Hot Topics: Solana Congestion, Bitcoin Runes, Echo, and Ethena

Imran and Qiao sat down to discuss the current hot topics such as Solana Congestion, Bitcoin Runes, Echo, and Ethena. No BS crypto insight for founders. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:39 Welcome to Good Game 01:12: Qiao Tried to Ape In To Some Runes 01:26 What Are Runes? 02:55 How Do You Receive RSICs? 04:00 Do RSICs Come with a JPEG? 06:12 What Runes and RSICs? 07:20 Other BTC L2s That Want to Offer Support For Runes 08:07 When Will BTC L2s Launch? 09:26 Design Trade-offs For Runes 12:47 Runes Competing With Bitcoin L2s? 14:30 Who are the Runes Accounts on Twitter? 16:56 How Runes Will Play Out Alongside Bitcoin L2s 21:07 Game of Blocks (GOB) 23:11 The Bitcoin Renaissance 26:24 Qiao Shares A Funny Story 32:22 Critiques From Our Last Episode 33:49 Solana Congestion 40:02 Are We Biased Towards Solana? 43:23 Crypto Startup Stories: Fig Investments 46:00 Ethena 56:16 Echo by Cobie 01:05:22 The ETA for The Solana Patch

Arthur Hayes and Will Clemente on How This Bitcoin Halving Is Different

The Bitcoin halving is just around the corner, expected to be on April 19 or April 20. Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, and Will Clemente, co-founder of Reflexivity Research discuss the rise in Bitcoin prices ahead of the halving, the impact of the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, and the potential effects of the halving on the price trajectory post-halving. They also discuss the potential impact of a new class of investors on Bitcoin's price, volatility, and decentralization. Moreover, they dive into the impact of the macroeconomics, geopolitical, and demographic conditions for the crypto asset industry, the potential for L2s on Bitcoin, and their price predictions for bitcoin by year-end.

Ep. 1 - Introducing the Podscast

Welcome to The Podscast - where we explore the emergence of onchain media and the people building it. The first episode is a bit different than usual. It's a solo recording explaining why we're launching the Podscast and the reason for onchain media. This is a canonical episode that we hope to revisit on a recurring basis, challenging and updating the thesis for onchain media. Every episode of The Podscast will be available onchain. We'll continuously look to experiment with different ways to engage with our audience. Strap in and enjoy.

#10: Sefton Kincaid, Cicada Partners | The past, present and future of onchain credit

In our latest podcast, we sat down with Sefton Kincaid of @cicadacredit! We discussed the past, present and future of onchain credit, as well as Cicada’s recent partnership with @TrueFiDAO 🎙️ 00:00 - Sefton’s background 04:40 - The efficiencies of DeFi protocols 09:44 - The history of crypto credit 17:20 - Collateralized vs uncollateralized credit 18:30 - TrueFi and Maple’s appeal 21:55 - Crypto credit today 21:45 - Borrowing from custodians 26:38 - Communication between lenders 29:03 - The pricing of risk 31:25 - Why Sefton stayed in onchain credit 32:20 - Cicada Partners’ founding thesis 33:15 - Asset backed lending 34:48 - The appetite for RWA deals 37:22 - Cicada’s partnership with TrueFi 40:44 - DeFi vs CeFi lending in the future 44:13 - Common misconceptions in onchain credit 47:51 - The future impact of onchain credit 49:38 - Closing thoughts Follow Wallfacer: https://twitter.com/wallfacerlabs And our host, Ryan Rodenbaugh: https://twitter.com/ryanrodenbaugh https://warpcast.com/ryanrodenbaugh And subscribe for all our other content: https://linktr.ee/wallfacerlabs

