speak with Lasse Clausen, founding partner of 1kx, one of the most active venture funds in DeFi. A typical VC question in the traditional tech space is it a 10x? Is it 10 times faster, better, cheaper? This concept has been dressed up very nicely as like, often with grand statements about making the world a better place, but really, Lasse says, VCs are subsidizing a market takeover. The real question they're asking is, can this become a national monopoly, where users are so locked in, that they have no choice but to use the product. Lasse thinks crypto will crack this system open and that the paradigm shift is so big that there will be some networks that are really 1,000x improvement over the status quo. That's why his fund is called 1kx.
This week’s interview is with Vansa Chatikavanij , the CEO of OMG Network. The Bangkok-based project formerly known as OmiseGo has spearheaded research and work on a scaling technology for Ethereum called Plasma. Scaling solutions will be key for Ethereum and therefore DeFi, to continue growing. The network is already at capacity, and gas prices are getting prohibitively high, especially for complex DeFi transactions.
In this interview we talk about OMG’s beginnings, the changes the project went through from conception until shipping, realizing that marketing should come after the project’s launch, and the different Ethereum scaling solutions. Most interesting to me is Vansa’s big vision of global value transfer as a basic human right and how she wants to help make that a reality.
In this week’s interview, I spoke with Brandon Iles, the CTO of Ampleforth. Brandon is a former Google and Uber software engineer, and built his first crypto app together with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Today, he’s trying to rebuild the way money works.
For its huge ambitions, Ampleforth is a relatively little-known project. It wants to create an entirely new category of monetary assets — one that doesn’t have Bitcoin’s gold-like fixed supply, it doesn’t have Ether’s oil-like utility, it’s not fiat-backed like USDC, and it’s not collateralized like Dai. So what is it? It’s a token — AMPL— whose value comes from having a price which moves in a predetermined band, thanks to a smart contract which automatically contracts or expands its supply. The end result is a token that trades at close to $1, the 2019 US dollar, to be precise, but Ampleforth doesn’t like to be called a stablecoin —you're about to find out why.
We also talked about the project’s recent liquidity mining program called Geyser, where traders can earn AMPL by supplying liquidity on Uniswap, and how for Brandon, the dizzying activity around these schemes is proof of DeFi’s success. Brandon also discussed the project’s roadmap, from being used as a way to diversify collateral in lending platforms like Maker and Compound, to denominating debt obligations, to very far out into the future, replacing central bank issued currencies.
This week’s interview is with Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer, co-founders of crypto venture fund Framework Ventures. Michael and Vance live and breathe crypto. The live together, work together, and spend all their time analyzing crypto startups, and actively participating in the protocols they fund. It’s how they’ve become some of the deepest thinkers in the space. They talked about how the emergence of token-based business models in the past year has been a breakthrough for crypto, legitimizing the space as a new asset class. they discussed how they determine whether a protocol will accrue value.
Vance believes new developments in decentralized exchanges this year will drive 10% of centralized exchanges’ liquidity. Michael believes the hot new thing, governance tokens, are akin to early startup equity. They also talked about why they love the philosophy driving SNX and discussed why the underdog mentality of LINK Marines is bullish for Chainlink. But first, we’ll start with how they got into crypto in the first place.
This week’s interview is with Aragon co-founder Luis Cuende. Aragon is a platform for users to create their own decentralized autonomous organizations. DAOS are organizations that have as much of its operations put into code as possible, and have smart contracts execute those operations. Owners hold tokens of the DAO, much like owners of a company hold shares, and make management decisions by voting with those tokens. They’re as transparent, immutable and secure as the blockchains they run on. Aragon wants to make it easy for anyone to build these futuristic companies.
Cuende started this project in 2016, at a time when most had given up on these organizations after the crash of what’s likely the most well-known DAO so far, called The DAO. The space has recovered and in the past year, thousands of DAOs holding millions of dollars have flourished. The dream of more fair and open organizations, which anyone can access and create, is back at a time when the world seems to really need them. People are losing trust in institutions and crypto can provide an alternative. But Cuende says he’s saddened to discover the space is nowhere near ready.
In this week’s interview I talk with Alexis Gauba, the cofounder of Opyn. Alexis and her team built the first decentralized options market, on Ethereum. These instruments give investors a tool to protect against market volatility and Black Swan events, like hacks, bank runs, and big price crashes. In DeFi the risk is especially high, which explains why Opyn has taken off since its February launch.
Options are a key piece in traditional finance and make up the most liquid market in the world, with contracts representing trillions of dollars in value. Opyn contracts are not quite yet, and even if notional volume grew five times in the past month, it’s still under $40 million. But if DeFi ends up overtaking centralized finance, we could be witnessing the rebirth of this monster-sized market. The difference is that this time, everyone can access it, and anyone can build their own financial instruments on open sourced protocols.
Alexis shares more about how Opyn was born, the project’s traction, the next markets the team plans to add and what innovative projects devs are building on top of the protocol. She also gives a peak at what Opyn V2 might look like.
This week’s interview is with Sergey Nazarov, the cofounder of oracle provider Chainlink. The way blockchain applications get their data has proven to be crucial, as failures in those systems have been at the core of many of the latest attacks in decentralized finance. He says developers are currently underestimating the complexities of building data aggregators and oracle systems and says, the only reason these dangerous patterns are not as discussed is because the losses have not been Mt. Gox level. In this conversation Nazarov makes the case on why the Chainlink platform is meant to help avoid those risks. We also talk about the main trends he’s seeing in the space, Chainlink’s plans for the coming months, and his vision for a more decentralized future.
