Charlie kicks off the show discussing Bitcoin’s resurgence with recent banking failures. Charlie gives an introduction to Jonathan Chester and his company Bitwage. Jonathan shares what made him interested in Bitcoin in 2013 and how things have changed since he first joined the industry. Jonathan and Charlie reflect on why Bitwage and Bitinstant were created. Jonathan explains how Bitwage works and the habits of its users. Jonathan and Charlie discuss paying bills directly with Bitcoin. Jonathan talks about the avenue Bitcoin provides for populations outside of the US to protect wealth. Charlie shares why he thinks Bitcoin is the superior, easier currency in most countries. Jonathan explains how Bitcoin can’t have a bank run.

Charlie introduces Aaron Kaplan and Prometheum. Aaron discusses his thoughts on securities laws serving as a framework for crypto. Aaron explains the significance of the DAO report. Charlie and Aaron discuss tokens going through a proverbial car wash to become compliant. Aaron walks through Prometheum’s capabilities and how it will help companies launch compliantly. Charlie and Aaron speculate on how “bank runs” on crypto could’ve been avoided. Aaron shares what he views as securities in crypto and how Prometheum can support them. Aaron provides his thoughts on how regulators and the crypto industry ended up where they are today. Aaron speculates on how recent companies failed so spectacularly in the crypto industry. Aaron shares Prometheum’s beliefs on digital assets as securities and how they will support them. 

Charlie begins the show by introducing Hugo Philion and giving him the opportunity to share how Flare began in the crypto industry and why oracles are so important. Hugo explains Flare’s state connector. Charlie provides his thoughts on proof of stake. Hugo shares that State Connector is the solution to the tyranny of the majority of stake. Hugo explains Flare’s Web Connector and the broad distribution of Flare. Hugo shares how Songbird came about and gives a fun example of how it was recently used. Charlie and Hugo talk about how to solve the cross-chain problem.

Charlie and Benton Yaun begin the show by discussing the Wall Street Journal’s article on the Metaverse being a Meh-taverse and their interpretation of how the metaverse is currently performing. Benton shares his unconventional background and how he came into the crypto world. Charlie talks about the evolution of online communities within crypto and Benton shares his insights on growing a community around a project. Charlie and Benton discuss super fans and whether or not Elon Musk saved Twitter. Benton shares what gaps he’s seeing in the social space currently. Charlie and Benton dive into ChatGPT from a social perspective. Benton predicts how large audiences will be onboarded to Web3 and blockchain tech. Benton discusses messaging and brand narratives and the importance of both of these in building brands. Benton shares what platforms target various audiences.  

Charlie begins the show with an introduction to Protocol Labs and IPFS, asking Juan to take him back to the beginning. Juan shares the goals of IPFS and how they accomplish those goals. Juan explains the difference between storage and content delivery and how IPFS comes into play. Juan discusses what drew him to Web3. Charlie and Juan discuss Orwellian censorship examples in history and how crypto comes into play. Juan explains why mesh networks didn’t take off. Juan dives into the power that the centralized internet gives to corporations and governments. Juan talks about blockchain adoption and how he sees AI integrating into the world. Juan shares his thoughts on trust, but verify. Juan explains why tokens are successful in blockchain technology. Charlie compares the French pension system to rewards on blockchain. Juan shares the importance of verifiability, even without transparency. Juan and Charlie ideate how the adoption of blockchain could impact daily life.

Manu Drijvers kicks off the discussion differentiating DFINITY’s Internet Computer from other EVM-based smart contracts. Manu talks about how DFINITY scales without heading toward centralization. Charlie and Manu discuss nodes and determining their level of decentralization. Manu shares his background and what drives him, diving into cryptography. Charlie and Manu talk about the term Bitcoiners and what it means to them. Manu explains how DFINITY’s ckBTC works. Manu shares what he thinks the relationship between AI and crypto will be as we move forward. Charlie shares his experience with ChatGPT. Manu explains why DFINITY is pursuing a wrapped Bitcoin option. 

Charlie and Mark Miller take a trip to the past and the start of smart contracts. Charlie kicks off the show sharing an abstract that Mark wrote in 1988 that envisioned a future of smart contracts. Mark shares what was missing from that abstract when it comes to blockchain, diving into solving the problems of ignorance and malice brought on by centralization. Mark explains Polycentrism and how it relates to consensus mechanisms. Charlie shares his thoughts on Bitcoin and its lack of need to make decisions. Mark talks about the road to immutability and the DAO bug on Ethereum. Mark shares info on Agoric and how it’s building a blockchain on utilizing familiar technology. Mark dives into finality, proof-of-stake, and differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum. Charlie and Mark hypothesize consensus scenarios with Ethereum. Mark shares Agoric’s capabilities and its governance mechanism.

Patrick McClain with The Reimagined podcast, Anthony Garretts from Gonzaga and Danny Cook at the University of Illinois interview Charlie Shrem. Charlie gives a history of who he is and how he got involved in crypto. Charlie discusses crypto company investing woes and how SBF relates. Charlie provides background on BitInstant and what it means to be a Bitcoiner. Charlie and Patrick discuss transparency and freedom and how blockchain technology can make companies more money. Charlie shares how his view of Bitcoin has changed over the years and how it first became valuable. Charlie provides his perspective on how Bitcoin improves lives and has a value proposition worldwide. Charlie predicts how blockchain tech will be used in the future. Charlie addresses how crypto previously scaled and how it will scale moving forward. Patrick dives into a big block and small block explanation and the conspiracies about Bitcoin being attacked. Charlie reflects on these conspiracy theories and his thoughts regarding them. Charlie shares how he continues to learn in this industry. Charlie gives his thoughts on how mass adoption of blockchain will happen. Charlie and Patrick end the show giving advice to students who are considering a career in blockchain. 

Former Bloomberg journalist and founder of DeCential Media Matt Leising and Charlie start the show discussing how they feel about the industry so far in 2023. Matt shares his thoughts on journalism and its growth and challenges within the blockchain niche. Matt provides his experience with writing his book Out of the Ether. Matt gives his thoughts on why people say the early Ethereum heist was the best thing that happened to the industry. Matt shares why he made the decision to leave Bloomberg to create DeCential. Matt gives a brief history of the Ethereum heist and how the whitehackers became involved. Charlie and Matt discuss how this industry is full of interesting stories. Charlie and Matt compare the crypto community to religion. Matt shared what pushed him over the edge to become a crypto “zealot.” Matt shares his experience getting to know Vitalik during his book writing. 

Charlie begins the show by introducing CIO of Fox and President of Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL), Melody Hildebrandt and the importance of her as a guest. Melody dives into how BCL was dreamed up. Melody discusses how Fox is a risk-taking business and how that’s important in setting the foundation in blockchain and moving the industry forward. Melody shares their experience bringing components of The Masked Singer to the blockchain and the failures and successes of teaching a new audience how to use this new technology. Melody discusses the importance of identifying the value proposition to get fans and creators interested and engaged with this technology. Charlie talks about “Just Dance” and the disappointing finance and incentives for creators. Charlie and Melody talk about putting the Hollywood Waterfall on-chain and how that benefits creators and their income stream. Melody talks about Krapopolis and how NFT holders have helped shape its creation. Melody gives her thoughts on regulations and Fox’s approach. Melody teases Fox’s possible future DAO plans. Melody and Charlie talk about SMS’s breakthrough moment and hypothesize what crypto’s moment will be. Melody explains how Fox determines what’s working and what’s not when it comes to crypto activations. Charlie reflects on his experiences in crypto and how important friction is in the industry. Melody talks about “signed trust” and where it is worth pursuing. 

Charlie gives an introduction to Paulina and noncustodial onboarding. Paulina explains how noncustodial onboarding works. Paulina shares why they created Ramp. Charlie reflects on his experience with onboarding with BitInstant. Paulina shares her experience in the bear and bull markets and her observations. Charlie and Paulina discuss scams over the years in the crypto sphere and how Ramp is attempting to educate consumers. Charlie and Paulina discuss choke points from traditional banks and how Ramp addresses them. Paulina describes how Ramp handles KYC and avoids fraud. Paulina talks about what she think crypto is about and how Ramp aims to educate as much as possible. Paulina explains how Ramp avoids making onboarding a cumbersome process. Paulina shares how Ramp determines what customers want. Paulina gives a look into her experience at ETHDenver this year. Paulina explains why she appreciates competition in the on ramp space.

zkLend Co-founder Jane Ma introduces herself and shares info on zkLend and how its products work. Jane explains how zkLend connects off-chain assets with on-chain protocols. Jane and Charlie talk about how regulation will play into decentralized lending. Jane and Charlie talk about the future of blockchain scalability, including an in-depth discussion of rollups. Jane shares why she feels decentralization is so important and Charlie concurs with his thoughts on recent events underlining its importance. Jane discusses how zkLend will be a responsible part of the future of defi. Jane dives into the struggle of balancing safe, responsible moves for the company with the urge to tackle the unexplored frontiers of the crypto industry. Charlie gives his thoughts on governments and law enforcement being involved in crypto and how the industry should work with them. Jane shares her sentiment on the industry. Jane and Charlie give their thoughts on equity in the crypto community. Jane shares women’s resource SheFi.

Are you tired of the centralized web holding us back from true decentralization? Are you ready to hear from an expert in the field who's leading the charge towards a truly censorship-resistant internet? Look no further than our latest episode featuring Harrison Hines, CEO of Fleek!

With nearly a decade of experience in the blockchain industry, Harrison Hines is a force to be reckoned with. He's leading the charge towards a truly decentralized Web3, and he's not afraid to call out the shortcomings of the current Web2 infrastructure tech stack that's holding us back.

Harrison's insights on the growth and development of Web3 will leave you feeling inspired and informed. He'll discuss the importance of a censorship-resistant internet and how centralized platforms like AWS and Cloudflare are keeping the industry stuck in Web2.5.

You'll also get an inside look at Fleek, the Web3 developer platform that Harrison founded with a mission to provide truly decentralized web development. With over 64,000 companies currently using the platform and more than 500,000 daily file uploads, it's clear that Fleek is making waves in the Web3 space.

But that's not all. Harrison will also share his vision for the future of a truly decentralized internet through real Web3 solutions. You won't want to miss this edgy and informative episode, so tune in now!

Charlie kicks off the show by introducing Mike’s background and a bit about ConsenSys’ background. Mike dives into what he is most excited about in the incubator right now. Charlie and Mike discuss the word “token” in crypto and why it needs to change. Charlie and Mike talk about Gitcoin and taking possession of what we put out into the digital world. Mike discusses the different types of DAOs and Charlie ideates on real-world use cases for DAO technology. Mike and Charlie talk about Rug Radio and podcasting and how to empower listeners to contribute. The conversation turns to building out the infrastructure not just for crypto’s sake, but for everyone else that will use blockchain in the future. Mike discusses the potential of the industry and empowering individuals and creators. Mike provides his view on money crypto versus tech crypto and the public sentiment surrounding both. Charlie and Mike compare managing a media company to working within the blockchain space. Follow Mike at @mkriak on Twitter.

Charlie starts the conversation off with a discussion about singe key wallets and the questions recent hacks have uncovered about them. Christoph introduces Safe, previously Gnosis Safe, explaining its background and potential use cases. Christoph shares breaking news ahead of ETHDenver. Charlie and Christoph discuss a collaborative approach to the financial world. They talk about building a framework where people can manage their keys in a simple way with minimal trust necessary. Charlie and Christoph dive in to Safe’s manifesto and what it means on a deeper level. Christoph discusses the truth behind last year’s crypto industry failures. Charlie and Christoph touch on fundamental human flaws and how they played into last year’s industry failures. Christoph explains how Safe works as a smart contract and how regulations play into Safe’s infrastructure. Charlie and Christoph give their takes on the definition of DAOs.

Charlie is joined by Diego Di Tommaso, the Co-Founder and COO of OVR, an open-source, AR platform powered by Ethereum Blockchain.

Diego and Charlie talk about the future, where AR will begin to augment our perception and field of view in the physical world, and how OVR’s digital lens is making this possible today.

Diego explains what will come next, revealing how will soon be able to bring our “whole body” into the metaverse through motion tracking bodysuits, unlocking new opportunities for human communication and connection in the virtual world.

Charlie starts the show off by talking about being on a film set with his wife and how it fuels him creatively. Max discusses how he views tokenomic and why he values token use cases outside of turning them into fiat. Charlie and Max compare the Fed to those creating tokenomics for crypto projects and the importance of data. Max shares what people should look for when determining if they should join and/or invest in a project. Charlie and Max discuss ETH staking and the upcoming Beacon chain unlock. Max talks about how regulations impact his investment decisions. Max explains how Aleph Zero works and what layer 1s can do with enterprises. Max talks about the assumptions you have to make when investing in early technology like Web3. Max talks about his investment in Overnight Oats (code coming soon?). Charlie and Max share entrepreneur stories. Max and Charlie discuss avoiding burnout.

Charlie Shrem sits down with Riccardo Pelligrini, Co-founder and CEO of Web3 Builders Inc., the makers of TrustCheck.xyz, to discuss the issue and prevalence of scamming in Web3.

With users only ever “one wrong button” away from a “rugpull”, “honeypot” or “drainer”, Riccardo gives listeners a peak under the hood to explain how TrustCheck works, and how small behavioral shifts can help keep the community safe.

Charlie reflects on the 9 year anniversary of his arrest. Charlie and David Wachsman compare FTX and Mt. Gox. David and Charlie discuss the passion then and now in the Bitcoin and crypto communities. David reflects on the mainstream perspective of crypto. Charlie discusses the positives of the reduced interest in crypto post-FTX. Charlie shares his views on maximalism in the industry. Charlie talks about why decentralized matters to him. Charlie shares how he learned about Bitcoin and why he created the Bitcoin Foundation. David and Charlie discuss the challenges of communicating innovation to the masses. David and Charlie share how they got their first Bitcoin. The conversation wraps up with Charlie's advice to exchanges post-FTX.

Josip Rupena introduces himself and his company Milo. Charlie and Josip discuss crypto mortgages, how they work, and why they are important. Charlie talks about how decentralization plays out in mortgages and lending. Josip and Charlie discuss possibilities for the future of blockchain integration in today's world. Charlie shares his thoughts on the true meaning of charity in the industry. Charlie and Josip forecast how the lending industry will evolve and the possible implications. Charlie compares this year's industry failures with the 2008 market crash and predicts what it means for the future. Josip announces that he is launching a crypto lending product.

Security is critical to unlocking the potential of DeFi and creating an environment where mass adoption can occur, but security is contingent on education. How do we teach what they need to know when crypto education is shrouded with tribalism and mounting politicization, and access is only typically reserved for those with the financial means?

Charlie speaks with Jessica Levesque the Executive Director at CryptoCurrency Certification Consortium (C4), the industry leader in professional blockchain certifications. Together they discuss how we can democrotize crypto education and give the next generation of users and industry pioneers the tools they need.

Charlie introduces Alex Kriete of Motus Capital Management and his storied history with Citi Bank. Alex and Charlie discuss the continued need for centralized banking alongside decentralization and how the industry should move forward post-FTX. Alex describes his company’s approach to managing investments in a volatile market, then pivots to why Motus dove into crypto. Alex shares an example of his fundamental approach to the market and how they evaluate tokens and projects. Charlie and Alex discuss, at a high level, avoiding the FTX fallout. Alex shares insights on deal flow and macroeconomic factors. Alex shares why Motus exists and how important education is for the growth of the industry. Charlie and Alex compare the dotcom era to crypto and its potential future. Alex shares his experience at FTX Bahamas. Alex and Charlie talk the importance of reflection in the crypto industry. Charlie reflects on his experience at Quantam Miami and the 9 year anniversary of his arrest. 

Today’s episode takes a look at blockchain security, mainstream user experience, comics for blockchain, bridges and more. The conversation begins with Will introducing GBC.AI and explaining how its simple technology can keep blockchain users from getting scammed. After reflecting on public sentiment of crypto the last six months, Charlie and Will discuss how imperative security in the space will be moving forward. The conversation then dives into the importance of user interface and experience to move blockchain technology into regular mainstream use. Will dives into blockchain use cases and specific examples of how GBC.AI can partner with protocols. Will shares analogies to demonstrate how GBC.AI can serve as a trusted quality assurance in blockchain that’s independent, impartial and trustworthy. Will shares how comics became a part of the company’s pitch deck and the process of creating them. Charlie and Will ideate on creating the ‘Clipy’ of GBC.AI and discuss inputting a mascot for the mainstream crowds. Will goes into the business side of Wallet Guardian and how they plan to build out the B2B products, similar to Web2 antivirus software. The conversation turns to bridges and speculation of their future. 

Today’s guest is Nick Johnson, the founder and lead developer of ENS. Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain. ENS converts human-readable Ethereum addresses like john.eth into the machine-readable alphanumeric codes you know from wallets like Metamask. The reverse conversion -- associating metadata and machine-readable addresses with human-readable Ethereum addresses -- is also possible. Nick previously worked as a software engineer at Ethereum from June 2016 to August 2018, where they implemented a trending system to identify trending terms on Lumi, improved integration with Twitter, and made significant improvements to the efficiency, scalability, and monitoring of backend systems. Prior to Ethereum, Nick worked as a senior software engineer at Google from June 2014 to June 2016. At Google, they were a primary point of contact for external developers with questions and problems using Google App Engine, and they wrote client libraries and SDK code to improve the user experience with App Engine. Nick also wrote extensive technical blog posts to help users with specific App Engine technologies, and they gave talks at high profile technical conferences around the world on subjects related to App Engine development. Nick Johnson completed a BSc in Computer Science at the University of Canterbury. We discuss a variety of topics including ENS, Digital Identities, Ethereum, Web3, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Nick’s journey to crypto and why he is so passionate about wallet addresses. Nick shares his first experience with Bitcoin but didn’t really understand the value proposition. Nick explains how crypto eventually clicked for him when he discovered Ethereum. Nick shares his experience working for the Ethereum foundation. We discuss the various tradeoffs between working for startups versus the corporate environment. Nick shares how NameCoin was an inspiration for ENS and how they were able to learn from NameCoin’s mistakes. We discuss what we are most excited about the upcoming trends for 2023. Nick shares why he is very excited of ZK-rollups. We discuss the relationship between ENS labs and the ENS DAO. We focus on the future of DAOs and why it is so disruptive. We discuss the organizational structure of DAOs and the importance of proper identity verification practices for DAOs. Nick explains the importance of removing the politicking and governance capture in DAOs. We discuss how Web3 enables people to own their digital identity. Our final conversation topic centered around ENS’s 2023 roadmap. Nick discusses their upcoming Name Wrapper and their commitment to long term sustainability. Please enjoy my conversation with Nick Johnson.

Jordan Fried is a blockchain evangelist and crypto-capitalist. He’s currently the Chairman and CEO of Immutable Holdings, “The Blockchain Holding Company.” Immutable Holdings is a collection of industry-leading businesses within the digital assets ecosystem. Our mission is to demystify and democratize digital assets by building products and services that increase awareness and adoption of digital assets for both retail and institutional users. We’re capitalizing on market opportunities made possible by the ongoing innovation and evolution of the digital asset ecosystem with our portfolio of businesses including: NFT.com, Immutable Asset Management, 1-800-Bitcoin, HBAR Labs, CBDC.com, and Immutable Advisory. Previously Jordan was part of the founding team behind Hedera Hashgraph (Hedera.com). He served as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Hedera from inception in 2017 until the end of 2020, signing partnerships with Google, IBM, Boeing, and LG Electronics while also launching $HBAR into one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies in the world. Jordan also co-founded and served as CEO of Buffered VPN, one of the most trusted personal VPN services online until it was acquired in the first quarter of 2017. In 2012 Jordan discovered Bitcoin and never turned back. Today he is an angel investor in companies like Buffer.com, Clearview.ai, Hive.org, and other early-stage startups. He has been featured in Wired Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Time.com, and Success.com. He frequently speaks at events around the world about entrepreneurship, blockchain, NFTs, decentralization, and the future of money. We discuss a variety of topics including Bitcoin and Crypto, NFT.com, Defining Success, Perseverance, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing being comfortable with uncomfortability. Jordan shares his Bitcoin origin story and we discuss how everything happens for a reason. We discuss some of the similarities of our backstories. Our next conversation focused on success. Jordan shares his advice about how to position yourself for success. We discuss how content compounds and why creating content is a great way to establish yourself as an authority within a niche. Our next conversation focused on how Jordan became on of the members of the founding team of Hedera. Jordan shares his experience of being full-time in crypto while experiencing his first crypto bear market and the whorl wind of emotions that spurred. Jordan discusses the mantra that helped him get through the bear market and how anyone can apply that mantra to help them get through difficult times in their own lives. We discuss the importance of going all in and how being fully committed is one of the keys to success. We discuss the possible crypto trends for 2023. Jordan shares what sectors and projects he’s most excited about and why. Our final discussion centered around defining success and what it means to be successful. Please enjoy my conversation with Jordan Fried.

Today’s guest is Steve Walbroehl, Chief Technology Officer / Chief Security Officer and cofounder of Halborn. Halborn is a blockchain cybersecurity firm that aims to secure the blockchain and protect users against data and monetary. Operating across the software development lifecycle, Halborn provides a suite of products and services designed to identify and close vulnerabilities in Web3 applications, helping to create the security standards that the market lacks. The company serves a diverse global client base spanning Layer 1 blockchains, infrastructure providers, financial institutions, and application and game developers. Halborn was founded in 2019 and is based in Miami, Florida. Steve has over 15 years of experience in cybersecurity, he is an expert, trainer, and technical leader in penetration testing, ethical hacking, web application, and cloud security, infrastructure security, vulnerability scanning and detection, IT compliance, and risk mitigation. He's worked with Fortune 500 companies spanning the Financial, Insurance, Mortgage, Technology, Utilities, Hospitality, and Blockchain industries. He holds several information technology and security certifications, including CISSP, CEH, CRISC, OSCP, OSWP, CISM, GWAPT, GAWN, AWS Solutions Architect Associate, CCNA, and Six Sigma.