Building The Next Wave of GenArt Lovers: Interview with Erick Calderon

Kicking off a series of interviews with platform founders, we are thrilled to bring you this conversation with Erick Calderon aka Snowfro. We dive deep into the recently announced changes with AB, Sansa, and the market as a whole. In this episode we discuss: -Racing cars, Magic: the Gathering & Minecraft -Surviving in Crypto for 7+ years, surviving the 2018 bear market and our current downswing & the simple math behind the generative art market -What the experience could be for new collectors that are no longer "early" -Why buy Sansa? What do they bring to Art Blocks and their role in the future of the platform? -Who will be allowed to release on Sansa & the challenges of being a truly open platform -Expanding Engine Partners to brands & bringing new communities to web3 through physical generative objects -How Curated is changing and when we can expect the next Curated release -Can we expect new chains, sale mechanisms, release styles & more from Art Blocks & Sansa? Follow Erick on Twitter @ArtOnBlockchain and join the Art Blocks Discord to stay up to date on their upcoming announcements

Look Touch Own ft. Oona

Oona is an anonymous conceptual artist, who explores the intersections of technology, finance, gender, and identity through her moving images and performance art. She has exhibited globally, earning critical acclaim and attention from collectors and curators. She was awarded the prestigious Playboy & Sevens Foundation grant for the "Art of Gender & Sexuality." ✍️ Subscribe to Kaloh's Newsletter: https://www.kaloh.xyz/ 🎙Kaloh's YouTube: www.youtube.com/@kaloh_podcast Connect with me: Farcaster 👉 https://warpcast.com/kaloh X 👉 https://www.x.com/kaloh_nft Instagram 👉 https://www.twitter.com/kaloh_art In today’s episode, we discuss: Oona's message and evolution (00:00:49) Oona's evolution as an anonymous conceptual artist and the message behind her art. Entering the crypto art world (00:02:17) Oona's introduction to the world of crypto art and her goal to expand knowledge through her art. Challenges and opportunities in performance art (00:04:41) Oona's experiences and challenges in gatecrashing events and the significance of performance art in the crypto art world. Integration of blockchain technology with performance art (00:07:31) Oona's excitement about integrating blockchain technology with performance art and her first experience of minting NFTs. Collectors and the significance of Oona's art (00:09:12) The relationship between Oona's collectors and her performance art, including the impact of her art on the audience. Oona's grant from Playboy and the reaction of collectors (00:10:06) Oona's grant from Playboy, the reaction of her collectors, and the humorous situation with some of her first collectors. The concept and process of "Look Touch Own" (00:15:43) The concept and process of Oona's performance piece "Look Touch Own," including the message behind it and the audience's varied reactions. Cultural Reactions to Performance (00:19:20) Oona shares the diverse reactions to her performance in different cities, highlighting the cultural differences in response. Extreme Reactions in Paris (00:20:44) Oona describes the extreme range of reactions she experienced during her performance in Paris, including crying, nudity, and unexpected interactions. Data Tracking and Consent (00:23:53) Oona explains the process of obtaining consent and tracking interactions during her performance, emphasizing the use of non-disclosure agreements and data collection. Creating Digital Artwork from Interactions (00:25:51) Oona discusses the creation of unique digital artwork based on interactions and preserving participants' anonymity. Organic Sales Approach (00:30:15) Oona explains how the sales approach aligns with the collaborative nature of her performance, emphasizing the organic and performative aspects of the sales process. Dealing with Censorship and Algorithms (00:35:15) Oona discusses the challenges of showcasing her art, which explores gender and sexuality, on social media platforms due to censorship and algorithm biases. The Significance of Anonymity and the Mask (00:40:26) Oona explains why she chooses to remain anonymous and wear a mask, highlighting its role in broadening the conversation about the female body and identity. Until next time, - Kaloh Mentioned: Art Basel, Playboy, Look Touch Own, NFC, Valie Export, Violet Bond, Dolly Parton

Alex Masmej Talks $DEGEN: Fueling Drakula's Growth and the Onchain Creator Economy

Join us in this episode as we sit down with Alex Masmej, the brain behind Drakula and a key player in the farcaster ecosystem. From his early days of conceptualizing Showtime as the 'Instagram of NFTs' to pioneering Drakula, Alex's journey is nothing short of remarkable. Drakula, now making waves as the 'TikTok of Web3', has seen an explosive start with over $30M in transactions in just two weeks, introducing a new and engaging way for fans to support video creators. Alex returns to the podcast to share the lessons learned from pivoting Showtime to creating Drakula, highlighting the strategic moves, go-to-market strategy, and the decision to adopt $DEGEN as the native currency of the app. I hope you enjoy our conversation and our genesis episode on Pods!

