My guest today is Michael O'Rourke, Founder of the Pocket Network. Pocket Network is a blockchain data platform built for applications that uses cost-efficient economics to coordinate and distribute data at scale, enabling seamless interactions between blockchains and applications. With Pocket, the use of blockchains can be simply integrated into websites, mobile apps, IoT and more, giving developers the freedom to put blockchain-enabled applications into the “pocket” of every mainstream consumer. Before starting Pocket, Michael was an IOS developer and solidify dev. He also is the founder of the Tampa Bay Blockchain Developer Meetup. Our conversation contains a wealth of knowledge on the plumbing and infrastructure of digital assets. We discuss how nodes work, how Pocket incentivizes people to run full nodes, and the role nodes play in decentralizing a protocol. We also discuss how to do due diligence on projects and what metrics to look at when doing research on a project. A few other topics we touched on were the Tampa Blockchain scene, the evolution of Ethereum, protocol governance, and much more. --- Shopping.io: Shopping.io is the leader in mainstream Crypto E-commerce solutions. This is the first time Crypto E-commerce has ever gone international, building the bridge behind Crypto and retail. My listeners get an additional 2% off on top of all loyalty program discounts, so be sure to check them out at https://untoldstories.link/shopping.io --- Kava: Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems and financial applications on DeFi’s most trusted, scalable and secure earning platform. Built to scale on the largest decentralized PoS network, Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality . To learn more visit https://untoldstories.link/kava --- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co