a16z crypto founder Chris Dixon's new book highlights how blockchains can lead to a more equitable internet
Chris Dixon is a managing partner at a16z and the founder of a16z crypto. In this episode, Dixon gives an overview of his new book, Read Write Own: Building the Next Generation of the Internet, and explains how blockchains have the potential to create more equatable online experiences. OUTLINE 00:00 Background 08:04 New Book 11:13 Crypto Skeptics 14:56 Tech Centralization 19:53 Web2 vs Web3 24:11 Networks vs Tokens 31:12 Platform Ownership 33:49 Platform Take Rates 37:49 Consumer Crypto 40:49 Regulatory Uncertainty 47:29 Venture Landscape
Celestine Sloths, Alloyed Assets, And Hyperbitcoinization with Sunny Aggarwal
The evolution of the modular thesis doesn't go without saying Osmosis and the Cosmos ecosystem. Being the hub of liquidity for the modular ecosystem assets (TIA, DYM, OSMO), Osmosis plays an important role for the space. In today's interview with co-founder Sunny Aggarwal, we discuss the recent rise of Celestine Sloths and how features like the Skip API allows for seamless cross-chain transactions, enabling users to mint NFTs on Stargaze by swapping currencies through Osmosis in a single transaction. This is a mega leap forward in interchain fluidity and for all of those who minted Sloths, you understand. We then went onto discuss the Mad Scientists collection which has recently gained traction, (Sunny's PFP) and how the tech behind this collection works.We discussed Backbone Labs and the plan to distribute a significant portion of protocol revenues to holders, and whether or not this "real yield" is bullish. Shortly after, we discussed the proposal from Osmosis about alloyed assets. Osmosis has introduced the concept of alloyed assets, which aggregrate various tokens into a unified asset pool to manage liquidity more effectively. This approach not only mitigates risks associated with individual bridge failures but also streamlines asset management across chains, thus simplifying the user experience significantly. But, is it really the best solution? We asked Sunny about the risks associated, some edge cases, and really dug into some areas where we feel they may have fell short... Sunny stepped up to the plate and addressed our concerns as always. Finally, towards the end of the podcast we talked about the hyperbitcoinization of Cosmos with players like Babylon and others. Sunny is pretty excited about this and we talked in-depth about this new phenomenon of bringing BTC to Cosmos and other ecosystems. We really enjoyed this conversation and hope you will too! The Rollup
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
Ep 186 - Why the Young Aren't Driving, Fu*king, or Drinking
Join the Alfalfa Crew as they discuss what's happening with the youth and why they aren't driving, f*king, or drinking.
Ep 55 - Carlos of Farcaster Index
We're joined by Carlos of Farcaster Index to chat all things FC including DEGEN, onchain social graphs, memecoins, clients and much more. He shares his experience running a DAO for 3 years and what's next for him and Moonlight.
Polygon’s AggLayer Wants to Be a Hub for Ethereum Layer 2s. Can It Succeed?
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and co-founder Brendan Farmer discussed everything about the AggLayer, a decentralized protocol built by Polygon that enables fast, secure cross-chain interactions and allows different chains to use the same native bridge. This allows users to seamlessly move assets across chains in the AggLayer ecosystem. The AggLayer aims to unify blockspace so that it feels like a single chain, improving user experience. Boiron and Farmer also discussed the potential for Layer 2 solutions to scale Ethereum, the benefits of zero-knowledge technology, and the future of Polygon's proof-of-stake chain.
Ronin: The Frontier of Web3 Gaming w/ Jihoz (Ronin)
In this episode, Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zerlin joins us to discuss the evolution of the Ronin Ecosystem as the leading web3 gaming blockchain. Jihoz is the Co-founder of Axie Infinity, a team on a mission to create economic freedom for gamers by building games that are truly player owned. In our conversation, we cover Jihoz's continued success, decentralization of the Ronin Chain, where web3 gaming and DeFi collide, governance of gaming protocols, and much more.
#168 - JACEK
Jacek is the creator of $DEGEN, an innovative cryptocurrency and L3 built on Base on Ethereum and popularized on Farcaster. Follow Jacek on Farcaster @jacek. For more episodes, go to podofjake.com. Previous guests include Mark Cuban, Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, Keith Rabois, Ali Spagnola, Anthony Pompliano, Raoul Pal, Julia Galef, Jack Butcher, Tim Draper, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Solana, Polygon, AngelList, Oura, and Replit, and investors from Founders Fund, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to Chase Devens for the show notes and Yiction for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at jake@blogofjake.com. Thank you!