Modular March EP 16: Where Eclipse & SVM Fit in The Modular Thesis

Typically, you wouldn’t think of Solana having a strong footing in the modular thesis. After all, the design choices they have elegantly pioneered (credit where credit is due) revolve around scaling a single state machine. This simply won’t scale to billions of users, and they will need to modularize. However, the extremely performant and extensible Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) is an effective tool to build an extremely fast rollup atop Ethereum. We can all be friends here, right? Welcome to today’s Modular March presentation, where we take our first dive as a team into the fascinating world of Eclipse and its modular approach to blockchain scalability and security. For those who’ve been around the block(chain), you know the drill: scalability often comes at the cost of complexity or security. Yet, Eclipse offers high throughput without the mess of state fragmentation via their flexible architecture. They’re mixing the best of both worlds – Solana’s speed and Ethereum’s security, with a splash of Celestia for that decentralized data layer cherry on top. We enjoyed this presentation with Sydney while also trying to understand where the tradeoffs or weaknesses in this design lie. We found some edge-cases but what was most interesting was the application possibilities as a result of using the SVM. We had some solid takeaways, you’ll enjoy this.

Ep.22: Vibhu from Drip Haus, Solana L2s, SC07, Degen L3, The Token is the Product, Sofamon

A weekly rundown show where extremely online individuals broadly explore (romanticize, even) new consumer internet experiences. Join us live and online on Fridays @ 10AM PST live.seedclub.xyz 01:21 we’ve got Vibhu joining us from Drip Haus 02:30 How are you describing what Drip is and what’s the intention behind the product? 04:43 Scaling to 160,000 daily active users 06:04 Using machine learning to parse productive users from unproductive ones 07:34 On the choice to go with Solana and creating a simple click to claim mechanism 08:44 Droplets are redeemable for collectibles on the platform and you get 5-10 to claim 11:51 Using the platform to distribute physical artworks and where Drip fits in the creator stack 16:54 No one anticipated a company like Drip existing on Solana pushing 10M NFTs each week 19:39 Solana L2s are coming, there are a number of teams working on solutions now 23:19 The next cohort for Seed Club’s SC.07 has been announced and we’re super excited 25:36 We have a huge range of projects from marketplaces to memecoins, AI, social and more 33:31 Josh tries to introduce the next topic but Peace needs to mint the Little Darlings drop 34:51 Mark Beylin wrote a piece we love called ‘The Token Is The Product’ - Let’s get into it 36:56 Looking at airlines as an example with reward points being a huge part of business 42:44 Moving on to $DEGEN, the Scenecoin of Farcaster - our terminology is catching on 43:37 Announcing Degen Chain - a low cost L3 that will be using $DEGEN as a native gas token 46:20 Charlie Munger talks about building in waves in crypto and how the narrative changes 47:38 Memestocks and a recent story about Truth Social being valued over $6 billion 49:11 We’re seeing more and more stocks that are growing memetically like Tesla, GameStop 54:06 Let’s talk about Sofamon - a project that came out of the last Seed Club cohort SC.06 57:34 Senspace’s new game launch Hosts: Jess Sloss & Josh Cornelius Web VJ: Peacenode Production: Cheryl Douglass None of this is financial or tax advice.

How BlackRock’s New Fund on Ethereum Got a Very Crypto Welcome

On Wednesday, BlackRock, the world's leading asset management firm, announced the launch of a tokenized investment fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund, developed in collaboration with Securitize. Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, discusses the launch of the fund, which is native to the public Ethereum blockchain and aims to bring an institutional-grade cash management product to crypto institutions, offering faster token issuance, redemption, and transferability. Learn more: What Is Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization? A Beginner's Guide He also talks about how Blackrock has embraced crypto, how the launch of the fund was “front run” by crypto Twitter, and how Blackrock will deal with issues such as the fund being dusted with ETH tainted by sanctioned Tornado Cash ETH.