We begin our conversation by discussing the differences between traditional and crypto cybersecurity. Steve explains why security is the most important sector of industry, the crypto. We discuss why being a security specialist in crypto is very stressful. We discuss the connection between regulation and cybersecurity. We stress that regulation can foster decentralization and provide better user protection guidelines. Steve shares how the internet regulation during the early days of the internet could provide a blueprint for how to foster proper regulation and compliance in crypto. Our next conversation topic centered around the systemic risks that developed in DeFi due to greed. We discuss how greed fueled flawed protocol design spurring the wrong incentives resulted in the collapse of various centralized institutions. Steve expresses his concern about proof-of-stake as a centralizing force. Steve shares a story where he explains the systemic risks that can come from cross-chain liquidity, similar to the 2008 financial crisis. We transition our conversation to focus on the security risks in crypto. Steve explains the full spectrum of vulnerabilities that are present in crypto. We discuss how these vulnerabilities can be exploited and why a particular type of protocol is targeted more routinely than others. Steve explains that security in crypto requires taking into account technical vulnerabilities and socio-economic incentives to properly assess a project’s vulnerabilities. Our next conversation topic centered around Halborn. Steve shares that one of the requirements to work as a security engineer at Halborn is to hack their way in. We discuss how coding and security testing is both an art and a science. We discuss the security of SHA-256 and why Bitcoin was a cryptography marvel. Our conversation transitions to focus on Seraph, the world’s first blockchain security notary platform powered by Halborn. Steve explains how Seraph can help provide a security framework and guardrails for projects looking to standardized security practices. Our final discussion topic centered around the connection between adoption and security. Steve explains how increased security will lead to increased adoption of DeFi. Please enjoy my conversation with Steve Walbroehl.

From the early days of Bitcoin when enthusiasts were making their own physical coins to the amazing Bitcoin Art of today. Today’s guest is George Moses the curator of the Bitcoin Museum.

Also! We are giving away FREE tickets to Quantum Miami Bitcoin and Crypto event in January 2023- https://quantummiami.com/untold

On this episode, we'll be talking about the interesting history of Bitcoin Memorabilia. From the early days of Bitcoin when enthusiasts were making their own physical coins to the amazing Bitcoin Art of today. Today’s guest is George Moses the curator of the Bitcoin Museum. George is a Bitcoin OG and collector of Bitcoin Memorabilia. This episode is perfect for anyone looking to learn about Bitcoin memorabilia, hear interesting stories about the early days of Bitcoin, and advice for starting your own Bitcoin memorabilia collection. We discuss a variety of topics including physical Bitcoins, the history of Casascius coins, Bitcoin Art and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the history of physical Bitcoins. George explains how Casascius coins rose to prominence in the early days of Bitcoin. We transition our conversation to focus on how George became interested in Bitcoin. George explained how a physical representation of Bitcoin helped him understand the concept and led him to become more interested in the topic. Our next conversation topic centered around how George amassed such a large a diverse collection of physical Bitcoins. George shares how he started collecting physical Bitcoins. He explains how he used Bitcoin Talk to learn about Bitcoin and acquire Casascius coins. We discuss how the chase of acquiring these Bitcoins was what captivated George and fueled his desire to collect them. George shares some of pieces that he would like to add to his collection but have so far eluded him. George shares what are some of the rarest pieces of Bitcoin memorabilia and their significance. I share my experience collecting Bitcoin memorabilia. We discuss how I was able to acquire a copy of the iconic London Times front page with the title “Chancellor on the Brink of Second Bailout.” We talk about Bitbills and why they are not often mentioned outside of Bitcoin OG circles. George gives some awesome advice for anyone who is looking to start their own Bitcoin Memorabilia collection. George stresses that Bear Markets are the perfect time to educate yourself and become immersed in the space. Our final discussion topic centered around curating the Bitcoin Museum and preserving the History of Bitcoin through these priceless pieces. Please enjoy my conversation with George Moses.

My guest today is my friend, Scott Melker, the Wolf of All Streets. Scott is a trader, investor, and the host of the popular “The Wolf of All Streets Podcast,” the author of “The Wolf Den” Newsletter, and prolific writer and thought leader in the crypto space. He has been featured on Fox Business, in the New York Times, Forbes, Businessweek, The Wall St. Journal, Coindesk, CoinTelegraph, CNN, and much more. Prior to jumping down the Crypto rabbit hole, Scott Melker, also known as The Melker Project, had a 20-year music career and was a world-renowned producer and DJ. He has played alongside legends from nearly every musical genre, including Enrique Iglesias, Future, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neyo, Sheryl Crow, T.I., Jason Derulo, Public Enemy, Kanye West, DJ AM, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Steve Aoki, A-Trak, Lupe Fiasco, Prince Royce, J Balvin, Joey Montana and more. We discuss a variety of topics including Bitcoin, Crypto Markets, the Macro Environment, Recapping 2022, and look forward to 2023. We begin our conversation by discussing the increased institutional adoption that happened throughout 2022 and the fallout from the increased institutional adoption. We discuss how the immense amount of capital is still on the sidelines waiting to be deployed. We touch on the various crypto blowups that happened throughout the year and the impact that had on the crypto market. We also compare FTX to MT Gox and the similarities and differences. We pivot to discuss about the possible decoupling between crypto and the broader macro environment. We discuss the various signs to look for that could signal a changing in the sentiment around and within the crypto industry. We discuss why DeFi was the biggest winner of 2022. We discuss possible trades for 2023 and why the crypto market could have bottomed. Scott emphasizes the value of dollar cost averaging regardless of the price of the asset. He also notes that all financial assets, not just cryptocurrency, have decreased in value recently. Scott explains why the FTX fallout was so disastrous and can have dramatic second order consequences. We finish our conversation by discussing the beauty of free markets. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott Melker

Today’s guest is Justin Banon, co-founder of Boson Protocol, the decentralized network on which the future of commerce will run. Boson Protocol (BOSON) is a decentralized infrastructure for e-commerce transactions. The ecosystem enables the exchange of digital value for real-world products and services through the use of tokenized futures contracts. Сommitments to buy and sell physical assets are represented as stateful non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platform. Together with its native utility token BOSON, the protocol aims to demonopolize commerce and allow buyers and merchants to interact with minimal intervention from intermediaries. Justin is a serial entrepreneur, he previously blitzscaled the Priority Pass Group to a $1Bn per annum revenue global rewards platform. With an academic background in physics, digital innovation and crypto, Justin applies first principles thinking to solve human problems with technology. By combining cool tech with deep tech, he imagines a future where commerce is open, fair and equitable. He has extensive blockchain experience where he consulted for MakerDao, Centrifuge, et. He got his degree in Physics from Imperial College London. We discuss a variety of topics including Boson, Web3, the future of commerce, property rights, and much more. In this conversation, we discuss how taking time off to relax can boost creativity and lead to better ideas. We also talk about Boson and the issues with the current Web2 paradigm. Justin explains that Boson's goal is to decentralize power and trust, and he sees it as a key part of the future of commerce and the exchange of physical goods. We discuss which sectors are most likely to adopt Boson and the potential impact of a web3-powered economy on society. Justin also shares his thoughts on digital assets, their appeal, and the importance of strong property rights. We also discuss the meaning behind the branding and naming of Boson. Our final episode topic centered around the future of Boson and the importance of the path to decentralization.

Ingo Rübe is the founder and CEO of BOTLabs, a Berlin-based company providing Blockchain-powered solutions for Self-Sovereign Data. BOTLabs is the team behind KILT, a Blockchain protocol, enables the user to describe and attest any kind of characteristics of persons, organizations, and things in a standardized way. KILT is an open-source fat blockchain protocol for issuing claim-based verifiable, revocable, and anonymous credentials in the Web 3.0. It allows end users to claim arbitrary attributes about themselves, get them attested by trusted entities, and store the claims as self-sovereign credentials (certificates). As trusted entities can issue credentials in return for money, KILT aims to foster new business models for anyone who owns trust or wants to build up trust. Ingo has vast experience in tech and building startups, starting in 1995 Ingo founded his very first startup, Network Department, which in 2000 was merged with the IT Department of Fresenius AG to form today’s Fresenius Netcare GmbH. With subsequent experience as IT Project Director at Axel Springer, CTO of Burda Media (where he initiated the open-source Content Management System “Thunder”), and Board Member of the Drupal Association, he is well aware of the need for reliable and verifiable identity solutions in the business world and beyond. We discuss a variety of topics including KILT, Digital Identities, Polkadot, Privacy, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Ingo’s backstory and how he got interested in Crypto. Ingo touches on his experience working for the Drupal Association and the importance of giving back to open source projects. Ingo shares how he became fascinated by crypto and blockchain technology and why believed it would be a revolutionary step change for technology. We transition our conversation to focus on KILT. Ingo explains the importance of digital identities and how they will reshape the way society functions. We discuss applications for digital identities and how they can be used to provide more privacy protections. Our next conversation centered around Polkadot. Ingo explains how Polkadot works. Ingo also explains how KILT leverages Polkadot to scale and secure their blockchain. We also discuss data privacy. Ingo explains how blockchain technology can be leveraged for greater privacy We discuss the broader value proposition of Polkadot and what makes it standout in the broader Layer 1 landscape. Ingo discusses the biggest challenges in the identity landscape. Ingo explains how standardizing helps fosters better communication within an industry and field of study. We discuss the why building out proper infrastructure is necessary for an industry to grow.

Today’s guest is Matthew Niemerg, a distributed ledger technology researcher. He advises and is integrated with various teams on multiple projects in the blockchain space. He provides technical expertise in a wide range of areas within this field: economic incentive of tokens, i.e. game theory design; security and consensus protocols; cryptographic schemes; business logic; and much more. He is currently the co-founder of Aleph Zero (https://www.alephzero.org) and is leading the team at Cardinal Cryptography (https://www.cardinals.cc). He is also an advisor for OneLedger (https://www.oneledger.io, Helix Cognitive Computing (https://www.hlx.ai, KardiaChain (https://www.kardiachain.io), and Ternio (https://www.ternio.io). Aleph Zero is a privacy-enhancing, Proof-of-Stake public blockckchain with instant finality. Its enterprise-ready, high-performance network is built on a novel, Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)-based consensus protocol that has been peer-reviewed and presented at an ACM conference. Aleph Zero uses the DAG as an intermedriary data structure, but can still be categorized as a blockchain. In 2023, Aleph Zero plans to enable privacy-enhancing features based on secure multi-party computation research (sMPC) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). We discuss a variety of different topics including Aleph Zero, Bitcoin, Privacy, Security, Consensus Mechanisms, and much more. We begin our conversation to discuss the differences between cryptography and DLT and how the two overlap in the crypto landscape. We discuss how crypto has the appeal for both consumer and enterprise. We discuss the various possible paths for crypto to become mainstream. We transition our discussion to focus on Aleph Zero. Matt discusses how Aleph is providing an infrastructure layer for the future of crypto that builds off the decades of research and advancement of decentralized systems theory and cryptography. Matt explains various different problems that arise when trying to construct a secure and decentralized network. We dive deep into the concept of true randomness. Matt explains how randomness is applied to security. We discuss the difference between privacy and anonymity. We discuss what kind of privacy features enterprise clients are looking for and crypto can fulfill those requirements. We also discuss privacy preserving technology and the importance of preserving privacy for a sovereign society. We transition our conversation to discuss consensus mechanisms. Matt explains the differences between the various different consensus mechanisms. Please enjoy my conversation with Matthew Niemerg.

I caught my friend Haseeb in a tough moment. He is getting ready to leave the Crypto community in Puerto Rico and move back to California. He seems frustrated with things. I started the show by asking him why?

Today’s guest is Haseeb Awan, the founder and CEO of Efani. Efani is the most secure Telecommunication Service that guarantees protection against any kind of SIM port-out hacks, encrypts your personal information & backs it with a $5M Insurance coverage. Efani operates on America’s #1 5G Network that covers 99% of Americans. In addition, they also offer complimentary Wi-Fi calling so users can even make calls in spotty locations. They also provide military-grade verification, 24*7 support, and 5M insurance coverage per person.Haseeb is working on solving complicated financial & economical problems with the help of technology. He has a track record of two successful business exits, raising over 100M in venture capital & growing the customer base from 0-4 Million users & expanding the business globally into 15 countries across 4 continents within 18 months. He has been included among the top 100 influential people in FINTECH globally, won multiple international awards, wrote for and is mentioned on multiple international media & frequently speaks at international conferences & government committees. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Engineering Management. He also has studied Financial Markets from Yale University & actively holds Project Management Professional (PMP) designation. He is also a Y-Combinator & Next Founder Alumni. He was an early Bitcoiner. His career in crypto started when he co-founded the Bitcoin ATM company 6 years ago & installed the first bitcoin ATM in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Montreal Ottawa & 50 other major cities in 15 countries among 4 continents within 18 months. He has personally invested in 30+ companies & advising over 10 companies on branding, marketing & sales. We began our conversation by discussing the philosophical ethos of people who are in crypto. We discuss how some of the major narratives in crypto have been co-opted. Haseeb discusses the hypocrisy that permeates a lot of the crypto industry and why that frustrates him. Haseeb stresses the importance of the crypto industry to begin producing useful and needed products. We discuss the general shortcomings in the privacy and security industry. Haseeb explains the importance for startups to align incentives and offer an overwhelming amount of value to succeed. Haseeb stresses that people will always choose the path that is most convenient. We discuss how the crypto industry can find its way back to its core tenants. Our final conversation centered around advice for the listeners on how to improve their lives. Haseeb stresses the importance of not overly optimizing one's life. We discuss how to take full advantage of 2023.

What does it mean to be a Bitcoiner living in a Crypto World?

Today’s guest is Mark Jeffery, an award-winning serial entrepreneur and author with Harper Collins. He is currently working on the Boolean Fund Previously, Mark co-founded the Guardian Circle emergency response network (NEWSWEEK Blockchain Impact Award Nominee (2019), One of FAST COMPANY’s 'World Changing Ideas' (2018); Partner: XPRIZE Foundation; Featured in TRUST MACHINE (2018), THE RISE OF BLOCKCHAIN (2019). He is also an early pioneer of blockchain technology, releasing BITCOIN EXPLAINED SIMPLY (2013) and THE CASE FOR BITCOIN (2015). His previous companies include The Palace metaverse (backed by Time Warner, Intel and SoftBank; sold with 10 million users), ZeroDegrees (a business social network sold to InterActiveCorp / IAC in 2004 with 1 million users) and ThisWeekIn (video network). He was the founding CTO of Mahalo / Inside.com (backed by Elon Musk, Sequoia and others). Mark is the author of seven books of fiction, published both traditionally and as audiobooks. His first novel, MAX QUICK: THE POCKET AND THE PENDANT is published by HarperCollins. Mark was one of the first three people ever to podcast a novel: MAX QUICK originally received over 2.5 million downloads in 2005. We discuss a variety of different topics including Bitcoin, the Venture Landscape, Crypto’s Killer App, The Bitcoiner Ethos, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the Mark’s backstory and journey to crypto. We dive deep into the topic of being a Bitcoiner in an increasingly crypto world. Mark explains the reality of being an entrepreneur in the Bitcoin space and the necessity of incorporating crypto to further Bitcoin’s mission. We discuss why Bitcoin is so special and what is the holy grail for Bitcoin. We discuss the philosophy surrounding Bitcoin and what it means to be Bitcoiner. We pivot our conversation to discuss the investing environment. Mark explains why it is currently the best time to invest and build in crypto by sharing some of the lessons he learned during the Dot Com Bubble. Mark shares the similarities between the post Dot Com Bubble venture landscape and the current Crypto venture landscape. We discuss various crypto sectors that could lead to Crypto’s killer application. We discuss how to avoid burnout and the importance of following your passion. Our last conversation topic centered around the various failures throughout Crypto over the last year and the lessons we can learn from them. Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Jeffrey

Today’s guest is Sakina Arsiwala, Co-Founder of Taki.

We begin our conversation by discussing Sakina’s experience working at NextDoor. Sakina explains how NextDoor enabled trust by ensuring the users of the platform were verified and how that helped create a flywheel effect for getting users to use and trust the platform. We discuss the lessons blockchain startups can take from NextDoor’s success. We transitioned our discussion to focus on Taki.

Taki is an engage-to-earn social network which aims to create a better community by rewarding users with a stake in the network itself. Traditional social networks have become stagnant and exploitative: bombarding users with advertisements, operant conditioning for engagement, and preventing free movement. These problems stem from a fundamental incentive misalignment between the users who create value and the platform that extracts it. The new tools and paradigms of web3 offer an opportunity to create a better system. Engage-to-earn rewards user contributions. Free-flowing tokens enable low-friction value transfer. User coins deepen creator-audience relationships and create new engagement vectors. Decentralized organizations grant users governance over their own platform. Composability on-chain unlocks the interoperable potential of the whole blockchain ecosystem. Taki promises a better social network, shifting focus from the social graph to the value graph. Sakina has held Product and Growth leadership positions at Nextdoor, YouTube (She took Youtube International, launched 22 countries, including India), was Product Lead on Google Search Internationally. She also co-founded a social startup that was acquired by Groupon, where she led Social Product Growth for Groupon. She loves building products that help level the playing field. We discuss Taki, Web3’s promise, the future of Social Networks, the Creator Economy, and much more. Sakina explains who is currently their core user base and how they imagine expanding their user base over time. Sakina goes on to explain Taki’s value proposition to content creators and how web3 enables them to have more control over their careers. We discuss why Taki is focusing on UX and why simplifying the user experience is how you onboard the next wave of crypto participants. Sakina explains engage-to-earn and why this model can be so powerful for both creators and their fans. We discuss the importance of thoughtful token economics and Taki’s approach to ensuring proper token dynamics. We discuss the future of advertising in web3 and how web3 can help create a better advertising experience. Sakina discusses the mission of web3 and the importance of building products and services that enable web3’s core ethos. Our final conversation topic centered around the importance of interoperability and synergy for the long term value proposition of web3 to come to fruition. Sakina stresses the importance for protocols to strive to be self-sustaining. Please enjoy my conversation with Sakina Arsiwala

Get ready for this epic episode! We discuss a variety of topics including Ribbon Finance, CeFi’s Blowups, DeFi’s Future, Yield, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing Julian’s journey into the crypto-space. Julian shares how he got interested in crypto and how he was able to navigate the previous bear market to position himself for success in the recent bull market. Our next conversation topic centered around “Crypto Banks.” We discuss the current fallout from the failure of CeFi institutions and the importance of custodying your own crypto. We transitioned to discuss DeFi. We focus on DeFi innovation and DeFi’s unique value proposition. We discussed how CeFi institutions were leveraging DeFi in order to provide yield to their customers. We touch on the lack of oversight and controls that were present within the CeFi institutions which enabled funds to be mismanaged. Our next conversation topic centered around Ribbon Finance. Julian explains how Ribbon Finance works. Julian discusses Ribbon’s protocol design and growth strategy which focuses on responsible and sustainable growth. We discuss yield. Julian explains how yield is generated. We discuss what’s on the future roadmap for Ribbon Finance. Julian explains why he believes options trading is the next area of growth for DeFi. We finish our conversation by focusing on advice for the listeners. Please enjoy my convention with Julian Koh.

Today’s guest is Julian Koh, the Co-Founder & CEO of Ribbon Finance. Ribbon Finance is a suite of DeFi protocols that help users access crypto structured products. By combining derivatives, lending and a proprietary on-chain options exchange (Aevo), Ribbon aims to be the one-stop solution for users who want to improve a portfolio's risk-return profile. Prior to co-founding Ribbon Finance, Julian was Software Engineering at Coinbase. He also worked at Metastable Capital as a Consultant. He studied Computer Science at Cornell University. He cares deeply about cryptocurrencies and the nature of information.

Today's guest is Alex Strześniewski is the Founder of AngelBlock. AngelBlock is a Crypto and FinTech investment platform connecting investors with noteworthy startups with a focus on early-stage investments. AngelBlock is on its way to creating the largest decentralised venture capital fund for the Crypto, FinTech, and Blockchain space. Their mission is to build a cohesive and synergistic community of investors, supporters and entrepreneurs developing innovation within the blockchain space. AngelBlock will allow Crypto, FinTech, and blockchain start-ups to raise funds and receive support from knowledgeable, experienced professionals solely via their online platform. Prior to founding AngelBlock, he was a former Exec at Coin Deal. He believes the future is decentralized and open source. Alex has focused on crypto and crypto-based startups for the last 6+ years. A former crypto-fiat exchange executive, Alex has years of managerial and operational experience and has helped companies navigate the ever-changing regulatory landscape. He has worked as a blockchain consultant for one of the largest FMCG companies in Europe, led various projects through obtaining regulatory licences in the crypto space, and has been an active advisor and investor in numerous crypto and FinTech projects. Most recently he has advised successful companies such as Gamerhash and Aleph Zero. We discuss various topics including AngelBlock, Bitcoin, Crypto Investing, the Path of Decentralization, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the state of the crypto space. We stress the importance of striving towards our North Star and staying true to crypto’s ethos. Alex shares why he believes it is important for the crypto industry to self-regulate to prevent over regulation by the government. We pivot our conversation to focus on AngelBlock. Alex shares AngelBlock’s backstory. We discuss the problems that exist in the current venture and fundraising ecosystem. Alex explains how AngelBlock’s is building crypto-native solutions to address these shortcomings. Alex shares AngelBlock’s vision to allow for non-custodial & on-chain fundraising, transparent vesting, and automated token distribution. Alex explains how they designed the protocol to incentivize proper governance. We discuss the differences between angel investing and being a VC. We also discuss the importance of apprenticeship and learning from experts. We transition our conversation to discuss what it means to be a bitcoiner in a crypto world. We discuss how we are all Bitcoiners. We discuss the importance of striving for decentralization and making it a priority. We discuss the dangers of maximalism and how it is the antithesis of Bitcoin's core ethos.