This week's episode is an interview with Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. We talked bout everything from crypto in the pandemic, to Facebook's Libra and stablecoins, to DeFi and their ETH holdings.
This week’s interview is with Fernando Martinelli, co-founder and CEO of Balancer Labs. Balancer Labs is an AMM with a twist. Instead of liquidity providers having to deposit tokens in a pool at a pre-determined ratio together with a more liquid token (usually ETH), Balancer enables users to create token pools that have any ratio they want between their tokens. They can use any combination of tokens, and can even exclude ETH. The pools automatically rebalance when tokens’ price change, so that the same ratio is maintained. This way, liquidity providers are effectively creating something like a tokenized index fund, or ETF, in which anyone can invest. On the other side of the protocols are the liquidity takers, or traders, who can exchange tokens from these pools, or “ETFs.”
Traders pay a small fee, determined by liquidity providers, which means that unlike in traditional finance, where you have to pay ETF providers to trade index funds, you can create your own fund and get paid for it.
Fernando explains how Balancer works, and gives the scoop on what’s coming up next, which includes, an interface for non-technical users to create their own token pools, a Balancer token to be launched in V2, liquidity provider rewards using this new protocol token, and plans for decentralized governance. He also talks about Balancer’s business model, the steps it took to ensure the protocol is safe and the level of control the team has over the protocol —which he says is basically zero.
Emin Gun Sirer is a Cornell University computer science professor who has been deeply involved in the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities from the very early days. We talk about how he got started in the field, building a cryptocurrency long before Bitcoin. Gun, as friends call him, then turned his attention to Ethereum, notably catching the bug in The DAO, but failing to alert the community about it.
After years scrutinizing existing blockchains, he’s back at making one himself with AVA, whose testnet launched two weeks ago. He explains the inner workings of this network, the first built over the Avalanche protocol, and how it can process several thousands of transactions per second at latencies of under one second.
He also talks about his plans to release a subnetwork called Athereum shortly after the AVA mainnet launches in July. Athereum will be almost identical to Ethereum; it will replicate its smart contracts and assets, and ETH holders will hold the equivalent amount of ATH. Sirer says the intention is for Athereum to serve as a safety net in case something goes wrong with ETH 2.0. If this sounds like Ethereum’s old friend wants to bring on some serious competition to the second-biggest chain, that’s because he is. Still, he’s quick to highlight he wants Ethereum to succeed and that he’s not after Ethereum dollars, but rather after money flows that are outside of Ethereum.
Hello Defiers! This week’s interview is with MyEtherWallet founder and CEO Kosala Hemachandra. As the head of one of the most popular Ethereum interfaces, Kosala has a unique perspective on how the global pandemic has impacted activity. He also shared how coronavirus has disrupted his own life, and talks about what it’s like to run a company from his bedroom at his family’s home in Sri Lanka, on opposite timezones as the rest of his team. He also talks about how crypto was built for crises, about the importance of building a decentralized product —if it’s custodial, it’s not worth it— and what he believes the future of digital wallets will look like. Lastly, he told me about MEW’s next big projects: a DEX.
In this week’s episode we talk with Daniel Wang, CEO and founder of the Loopring protocol. The exchange built on the protocol launched a little over a month ago, with the goal of providing a non-custodial platform, meaning it allows users to keep control of their funds, with similar performance in throughput and cost as centralized exchanges. There’s mind boggling technology with funny names behind this protocol —zero-knowledge proofs, Snarks, Starks,— which Wang demystifies and explains.
We talked about how scalability is a relative and not an absolute measure. To him that means Ethereum 2.0, an upgrade meant to increase the tractions per second on the network, won’t magically solve all scalability issues and Layer 2 solutions, which take part of applications’ data and computation off chain, will still be needed. To him though, users’ security is the wholly grail, and Ethereum is the best place to get it.
Wang also lamented lack of accessibility to Ethereum dapps and dexes in China, and talked about Loopring’s plans to launch a smart wallet geared for the Chinese market which will hopefully help solve this problem.
These are some of the key topics we discussed:
- Loopring origins and having to give back most ICO funds
- The team’s decision to go all-in on zero-knowledge proofs
- The protocol’s tradeoffs: more centralization for faster and cheaper transactions
- Why users should use non-custodial exchanges instead of centralized trading platforms
- Lack of access to Ethereum dapps in China and smart wallets as the gateway to mass adoption
- Ethereum dapps scalability issues and Layer 2 solutions with Eth 2.0
In this week’s episode we speak with Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO, the largest lending platform by assets in decentralized finance and the issuer of the Dai stablecoin. Rune has been in crypto since 2011 and is no stranger to volatility and crazy market conditions. Still, last month was the most shocking for him yet. On March 12th, MakerDAO’s mechanism to heal loans that become under-collateralized broke down amid the market crash, allowing one trader to run off with more than $4 million in free ether. He calls it Maker’s toughest test yet, and he believes the protocol passed it.
Key things we talked about:
- MakerDAO’s plan to hand control to its community and dissolve the Maker Foundation
- MKR auction and token whales
- The decision to add centralized collateral to back Dai
- Whether Maker will add Bitcoin as collateral and create a euro-pegged Dai
- Collateral holders who lost 100% of their funds in the March 12 crash
- Rune’s long-term vision for DeFi and Maker, as an enabler for financial inclusion