Modular March EP 10: Endless Modular Application Possibilities with Lagrange

A core fundamental primitive of blockchain is the unlocking of usecases which are not possibly in any other type of system. We’ve heard a lot of this and we believe the technology stack is being built as we speak which will facilitate an array of “breakout apps” atop of it. In today’s piece, we set out to find out what type technological design constraints are present in the current modular ecosystem as well as the necessary solutions. If you’ve been following us for awhile, you know the Lagrange team from our zkAcademy. If you are newer here, you’re in luck. Andy and Rob sat down with Ismael, co-founder of Lagrange, to learn why zk coprocessors are crucial in enabling offchain computation for data queries and processing tasks that are too intensive for standard smart contracts. By creating a decentralized network for ZK proving and prioritizing access to complex onchain information within the modular ecosystem, Lagrange is playing a crucial role in the modular thesis. Let’s have a great week and continue to push forward as part of Modular March.

Kenny Li from Manta Networks on being OG ZK builders

Our second episode on FC we bring Kenny from Manta Network! Manta Network is an ecosystem of networks offering scalable execution environments for decentralized applications with a core focus on zero-knowledge (ZK) applications. The project consists of two distinct networks: Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic, offering ZK tooling to simplify ZK application deployment.

3AC's Kyle Davies on Why He's Crypto's Lloyd Blankfein and Why He's Not Sorry

Few crypto figures have been as vilified as Kyle Davies, the co-founder, along with Su Zhu, of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which imploded in mid-2022, losing $3 billion and bringing many pillars of the crypto industry down with it. Davies and Zhu have been accused of, among other things, lying about 3AC’s assets as the firm was imploding, trying to borrow money when the firm was insolvent, and seeking funding from the Mafia, all of which Davies denies. But he remains unapologetic about 3AC’s demise, saying most, if not all, companies eventually go bankrupt, and that 3AC had a “pretty spectacular” ten-year run. He joined Unchained to explain why he and Su Zhu were ordered to prison in Singapore for non-compliance with the liquidation proceedings, Zhu’s “six weeks meditating” (in prison), where he’s living now, why he and Zhu went to Bali after the bankruptcy, his $25,000-a-month fee for consulting for crypto bankruptcy exchange OPNX, his and Zhu’s current work advising crypto derivatives platform OX.FUN, and what he wishes he would have done differently in terms of 3AC’s wind down.

How Decentralized Social Network Farcaster Hopes to Eventually Get to One Billion Users

In the two weeks since Farcaster introduced its Frames feature that allows developers to easily add mini apps to users’ posts, the decentralized social network has become the talk of Twitter, now X, and increased its user base by ten times, according to co-founder Dan Romero. Romero joins Unchained to discuss why Frames has become so popular, the philosophy behind Farcaster and its client Warpcast, why the crypto component behind Farcaster is being kept to a minimum, how Apple’s new Vision Pro could lead to the creation of a 3D social network on Farcaster, how he and his fellow co-founder’s background at Coinbase helped shape their decisions about building Farcaster, and his vision for eventually getting Farcaster to a billion-plus users.

Why EigenLayer May Be the Most Innovative New Ecosystem Since Ethereum

Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, and Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CIO of Polychain Capital, an investor in EigenLayer, say that the developer ecosystem around EigenLayer is sprouting up very fast, which reminds Carlson-Wee of the developer excitement in Ethereum’s early days. They discuss the potential of EigenLayer, which uses a restaking mechanism to allow ETH stakers to reallocate their staked ETH and Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to bolster security for other protocols. They cover how it could turbocharge Ethereum's rollup scaling roadmap and enable Ethereum to become a stack of decentralized software as a service providers. Additionally, they discuss the potential risks associated with restaking as well as how EigenLayer could work with AI.