The last episode of UntoldStories and the first episode of The Charlie Shrem Show

Today's guest is Jan Leitenbauer, the co-founder of MovieShots. MovieShots is an Austrian startup which enables film lovers to own a part of their favorite movie as a unique collector’s item. As a digital collectible, MovieShots aims to link the two worlds of film and NFT. Using software developed in-house, individual still images from iconic films transform and become originals. Using NFT technology, this content can be made ownable as unique digital items with guaranteed proof of ownership on the blockchain, for example as collectibles and for trading on various NFT marketplaces. Jan is a professional video editor, blockchain enthusiast, and NFT collector. He completed the MOOC "Introduction to digital currencies" at the University of Nicosia and received his Bachelor and Master in "MultiMediaArt - Video" at the Film University of Applied Sciences. Jan Leitenbauer is involved in directing, editing and writing short films as a filmmaker and is a founding member and artist of the crypto-collective CryptoWiener. We discuss a variety of topics including MovieShots, NFTs, Community, the Crypto Space, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Jan’s experience taking Blockchain classes at the University of Nicosia. Jan explains how the classes gave him the foundation to start MovieShots. We discuss what compelled Jan to co-found MovieShots and MovieShots’s backstory. Our next conversation topic centered around NFTs. We discuss the narrative around NFTs and dispel some of the misconceptions of NFTs. Jan explains the technology behind NFTs and why the technology is so disruptive. We discuss how NFTs digitize the cultural layer of society and the possible implications it will have on society. Jan explains how NFTs foster a sense of community within the holders. We discuss MovieShots’ minting process and how the community is involved in the governance process. We discuss how NFTs bring reputation to the internet and identity to the internet. We discussed the Cannes Film Festival. Jan shares his experience being on the only panel at Cannes dedicated to NFTs. Our final discussion topic centered around life advice. Jan explains how to be comfortable with uncomfortability. Please enjoy my conversation with Jan Leitenbauer.

Today’s guest is Mario Stumpo, Founder and Director of the Yanda Protocol. Yanda is the all-in-one solution for cryptocurrency trading. Yanda allows you to manage all your funds from one terminal, and makes automated trading simple and accessible to all. Yanda platform allows you to create and customize your own trading bot, as well as helping optimize your trading through free forecasting and analytics tools. Additionally, Yanda services include: automated trading (PATS), portfolio management, arbitrage and social trading. Mario is an early Bitcoin investor. He has specialised in Law, Economics and Finance. We discuss various topics including Yanda, Hybrid Finance, Interoperability, Regulation and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the debate between decentralization and centralization. Mario stresses the importance of having trust worthy decentralized and centralized options. We discuss the idea of hybrid finance and how it could be the future. Our next conversation centered around anonymity and regulation. Mario explains how the relationship between anonymity and increased regulation. We discuss the importance of regulation and how proper regulation would help the industry grow. We discuss the growing need for different on and off ramp options to help facilitate the growth of the industry. Our next conversation topic centered around interoperability. Mario stresses that the future of protocol design will be agnostic. Mario explains why he believes Yanda is a layer zero. Mario goes into detail about what is a layer zero. Our final conversation topic centered around Yanda’s product offering.

Today’s guest is Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar. Axelar is a universal interoperability platform that connects all blockchains through a decentralized network and an SDK of protocols and APIs. Using the network and SDK, developers can efficiently integrate their applications across all blockchain ecosystems creating greater access to users, assets, liquidity and other applications. Sergey is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo (2016 - present). He is interested in building cryptographic primitives, protocols, and systems that enable new applications in untrusted and distributed environments. He received a Ph.D. from MIT, where he was a Microsoft Ph.D. fellow and MSc and BSc from UToronto. His Ph.D. dissertation was on designing cryptographic tools for the cloud using lattice-based cryptography for which he received the Sprowls Doctoral Thesis Award for best thesis in CS at MIT. He was on the founding team of Algorand where he was involved in various business and technical aspects of the company and led the cryptography group. He also spent some time at IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre. We discuss Axelar, Interoperability, Blockchain Design, DeFi, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Axelar. Sergey explains how Axelar enables interoperability. We discuss how Axelar is building the infrastructure needed to build a decentralized platform like Binance and Coinbase. Our next discussion topic focused on the proliferation of layer-1s. Sergey explains how the pursuit of scalability influences the development of new Layer-1s and other scalability solutions. Sergey further addresses scalability by explaining the relationship between scalability, application, and design. Sergey stresses the importance of understanding how use cases will continue dictating the design of blockchains. Our next conversation topic centered around the bear market. Sergey shares his experience leading a company through the bear market. Sergey stresses the importance of continuing to build through the bear market. We discuss the nuances of building products for the future and how to validate products in the crypto space. We discuss the products we would like to see be built. Our next conversation topic centered around Axelar’s upcoming roadmap.Sergey explains how we could have chain agnostic stable coins and the second order effects. Please enjoy my conversation with Sergey Gorbunov.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Adrian Brink, CEO at Heliax, Co-Founder of the Anoma project, and a member of the Anoma Foundation Council. Heliax is a blockchain research, development, & product company bringing financial sovereignty and privacy to the world. They are the team behind Anoma. Anoma is a sovereign, proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that enables private, asset-agnostic cash and private bartering among any number of parties. Prior to Heliax, Adrian co-founded, scaled and eventually sold Cryptium Labs, an infrastructure operator that provided PoS validation from bunkers in the Swiss Alps, while simultaneously building Metastate, an R&D company that upgraded layer-1 protocols valued at over $4bn. Adrian was formerly the 3rd core protocol engineer to work on building the Cosmos stack at Tendermint and completed a graduate thesis on censorship-resistant e-voting systems as a means of helping the Catalan people to gain their independence. We discuss Anoma, Blockchain Evolution, Interoperability, Decentralization, Blockchain Design, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Adrian's background and crypto journey. Adrian explains the thesis behind decentralization and the benefit it provides society when attempting to solve large overarching problems. Our next conversation topic centered around interoperability and the multi-chain world. We discuss the importance of having the correct architecture to make interoperability possible. Adrian stresses that we are headed for a multichain world and goes on to explain why. We discuss the evolution of blockchains and Adrian explains how Anoma is helping make 3rd generation blockchains a reality. We also discuss the importance of interoperability and the problem with rollups. Adrian shares possible alternatives to rollups that are safer and more efficient, Our next conversation topic centered round privacy. We discuss why better privacy controls are absolutely needed for the broader adoption of crypto. Adrian explains how we can implement better privacy persevering technology into blockchains. Our next topic centered around zero knowledge proofs. Adrian explains what zero knowledge proofs are and how they are used. We discuss the benefits of zk proofs and which blockchains can implement this technology. We discuss the importance of building the best blockchain architecture possible to make the systems as resilient as possible. We finish our conversation by discussing the current bear market and building through the bear market. Please enjoy my conversation with Adrian Brink.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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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

Today’s guest is Nick Rose Founder and CEO at Ethernity Chain, Chief Digital Officer at Global Wildlife Conservation, and Investor. Ethernal Labs is a premier Web3 creative and technology studio. Projects spun out of Ethernal Labs includes Ethernity Chain, Exorians, Fanable, Eyecandy, and more to come. Ethernity Chain is a community-oriented platform that produces limited edition authenticated NFTs (aNFTs) and trading cards created by your favorite artists and endorsed by notable figures. Users can get these exclusive aNFTs by auction or direct sales. Ethernity aims to build the most exclusive aNFT library and reward its creators and the community. The Exorians Universe, a new media franchise which aims to revolutionize how media is created, owned, and distributed. The Exorians community will influence the storyline of an upcoming comic series and the development of the subsequent AAA play-to-earn game. Nick invested a small amount of money in 500 Bitcoins in 2011, after discovering them during a conversation at a poker game in Las Vegas. He promptly forgot about them until widespread media coverage and the meteoric rise on the price in 2014. Prior to that he founded multiple Hospitality projects in Greece such as Crystal Club,The Ritz Suites and The Loft. He started his first friends and family trading fund focused in Cryptocurrencies in 2016 called 10X Capital. He is now a seed/early stage investor in tech and Blockchain related projects. We discuss a various topics including Ethernity, Exorians, NFTs, Web3, innovation and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Nick got into crypto and how the industry has evolved in such a short amount of time. Our next conversation topic focused on the backstory of Ethernity. Nick explains how the idea for the company was seeded and how they developed the initial products. We discuss how Ethernity was one of the first projects to partner with mainstream celebrities, for example they partnered with Lionel Messi to do his first NFT drop. We discuss Ethernal Labs and what is included in the product suit. We discuss why GameFi will be a very big part of crypto going forward. Nick shares some inisght into their upcoming project, The Exorians. We discuss the balancing act that exists when trying to optimize for substance and Tokenomics. Nick explains how we can improve GameFi. We discuss how the Exorians universe will enable users to become creators, and what this means for the future of the creator economy. Nick discusses how he envisions the GameFi space evolving in the future and how he wants to help guide and build products that can empower people across the world. We discuss the legal challenges facing web 3 native companies trying to integrate crypto products and features without violating any laws or legal statutes. Nick shares why we are still so early and why regulatory clarity will help push the industry forward. We finish our conversation by discussing the future of the Metaverse. Please enjoy my conversation with Nick Rose.Exploring the Metaverse with Nick Rose, Founder of Ethernity Chain.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Jamie Burke, Founder and CEO of Outlier Ventures, Europe’s 1st venture fund and platform dedicated to blockchain and Web 3. Outlier Ventures is a leading Web3 accelerator and founder community. They fund and help over 100 web3 startups a year, supporting projects across DeFi, NFTs, blockchain infrastructure, and more. Jamie has built a portfolio that includes industry-defining projects such as Brave Browser, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, DIA Data, and Enigma / Secret Network and developed an award-winning Web 3 accelerator. He is also the host of the Founders of Web 3 Podcast, where he interviews the people that are creating and building the next phase of the internet. Before founding Outlier Ventures, Jamie founded 90:10, a pioneering Web 2.0 Open Business consultancy that helped clients open business processes directly and indirectly to external stakeholders through social media, its data, and technologies for engagement, insight, and Innovation. We discuss various topics, including the early days of Crypto, Crypto’s evolution, the state of venture in Web3, advice for founders, and so much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Jamie’s background and what led him down the crypto rabbit hole almost a decade ago. Jamie shares how his background working in Web2 allowed him to witness firsthand how hard it was for large companies to adopt innovative technology. We discuss how the early days of crypto were solely focused on Bitcoin and fintech. We discuss how in the early days, it was clear that building infrastructure was the area that the crypto industry needed to address first. We discuss the evolution of space and how web3 emerged slowly. We discuss the nature of crypto cycles and how every cycle is centered around experimentation and innovation. Jamie discusses how Outlier developed over time and how they developed their thesis at the center of their investment framework. Jamie shares Outlier’s current investment portfolio and how they are helping build the promise of web3. We discuss how much the industry has evolved in such a short time and the exponential growth of interest in the space. Jamie explains why he believes we are in a bear market, not a crypto winter, and what that means for the space. We discuss how the venture landscape has completely changed for web3 and why this is a positive for the industry. We discuss the differing mentalities during a bull vs. bear market. Jamie stresses that the most important thing for any start-up is to focus on the product and never to get complacent. We discuss the importance of striving for sustainable growth and having prudent financial planning to weather market volatility. Please enjoy my conversation with Jamie Burke.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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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

Today’s guest is Phil Fogel, the co-founder and Chief Blockchain Officer at FlowCarbon. Flowcarbon is a pioneering climate technology company that brings carbon credits onto the blockchain. Its mission is to make carbon markets accessible and transparent, enabling the efficient and early flow of capital to be invested directly into projects that combat climate change. FlowCarbon is committed to driving real impact for people, biodiversity, and the planet. Phil has deep expertise in finance and market research. Phil is also currently the managing partner at Corner3 Ventures, a seed and early-stage angel investing firm. Previously he was head of strategy at Bitgreen, COO of Datavore, he has started a financial services company, and a blockchain startup. We discuss FlowCarbon, Carbon Credits, ReFi, Climate Change, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing carbon credits. Phil explains at a high level the role of carbon credits and how it benefits the environment. We discuss how by providing an economic incentive to decarbonize, we will help push society toward renewable energy. We discuss the changing narrative around climate change and the push for ESG. Phil explains why the current carbon credit marketplace is so complex. We discuss how FlowCarbon is bringing the carbon credit market on-chain. Phil explains the benefits of putting carbon credits on a blockchain. We discuss an emerging crypto sector called “ReFi,” or Regenerative Finance. Phil explains the movement behind ReFi. We discuss the importance of providing an economic incentive to solve climate change. We pivot our conversation to discuss how Phil fell down the crypto rabbit hole and how he concluded that blockchain technology can be used to construct new economic paradigms. We transitioned our conversation to discuss why FlowCarbon decided to build on top of Celo. Phil explains how decentralizing the carbon credit market opens the market up to a new set of participants who would’ve never had access to it in the traditional system. We discuss the second-order effects of making the carbon credit market more efficient and transparent. We discuss how blockchains are investing a portion of their block rewards to help fight climate change. We also discuss the positive impact of having non-financial use cases for blockchain as a positive for regulators. Our final discussion topic centered around FlowCarbon’s future roadmap. Please enjoy my conversation with Phil Fogel.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Tara Fung, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Co:Create. Co:Create provides the foundational infrastructure for decentralized brands of the future. It enables projects to mint NFTs and launch their own DAOs and fungible tokens associated with their collections. These services expand individual communities, incentivize dApp ecosystems' growth, and decentralize project governance. The Co:Create protocol will provide the tooling to support these communities in achieving their full potential. She previously served as chief revenue officer of Alto, a cryptoIRA and digital asset IRA custodian, and chief commercial officer of CommonBond. She graduated from Harvard Business School and the University of South Carolina. We discuss various topics, including Co:Create, Web3, tokenomics, NFTs, branding, and much more. We began our conversation by focusing on how Tara got introduced to crypto and fell down the crypto rabbit hole. We discuss the role of crypto in someone’s broader portfolio and what is preventing institutional investors from jumping into crypto. Tara discusses the explosion of interest in the alternative investment sector from individuals who are not accredited investors. Tara shares how the legal designation of crypto as property has allowed retail investors to gain access to the crypto space. We transition to discuss Co:Create. Tara shares what excites her about NFTs and how Co:Create is helping facilitate Web3 brands engage with their community by providing them with the necessary infrastructure to build their brands. Tara explains how loyalty programs can be transformed with tokens. Our next conversation topic centered around what are the significant reasons preventing traditional brands from embracing web3. Tara explains what is token-gated-commerce and how that will disrupt the brand and consumer relationship. Tara also discusses some best practices for tokenonomics. We also touch on the power of DAOs and how we can improve the governance process for DAOs. Our final topic centered around Gaming and Web3. Tara explains the importance of game design and the role of tokens within web3 native games. Please enjoy my conversation with Tara Fung.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guest is Viktor Fischer, the Managing Partner at Rockaway Blockchain Fund. Rockaway Blockchain Fund is a venture capital firm backing leading Web3 founders. Based in Europe and boasting a portfolio of industry-leading decentralized projects, they focus on long-term value creation by providing engineering, liquidity, and community support. At Rockaway, Viktor oversees the onboarding and growth of early-stage blockchain startups. Previously, Viktor worked at McKinsey & Company, focusing on corporate finance and M&A. Viktor previously co-founded Innovatrics, a biometric identification start-up that received multiple awards, including ‘Leading Technology Company in Central Europe’ from the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. Viktor holds a Master's degree from HEC Paris and INSEAD and teaches corporate finance and valuation at Charles University, University Paris XI, and various startup accelerators. We discuss various topics, including Rockaway, Venture Investing, Freedom and Crypto, Decentralization, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the growing positive sentiment towards crypto throughout Europe. Viktor shares how their team is dispersed throughout Europe and how excited he is about the future of crypto in Europe. We pivot our conversation to discuss Rockaway’s, Blockchain Fund. Viktor breaks down how the fund operates and its investment divisions. Viktor discusses his journey to crypto and Rockaway’s backstory to the crypto space. Viktor discusses his insights from investing in projects and what makes a project successful. Viktor stresses the importance of a talented founder as a significant determining factor for the success of a project. We pivot our conversation to discuss the crypto venture investing landscape. Viktor explains the current cultural gap between crypto and traditional venture investors. We discuss why crypto needs to be simpler and easier to use. We discuss some compelling use cases for Web3 and the future of Web3. We have a very important conversation about freedom and liberty. We discuss the fragility of freedom and how having freedoms and rights are something to be cherished. We transition to discuss yield. Viktor explains why yield will continue to be crypto’s driving force. Our final discussion topic centered on the importance of validators becoming more dynamic in their recruitment of stakers. We discuss ways to incentivize decentralization within staking.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Mark Lurie, the CEO & Co-Founder of Shipyard Software. Shipyard Software builds decentralized exchanges (DEX) for specific types of trades, traders, and instruments, starting with Clipper, a DEX with the best prices anywhere on retail trades. Mark is an entrepreneur and investor who founded two venture-backed startups, Codex Protocol and Lofty. He is currently a Venture Partner at FJLabs, a board member of GMO Trust (issuer of GYEN, the first Yen-backed stablecoin), and a board member of the Foundation for Art and Blockchain (a 501c3 nonprofit). He is also the host of the podcast, WTF, Crypto, where he chats with experts in the industry about how the most significant developments in crypto affect traders. Previously, he was an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, where his investments included Twilio (NYSE: TWLO). He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Harvard College. We discuss various things, including Shipyard Software, DeFi, DEXs, Compliance, Venture Investing, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the importance of Twilio in connecting Web1 and Web2. Mark discusses his investment thesis behind investing in Twilio. We transitioned to discussing Shipyard. Mark shares why he pivoted from being a VC to founding Shipyard. Mark discusses the concept of shared prosperity and how that guides his understanding and thesis around DeFi. Mark goes on to share how he believes DeFi will develop. We discuss how Clipper has been optimized for retail traders and why specialized DEXs with individual use cases will be the future of DEXs. Mark explains how Clipper is the most profitable DEX. We discuss competitive differentiation. We pivot our conversation to focus on OFAC Compliance. Mark explains why it is essential to be OFAC compliant and how to integrate OFAC sanctions into the crypto space. We stress the importance of tradeoffs and differentiation and how this applies to the DEX space and compliance. Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Lurie.

Today’s guest is Ahmed Al-Balaghi, co-founder of Biconomy. Biconomy is a multichain relayer protocol that aims to improve the user onboarding and transaction experience on decentralized applications (DApps). The project’s declared goal is to make web3 products as intuitive and easy to use as web2 products. In short, Biconomy focuses on transaction management and gas optimization and can reduce gas costs by up to 40%. For several reasons, interactions with decentralized applications are nowhere near as seamless as for web2 applications. For instance, web3 applications require gas fees, but there is no equivalent of paying a usage fee for web2 applications. Gas fees on the Ethereum network are always paid in ETH, although users may not want to spend their Eth. Before starting Biconomy, Ahmed spent over 3 years within the blockchain industry in China, the U.K., and the UAE. He has developed deep industry expertise and regularly delivers talks and workshops. Ahmed previously worked for Viewfin, a leading Chinese blockchain company, by heading up their Middle Eastern expansion through office setup, deal sourcing, government, and investor relations. He advised and consulted clients building projects in this space before co-founding Biconomy. We discuss a variety of different topics, including Biconomy, Crypto Infrastructure, Web3 adoption, the early days of Crypto, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing how we met and Ahmed’s background. We discuss the crazy early days of crypto in China. We transition our discussion to focus on how Ahmed and his co-founders started Biconomy. Ahmed shares how hacking and tinkering around crypto eventually led them to start Biconomy. We transition our conversation to discuss the various ecosystems Biconomy supports on its platform and their strengths and weaknesses. We discuss why yield may not be crypto’s killer app. Ahmed explains why other crypto sectors are gaining more traction than DeFi, like GameFi and NFTs. Our following conversation focused on the institutional adoption of crypto. Ahmed teases a big announcement for Biconomy and also discusses some of the pain points for institutional clients as they try to enter the crypto space. We also discuss the continued adoption of Web3 by traditional industry companies and the appeal of incorporating Web3 technology into their products. We discuss how the biggest hurdles facing mass adoption are being addressed. Ahmed explains the role of Biconomy within the Web3 tech stack. Please enjoy my conversation with Ahmed Al-Balaghi.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Rene Reinsberg, the President of the Celo Foundation. Celo is a mobile-first, open-source ecosystem of technologies, organizations, and individuals that all share a common mission of building a financial system that creates the conditions for prosperity for everyone. Celo is a blockchain ecosystem focused on increasing cryptocurrency adoption among smartphone users. By using phone numbers as public keys, Celo hopes to introduce the world’s billions of smartphone owners, including those without banking access, to transact in cryptocurrency. The company argues that the number of smartphone owners is increasing exponentially, but the number of people using cryptocurrency is rising much slower. Bridging the gap between the two technologies is what Celo aims to do. Before working on Celo, Rene was an EIR at General Catalyst after serving as GoDaddy's Vice President of Emerging Products. He co-founded venture-backed Locu and served as CEO until Locu's acquisition by GoDaddy in August 2013. We began our conversation with Rene sharing his experience being an entrepreneur and getting his MBA at MIT. He explains how this eventually brought him to crypto and co-founding Celo. We discuss various topics, including Celo, crypto adoption, the beauty of Web3, advice for founders, and much more. We pivot our conversation to discuss Celo. Rene explains why the optimized Celo is a smart-phone centric blockchain. We discuss why Rene and his team decided to go to market by targeting micro-transactions. Rene shares a fantastic story about how they were able to bootstrap the Celo ecosystem by sharing their vision and showcasing their Beta during the previous bear market. Rene stresses this is one of the major benefits of web3 and the open source movement. We transition our discussion to focus on the current bear market. Rene explains what makes this market different from previous bear markets and possible second-order consequences from the turmoil. Rene advises founders and teams building through the bear market. We discuss how the next evolution for crypto will focus on utility and abstracting away the complexities away from the user. Another fascinating conversation topic centered around the future of tokens. We discuss why tokens may become less common as crypto becomes more mainstream. Our final discussion topic centered on the fracturing of the global economy and the explosion of crypto adoption across the globe. Rene stresses that crypto needs to be global to reach its true potential. Please enjoy my conversation with Rene Reinsberg.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guest is Kieren James-Lubin, the Founder, President & CEO of BlockApps, an enterprise blockchain platform company whose mission is to connect individuals, businesses, and industries through global cooperation and trust. BlockApps is a blockchain-as-a-service company that develops enterprise blockchain platforms with customers ranging from startups to Fortune 500 organizations. The company's mission is to drive the adoption of blockchain technology through its platform, BlockApps STRATO. BlockApps was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Before founding BlockApps, Kieren was instrumental in working on Ethereum prior to its launch. He used this knowledge to help build BlockApps' initial product, STRATO. Kieren is responsible for architecting and implementing BlockApps RESTful API and surrounding products & components, including the authorization framework, peer-to-peer networking code, Node.js client, and third-party integrations. Leveraging his extensive background in technology, Kieren is now responsible for maintaining and growing BlockApps’ business. We discuss various topics, including BlockApps, Blockchain Technology, The Early Days of Ethereum, Digitizing Real-World Assets, Regulatory Compliance, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Kieren’s background and what led him to the crypto industry. Kieren shares his experience working in crypto during the early days of Ethereum. We discuss how we are still in the early days of crypto. Kieren shares insights into how he and his team think about hiring talent and what they look for in a prospect. Our conversation transitions to focus on enterprise clients in the blockchain space. Kieren explains the common ways these enterprise clients were looking to leverage blockchain technology within their business. We discuss various use cases of blockchain technology in-depth, including real estate, venture investing, and luxury products. We discuss the tug and pull between geopolitics and global trade. We discuss how the crypto industry can work with regulators and regulatory bodies. We also discuss how blockchain technology can streamline cross-border trade. Our final discussion topic centered around how we can continue to onboard real-world use cases onto blockchain rails. Please enjoy my conversation with Kieren James-Lubin.

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Frederik Gregaard, the CEO of the Cardano Foundation. The Cardano Foundation acts as a custodian for the Cardano protocol; the Cardano Foundation is a Swiss nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering innovators and changemakers within the blockchain industry. The Cardano Foundation strives towards enabling a blockchain future based on inclusiveness and transparency. An independent entity, the Foundation’s ambition is to empower the architects of the decentralized era, set the direction for governance as a service, and enable economic empowerment. He brings his vast experience in professional services and financial industries to the Foundation, where he will build partnerships with institutions and enterprises. Frederik is a certified currency trader and digital asset management expert. He advises Regulators, Banks, and Asset Managers on how digital business models will impact their sector and how technology such as Blockchain, DLT, Big Data, and AI will affect their businesses in the short and medium term. We discuss Cardano, the Cardano Foundation, power dynamics, crypto adoption, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Frederik’s financial background. We have a fascinating discussion centered around the opaqueness of capital markets leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 and the fallout from the collapse. We pivot our conversation to focus on how the fallout from the financial crisis eventually led him to the crypto industry. Frederik shares his journey in the crypto industry and how he became the CEO of the Cardano Foundation. Frederik discusses a fascinating insight that the biggest roadblock to crypto adoption was the cultural barrier between crypto and traditional finance. Our conversation transitions to focus on why traditional institutions are pivoting their blockchain efforts from focusing on private permissioned blockchains to public permissionless blockchains. Frederik shares examples of this growing adoption of public blockchains. Frederik explains how Georgian Wine exploded in popularity when they began using the Cardano blockchain as an authentication layer. Frederik discusses how this technology shifts the power dynamics between large and small players creating an equal playing field between the two parties. Frederik emphasizes that one of the main goals of the Cardano Foundation is to lower the barrier of entry to the Cardano Ecosystem. We discuss the various real-world projects Cardano is involved in to implement blockchain technology across multiple countries. Frederik explains Cardano’s consensus algorithm and the game theory behind it. We discuss how Cardano’s academic approach is one of the main guiding principles of the project. Frederik explains the difference between blockchains and open-source projects. Please enjoy my conversation with Frederik Gregaard.

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AngelBlock is a DeFi protocol aimed at solving the issues of fundraising for digital assets and making the process crypto native. More info at https://untoldstories.link/AngelBlock

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guest is Derek Barrera, Founder and CEO of Steer Protocol. Steer Protocol is a platform for cross-chain automated strategies with secure on-chain executions with minimal fees to users, providing maximal yield on earned fees for participating in the protocol. Steer enables users to create/use/upload yield-generating models called Strategies from complex algorithms to recurring tasks with zero computation cost and on any blockchain. Steer infrastructure offers endless possibilities like Automated Liquidity Management, Loan Payments, Asset Management, Data Availability Marketplace, Automated Governance, Oracles, etc. Users can write in any programming language and execute on any chain. Steer currently supports Ethereum, Bitcoin, Optimism, Polygon (Matic), and BSC. Derek has 14 years of software experience. He is a highly-skilled, energetic professional with a strong software engineering and developer operations background and extensive hands-on experience with many programming disciplines, including MEAN and LAMP stacks, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Java EE, C++, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Derek has worked in the Blockchain industry since 2016, leading various projects to a combined valuation of over $3.6 Billion. He has built cryptographic cross-chain libraries and enterprise custody solutions for exchanges/brokers. He has worked with over eight different chains and over 500 supported assets. His experience also includes spearheading the creation of an L2 EVM and deploying various cross-chain DeFi protocols. We discuss various topics, including the Steer Protocol, yield generation, the macroeconomic landscape, advice for aspiring founders, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing the benefits of the bear market. Derek explains how founders can take advantage of the bear market. Our next conversation topic centered around Steer Protocol and how it works. Derek describes how Steer’s is optimizing yield strategy and execution. Derek shares how Steer helps users optimize yield strategies on Uniswap V3. We discuss in depth how yield works in crypto. We discuss the state of the macroeconomic outlook and how people are beginning to understand the value proposition of an asset like Bitcoin. We discuss the current Credit Suisse situation and the possible contagion fallout if they default. We discuss why insurance and yield could be the killer apps for crypto and potential avenues for the next growth phase of crypto. Our next topic centered around cross-chain and the possibility of a multi-chain world. Derek explains the problems that cross-chain yield products are facing. But Derek stresses that a multi-chain world is inevitable. We discuss how chains will probably proliferate around use cases and focus on solving specific market needs. Our final discussion centered around regulation. Derek explains why sensible regulation is needed. Please enjoy my conversation with Derek Barrera.

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guests are a few of the stars of the upcoming movie, Ask Me To Dance, Tom Malloy, David Josh Lawrence, and Courtney Warner. Tom is a critically acclaimed Actor/Writer/Producer/Director. David is an actor and writer known for writing, acting, and producing Trauma Therapy. Courtney is an actor whose break-out role is Ask Me To Dance. We discuss various topics, including Ask Me To Dance, the importance of movies, how to break into entertainment, mastering your craft, and much more. We discuss the backstory of how Ask Me To Dance was made. Tom shares his love for dancing and what drove him to make a romantic comedy centered around dancing. Courtney shares her story of becoming an actor and how she was able to break into the industry. Courtney stresses the importance of making your own opportunities. We talk about the purpose of movies, and the critical role of movies play within our society. The group shares insights into the film industry that isn’t very well known. David stresses the care and dedication the filmmakers and crew have meticulously crafted every moment in a film or television show. Tom explains how acting is challenging work, and David elaborates by discussing how acting is actually a blue-collar job. Courtney stresses that if you don’t have the passion for the craft of acting, it’s not going to work. The group discusses how the director shapes the movie. Tom shares how he is dialog driven director and how that influenced the making of the film. David shares his unique backstory on how he went from being a firefighter to becoming an actor. We discuss the philosophical debate on the importance of purpose and the fragility of life. David discusses the importance of living life to the fullest and one’s experiences shape our worldview and understanding of life. We discuss the power of storytelling and how stories shape our world. David explains his journey to becoming Head of Acquisitions for Glass House Distribution. We discuss the importance of mastering your craft and being a lifelong learner. David describes how actors and artists should approach their industry’s business side. David stresses why faking it ‘till you make it no longer works. We finish our conversation by discussing the variety of jobs on a film set and how there are many ways to break into entertainment. Please enjoy my conversation with Tom Malloy, David Josh Lawrence, and Courtney Warner.

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Alona Shevchenko is the Co-founder & Operational Lead of Ukraine DAO. The UkraineDAO is a DAO organized to help Ukrainian organizations and people to fight the war against Russia. The UkraineDAO has donated over $7 million, including to the Ukrainian government and NGOs. They have organized both online and offline to serve Ukraine, showing how charity, war relief, and evacuation efforts can be organized through DAOs. The Ukrainian flag NFT auctioned by Ukraine DAO is the tenth most expensive NFT ever sold, showing how non-fungible tokens can solve real-life problems. Ukraine DAO has been featured in many major publications, including Forbes, Fortune, ABC, Billboard, Coindesk, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Economist, the Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Alona is a qualified translator (Diploma in Translation), Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. She is fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, English, and French. Before co-founding the Ukraine DAO, she participated in various crypto projects and DAOs, including the Free Ross DAO, where she was a regular contributor, and Grwth Lbs, where she focused on community and partnerships. We begin our conversation by discussing the current state of Ukraine and why Ukraine will win the war with Russia. We discuss a variety of topics including UkraineDAO, the realities of the war, DAO governance, the power of web3 and crypto in times of war, and much more. We discuss how leading up to the War with Russia, Ukrainians were negatively portrayed by Russian media and propaganda. Alona expresses that Western governments and intelligence organizations purposely ignored these signs for political reasons. Alona explains why people should refer to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia as a war and not a crisis. We discuss how the failure of the traditional banking system has impacted ordinary Ukrainian citizens and how crypto provided financial rails to many Ukrainian citizens. Our next conversation topic centered around how and why she got involved with the Free Ross DAO. Alona shares the backstory of founding UkraineDAO. We discuss how the DAO formed organically and was a grassroots movement. Alona discusses her relationship with Dmitriy Buterin and Vitalik Buterin and how they have helped her build UkraineDAO. We discuss what is unique about the UkraineDAO. We discuss the governance dynamics of DAOs and ways to improve the current governance structure of DAOs. Alona explains how Holacracy works and why the UkraineDAO has implemented it in their governance model. We also discuss why UkraineDAO does not have a token. Alona discusses how UkraineDAO is the first DAO to be accepted at a state level and is widely seen as a fantastic thing by noncrypto native people. Our final discussion topic centered around the importance of cultural fit in an organization and how this is the guiding principle for UkraineDAO.

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

--

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

Today's guests are Alan Silbert, North America CEO of INX, and Itai Avneri, COO of INX. INX aims to offer a fully-licensed and regulated cryptocurrency, security token, and derivatives trading platform. They also endeavor to be a leader in the regulated security token platform space. INX announced in January 2018 its submission of a confidentially-filed draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of the INX Token. INX is one of the leading platforms from a regulatory and compliance perspective; they are a broker-dealer, have various alternative trading system licenses, and a cash fund to safeguard platform capital. Alan Silbert, CEO North America of INX. He joined the Company in March 2018 as Executive Managing Director. Since joining INX, Alan has been responsible for facilitating the build-out of the director and advisor team, raising capital, growing operations and infrastructure for North American operations, and leading the regulatory processes for broker-dealers and money transmitter licenses. Alan's career in finance spans almost 25 years, where he has held executive positions in various large banks. He also founded, in 2013, Bitcoin luxury marketplace BitPremier, which in 2014 brokered one of the first bitcoin real estate transactions in history. Itai has launched multiple financial services and products in Europe and South Africa, among other regulated jurisdictions. He designed and built advanced information systems specializing in trading, BI & CRM solutions, marketing, KYC automation, and payments and integration hubs. We discuss various topics, including INX, Security Tokens, Regulation, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing how INX started and how the organization has been leading the charge in pushing regulation forward and regulatory clarity since the company’s inception. Alan and Itai describe the current state of the INX platform and the various functionalities open to accredited investors. Our following conversation topic centers around the benefits of security tokens and why security tokens will revolutionize how capital markets are structured. We discuss the views of various regulatory jurisdictions on digital assets. We discuss how regulators could distinguish between security tokens and cryptocurrencies. We discuss the crypto industry’s positive progress within American society from a regulatory and cultural perspective. Our final discussion topic centered around how INX is helping companies navigate the regulatory waters by advising them and publishing a book that will share the best practices for navigating the regulatory hurdles that crypto companies face. Please enjoy my conversation with Alan Silbert and Itai Avneri.

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guests are Geoffrey Thompson, Roofstock’s Chief Blockchain Officer, and Sanjay Raghavan, Head of Web3 Initiatives at Roofstock. Roofstock is an online marketplace for investing in leased single-family rental homes in a transparent and low-friction way. The company provides its clients with research, analytics, and insights to evaluate and purchase independently certified properties at set prices. Roofstock onChain is building an Ethereum-based web3 platform to simplify how single-family residential properties are bought and sold radically. Geoff has nearly 15 years of experience in corporate and finance law; Geoff advises Roofstock on partnerships, product innovation, fundraising, deal structuring, real estate matters, securities law, international expansion, and all other legal and compliance matters. Sanjay currently works as Head of web3 Initiatives at Roofstock. He was a part of Wharton School's Cypher Blockchain Accelerator Genesis Block cohort. We discuss various topics, including Roofstock, Real Estate Investing, tokenizing Real Estate, navigating regulation, the future of Real Estate, and much more. We began our discussion by focusing on the regulatory hurdles crypto companies need to overcome and why having legal counsel is very important to help navigate the legal and regulatory landscape. We discuss the backstory of Roofstock and why it went down the crypto and web3 rabbit hole. Our next conversation topic focused on how Rootstock creates a permissioned system on top of a permissionless infrastructure to comply with the regulation. We discuss how new users are onboarded to their Web3 real-estate platform using soul-bound NFTs. We discuss Roofstock’s mission to democratize access to real estate investing by removing the preexisting sources of prejudices that inhibit people from investing in real estate. We discuss how Roofstock ensures everything is legally compliant, from KYC’ing the buyers and sellers to providing the property accurately represented. We discuss the platform’s various features that users can use to screen and filter to find the homes they would like to invest in. We discuss Roofstock’s commitment to transparency and equal access to information. A fascinating topic we discussed was the second-order consequences of putting Real-Estate onChain, like what happens to title insurance and property insurance. Our conversation discusses the impact of increased liquidity on the Real-Estate Market. We discuss how home loans can be reimagined onChain and the positive consequences this can bring to society. We discuss the unique properties of the tokens that allow for more consumer protection than standard crypto tokens. We discuss the possibilities of collaboration and partnership opportunities that being a web3 native brings. Our final discussion topic centered around how Roofstock is committed to staying true to the Web3 principles and why they believe so strongly in the web3 ethos.

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Sebastian is the founder of the web3 privacy project HOPR. HOPR is a blockchain-based protocol aiming to solve data and privacy issues on a global scale. HOPR’s goal is to decentralize private data exchanges completely. HOPR is a next-generation privacy solution, allowing private and enterprise users to decide who has access to their online and personal data. The HOPR protocol uses “mixnets,” or routing protocols, to shuffle around data and make it extremely hard to track. While mixing data makes it almost untraceable, the different pieces of information are successfully delivered to the user to decide how to use the whole data set. HOPR is a leading pioneer in the data privacy space, especially because of their focus on blockchain technology. Before starting HOPR, Sebastian co-founded two successful tech ventures, the ATM-as-a-Service startup Sonect and the blockchain education and service company Validity Labs. Sebastian holds a PhD from ETH Zurich for his work on microtechnology for biomedical applications. He contributed to the Swiss DLT law and is actively involved in shaping the web3 and crypto asset economy and changing data privacy for good. We discuss various topics, including HOPR, Privacy, Incentivization, Permissionless Innovation, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing The Science of Blockchain Conference at Stanford University. We discuss how things have changed so much over the last decade. We discuss how the vibe of the conference has shifted from hype to being focused on building. We transition to discuss the previous bull market. We discuss how decentralization and privacy were not prioritized during the bull market. Sebastian stresses that current events like the sanctioning of Tornado Cash and the various high-profile hacks has renewed the communities dedication to decentralization and privacy. Sebastian emphasizes that crypto’s most important value proposition is censorship resistance. We discuss HOPR and the future of privacy in web3. Sebastian explains how HOPR works and how they are building the infrastructure to ensure privacy in web3. Our next conversation topic focused on innovation. We discuss why permissionless innovation is the future and how much faster things will innovate when we transition to an open-source tech stack. We pivot our conversation to discuss the various challenges in a society reliant on web2 infrastructure. Our next conversation topic centered around economic incentivization. We discuss how incentives can make actions more or less likely depending on how they are structured. Our final conversation topic focused on singularity. We discuss society’s growing acceptance of using computers and technology to enhance our bodies and the possible second-order consequences. Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Sebastian Burgel.

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guest is Ian Lee, the Co-Founder of Syndicate. Syndicate is a decentralized asset management platform and social network. It creates an investing syndicate for 1000x less time and money. Syndicate is a decentralized investing protocol and social network transforming how the world creates value. Previously, Ian was Managing Partner of IDEO CoLab Ventures, a crypto venture fund backed by IDEO focused on web3, crypto, and blockchain startups. From 2017-2021, Ian led investments and helped incubate 80+ crypto startups in the areas of DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and more. From 2014-2017, Ian was the Head of Crypto at Citigroup and Citi Ventures globally. We discuss various topics, including Syndicate, Investing’s role in society, the ETH merge, the dynamics of angel investing, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing Ian’s background and what brought him to the crypto space. Ian shares how when he understood that Bitcoin and Crypto were an open Fintech stack, everything clicked for him, and he fell down the crypto rabbit hole. Ian explains why the investing industry is ripe for disruption. He breaks down how the tech stack is archaic, how bloated and slow the industry is, and how crypto can disrupt the investing sector. Ian also explains why investing is so important to society. Ian stresses that investing shapes our society by helping allocate monetary and human capital. Ian discusses how the venture capital infrastructure is incredibly inaccessible for many people because of the expenses required to start and participate in a fund. We discuss how Syndicate enables a new paradigm of capital formation by removing these barriers and eliminating the unnecessary overhead needed to create a venture fund. Our following conversation focused on how angel investors were the initial driving force that powered the Bitcoin and crypto industry. We discuss how they fueled the first startups of the space by being their primary source of capital for these early companies. We discuss the importance of DOAs and syndicates will empower more angel investing from a wider pool of people. Our next conversation topic centered around investing clubs. Ian shares that most investing clubs result from preexisting social connections and relationships. He explains how the main value these angels provide founders is not monetary but mentorship and guidance. Another fascinating topic of our conversation was reimagining the utility of ERC-721s and how they can be applied to different verticals. Ian explains how NFTs can be considered social networks and their possible applications. We discuss how Syndicate is enabling the formation of guilds. Ian describes how people with a unique set of skills are forming guilds to leverage their skills and help organizations that need these various skills. A fascinating topic we discussed centered around the ETH merge. We discuss the possible unintended consequences of the merge and how the move to POS will impact regulated organizations. Our final discussion topic centered around how Syndicate enables a swath of investing organizations to be built using Web3 tools. Please enjoy my conversation with Ian Lee.

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers CFDs, futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Andrey Nayman, Founder, and CEO of the Magic Store. Magic Square is a unified, integrated, interoperable space for users to discover and experience community-vetted crypto apps, NFTs, DeFi, and GameFi, and for app creators to market and monetize quality crypto apps. Magic Square is a multifaceted system that covers all UX bases: The Magic Store guides users to discover community-vetted crypto apps with built-in integrated DeFi. Users sign in to all their apps with one SSI-secured Magic Connect leading to their personalized dashboard to organize, use, and track their crypto activity. Users and creators discuss and collaborate in a dedicated Magic Community space. Andrey Nayman is an Entrepreneur, Mathematician, Quant & Professional Investor, an early adopter of Crypto (2013), and has successfully led multiple technical ventures. He is an Executive Product Owner and Proven Company Leader with a deep background in Algo-Trading, Startups, and Scaling Tech oriented Companies. He began his professional career at Final, one of the world's biggest Algo-Trading companies, where he worked for 7.5 years. He served as the CEO of Vidmid, a technology leader in the OTT space. He then worked as the Managing Director at Radical Ventures – one of the most active VCs in Israel, for five years. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Magic Square, a financial infrastructure company. We discuss Magic Square, the importance of decentralization, the Ethereum Merge, the Magic ID, and much more. We begin our discussion about why there is a need for a crypto-native App Store. Andrey discusses how a lot of the value created by Web2 marketplaces centered around discoverability and how this is a missing component within Web3. We transition to discuss the state of Magic Square. Andrey discusses the listing process and how Magic Square empowers its community to spearhead the listing process. Andrey stresses that Magic Store is a community-first company, and he does not want to be a gatekeeper. We dive deep into the actual mechanics of the listing and vetting process. We discuss encryption and our mutual admiration for the beauty of encryption. We transition to discuss Magic ID. Andrey shares what he loves about Web3 identities and why it is the future. Our next conversation topic focused on the Ethereum Merge. We discuss the various arguments surrounding PoW vs. PoS. We also discuss the technical challenges that apps will face when the merge happens and the possible implications of the merge. We pivot our conversation to confer the benefit of launching during a bear market. Our final conversation topic centered on Andrey’s decision to jump from VC to founder/operator. Andrey shares that one of his main drivers in building Magic Square is to leave a positive impact on the world. Please enjoy my conversation with Andrey Nayman.

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SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-h...

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

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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

Today’s guest is Amanda Cassatt, Founder and CEO of Serotonin. Serotonin is the leading crypto marketing practice, with over 40 employees worldwide, supporting the top teams pushing the decentralization movement forward. With expertise spanning DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs, Serotonin supports premier projects like IPFS, major brands like Sotheby's, and everything in between. Serotonin is the leading web3 marketing firm specializing in companies both native and new to web3. Their services take products and brands to market with brand positioning, visual design, content, PR, community, growth, events, and more. In addition to marketing services, Serotonin has invested in creating an in-house product and engineering team that builds and spins out software companies. The first such spinout is Mojito, the NFT commerce suite that is the top choice by major brands and rights holders for engaging in d-commerce on web3. Amanda is an explorer of technology, economics, and culture. An early crypto entrepreneur, Amanda brought Ethereum to market as ConsenSys' Chief Marketing Officer from 2016 through 2019. During that time, Amanda also created Ethereal, the crypto cultural event series that hosted some of the first NFT galleries and popularized Ethereum from SXSW to Davos. After working on Ethereum through its initial growth period, she co-founded Serotonin. Amanda currently serves as CEO of Serotonin and President of Mojito. We discuss various topics, including Marketing within Web3, Building Decentralized Brands, ConsenSys, Crypto Twitter, Community, and more. We begin our conversation by discussing what content someone new to the space should consume. Amanda stresses the importance of immersing yourself in Crypto Twitter and how Twitter is the best place to learn about recent trends and concepts at the forefront of crypto. We discuss the value proposition of web3 social networks and the benefits from a censorship-resistant and audience portability standpoint. Amanda explains the platform risks that persist throughout traditional social networks and how web3 allows creators to have more autonomy. Our next conversation topic was centered around Amanda’s time working at ConsenSys. She shares how while at ConsenSys was able to spearhead many of the marketing practices now widely used throughout the crypto industry. Amanda explains how Serotonin is helping many Web 3 companies go to market and figure out the best way to grow their brand, engage with their audience and navigate web 3. We discuss the importance of community and how the strength of a crypto project’s community is vital for its success. Amanda shares nuances to help evaluate the value of a project’s community better to assess the project’s long-term viability. Our final conversation topic focused on the role of marketing within Web 3. Amanda explains why there will always be a need for marketing in Web 3. She also details how as a project matures, the need for marketing becomes less critical because of the incentives that exist within crypto innately. Please enjoy my conversation with Amanda Cassatt.

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BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

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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

Today’s guest is Sarah Figueroa, CEO, and co-founder of Geojam. Geojam is a social engagement platform that generates meaningful and passion-fueled engagement between fans and creators. Their vision is to build the creator economy of the future that redirects the flow of incentives back into the hands of the creators and users themselves. Geojam has been a bridge for fans to engage directly with artists, athletes, and influencers such as Mariah Carey, Machine Gun Kelly, and Nyjah Huston. With the inception of their token, $JAM, they combine the technological advancements of decentralized finance with real-world experiences while interweaving the ethos of autonomous decentralized communities and mainstream social networking. Sarah Figueroa is the CEO and co-founder of Geojam. Sarah is a serial entrepreneur with ten years of experience building and designing consumer tech companies centered around social media, entertainment, and the community. She has been recognized in the New York Times for Geojam’s pivot during the pandemic and is a Rolling Stone Culture Council member. Sarah is extremely passionate about community governance and decentralization; as an early adopter of Ethereum, she has been mining crypto since 2016. At Geojam, she leads a fifteen-person team on product, marketing, and token utility. Before founding Geojam, Sarah founded One Box Agency, a creative agency for Brands, Events, and Talent. They produced groundbreaking 360˚ marketing experiences that ignited consumers to turn up the volume on a brand's story. We discuss various topics, including Geojam, the future of the creator economy, Web3 and NFTs, tokenomics, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Sarah found her way to crypto. We discussed our passion for the crypto community and what compelled her to start a crypto-based social media company. We discuss how Geojam evolved and transitioned to become a fully crypto-native company. We transition our conversation to discuss how Geojam is a community-first platform. Sarah explains how Geojam enables creators and their fans to further engage by helping creators design their merch line, where they should go on tour, organizing events together, and much more. Sarah details how Geojam is a decentralized mobile first governance tool. Sarah explains how these creators and the community can participate in governance by proposing ideas seamlessly and frictionlessly. We pivot to discuss Geojam’s collaboration with Mariah Carey, where a fan had the opportunity to go on her private jet with Mariah. Sarah explains why creators are incentivized to use Geojam and the insights they gain from their audience using the platform. We transition to discuss the process of designing Geojam’s tokenomics and the benefit of creating a token to engage with your community. Sarah explains Geojam’s goal to become the hub for communities by building tools and a decentralized hub for community members to engage with each other. We discuss how Web3 can help emerging artists develop their community and fanbase. We discuss the power of superfans and how Geojam enables them to be as involved as possible. Our final discussion topic centered around utility. We discuss the importance of utility to tokens and more potential applications for NFTs and how the use of NFTs may evolve. Please enjoy my conversation with Sarah Figueroa.

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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

Today’s guests are Chad Barraford and Erik Voorhees. Chad Barraford is the technical lead at Thorchain, a decentralized liquidity network. Before this, he served as Chief Technology Officer at the Skyy Network, where he designed and built air traffic management on a blockchain. Barraford was also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cryptocades, an online gaming site that utilizes a device’s spare computing to mine Monero. THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to easily exchange cryptocurrency assets across a range of networks without losing full custody of their investments in the process. Erik Voorhees is the founder of the startup ShapeShift.io, a Bitcoin and altcoin exchange. He is a dedicated supporter of Bitcoin and frequently is a speaker at related conferences and meetings. Voorhees believes the national monetary system has essential problems, and he, being an opponent of taxation, is actively involved in the creation of cryptocurrency regulation. He is also advocating for the use of smart contracts. We discuss various topics, including Thorchain, ShapeShift, open source systems, the permissionless revolution, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing ShapeShift’s transition to becoming a DAO. Erik discusses where the idea started and what compelled the company to transition to DAO. Erik explains the various reasons that influenced the company's decision to become a DAO. We transitioned to discuss ThorChain. We begin our conversation about ThorChain by discussing THORChain's origins and how it garnered so much interest. We discuss the ambition of the project. Chad explains why Thorchain is against the use of bridges and wrapped assets. We discuss how wrapped assets and bridges are not decentralized and how they limit the full potential of crypto. Erik discusses what attracted him to Thorchain and how his experience running ShapeShift informed him of the need for infrastructure that enabled trustless swapping of assets. Erik goes on to explain how Thorchain is able to allow decentralized swapping. We transition to discuss Thorchain’s commitment to creating a permissionless system. Chad and Erik explain how the system derives its security and how this is enabled by how Thorchain was designed and engineered. We transition to discuss how anyone can get involved with the projects because they are open source and why this leads to more innovation over time. We discuss how tokenomics incentives users and builders by giving them a vested interest in these protocols. Our next conversation topic centered around why value will accrue to the protocols that are open and permissionless. The final topic we discussed was where the yield is derived from on THORChain. Erik explains how the yield on THORChain is directly coming from the fee revenue generated. Erik also touches on the nuances of being an LP on THORChain by describing how all the pools are denominated in RUNE and why that makes the system more stable.

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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

Today we have a special episode where I am sharing my conversation on Sarasota Stories hosted by Bob Williams. Bob hosts me to discuss the early days of Bitcoin, my love for Sarasota, how to navigate the crypto winter, my passion for film production, and much more. In each episode, Bob conducts in-depth interviews with a local Sarasota business owner, civic leader, entrepreneur, artist, or philanthropist to find out who they are, what they're doing now, and the impact they hope to make on the Sarasota community. This podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in learning more about me, the early days of Bitcoin, what makes Sarasota unique, and the disruptive potential of crypto in the film industry. We begin our conversation by discussing something people might not know about me: I am an avid guitarist. We discuss my broad range of taste in music and especially my love for bluegrass. We touch on the beauty of music and the ability to connect with people through playing music Our first major conversation topic centered around my backstory and upbringing. We discussed my very traditional Jewish upbringing and how that informed my understanding of the importance of community. We transition to how I first learned about Bitcoin by stumbling into an early Bitcoin chat forum. The forum was full of early bitcoin developers, and even Satoshi frequented and communicated to discuss Bitcoin. Our next conversation topic focused on my foray into Bitcoin. We discuss how I eventually started my bitcoin-focused startup, BitInstant, which became the first venture-backed Bitcoin startup. We discuss the craziness of the early Bitcoin days and how Bitinstant grew to encompass 30% of total Bitcoin transaction volume. We discussed how starting BitInstant propelled me to the world stage; I traveled all over the world to give talks about Bitcoin and the future possibilities this new technology could bring to the world. We discuss how one of the primary reasons why I was attracted to the Bitcoin space was because I found a family in the Bitcoin community. We discussed how I realized the disruptive potential of Bitcoin and why I knew the space was still in its infancy. We touch on how the initial experience using Bitcoin. Our conversation transitions to focus on how we ended up in sunny Sarasota. We discussed what attracted me to Sarasota. Another Sarasota conversation topic centered around how Sarasota is a burgeoning crypto hub. We discuss how Sarasota has birthed a wave of very successful crypto entrepreneurs. We also discuss what makes a city a crypto hub. We dive deep into the qualities of the city that attract and birth innovative leaders. Our next conversation topic centered around government and the importance of freedom. We discuss the necessary tradeoffs for a government to run effectively while preserving the rights of its citizens. We pivot our conversation to discuss the volatility and market turmoil currently impacting crypto. We discuss how bear markets are the perfect time to invest. We discuss the importance of doing due diligence and investing in projects with solid fundamentals. We stress the importance of dollar cost averaging and building conviction through the bear market. Our final conversation topic centered on my recent Cannes Film Festival trip. We discuss my experience of being a part of the festival and the overall vibe of the festival. We discuss the various problems with the business of making films and how DeFi and crypto can help address these inequities.

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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

Today’s guest is Jesse Berger, serial Entrepreneur/technologist. Jesse is a Founding PKT community member and has raised over $300 million for films that generated over $850m in global revenue. PKT is a decentralized high-speed data network that enables anyone to monetize their unused internet bandwidth. Powered by PacketCrypt, the world’s first bandwidth-hard proof-of-work, people who connect to the PKT Network are paid in PKT Cash (PKT) every 60 seconds. PKT provides an economic incentive for people to grow internet connectivity and infrastructure with minimal technical knowledge. PKT Pal is a technology company building turnkey hardware and software solutions that support the open source PKT blockchain project. PKT Pal’s first product is the PKT Cube, a plug-and-play mining device with innovative features that allows people with minimal technical knowledge to monetize their unused internet bandwidth. PKT Cube features include a PKT hardware wallet and the ability to earn PKT Cash every 60 seconds and send and receive PKT payments using a mobile device. Future functionality includes connecting to a user’s home network from anywhere in the world via VPN, being paid to share wifi access with neighbors securely, and access to a variety of DApps for streaming, gaming, and more. We discuss various topics, including PKT, Decentralized Networks, Internet Infrastructure, the Film/Entertainment Industry, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Jesse’s background in the film and entertainment industry. We discuss how a lot of the success of a movie comes down to luck. Jesse explains how many moving parts go into making a successful movie and how everything needs to go just right for a film to be a commercial success. Jesse discusses how the entertainment industry's inequity and lack of transparency opened his eyes to the need for an alternative system. Jesse explains the business of films. We discuss the process of selling a movie to a studio and the various hurdles and problems filmmakers and actors face during the process. This eventually brought him to crypto and web3. We transitioned our conversation to discuss the PKT network and the PKT cube. Jesse explains how the PKT network works and the origins of how the PKT network was developed. We discuss the enormous TAM for internet infrastructure and the need for a censorship-resistant way to access the internet. We discuss how our internet bandwidth is a commodity that isn’t fully utilized to its full potential and how PKT helps unlock this potential. We transitioned to discuss the PKT cube. Jesse explains how the PKT cube enables an easy on-ramp to the PKT network for people looking for a dedicated device that can be used to participate in the network. But Jesse stresses that unlike many of their competitors, the Cube is not necessary to participate in the network. Jesse explains how a user can elect to use a regular computer instead of the Cube. Another fascinating topic we discussed was how the tech protects the users from the liability of the actions of the people using PKT. We transitioned to discuss the use of NFTs in entertainment. We discuss how NFTs are the perfect medium for facilitating content rights ownership. Jesse explains how NFTs can be used to disrupt the monetization of various content mediums. Our final discussion topic centered around the future of the PKT network. Jesse discusses how they are thinking about scaling the infrastructure by building layers on top of PKT to enable more functionality. We discuss how PKT could bring smart contracts and NFTs to the PKT ecosystem and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Jesse Berger.

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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

Today’s guest is Jesse Pollak, Senior Director of Engineering at Coinbase. Coinbase is the premier platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency. Jesse is currently working on protocols, public goods, cities, and currencies at Coinbase. Jesse previously led all Retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. We discuss various topics, including Ethereum, the Merge, Smart Scaling, the gravity of Decentralization, Public Key Infrastructure, building in Bear Market, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Jesse got into crypto. Jesse shares how he started a startup focusing on identity and security software. The company leveraged public key infrastructure to enable companies to scale their identity and security needs. Most of his clients were crypto companies; this is how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole. The company was eventually acqui-hired by Coinbase in 2016. Jesse explains how public key infrastructure works and how it is widely used in crypto and throughout the internet. We pivot our conversation to discuss why now is the best time to build in Crypto. We discuss how the tools for building in crypto have become more accessible and more robust. We also discuss why this bear market feels different than previous bear markets. We focus on discussing how the number of people building something exciting and innovative is ten times bigger than there was in the last bear market. The number of real-world use cases is an order of magnitude bigger than in previous cycles. This leads us to discuss what sector of crypto excites us the most. Jesse shares that the trend that excites him the most is the increased adoption of users and businesses. Jesse predicts that this trend will eventually culminate in the large migration of a large portion of our society being on-chain. We discuss how we are seeing legacy companies beginning to embrace crypto and integrating crypto into their business Our next conversation topic centered around the rise of alternative L1s and the importance of smart scaling. Jesse discusses how the emergence of alternative L1s has impacted Ethereum and its developer base. Jesse also addresses the design trade-offs these alternative L1s are making to achieve higher transaction throughput. We also discuss how the Ethereum developers have approached scaling Ethereum while prioritizing decentralization and security. Jesse outlines why he is excited about EIP-4844. Jesse explains how EIP-4844 will help scale Ethereum by reducing the cost of Layer2s on Ethereum. Jesse explains how L2s work and how they help Ethereum scale without compromising Ethereum’s decentralization. We discuss the trilemma problem that all blockchains face or will eventually face. Jesse shares his thesis in the ideal way. Blockchains will tackle this problem. A fascinating topic we discussed centered around how decentralization is a new form of gravity within crypto. Jesse explains how everything tended to gravitate towards the most centralized outcome in the legacy world and how crypto is inverting that paradigm. We discuss how decentralization enables people to have sovereignty and autonomy. Our final discussion topic centered around how the future will be layer-specific blockchains. Jesse explains how he believes that as crypto matures, DApps will converge onto layer-specific use cases on a few blockchains instead of having hundreds of different blockchains. Please enjoy my conversion with Jesse Pollak.

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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

Today we have a very special episode; we are celebrating our 300th episode. I am joined by my lovely wife, Courtney Warner Shrem. Thank you so much to everyone who has been on this incredible journey with me, from the listeners to our team that make this amazing show possible; thank you from the bottom of my heart. We discuss various topics and stories, including how we met, the early days of Bitcoin, advice for people pursuing a career in the arts, our love for Bitcoin and crypto, persevering through tough times, the origin of Untold Stories, and much more. We begin this iconic episode by discussing the EVR days. Our conversation started by discussing how we first met. Courtney shares how she became a cocktail waitress at EVR and helped facilitate the first payment of Bitcoin for a physical good in NYC. We discussed how in 2013, NYC was one of the few Bitcoin hubs and how, at the time, the community mainly existed in forums on cyberspace. We discuss the various legendary personalities who hung out at EVR. We share a charming story of how we were set up on a blind date by our friends who frequented the club. Our next conversation topic centered around traveling to our first Bitcoin Conference as a couple. Courtney shares her experience at the San Jose Bitcoin Conference and how small the community was at the time when compared to today’s conferences. An entertaining story we shared on the episode was the time I sold Fred Wilson his very first Bitcoin at Satoshi Square. Courtney explains the atmosphere and the electricity you felt when you would visit Satoshi Square. Another fun story we shared was about my and Vitalik’s first experience eating lobster. We pivot the conversation to discuss Courtney’s journey to Bitcoin and her passion for acting. Courtney discusses her experience pursuing acting and other artistic pursuits. Courtney shares her experience of her breakout role on set and the camaraderie that develops from being a part of the cast and crew on a movie set. We discuss how difficult it is to become a working actor and the grind it takes to break into the industry. She stresses the importance of creating opportunities for yourself in any artistic pursuit. Our next conversation topic centered around our various travels. We discuss our experience attending to La BitConf. We share memorable stories of our experience visiting Buenos Aires and the craziness of the conference. We pivot to discuss Stacy Herbert officiated our wedding and how we almost codified our marriage on the blockchain. We discuss the iconic Proof-of-Steak, which started the tradition of Bitcoin Steak Dinners. We discuss our various challenges during our relationship and how we have used them as springboards to further our relationship and lives to bigger and better places. We discussed how I used Steem as a way to reintroduce myself to the crypto community by sharing my thoughts on blog posts and hanging out in the Steem community. We discuss how incredible the crypto community is and how the crypto community is filled with so much love and support. Our final conversation was discussing how Untold Stories was started. Please enjoy my conversation with Courtney Warner Shrem. Thank you to everyone who supports the show and the fantastic team that makes this show possible. Love you guys.

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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

Today’s guest is Wil Barnes, CEO, and Co-founder of Jet Protocol. Jet is a borrowing and lending protocol built on the Solana blockchain focused on innovative lending products and cross-chain interest rate arbitrage. Most of the widely used DeFi protocols used up until this point have been built on top of and supported by the Ethereum ecosystem. Jet is ready to take borrowing and lending to the next level using Solana’s bleeding edge tech, low transaction costs, speed, and scalability. Users can also look forward to Jet's innovative interest-bearing products, which will be used to create markets on Serum DEX. The goal of Jet is to build a borrowing and lending protocol with market-driven interest rates, instead of the utilization curve-based interest rate models currently seen on Ethereum and Solana. Solana’s low fees and high throughput network gives Jet an opportunity to create an interest rate market-making experience that not only matches, but improves upon the centralized experience that everyone is familiar with. Wil is a Blockchain developer, Distributed systems software engineer with years of blockchain and software development experience before Jet at MakerDAO, ConsenSys, Kauri, PwC, and Booz Allen Hamilton; Wil brings immense engineering management and financial expertise to his broader team at Jet. Wil’s interests include open finance & geopolitics. We discuss various topics, including Jet, Solana, Ethereum, Maker DAO, the dynamics of debt markets, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Wil’s background and how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole. Wil shares how it is tough to break into traditional finance, especially when you want to work in the debt markets. He explains without a degree from a prestigious university or having a preexisting relationship; it is virtually impossible to get a job in traditional debt capital markets. He goes on to discuss how this is antithetical to crypto’s ethos and how in crypto, he was able to get various opportunities through hard work and merit. We transition and focus our discussion on his time at ConsenSys and Maker. Wil explains how Maker works and how it evolved over time. We discuss the DIA peg mechanism and address the various misconceptions about DAI. Another major conversation topic was bear markets. We discuss how to survive a bear market and how bear markets are for builders. We discussed his journey from working on Ethereum to eventually launching a project on Solana. We discuss the challenges he felt prevented him from building what he envisioned on Ethereum and why Solana was the ideal place to build Jet. We discuss the path to decentralization and the issues blockchains face when scaling. Our final discussion topic centered around Jet. Wil explains the importance of fixed interest rates for debt markets. We touch on the perils of CeFi. We discuss Jet’s mission and the future of DeFi. Please enjoy my conversation with Wil Barnes.

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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

My guest today is Simon Dixon, CEO & Co-Founder of the online investment platform BnkToTheFuture.com who has invested over $1.7 billion in FinTech companies. Bnk To The Future is a global online investment platform that allows qualifying investors to invest in financial innovation, including fintech (Financial Technology) companies, funds, and other new alternative financial products. He is also the Fund Manager of Bitcoin Capital & author of the book 'Bank to the Future.' An active FinTech & Bitcoin angel investor with investments in BitPay, Kraken, BitPesa, and over 20 others. An ex-director of the UK Digital Currency Association & UK CrowdFunding Association. He regularly speaks on the future of finance to governments, businesses, investors, and financial institutions. An ex-investment banker that left corporate in 2006 to work on his book on the future of banking. Simon has been regularly quoted & appeared in major press & media outlets, including BBC, FT, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Wall Street Journal. We discuss various topics, including Bitcoin, the Celsius Collapse, an Overview of Crypto Crash, Monetary Cycles, the Fight for the Free Market, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the various collapses throughout Crypto’s history. We begin our discussion by examining the Luna death spiral. Simon explains how Mt Gox unraveled and how they handled the situation. We discuss Bitfinex’s hack. Simon describes how the team behind Bitfinex used the lessons learned from Mt Gox and how they navigated the crisis better. We finish our conversation about crypto collapses by comparing and contrasting Celsius and Voyager. Simon explains how Voyager has been more transparent and adept at handling their crisis, while Celsius has done everything they can to obfuscate blame and act in bad faith. Simon discusses in detail how Celsius management did not have proper risk management and conducted themselves as an unregistered hedge fund. Our next major conversation topic centered around monetary cycles and the fight for the free market. We discuss the fourth turning and the ending of the debt cycle. Simon explains how financial instability and economic inequality lead to societal unrest. We discuss how we are currently living through a fourth turning and what that means for society. We also touch on the fight for free markets. Simon explains how the rise of CBDCs could lead to the rise of communism. We discuss how Bitcoin is the best tool to fight to protect capitalism and liberty from the evils of communism. We stress the importance of a complex money standard and the benefits hard money provides society. Our final discussion topic centered around investing frameworks. Simon shares how he structures his portfolio to hedge against a multitude of outcomes. We finish by discussing the proper frameworks to build and maintain wealth. Please enjoy my conversation with Simon Dixon.

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My guest today is Shiv Malik, CEO, and Co-Founder of the Pool Foundation. The Pool Foundation is the company behind Pool Data, a platform and associated services to support Data Unions to develop, scale, and monetize. They have studied existing Data Union frameworks in the Web3 space, seeking to simplify the complex technology required to scale. The pool is not only generating products and a technology offering for Data Unions but also the fabric by which the entities are connected to aggregate data and data buyers. To do this, the ecosystem must become more mature by enabling new Data Union companies and integrating existing businesses into the Data Union model of governance and payment. They aim to accelerate this process by creating the materials, education, and mentorship necessary to establish Data Unions, grow their user bases, and sell their data through our real-time marketplace. Shiv Malik is a technologist, award-nominated broadcaster, author of two books, former Guardian investigative journalist, and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank. He joined the Web3 space in mid-2017 as an adviser to the Golem project and subsequently as Head of Growth for Streamr and co-creator of their Data Unions framework. In 2021 he co-founded Pool and currently leads the organization on its mission to bring Data Unions to the world and ensure that people have control of their data and a genuine stake in the digital economy. We discuss various topics in our conversation, including the importance of Data, Data-opolies, Data Unions, Data Emancipation, and much more. We begin our discussion by discussing Shiv’s background before joining the Web3 space. Shiv shares how he was an investigative journalist and war correspondent. Shiv explains how his experiences helped prepare him for founding a startup. We transition our conversation to discuss why Data emancipation is essential. We discuss how the current surveillance capitalist model works and how tech companies can profit from our data. We define the term data-opolies and how Web3 offers an alternative system to the status quo. Shiv explains why he is so passionate about Data and Data Emancipation. We transition our conversation to discuss Pool and Data Unions. Shiv explains how Pool is building the infrastructure for Data Unions. We discuss in detail what data unions are and why they are essential in the quest to disrupt these Data-opolies. We transition to discuss advertising. Shiv explains how Data is used in advertising and how things need to change because of public sentiments toward data collection and government and corporate regulation. We discuss how Data Unions can help power the next revolution in marketing and advertising. Our final topic centered around the Intergenerational Foundation think tank. We discuss how we can reimagine the future and the importance of optimizing for time preference. Please enjoy my conversation with Shiv Malik.

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Today we have a special episode where I am sharing my conversation on the Pod of Jake. Jake hosts me to discuss various topics, including Bitcoin, the early days of Bitcoin, the evolution of the Bitcoin and crypto space, and much more. Pod of Jake is an excellent podcast where Jake brings on guests from various industries to discuss technology, innovation, big ideas, and much more. This podcast is a must-listen-to anyone interested in learning more about myself, the early days of Bitcoin, and the future of Bitcoin and Crypto. We begin our conversation by discussing the early Bitcoin community. We touch on how the early Bitcoin community was composed of mainly young people and free staters. We transition to discuss how Bitcoin teaches financial literacy. We have a deep discussion about the issues of financial literacy and inclusion and how Bitcoin is a vehicle to learn about how the financial system works and why we need sound money. We discuss how I initially understood Bitcoin and how my understanding of Bitcoin evolved. We discuss how Bitcoin is a very deep subject matter and requires one to be curious and open-minded. We pivot our conversation to discuss how Bitcoin grew from word of mouth and the legend of Satoshi. Our next major conversation topic centered around Bitcoin being a lifeline. We discuss how Bitcoin and crypto are seen as an investment in first-world countries, but in most of the world, Bitcoin and crypto are seen as lifelines to the financial world. We discuss how the Bitcoin and Crypto industry is still very early, but the revolutionary technology is powering them. We discuss how we are our own worst enemy when trying to stomach the volatility of this emerging asset class. Our conversation transitions to focus on Bitcoin Maximalism. I share my thoughts on the subject and stress that I am a decentralization maximalist and what that means. We discuss the importance of permissionless systems as one of the core innovations of the blockchain and should be the North Star all crypto projects strive for. We pivot to discuss my experience building Bitinstant. We discuss my experience building an early Bitcoin company and the roadblocks I faced when trying to scale a crypto startup in the industry's early days. One of our last topics centered around crypto innovations and Bitcoin. We discuss how much of the innovation we see in the broader crypto ecosystem has its roots in Bitcoin, and how looking back at the industry's early days, we can see where the industry may be headed. Our last topic centered around what initially attracted me to the Bitcoin community. Please enjoy my conversation with Jake.

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Today's guest is my friend, Kyle Kemper, a self-starting entrepreneur, bitcoin, crypto evangelist, and author. He is currently Chief Alchemist at Raze. The RAZE fintech platform enables users to tokenize and fractionalize shares, royalties, and distributions empowering you to self-fundraise quickly and safely using our flagship Dynamic Security Tokens (DSTs). He is also the co-host of the Miami Crypto Experience. He is known to be intellectually curious with a strong understanding of the crypto industry, decentralization, and transformation. Kyle has a long history working with Executives, Investors, Marketing, Compliance & Product teams. He prides himself on being an open communicator, storyteller, speaker, and presenter. He has over nine years of experience in business development, marketing, and communication with crypto & high-growth consumer-facing tech companies. We discuss various topics, including Bitcoin, the Crypto Community, Crypto’s Cultural Impact, Disrupting Corporate Governance, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the importance of incorporating joy and happiness into our daily lives—Kyle shares how he is able to not take himself too seriously. We discuss how crypto has finally pierced the cultural zeitgeist of mainstream culture. We discuss how everyday people are excited about crypto and how it permeates general conversation. Our following conversation topic was Kyle’s journey down the crypto rabbit hole. Kyle shares what attracted him to crypto and how various life experiences led him to crypto. We go on to discuss what makes Bitcoin such a revolutionary idea. Our next conversation topic centered around network participation. We discuss how the Doge community is one of the most vibrant communities in crypto. Kyle shares why Doge is an excellent introductory crypto for people looking to understand the basic principles of crypto. We transition to discuss the topic of self-custody and not your keys and not your crypto. We discuss the improvement of crypto wallets. Kyle also shares why he believes improving the UX/UI of wallets will help unlock crypto’s true potential. We discuss the impact of a universal unified crypto wallet. Our next conversation topic centered around product development. Kyle advises when you are launching a product to have the least amount of features possible and once you have a large enough user base, begin adding features slowly. Kyle shares why this is vital for gaining traction as an early company. We pivot our conversation to discuss UX/UI design. We discuss how designers and product people are only just entering the space. Kyle discusses how these people will drive adoption by making crypto more user-friendly and intuitive. We pivot to discuss self-actualization. Kyle stresses the need for a solid community to help oneself to self-actualize. One of the benefits of crypto is the strong community associated with being a part of the space. Our next conversation topic centered around the Kempler Clifford Formula. Kyle explains how anyone can use this simple formula to determine how much Bitcoin you need to own to protect yourself if you experience hyperbitcoinization. We finish our conversation to discuss how blockchain will help create direct democracy and fight against centralized tyranny. Please enjoy my conversation with Kyle Kemper.

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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

Today’s guest is my friend Michael O’Rourke, Founder of the Pocket Network. Pocket network is a decentralized infrastructure for developers who want to build peer-to-peer applications. So the idea is you could connect any app to any blockchain through decentralized infrastructure. And the idea is that Pocket can allow for the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies and a more accessible environment for people worldwide. More specifically, Pocket is a blockchain relay network for decentralized infrastructure and full node incentivization. Before starting Pocket, Michael was an IOS developer and solidity dev. He also is the founder of the Tampa Bay Blockchain Developer Meetup. We discuss a variety of different topics, including the Pocket Network, scaling Web3, incentivizing nodes, benefits of the bear market, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Pocket’s progress since the last time Michael was on the podcast. We also discuss the growth of the PoktDAO and the importance of striving for decentralization. Michael explains how the community is involved in how the protocol evolves and adheres to the protocol's constitution. We discuss what Michael and his team have learned over the last year when Pocket experienced exponential growth and adoption. Michael stresses the importance of transparency and communication as the two most vital things to strive for when building a layer 1, like Pocket. Michael shares how large Pocket has gotten over the last year and how that has impacted the cost of the network. We discuss the turmoil that has plagued crypto as of late due to the unraveling of various centralized lenders. Michael shares an excellent point about how DeFi is weathering the storm much better than their centralized counterparts. We transition to discuss how the dynamics of the bear market have changed. We discuss how fewer people are leaving the space during the bear market. We transition to discuss the stable coin market. We touch on the various stable coins and the future of stable coins. Our next conversation topic centered around stETH and liquid staking. Michael explains the benefit and the problem with liquid staking. We finish our conversation by discussing the opportunities in a bear market and why this is the best time to join the space. Please enjoy my conversation with Michael O’Rourke.

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Today’s guest is Ben Tse, the co-founder of GenoPets and their Chief Product Officer. GenoPets is a free-to-play mobile NFT RPG that turns your real-life daily activity into captivating gameplay, making it fun and rewarding to live an active lifestyle. Users imbued their personality and formed in their likeness, are as rare and unique as the users are. Every step a user takes unlocks new in-game features, story advancement, aesthetic customization, performance upgrades, and, of course, the evolution of the user's GenoPet, increasing its rarity. Built on Solana, GenoPets’ coined move-to-earn mechanic stands as a strong reminder that the more users invest in themselves, the more they’ll inevitably appreciate, especially with a Genopet by their side. And as you evolve, it evolves. GENE Token is a governance and staking token that represents the value of the GenoPets game and is used to craft in-game NFTs. GENE holders gain access to exclusive peaks at new content, have a voice in in-game design, and can participate in special community perks like airdrops. Ben is an award-winning product designer, technology strategist, and digital product consultant with 16 years of experience in product design, UI/UX, SaaS, E-commerce, and Branding. He has been a blockchain and crypto investor and builder since 2016. Our conversation covers various topics, including GenoPets, Value Discovery, Move-to-Earn, Ikigai, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Ben’s rich background in design. We discuss our experience working in the hospitality space and how these experiences have given us a tremendous amount of insight into the human psyche. We touch on the importance of ikigai and working on things one is passionate about. Our next conversation topic centered around the origin story of GenoPets. Ben discusses how he and his co-founder Albert started the project during a hackathon competition. Ben shares how the move-to-earn revolution came to be. We define value and discuss the origin of value. We also touch on the relationship between work and value. Ben does an excellent job at elaborating on how Blockchain unlocks the ability to receive value for unconventional work. We discuss why unlocking this value will create tremendous benefits throughout society. We discuss why GenoPets is a passion project for the team and the importance of maximizing one’s time. An exciting topic of our discussion was the connection between physical and emotional health. We pivot our conversation to discuss how data has become the new oil of the digital economy. Ben explains how much data we create daily and how web3’s mission is to help take control over our data rights. We discuss the technological frameworks to approach and understand the digital age. We transition to discuss the state of GenoPets. Ben shares that they are in the final stages of their closed Beta development. Ben shares the current roadmap and what they are currently focusing on. We finish our conversation by discussing the future of GameFi and the future of crypto.

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Today’s guest is Bobby Zagotta, the Chief Executive Officer of BitStamp. Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Luxembourg. It allows trading between fiat currency, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. Bitstamp is the world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, continuously supporting the Bitcoin economy since 2011. With a proven track record and mature approach to the industry, Bitstamp provides a secure and transparent venue to over four million customers and enables partners to access emerging crypto markets through time-proven infrastructure. The company was founded as a European-focused alternative to then-dominant bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. While the company trades in US dollars, it accepts fiat money deposits for free only via the European Union's Single Euro Payments Area, a mechanism for transferring money between European bank accounts. Bobby has demonstrated success in building and growing businesses in established and emerging markets, including significant experience in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. He’s proven to have the ability to develop and lead business lines, product development, global marketing and sales, international business development, and M&A/VC investing. He has significant experience building and leading winning teams, strategy and M&A, big data analytics, operations, lean principles, planning/forecasting, and leadership team facilitation and execution. Before joining Bitstamp, Bobby was the Chief Commercial Officer at Kraken Digital, where he was a member of the senior leadership team accountable for Business Operations & Strategy, Global Business Development, Corporate Development/M&A, Intelligence & Analytics, Banking & Payments, as well as two business line P&Ls, CF Benchmarks and OTC Trading. We discuss various topics, including Bitstamp, crypto adoption, surviving a crypto crash, regulatory clarity, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how TradFi institutions are being forced to understand the crypto space and what kind of product offerings they should build to give their clients access to crypto. We transition to discuss how in emerging markets, crypto is viewed. Bobby explains how in a survey conducted by Bitstamp, emerging markets trust crypto more than the traditional financial system. We discuss how crypto, for a large part of the world, is not an investment but a lifeline to the financial world. We move on to discuss Bitstamp. We discuss Bitstamp’s rich history and its commitment to customer success. We stress the need for crypto companies to focus on customer support and success to continue growing adoption and trust. We pivot our conversation to discuss the politicization of finance and how the Fed has grown in importance within the general public’s mindshare. We discuss the growing desire of the general public to understand how economic policy is made and its implications. This leads us to discuss the current economic fallout and its impact on the crypto markets. We focus on discussing various ways to survive the crypto winter. We also touch on the need to build through the bear market and how every successful company was started during a bear market. Our next conversation topic centered around regulatory clarity. We discuss the regulation of the broader crypto market, stable coins, and the need for Spot Bitcoin ETF. Please enjoy my conversation with Bobby Zagotta.

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My guest today is 0xDorsal, Co-founder and core contributor of Integral. Integral is a new DeFi primitive that efficiently executes large orders. It is the only such primitive with a functional product to date and is poised to capture the exact segment of large client trading volume for DeFi. Integral is the pioneer in executing large orders in DeFi. It works smart by executing an order according to an oracle’s average price over time (currently, it’s Uniswap’s 5-min TWAP). To offer a competitive price with nearly 0% price impact, Integral mirrors order-book and AMM from some of the best centralized and decentralized exchanges and create a highly liquidity-rich environment for these large orders to execute. This technology mimics how the centralized exchanges process large orders: split and execute them over a period of time. This is made possible with the OB-AMM. The innovative AMM design unbundles the concept of liquidity to depth (order book depth, AMM shape) and capital (the actual amount of LP asset in the order book or AMM). By mirroring order books from exchanges like Binance and Uniswap, Integral can achieve the same depth with much less capital. 0xDorsal is the pseudonymous co-founder of Integral, the world’s first DeFi primitive for large orders. Dorsal’s background as a hedge fund manager positioned him well to help drive the migration from TradFi to DeFi. Dorsal has extensive experience as a business development lead within DeFi. In addition to his work at Integral, Dorsal is especially interested in market design, liquidity, DAOs, and coordination. We discuss various topics, including Integral, the evolution of DEXs, building a crypto project, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing 0xDorsal’s Tradfi background. 0xDorsal discusses how his TradFi background prepared him to understand the current crypto landscape and gave him context to how the crypto trading industry is headed. We transition to discuss the evolution of Dex’s. We discuss the original DEXs like Etherdelta and IDEX and the significant shortcomings they experienced. And how these original DEXs gave rise to the next evolution of decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. 0xDorsal discusses why Uniswap v2 was a watershed moment in crypto’s history. We discuss the various problems plaguing the current DEX space, like front-running, MEVs, and flashbots. We dive deep into the various issues and how they impact a trader’s PNL. Our next conversation topic centered around Integral and how the project is tackling these various problems to create a better experience for large and small traders. 0xDorsal explains how Integral has innovated the AMM model. 0xDorsal explains how TWAMM works and why it’s so innovative. We transition to discuss the future of Integral. We touch on Integral’s possible future product offerings and their road map. 0xDorsal explains how they plan on building a decentralized OTC desk and the possibility of building atomic swaps into the project to enable cross-chain compatibility. We also discuss why they have decided to build a pseudonymous team and the benefits of pseudonymity. Our final discussion topic centered around the future of the crypto industry and where the crypto is headed. Please enjoy my conversation with 0xDorsal.

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Today, my guest is Eric Tung, Founder and CEO of Themelio Labs, the company behind Themelio, a public blockchain that enables open, secure, and resilient decentralized apps. Themelio is pitched as a radically simple, stable, and long-term foundation that can power a vast and diverse ecosystem. Themelio plans to play a fundamental and ubiquitous role in the security infrastructure of a new and decentralized Internet, much like how IP, “immutable” since 1983, still underpins Internet communication. Themelio’s design is firmly centered around decoupling the blockchain from user-facing applications. Themelio does one thing — provide robust low-level functionality critical to secure decentralized apps — and strives to do it very well. An example is Mel, an independent, stable-value cryptocurrency that anyone can freely use. Inspired by previous blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Themelio nonetheless takes a very different design approach: radical immutability inspired by the Internet's architecture. Eric spent parts of his childhood in Canada and China, where he was born. His mother home-schooled him while they lived in Beijing to keep the Chinese Communist Party propaganda to a minimum. Yet as China ramped up its Great Firewall to block outside Internet from coming into the country, Eric rebelled and built Geph, a virtual private network that could get around the Chinese firewall. He did this when he was 12, and Geph is still used today in China and Iran. At 14, Tung was accepted into the University of Waterloo, where Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin was also a student and creator of Themelio. This new blockchain protocol strips out higher-level functionality to focus on the shared trusted layer of truth. We discuss various topics, including the internet protocol stack, rethinking blockchain, the importance of endogenous trust, paradigm shifts, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Eric’s background and what led him down the crypto rabbit hole. Eric explains how he started Geph and became interested in cryptography. We discuss why freedom tools and privacy-preserving protocols may be even more critical in the future. Our conversation transitions to discussing how the internet is structured and the various protocols that make up the internet. We pivot to discuss Themelio. We discuss how Eric and his team have reimagined how a blockchain should work by modeling it after the internet. We discuss how they created revolutionary non-fiat stablecoin. We also touch on how the killer feature of blockchains has always been endogenous trust and why that is important. We finish our conversation by discussing how to unlock the true potential of blockchain technology and what applications will drive mass adoption of blockchain technology. Please enjoy my conversation with Eric Tung.

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Today, my guest is Michael Shaulov, the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, a secure digital asset infrastructure company. Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 1,200 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $2.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. Some of the biggest trading desks have switched to Fireblocks because it's the only solution that CISOs and Ops Teams love. Before Fireblocks, he co-founded Lacoon Mobile Security, which was acquired by Check Point, and was then appointed the Head of Products, Mobile, and Cloud Security for Check Point. Michael is a serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and investor. He is also a recognized industry speaker, delivering talks at RSA Conference, BlackHat, and Infosec. Michael Shaulov received his B.Sc. in Computer Sciences and Physics from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, in 2009. We discuss various topics, including the importance of infrastructure, ensuring crypto’s mission, TradFi’s role in crypto, Premissioned DeFi, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the state of infrastructure in crypto. Michael shares how we can continue evolving and improving the infrastructure so that power crypto becomes better. We discuss the future of infrastructure in crypto and the importance of infrastructure in delivering crypto’s ethos. We also touch on preserving crypto’s ethos of equality and liberation. Our next topic focused on the role of TradFi and other incumbents. Michael shares how these incumbents can help crypto cross the chasm and bring the next wave of adoption to crypto. We also touch on crypto's regulatory hurdles and how these incumbents can help the industry navigate the regulatory waters. We transitioned to discuss permissioned DeFi. We discuss how we can build crypto-native tools to enable better consumer protection and the balancing act between DeFi and regulatory compliance. Michael very eloquently explains the advantages of building on-chain metadata and how this unlocks new markets for crypto. We end our conversation by discussing how companies can partner with Fireblocks to give their project the best in class infrastructure and backend capabilities to scale their project as efficiently and securely. Please enjoy my conversation with Michael Shaoluv.

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Today we have a special episode where we share my various discussions from CoinAgenda. This episode includes a Fireside Chat with myself and Michael Terpin and a panel discussing how crypto and NFTs will disrupt the film industry. The first half of the episode is the Fireside Chat with Michael Terpin. Michael and I reminisce about the early days of Bitcoin. We discuss the experience of going through your first crypto cycle. We also touch on the benefits of building during a bear market. Our subsequent conversation discussion focused on the significant differences in the industry between the early days of Bitcoin and now. We pivot to focus on how VCs impacted the industry. We also focus on the benefits of angel investing. We also touch on the unique characteristics that crypto projects have, which give them the ability to raise money in multiple ways. We transition, and we discuss my new project, Defiine. We provide a general overview of Defiine and how we will be disrupting film financing. Part 2 of the episode is a panel discussion moderated by Joyce Chow, and the panelists included me, Alexander Amartei, producer of Antara & inventor of Movie NFTs, Tom Malloy, an American actor & filmmaker, and Andreas Kohl, CBDO at Mintlayer. We begin the panel by discussing how crypto will disrupt film financing. We also discuss how each of the panelists were initially attracted to crypto. We touch on how NFTs are disrupting the film industry, from financing to fan engagement. We also discuss why we should be building on Bitcoin. We finish our conversation by discussing the importance of providing value and how to make a project more valuable. Please enjoy this special episode.

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My guest today is Rob Richardson, the CEO, and co-founder of Disrupt Art, a Global marketplace created to revolutionize the impact of Art, Music, Fashion, and Film. DisruptArt aims to curate an interactive space for artists, collectors, and activists to revolutionize the impact of art. Artists sell their pieces as digital creations through blockchain technology. Their vision is to create a community where spoken word artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, photographers, and crypto artists intersect, creating dialogue about social impact, contemporary art, and the blockchain. They believe artists deserve more equity, and it’s why they ensure artists receive a majority of the funds and always receive a royalty for their work. That is why they created a new Black-owned NFT minting platform, DisruptArt. They focus on equity, diversity, and bridging NFT technology to the world. They work with activists, allies, and organizations to build a more equitable future using NFTs. Rob is also the founder of Disruption Now Media, a platform that connects entrepreneurs, artists, and leaders through interactive events, educational content, podcasts, and virtual and in-person summits. Disruption Now Podcasts hosts conversational podcasts with disruptors focused on impact. Past guests have included: NY Times bestselling author Robert Greene, Monique Woodward, Jewel Burks Soloman of Google Startups and Collab Capital, Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital, and many others. When Rob was appointed chairman of the University of Cincinnati’s Board of Trustees, he became the youngest person to serve in this role in the University’s history. He established the 1819 Innovation Hub in his tenure, where industry and talent collaborate to spark groundbreaking ideas. He created a leadership development and academic preparedness program for high school students. He also championed reforms to the University’s police policies. We discuss various topics, including NFTs and Web3, redefining the term Artist, the rise of creators, the disruption potential of NFTs, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing what is an artist. Rob explains why needs to redefine the meaning of “artist.” We discuss the rise of the creator and how everyone who is building and using their imagination is a creator. Our next conversation topic centered around the best ways to explain NFT and Web3 to someone. Rob discusses why some people cannot reimagine reality through a new paradigm. We discuss how Web3 brings about a new paradigm for online creation and ownership. Rob shares the steps he uses to explain NFT and Web3 to someone new to the space. We also discuss how NFTs accrue value. We discuss the NFTs enable creators to develop a stronger relationship with their fanbase. Our next topic centered around which mediums and sectors will be distributed the most because of NFTs. We discuss how film and TV will be one of the major sectors disrupted by NFTs. We also discuss why using technology to create value is the secret to long-term success. We touch on why it’s essential to become knowledgeable about the space and its broader implications across various industries. Our final discussion topic was how NFTs are a gateway into the crypto-verse by allowing more people to begin to grasp the transformational nature of crypto.

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My guest today is Halsey Minor, CEO of Vivid Labs. VIVID enables anyone to create, manage, and sell multimedia NFTs, enabling new use cases and business models and evolving NFTs into complete media experiences. Compatible across all significant blockchains, VIVID offers advanced NFT + features that transform simple NFTs into rich media experiences that are multi-format, multi-asset, permissioned, updateable and resilient. Halsey is a technology founder behind some of the greatest successes in internet and enterprise computing which have anticipated “what’s next” in enterprise architecture and technology adoption. His companies have created over $250 billion in cumulative value, and he’s built a Nasdaq 100 company from scratch. His achievements as founder or co-founder include CNET, Uphold, Salesforce, Google Voice, OpenDNS, and Vignette. We discuss various topics, including the future of NFTs, the evolution of the web, why NFTs are a new form of the website, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how NFTs are creating a new genre of multimedia content. Halsey discusses how NFTs will enhance the fan experience and provide content creators with new and innovative ways to connect with their audience. Halsey explains how various music artists and movie franchises are currently utilizing this technology to build a more profound fan experience for their audiences. Our next conversation topic centered around the evolution of the web. We discuss how Web3 is the natural evolution of the net. Halsey shares his experience building startups and business throughout the different web eras and what attracted him to Web3. We also discuss why NFTs are a new form of the website and the possible implications of that framing. We transitioned our conversation to discuss the importance of sensible regulation around NFTs. Halsey outlines why he has been imploring regulators to treat NFTs as content and not deem them to be securities. Another major conversation topic we discussed was the recent stablecoin news and why algorithmic stable coins are unlikely to work. Our final conversation centered around the future of NFTs and how creators and fans will benefit from the technology as we continue to push the boundaries of what we think is possible in space. Please enjoy my conversation with Halsey Minor.

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Today’s guest is my friend Jeffery Tucker, an American economics writer of the Austrian School, an advocate of anarcho-capitalism and Bitcoin, a publisher of libertarian books, a conference speaker, and an internet entrepreneur. He is currently the Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and ten books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. The Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research is a nonprofit organization conceptualized in May 2021. Its vision is of a society that places the highest value on the voluntary interaction of individuals and groups while minimizing the use of violence and force, even including that exercised by public authority. This vision is that of the Enlightenment that formal learning, science, progress, and universal rights to the forefront of public life. It is newly threatened by ideologies and systems that would take the world back before the triumph of the ideal of freedom. We discuss a wide range of topics from Bitcoin, the sociological fallout of COVID, the mental health crisis in America, the rise of Medical Fascism, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the economic repercussions of government intervention. Jeffery discusses how the current inflation and economic recession we are experiencing are primarily due to the government policies enacted during the COVID crisis. We discuss how inflation is impacting the various socioeconomic levels of society. We also discuss how these policies have further created societal divisions and strife. We transition our conversation to Bitcoin. We discuss how Bitcoin is the light in an ever-darkening world. We touch on how Satoshi prophesied many of the events that have transpired over the last couple of years. We also discuss what attracted us to Bitcoin. We pivot our conversation to discuss the growing societal fallouts of the COVID pandemic. We focus on the erosion of our liberties and freedoms. We begin by addressing how government policies have continued to become more totalitarian in their implementation by discussing lockdowns, the various mandates, and restrictions. Jeffery illustrates how far we’ve fallen from our perceived reality and norms over the last couple of years. We also discuss the growing trend of medical fascism and how technology companies have assisted them in this endeavor. We pivot our conversation to discuss the mental health crisis plaguing young Americans and how we can better address the inequities in the system leading young Americans down the path of depression and despair. Our last conversation topic centered around the societal constructs of truth and morality. We discuss how the various ways societies throughout history have established societal constructs around truth and reality and how they enforce those norms. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeffery Tucker.

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Today, my guest is Jason Brett, Founder and CEO of Value Technology Foundation. Value Technology Foundation is a DC nonprofit think tank dedicated to blockchain advocacy, education, research and development, and advocacy. Jason has extensive experienced with blockchain and has made presentations to several U.S. government agencies and regulatory bodies. Prior to becoming the founder of Value Technology Foundation, Jason was the Director of Operations at the Digital Chambers of Commerce. He was also a Policy Director for ConsenSys. While serving as Policy Director for the blockchain technology company ConsenSys, he was responsible for their domestic and international policy during a critical period of its growth. He has worked in both the Division of Finance and Capital Markets during the height of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Additionally, he has extensive experience in developing and implementing successful governmental affairs programs for various companies, including clients of Key Bridge Advisors. He is also a forbes.com contributor who writes on policy issues related to cryptocurrency and blockchain. Jason holds an M.B.A. from American University and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. We discuss various topics ranging from a Bitcoin Constitutional Amendment, the Bitcoin Voting Block, Bitcoin/Crypto Regulation, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing why Jason believes it is necessary to pass a constitutional amendment codifying the right for people to own and control their Bitcoin. We discuss the importance of protecting people from the overreach of government and the American ideals that are present in Bitcoin. Our conversation transitions to focus on the growing Bitcoin Voting Block. We discuss the increasing number of constituents becoming single-issue voters about Bitcoin and Crypto. We also discuss the increasing number of politicians that are pro-Bitcoin and pro-Crypto. We discuss how these politicians are fighting to protect the industry. Our next conversation topic focused on the recent executive order, and its possible impact on the industry. We discuss how the current executive order was focused mainly on gathering information that could impact potential legislation in the future. We discuss the benefits of the American political system compared to countries like China. Our final conversation centered around BIP 119 and trying to make changes to Bitcoin. We discuss why the process should be challenging to change Bitcoin. Please enjoy my conversation with Jason Brett.

My guest today is Laura Shin. Laura is a crypto/blockchain journalist covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, Defi, NFTs, DAOs, stablecoins, etc. She is the host of the podcast Unchained; and author of "The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze." During the course of writing her book, Laura and her sources uncovered who they believe was behind the 2016 DAO attack on Ethereum. Laura is a former senior editor at Forbes. She is the first mainstream journalist to coCryptover crypto full-time. Her podcasts and videos have had more than 15 million downloads and views. She has spoken about cryptocurrency at TEDx San Francisco, the International Monetary Fund, Singularity University, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. In our conversation, we discussed various topics, including the early days of crypto, how new technology is adopted, the early Ethereum team’s dynamic, the DAO hacker, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Laura got into crypto and what sparked her interest in the space. Laura shares how she became the first mainstream reporter to report on crypto full time and how reporting on crypto eventually led her to start her podcast and write her book, Cryptopians. Another important topic we discussed was the adoption cycle of new technology. We discuss the adoption patterns as recent technological advancements are integrated into society—our conversation transitions to discuss the founding of Ethereum. Laura shares a few stories to illustrate how Ethereum was founded and the political strife within the early team. We also briefly touched on the ICO craze and what sparked the mania. We discuss the DAO hack that changed the course of Ethereum’s history. Laura shares the story of who she believes hacked the DAO and the account behind her reporting. Our final conversation topic centered around crypto Twitter. We discuss how crypto Twitter has become a vital aspect of the crypto space and the possible impact Elon’s acquisition of Twitter will impact crypto Twitter. Please enjoy my conversation with Laura Shin.

Today, my guest is Dr. Julian Hosp, the CEO, and Co-Founder of Cake DeFi. Cake DeFi is a fintech platform that manages over $1 billion in customer assets. It focuses on creating DeFi (decentralized finance) services and applications like liquidity mining, staking, and lending, which generate cryptocurrency returns for users. The company recently announced a $100 Million raise to start a venture fund. The venture arm will be led by the company’s co-founders, Julian Hosp, CEO, and U-Zyn Chua, chief technology officer. While the company is based in Asia, it will invest in other opportunities globally. He is widely regarded as a leading influencer in the crypto and blockchain space, with over one million followers across all of his channels globally. His ideas, knowledge, and influence have been conveyed in numerous articles and keynote engagements at industry-leading conferences and events. As well as being credited as a leading authority in the vertical, he is an active speaker for the Washington Speaker’s Bureau, an advisor for the EU’s blockchain groups, and manages multiple businesses in the industry. He is also a best-selling author, having written Cryptocurrencies Simply Explained and Blockchain 2.0 — Far More Than Just Bitcoin. His vision is to bring blockchain awareness and understanding to a billion more people by 2025. Before being an entrepreneur, he was a professional kitesurfer and worked as a medical doctor. We discuss a wide range of topics, including Cake DeFi, Bitcoin, the gift of financial literacy, DeFi vs CeFi, and much more. Our conversation begins by discussing the second-order effects of COVID and lockdowns on the digitization of society. We discuss the growing adoption of the metaverse as society becomes more digitally native. Our next conversation topic centered around the economic philosophy of Bitcoin. We discuss the pros and cons of a hard monetary policy and how the debate is beginning to gain steam in the mainstream discourse. We transition the conversation to discuss yields. Julian explains why crypto platforms and DeFi protocols give their users higher yields than traditional financial institutions. Julian also describes how the business model of Cake DeFi is aligned with its users. Julian discusses how Cake DeFi is paying users to learn about crypto and the importance of financial literacy. We transitioned our conversation to discuss the custodial vs noncustodial crypto worlds. We discuss the concept of virgin Bitcoin. We also touch on why regulators' view of blockchains is antiquated and why their limited understanding of the technology holds back innovation. Our next conversation topic centered around the design of Bitcoin. We discuss the limitations of bitcoin and the benefits of its simplicity. Another fascinating topic in our discussion was the market manipulation in crypto and its impact on retail investors. Our final conversation topic was the importance of preserving crypto culture. We discuss the evolving nature of crypto’s culture and the importance of maintaining the core ethos of crypto as the industry grows. Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Julian Hosp.

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Today, my guest is Karl Jacob, the co-founder, and CEO of LoanSnap. Karl is a serial entrepreneur who has been building, advising, and investing in companies for the last 20 years. LoanSnap invented the world’s first smart loan technology that uses AI and machine learning to analyze a person’s entire financial picture and show them how to benefit from a smart home loan. LoanSnap is the parent company that built the Bacon Protocol, a decentralized mortgage lending protocol created using smart contract technology on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone with a Web3 wallet can lend money and earn interest, all while seeing exactly which homes they’re lending against. Moreover, anyone with a home that meets the protocol’s criteria can create an NFT and use it as collateral to borrow money. Karl’s career has been focused on founding companies that solve big problems, and those companies have helped tens of millions of consumers. He has raised 23 rounds of financing from investors, including True Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Microsoft, eBay, Integral Partners, Norwest Ventures, Greylock, Benchmark Capital, FT Ventures, Ignition Partners, and Vulcan Ventures. Many of his companies have had successful acquisitions, including; Dimension X, acquired by Microsoft, Keen/Ingenio, acquired by AT&T, Cloudmark, acquired by ProofPoint, and Coveroo, acquired by Zazzle. While CEO, Jacob has generated hundreds of millions in returns to investors and over $150 million in revenue per year. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California Engineering School, where he sits on the board of counselors. We discuss a wide range of topics, including LoanSnap, Bacon Protocol, the real estate industry, the benefits of blockchain, and much more. We begin our discussion by delving into why the banking/loan industry has been tough to disrupt. Our conversation leads us to how he and his team have finally found a way to disrupt their value chain. Karl explains how the Bacon Protocol works and what makes it unique. Karl elaborates why they decided to build the bacon protocol on blockchain/crypto rails instead of building on the traditional financial stack. He illustrates this by explaining how blockchain removes the barriers and overhead that plague the conventional loan and real estate industry. Karl discusses the fallacies that persist throughout the loan industry and how the Bacon Protocol democratizes access to affordable housing and the loan industry. We also discuss the socioeconomic impact of foreclosures on neighborhoods and how blockchain technology can be used to solve the misalignment between individuals and corporations. Karl also addresses the impediments that currently make it challenging to tokenize real-world assets and how they’ve optimized the Bacon Protocol to avoid these issues. We finish our conversation by discussing how Karl envisions the entire loan industry to be disrupted by blockchain technology. Please enjoy my conversation with Karl Jacob.

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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

My guest today is Tyler Spalding, a Co-Founder of Flexa, a blockchain payments company based in New York City. Flexa is a versatile digital payments platform that offers several key features. Flexa has point-of-sale (POS) hardware compatibility as a merchant-focused app and is designed to reduce costs, settlement times, and fraud. Payments are collateralized by Flexa’s ERC-20 token Amp, which can be staked as collateral that receives additional Amp as a staking incentive. Flexa is accepted all over North America; Flexa aims to scale globally and integrate with numerous apps and payment options. For merchants, Flexa offers a variety of payment integrations and plug-ins to enable digital asset acceptance using existing point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software. Flexa supports dozens of digital currencies for consumers — including cryptocurrencies, tokens, and digital dollars — for payment at thousands of stores throughout the United States and Canada — including Nordstrom, GameStop, Lowe’s, and Petco. Flexa has a mission of eventually enabling digital asset payments for any app, using any currency, at any store worldwide. He has been preaching/mining/coding cryptocurrencies since 2011. Tyler is the former CTO of Raise, the world’s largest gift card marketplace with over $1B in sales and $150M in venture funding. Tyler has more than 20 years of technology experience, has founded and sold three software companies, and is an active seed-stage investor in 25+ startups. He is an author of more than 50 technology patents and was previously an aerospace engineering faculty member at two universities. Tyler is also a former engineer for the United Space Alliance, the United States Air Force, NASA Mars Crew Module, and the NASA Space Shuttle Program. We discuss various topics, including the Flexa and AMP, the payment industry, why we are still early, etc. We begin our conversation by discussing the multiple inefficiencies in the payment industry. I share my personal experience with the challenges facing merchants when dealing with payment providers. Tyler explains why the inefficiencies are so prevalent. Tyler shares his experience from helping run Raise, where they developed various systems to combat fraud and other inefficiencies. Our conversation naturally leads us to Flexa, where Tyler explains how Flexa enables people to pay with crypto across millions of merchants and retailers. Tyler goes on to discuss the tokenomics of AMP. We have a fascinating conversation comparing the engineering challenges in blockchain and aerospace engineering. We also discuss the philosophy of Voluntarism and the importance of individual choice. Our conversation pivots back to Flexa, where we discuss the company's commitment to transparency. We also discuss how Flexa is supporting the infrastructure of El Salvador’s transition to a Bitcoin Standard. We discuss how the crypto industry is still very early and why it is inevitable. Our final conversation topic centered on the social challenges of educating people on the proper custody of digital assets. Please enjoy my conversation with Tyler Spalding.

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My guest today is my good friend Aaron Koenig. Aaron is a Bitcoin pioneer, entrepreneur, consultant, writer and film producer, specialising in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. His company Bitfilm creates short commercial films for clients, most of them Bitcoin and Blockchain start-ups. He has been actively promoting Bitcoin and Blockchain technology since June 2011 by writing about it and by organising events and meetups. He has also been a speaker and panelist at numerous conferences. Aaron is the author of the books A Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin and Austrian Economics and Cryptocoins - Investing in Digital Currencies. Aaron holds a master in communication and marketing from the Berlin University of the Arts, Aaron has been working in the creative internet industry since 1994. He has created websites for clients such as MTV, ARD German Television, Die Zeit, Der Stern, Milka Chocolate and many others. His company Bitfilm has been working in production, distribution and event management for clients such as Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Kabel NRW, Swisscom, Nokia, Microsoft, Adobe, Intel, Apple, Axel Springer and many more. We discuss a variety of topics including the early days of Bitcoin, the evolving Bitcoin community, the memes of Bitcoin, the art world of Bitcoin, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the early days of Bitcoin. Aaron discusses how he started the Bitcoin Exchange Berlin and the culture of the early days of Bitcoin. We discuss the evolution of the Bitcoin community and how the culture continues to evolve. We also discuss how the core principles of the Bitcoin culture continue to be strong and continue to power the community. Our conversation transitions to discuss the most meaningful memes of Bitcoin and how they help drive the narrative and principles of Bitcoin forward. The next major topic of discussion centered around the art world of Bitcoin. We discuss how NFTs are enabling regular artists to make a living off of their art. Aaron shares details about his upcoming art exhibit that will have pieces that embody various legendary Bitcoin memes. We finish our conversation by discussing the importance of art to Bitcoin’s history. Please enjoy my conversation with Aaron Koenig.

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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

My guest today is Charles Guillemet, CTO of Ledger. Ledger provides security and infrastructure solutions to critical digital assets for consumers and institutional investors. Launched in 2014, Ledger has designed an acclaimed line of hardware security devices, quickly placing the company as a global leader in the market, with 1,000,000 units sold in more than 165 countries. Ledger introduced the Vault for enterprises and corporations: a fully managed SaaS solution addressing the need to safeguard a very large amount of multiple cryptocurrencies while mitigating both IT and physical assault threats. The company is also active in the industrial IoT market, leveraging its secure hardware technology to interface sensors and machines to smart contracts or blockchain-based assets. Charles joined Ledger in 2017 as Chief Security Officer after working for ten years in the Cryptography & Hardware Security sector. He is also the creator of Donjon (the company’s security research department). He is now Chief Technology Officer from 2019. Charles holds a Master of Science in Cryptography & Security at the Engineering School ENSIMAG, with a Major in Cryptography and Security (Valedictorian), where he used to be a Lecturer. We discuss a variety of topics ranging from the importance of hardware wallets, Donjon, the advancements in security, areas for improvement in the crypto asset security industry, the future of blockchains, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the importance of hardware wallets. Charles explains the dangers of storing your private keys on your phone. Another topic of discussion centered around how the industry's growth will impact security. Charles outlines that as the crypto-asset sector continues to grow, it will continue to attract more hackers, so we must continue to focus on improving security and security education. Charles also discusses the risks that zero-day exploits could have on the industry. We finish our discussion on the importance of hardware wallets by discussing what they store and how ledger approaches designing their hardware wallets. Our conversation pivots to discuss why the north star of the crypto asset security industry should be to improve the UI and UX of their products. Charles does an excellent job detailing why improving the UX of security products will drive mass adoption. He also touches on the various bottlenecks we currently face that deter people from using hardware wallets to store their crypto assets. Another major topic of conversation centered around quantum computing. We discuss why quantum computing is not currently a risk for the crypto assets space and how it is mainly a research field. Charles also discusses that as the technology develops, the crypto-asset industry will have ample time to address the possible vulnerabilities that quantum computing could present. We also discuss the singularity and have a philosophical discussion of what we categorize as intelligence. The next major topic of discussion in the interview centered around the future of blockchains. Charles stresses that blockchain developers should not be creating applications on Layer-1s and instead focus their efforts on Layer-2s. We also discuss the purpose of blockchains. We discuss that the goal of blockchains is to decentralize society and give the user their power back. Charles outlines why this is such a strong value proposition, and we discuss how this will continue to revolutionize society for decades to come. Please enjoy my conversation with Charles Guillemet.

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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

My guest today is Evan Cheng, co-founder & CEO of Mysten Labs. Mysten Labs is a team of leading distributed systems, programming languages, and cryptography experts whose founders led Meta’s Novi Research and helped develop the Diem blockchain and Move programming language. The mission of Mysten Labs is to create foundational infrastructure for Web3. They partner with crucial ecosystem builders to make step-change improvements to their networks. Before co-founding Mysten Labs, Evan helped lead Novi Financial and was the research and development director. Evan focused on systems & security, programming language & formal verification, and new product experimentation as the Director of R&D at Novi Financial. Novi Financial is Meta’s crypto R&D division. Before leading Novi Financial, Evan worked at Facebook as the Director of Programming Languages and Runtime. Evan focused on supporting Facebook's world-class team in programming languages, runtimes, and compilers: Hack, HHVM, Skip, Flow, Python, Reactive programming, C++, LLVM, Android + iOS mobile runtimes and optimization pipelines, mobile JavaScript platform, and runtimes, Glow, and more. Evan worked at Apple for over a decade, where he was a third-level manager overseeing seven engineering teams. He focused on leading efforts in static and runtime compilation for both CPUs and GPUs, Swift performance, static and dynamic linker, shared cache optimizations, debugger, and bitcode tooling. He collaborated on HW transitioning plans, a simulation tool for early GPU architecture exploration, built & integrated tools, App Store tools, and security hardening. Evan Bootstrapped various new "engineering effectiveness" initiatives. In our conversation, we discussed multiple topics, including; Mysten Labs, the future of Web3, the infrastructure of Web3, decentralization, and much more. We began our conversation by discussing what attracted Evan to crypto and what compelled him to make the jump to start Mysten Labs with co-founders. Evan explains why we are at the precipice of the next innovation wave in crypto. Our next conversation topic centered around the infrastructure layer of crypto. Evan discusses the various limitations current blockchains have to meet the rigorous demands of scaling and composability. Evan addresses how Mysten Labs is building tools and infrastructure to solve these bottlenecks. Our conversation pivots to discuss the future of Web3 and NFTs. Evan outlines why we are still in the early days of NFT and Web3. He discusses how the NFT space may evolve as the tools and infrastructure built around NFTs and Web3 becomes. One significant evolution we discussed is how NFTs will be able to send and receive data unlocking a tremendous amount of potential for collaboration and value for both builders and owners of NFTs. We finish our conversation by discussing how we imagine NFTs and Web3 changing how society interacts and communicates. Please enjoy my conversation with Evan Cheng.

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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

My guest today is Billy Rennekamp, Grants Manager of the Interchain Foundation. Interchain Foundation develops and maintains foundational decentralized protocols, and supports organizations in building an internet of shared resources, security, and value creation. Their goal is to responsibly shape a new technological paradigm that is open-source, interoperable, and community-owned. Billy is an artist and developer from Louisville, KY living in Berlin, Germany. Billy is the Grants Manager of the Interchain Foundation where he supports different entities and contributors across the ecosystem. His work in software, sculpture and moving images uses influences from games, play, and cognitive science. He is also the founder of Bin Studio multidisciplinary research, design, and development studio based in Berlin, DE. Additionally, he is a contributor to ETH, cosmos, and gnosis. Billy is also the founder of Clovers Network, a Blockchain game that encourages the creation of scarce art. We discuss a variety of topics: Comos Ecosystem, Interchain Foundation, Clover Network, Bitcoin, Interoperability, and much more. Our conversation begins by discussing the intersection of crypto and art. Billy discusses how art was his gateway into crypto. We also touch on how distributed systems make it possible to more elegantly align incentives. Another topic we discussed was how the game Othello inspired the creation of the Clover Network. Billy explains the parallels between proof-of-search and proof-of-work consensus mechanism. A very cool topic we discussed centered around the Clover Network. Billy discusses his experience designing one of the first NFT projects. We also discuss that there is a tremendous amount of white space in NFTs/Web3. Our next major conversation topic centered around Cosmos. Billy discusses what initially attracted him to Cosmos and how Cosmos is building the blockchain for the future. We discuss the Cosmos ecosystem and how IBC enables them to be interoperable. Billy discusses how Cosmos SDK is enabling builders to build application-specific blockchains to tailor the infrastructure of an applications blockchain to fit the problem it's solving. We go on to discuss the relationship of ATOM within the Cosmos Ecosystem. Billy explains why creating an internet of blockchains is how you scale blockchain technology for the masses. Our next conversation centers around grants. Billy explains how grants are awarded to fund projects. We also discuss Interchain Academy as a way to onboard new builders to the crypto space. Our next conversation topic centered around Interchain Security and how it will streamline the process of creating new applications. Our final discussion topic centered around the upcoming Cosmos upgrade. Billy explains one of the major updates coming in the upcoming upgrade, Liquid Staking. Billy also discusses the tools they are building for new applications that people haven’t even thought of yet.

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ParaSwap:

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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

My guest today is Ryan Sheftel, co-founder and CEO of Radkl, a new quantitative trading firm that brings institutional-grade experience from Wall Street to crypto markets everywhere. Ryan is also a Partner GTS, where he is responsible for building and running the fixed income business across the futures, cash bonds, and derivatives markets for all trading activities on public exchanges and bilateral dealing with the financial community. Prior to GTS, Ryan was the Global Head of Electronic Market Making for Rates and the Global Head of eCommerce for Credit Suisse. He was responsible for running the electronic market-making trading business and the customer-facing franchise, including the Credit Suisse Onyx platform. Ryan previously served as Principal and Portfolio Manager of the Malbec Quantys Fund, a multi-strategy systematic hedge fund, and as Portfolio Manager at Citadel Investment Group, where he headed Systematic Trading in the Global Rates Group. Before Citadel, Ryan was a trader in the mortgage department at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. Ryan graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management and Technology dual degree program with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics, with a concentration in finance, and a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in systems science and engineering. We discuss a variety of topics including Radkl, Bitcoin, global financial markets, zero-interest rates, generational shifts, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Bitcoin. We discuss the recent announcement by Greenpeace, BlackRock, and other institutions of their intentions to move BItcoin from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. We also discuss Bitcoin's role within the global landscape. We also discuss Biden’s executive order about crypto and the implications of possible regulation. The generational shifts within money markets and how that has impacted people's lives. We touch on the evolution of the perception of the banking system by discussing the differing perspectives various generations have towards banks and crypto. Ryan explains the impact of the Fed rates on retail consumers. Ryan goes on to discuss how the Fed thinks about monetary policy and how they implement those policies. Ryan breaks down Radkl’s role within crypto markets from providing liquidity to providing immediate risk transfer for institutions or people who have large orders. Our final discussion topic centered around how long will it take for Bitcoin to become self-evident within the mindshare of the populace. Please enjoy my conversation with Ryan Sheftel.

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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

My guest today is John deVadoss, the founder of NGD Enterprise Inc. NGD Enterprise focuses on the blockchain developer experience and tooling for the NEO blockchain. Neo bills itself as a “rapidly growing and developing” ecosystem that has the goal of becoming the foundation for the next generation of the internet — a new economy where digitized payments, identities, and assets come together. Initially known as Antshares, this project was believed to be China’s first-ever public blockchain when it was launched in February 2014. The open-source platform was subsequently rebranded to Neo three years later. As well as creating a worldwide community of developers who create new infrastructure for the network and lower barriers to entry, the team behind this project operates an EcoBoost initiative that’s designed to encourage people to build decentralized apps and smart contracts on its blockchain. Previously, John was a co-founder of the InterWork Alliance, which is now part of the GBBC. Earlier, He was a general manager at Microsoft for close to two decades, during which he built out the architecture for .NET v1, Visual Studio Tools, the Microsoft Application Platform, Microsoft Digital (which he scaled to billion-dollar P&L), and more. He led the early service-oriented architecture and cloud architecture incubation initiatives for Microsoft, which led to Azure. Our conversation covers a wide range of topics including Neo, Bitcoin, developing software, scaling infrastructure, multi-chain and interoperability, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing John’s background and his experience leading teams at Microsoft. John discusses how his time at Microsoft gave him insight into how to scale infrastructure and how to create tools for developer communities. Our conversation transitions to discussing developers. John explains general misconceptions and the network effects of programming languages. We discuss why we should be building developer tools in the crypto-space to attract millions of developers globally to the blockchain. Our next conversation topic centered around Bitcoin. John illustrates the importance of Bitcoin and how Bitcoin is an institution. We also discuss general misunderstandings traditional technologists have about blockchain and the major themes they fail to grasp. John excellently discusses the developer ecosystem of the blockchain space and why we attract nontraditional builders. Our next conversation topic was centered around code and auditing code. John gives great insights into how you should think about code and what to look for when auditing a project's code. We transitioned from blockchain and web3 to discuss web2. John discusses why web2 was a bad detour for humanity. John illustrates how web2 evolved from being focused on user-generated content to surveillance capitalism. Another major topic of discussion was the possible applications of web3 protocols and projects. One area we discussed was the application of the protocols to municipalities and other government organizations. We finish our conversation discussing interoperability and the future of multichain. John excellently demonstrates why we are headed to a multichain world and the difficulties we face implementing interoperability. This was an amazing conversation with so many insights from general software scaling to Bitcoin to web3. Please enjoy my conversation with John deVadoss.

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ParaSwap:

If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.

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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

My guest today is Nea Simone, Founder & CEO of Melanated Studios, the first black, woman-owned, and operated blockchain technology services company in the NFT and Metaverse space focused on empowering creators from the Global Diaspora of Afro-Descendants. Melanated Studios was born out of a shared passion for the global culture of Afro-Descendants and an understanding of the benefit of NFTs to creators through the smart contract to control their art and build generational wealth through a royalty system based upon the NFTs' highest sale value in perpetuity. Their team is composed of professionals with more than 50 years combined experience in PR & marketing, filmmaking, and technology with an emphasis on early blockchain developments and cryptocurrency. Melanated curates and places for auction or sale, art from the most pivotal talent that the world has known and all who hail from the global African diaspora. Nea is also an Entertainment Marketing Executive, Entrepreneur, and NYT best-selling author. As the first woman and black-owned blockchain digital agency, Nea is committed to providing complete creative and tech services to international NFT collectors and legacy clients, specializing in multi-media collections of cultural history. Founder and CEO Nea Simone is a visionary and futurist with two decades of expertise as a creator and entrepreneur with early involvement in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. She has spoken at Cannes and Suriname on NFTs and the future of art in 2021. She was the only Black woman to speak at the Crypto Funding Summit in Los Angeles in 2016 and was interviewed by Finance Magnets on Women in Blockchain Technology and again in an article about the future of crypto and the impact of women. Nea has been featured in Variety and a number of Crypto Publications including NFT Plazas, BitcoinEthereumNews, Yahoo Entertainment, CoinTelegraph, and many more. We discussed a variety of different topics during our conversation including, Melanated Studios, the publishing industry, NFT and Web3, the Creator Economy, finding your tribe, and much more. We begin our discussion by delving into the book publishing industry. Nea shares her experience of trying to get her first book published and the various hurdles she faced. She goes on to discuss how this informed her thinking on the possible applications and use cases for blockchain and web3 technology. Our conversation transitions to discussing the applications of NFTs. Nea discusses how NFTs can bring the creator/fan relationship closer together. We discuss future applications of NFTs and Web3. Our next topic of conversation centered around the film industry. We discuss the application and use cases for the film industry. Our final major topic of discussion is the creator economy. Nea discusses the importance of finding your tribe and how artists can use NFTs to engage with an audience. Please enjoy my conversation with Nea Anna Simone.

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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

My guests today are Fred Jin and Kenzi Wang, the Co-Founders of the Cere Network. Cere Network is the first Decentralized Data Cloud platform optimized for service data integration and data collaboration. While most blockchains are simply distributed ledgers, the Cere network of blockchains allows for turnkey hyper-customization of enterprise data ecosystems. Cere Network is the first Decentralized Data Cloud platform optimized for service data integration and data collaboration. Cere aims to be more ethical, more efficient, and more interoperable than any of its centralized counterparts. Fred is the co-founder and CEO of the Cere Network. Prior to Founding Cere, Fred is a Silicon Valley veteran, been in the valley since ‘93, co-founded 50cubes, a Tencent-backed gaming company. He was also early at Bebo where he helped lead the $850 million acquisition by AOL. Kenzi Wang is a Cere Network co-founder. Previously he was the Ex Vice-President, General Manager of Huobi, and a Partner at AU21 capital, a US VC investment firm. We discuss a variety of topics including Cere Network, the DaVinci Platform, the importance of decentralized data storage, the future of NFTs, and much more. If you are interested in understanding NFTs and the future of the creator economy you need to listen to this episode. We begin our discussion with Fred and Kenzi giving a general overview of the Cere Network. We discuss the importance of decentralized storage. We discuss the dangers of centralized platforms controlling our data and the privacy abuse that is prevalent throughout the data tech stack. A shocking fact that was raised during our discussion of data storage was that most NFTs are stored on centralized cloud providers like AWS and Snowflake and the systemic problems those platforms present to the long-term viability of NFTs. We discuss at a high-level on how Cere addresses these systemic risks by revolutionizing the data tech stack to ensure everyone's data is encrypted and can be monetized by the person who created the data. Our conversation transitions to discussing how Cere’s technology is enabling better functionality around NFTs to empower creators and artists to deepen their relationship and connection with their audience. Our next conversation topic centered around how the DaVinci Platform will be able to enable DAOs as a Service. The following discussion topic we focused on was how NFTs will enable creators to provide more value to their fans by being able to identify and build relationship maps with their core fanbase with exclusive content and experiences to fans who are engaging with their content the most. Please enjoy my conversation with Fred Jin and Kenzi Wang.

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ParaSwap:

If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.

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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

My guest today is Josip Rupena, the Founder and CEO of Milo. Milo is a financial technology company reimagining the way globally and crypto consumers access financial solutions to 'Unlock what's possible.' By building a proprietary technology stack from the ground up and bringing on a world-class team, the company has enabled millions of dollars in US home loans. Milo is passionate about driving the digital transformation of financial services, solving real problems, and making a meaningful impact in people's lives. Milo's investors include QED Investors, Metaprop, and 10X Capital. Milo is the world's first crypto mortgage offering that makes it easy for crypto investors to utilize their digital assets to purchase US real estate. The digital banking leader will now expand its offerings to serve the rapidly growing crypto segment. Milo's clients will be able to pledge their Bitcoin to purchase property and finally qualify for a low-interest rate 30-year crypto mortgage. This solution will allow clients to continue to own their bitcoin and diversify into real estate, all while keeping the potential price appreciation of both. Clients will be able to finance 100% of their purchase with no dollar down payments required and do this faster than a conventional mortgage. By combining the security of real estate with the liquidity of digital assets, Milo is able to bridge both the crypto and real world. Prior to founding Milo, Josip was a Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley working with international clients and financial institutions. Josip also worked at an investment firm with $1 billion in assets under management as a Portfolio Manager and Head Trader. He began his career at Goldman Sachs covering institutional private clients with over $3.5 billion in assets. Josip graduated Cum Laude from the University of Miami and majored in Finance. The major topics in our conversation included how Milo is disrupting the mortgage and loan industry, why Bitcoin is the perfect collateral, how the loan industry works, real estate as a wealth-generating tool, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the impact the crypto wave will have throughout society including real estate. Our conversation transitions to discussing the real estate market and what is contributing to the rise in real estate prices. Josip explains the macro-tailwinds that are driving the real estate market. Our conversation shifts to discuss possible real estate opportunities. Josip breaks down various pockets of real estate where consumers can find good value. We touch on the current mass human migration and the possible reasons driving this exodus. Our next conversation topic centered around the future of the mortgage and home loan industry. Josip explains how the mortgage industry works and what areas could be disrupted with the advent of new technology. Josip goes on to explain how the government is subsidizing the real estate industry in America. Our conversation transitions to how Milo is innovating the real estate asset class by being able to underwrite risk more accurately. Josip explains how Milo’s Bitcoin-backed loan works. Please enjoy my discussion with Josip Rupena.

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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

My guest today is my friend, Chris Pizzo, Co-Founder and General Partner of Druid Ventures. Druid Ventures is a boutique investment firm focused on Blockchain and Crypto. Druid’s team consists of Crypto and Web3 OGs including myself and Scott Melker and LPs ranging from prominent high net worth individuals and family offices. Chris has a background in investing in and working with companies to shape their goals and success. Prior to Druid Ventures, Chris was a Vice President for SCP & CO, a mid-market investment firm. Before his work at SCP and CO, Chris developed and managed the coaching and corporate partnership programs at Embarc Collective, a Tampa-based innovation hub spearheaded by Jeff Vinik. Previously, Chris held the position of Associate at the investment firm Murray-Bertron, LLC. While there, Chris divided his time between working with portfolio companies on operational improvements and sourcing/executing new transactions. Prior to his position with Murray-Bertron, Chris co-founded VitalStream Networks, a remote patient monitoring company seeking to reduce hospital readmissions and achieve the quadruple aim. We discuss a variety of important topics including Druid Ventures, talent acquisition, crypto sectors to watch, early-stage investing, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Tampa’s burgeoning crypto scene. We also discuss how COVID is decentralizing talent and how Tampa is at the forefront of attracting this new wave of builders. We also touch on how crypto is dominating the mindshare of the youth and attracting them to the space in unprecedented numbers. Our conversation pivots to discuss how crypto has changed the culture around work and the importance of working for a company you believe in. The next major topic we discussed was the possible impact of Biden’s Executive Order on Cryptocurrency. Chris discusses how the executive order will lead to more regulatory clarity to open the doors for further investment into the crypto space. We follow our discussion about the Executive Order opening further investment into crypto by discussing the role of venture capital in crypto. Chris discusses why venture investing is vital to help progress the space forward. We also discuss why investing in bear markets is the best time to invest and frameworks for investing during volatile periods. Chris does an excellent job at explaining the market dynamics that exist within venture and how the current inflationary macro landscape is driving valuations artificially higher. Our conversations shift to discuss the future of DAOs. Chris discusses the possible pitfalls for DAOs but also discusses why DAOs are the future. Our next major discussion topic centered around where the next big opportunities could be within crypto. Chris breaks down possible sectors that could be disrupted by blockchain technology and crypto. Our final topic centered around the future of the metaverse and the real-world impact the metaverse is having. Please enjoy my conversation with Chris Pizzo.

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ParaSwap:

If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.

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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

My guests today are Arel and Lex Avellino, co-founders of Three Division, the company behind Passage and Strange Clan. Three Division builds next-level visual and interactive content. Their team's strange blend of artists and developers has allowed them to create everything from 3D animation and VFX to custom blockchain applications and interactive virtual worlds for online events. Passage is a metaverse platform with the goal of making an accessible and customizable 3D world for video chat, presentations, collaboration, and e-commerce.

Every Passage experience comes with these standard features: 3-D Worlds, Immersive Video\\ Chat, Presentation/Panels and Screen Sharing/Streaming. The base cost gets the users Passage world up-and-running on a custom domain. Uses can use the space for one-off events or an ongoing virtual location. Strange Clan is one of the most ambitious NFT projects in the world, certainly the most advanced in all of the IBC networks. The Strange Clan is a story-driven community-based game where users can farm, craft, quest, and earn. The world of Strange Clan is being built in the Passage Metaverse, powered by Akash Network and the Cosmos ecosystem. The graphics of the game are powered by the Unreal Engine.

We discuss a variety of different topics including Passage, Strange Clan, the future of Metaverse, Play to Earn, and the future of human communication. We begin our conversation by discussing the Passage and the future of the Metaverse. Lex and Arel discuss what led them to build Passage. We also discuss disrupting the video conferencing and building a platform for online communities and events. We go on to discuss the technology behind Passage that makes their Metaverse possible. We transition to discuss the Metaverse more broadly. We discuss why they decided to build on the Cosmos SDK and the importance of building a public Metaverse. We discuss how we envision the Metaveres evolving and becoming an all encompassing part of our lives. Our next conversation topic centered around Strange Clan and Play to Earn. Lex and Arel discuss how they’ve designed Strange Clan to be a game first. We discuss Strange Clan’s in-game economic dynamics and how this will enhance the gaming experience. We go on to discuss Play to Earn. Lex and Arel dispel the arguments against Play to Earn. We also discuss why they decided to build Strange Clan as a MMORPG and why they refer to Strange Clan as a Play to Own. We discuss the parallels between Strange Clan and RuneScape. We discuss the backstory of Strange Clan. Lex and Arel discuss the importance of gaming to the Metaverse.

Our final discussion centered around community building. We discuss the future of online communities. We discuss how the Metaverse will revolutionize human communication and connection. Please enjoy my conversation with Arel and Lex Avellino.

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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

My guest today is Dr. Muneeb Ali, co-Founder of Stacks. Stacks is a layer-1 blockchain solution that is designed to bring smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) to Bitcoin (BTC). These smart contracts are brought to Bitcoin without changing any of the features that make it so powerful — including its security and stability. Stacks looks to take what makes Bitcoin so powerful, and extends it with additional functionality, without needing to fork or change the original Bitcoin blockchain. Dr. Muneeb Ali is the co-founder of Stacks, bringing apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin. He serves as the CEO of Hiro PBC, a Public Benefit Corp that builds developer tools for Stacks and Bitcoin. He has raised $75 million USD in funding from investors like Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, Winklevoss Capital, and others. Hiro PBC was recently featured in CNBC's list of 100 promising startups to watch. Muneeb received his Ph.D. and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University, where his Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the ACM SIGCOMM dissertation award. Muneeb gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton and his research publications have over 1,600 citations. He is one of the main characters in the book Life After Google and was a technical advisor to the HBO show Silicon Valley. IN our conversation we discuss a variety of topics including Bitcoin, the early days of Bitcoin, Stacks and building on Bitcoin, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the differences between Web 2 and Web3. Muneeb does an excellent job at explaining the platform risks that exist throughout the Web2 ecosystem. Our conversation transitions to Bitcoin. We discuss how Bitcoin is freedom money and how it is helping both Ukrainian and Russian citizens navigate this incredibly difficult time. We also discuss the early days of Bitcoin and what attracted us to the space. Muneeb shares stories from the early days of Bitcoin showing how small the community was and how much the movement has grown. Our conversation transitions to a discussion centered around building on top of Bitcoin. Muneeb explains the various different protocols being built on top of Bitcoin like Stacks, Liquid, and RSK. We discuss how these work and their various trade offs. Muneeb breaks down Proof-of-Transfer, merge mining, and federated systems. We also touch on the growth of the developer base within the Stacks ecosystem and some exciting new projects being built on Stacks. Our final topic of conversation centered around why build on Bitcoin and why Bitcoin is the future. Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Muneeb Ali

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ParaSwap:

If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.

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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