Create Like You Mean It: An Artist's Battle Against the Algorithm with OMGiDRAWEDit
Episode10: Gramajo (@0xGramajo) is joined by OMGiDRAWEDit (@omgidrawedit). Date Recorded: March 15, 2024 In this episode, we're featuring an intimate conversation with the enigmatic artist known as OMGiDRAWEDit. George, as he's known outside the digital canvas, gives us a peek into his world of maximalist art and humor-filled scenes that defy conventional style. OMGiDRAWEDit talks about his evolution from commission-based corporate work to forging his own path in the NFT space. We'll explore the therapeutic nature of creating art, the shift from digital to physical works, and his dedication to authenticity over chasing trends. We also dive into the nuances of the art market in the age of social media and digital currencies, discussing the impact of financial pressures and public scrutiny on artists' mental wellbeing. OMGiDRAWEDit reflects on the highs and lows of rapid success, the challenges of managing a webshop, and his upcoming projects meant to bridge the physical and digital worlds of art creation. From discussing the role of personality traits like ADHD in the artistic process to walking the streets for inspiration, OMGiDRAWEDit reveals how his unique art style is informed by everything from charity shop finds to the taste of too-real food. Grab your sketchbook, tune in, and let's go Behind The Screen with OMGiDRAWEDit. You might just discover that the finest art doesn't always hang in galleries—it's sometimes found in the most unexpected pixels of life. 00:00 Passion for art and photography, sketchbook storytelling. 09:52 Artist discusses transition to NFT space. 13:45 Focus on NFT work, established client relationships. 18:04 Enjoying small artistic endeavors and simple lifestyle. 23:44 Observing, drawing, and memory shape artistic style. 28:06 Social media algorithms shape our art creation. 36:55 Struggle with success, need for self-care. 38:45 Struggling with vulnerability and criticism in art. 46:10 Internet strangers easily turn against artists financially. 50:51 Concerned about financialization of crypto and art. 54:21 Continuing art, supporting collectors, and freedom. 59:16 Excited about connections and upcoming art display. 01:06:23 Closed webshop due to crypto success, reopening physical shop. 01:11:24 Struggling to finish bedroom nostalgia project; future plans. 01:15:44 Concerns about algorithms and reach on social media. 01:21:44 Even cheap pizza is still really good. 0773H Weekly Newsletter --> https://paragraph.xyz/@0xgramajo ----- Music by: Lakey Inspired If you would like to support the show, consider subscribing to my premium podcast. Want to ask me a question, want to hear about a specific topic, or interview a specific artist, send me a message.
Ep 54 - 33 Below
Were joined by rising artists 33 Below to talk about his first headline tour, opening for RL Grime and winning the Optimism art contest.
Ep.23: Degen Chain, Syndicate, Orb on Lens, $ENJOY tipping, L3s, Gas tokens
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 04:34 Let’s move into the L3 conversation, welcome to Jacek and Will from Degen Chain 06:18 Syndicate - the frame chain 12:34 There are tons of experimental ideas for tokens already playing out as L3 applications 17:58 Tipping was very unpopular when it first launched, now its social distribution for tokens 21:25 How they decided to use Degen as a gas token 25:43 Next let’s bring Nilesh from Orb 30:15 Creating a different category for users and thinking of them as curators instead 33:07 Rebranding communities as a feature in the app to ‘Clubs’ that have superpowers 36:30 You can now mint directly within the Orb app, just swipe and that’s it, you’re done 37:09 Building for mobile wallet users and the many who prefer not to use mobile wallets 42:23 Typical ways to launch coins vs how $ENJOY was launched and how tipping works 45:05 Quick recap of all the things we’ve seen pop up for Enjoy - ads, an anthem is coming, etc 54:04 Josh was actually first to launch the Costco Hot Dog memecoin on pump.fun 56:28 This is just funny, there’s an AI token generator? Might be a top signal 58:10 We’re going to be doing a ton of fun stuff at Farcaster in LA coming up in May, stay tuned Hosts: Jess Sloss & Josh Cornelius Web VJ: Peacenode Production: Cheryl Douglass None of this is financial or tax advice.
#9: Regan Bozman, Lattice | Product-market fit, building moats, & picking winners at seed in crypto
Today’s guest is Regan Bozman. Regan is the co-founder of Lattice, an early-stage crypto venture fund. Regan Bozman: Learn more: https://twitter.com/reganbozman https://www.lattice.fund/ 00:00 - Regan’s background 01:56 - ICO takeaways 05:25 - Changes in the crypto investor landscape 13:40 - Improvements in the space 16:33 - Building for the current crypto audience 19:45 - Lattice’s founding thesis and development 21:14 - Non-crypto-native funds returning to crypto 22:55 - Competing with crypto’s biggest funds 24:15 - Exciting areas and contrarian positions 30:18 - Private VC rounds vs market buying 32:08 - Lattice’s perfect deal 34:47 - Having an irrational belief in crypto 36:00 - Making contrarian bets 40:13 - Valuing equity vs tokens 41:14 - Building moats in crypto 43:20 - Types of distribution 45:16 - Organic crypto marketing 46:25 - Lattice’s investing process 48:37 - Examples of failed deals 50:00 - Investing in applications 53:43 - How experience informs how Lattice invests 55:45 - Where the market is going 58:08 - Product-market fit in crypto Follow: https://twitter.com/wallfacerlabs And subscribe for all our other content: https://linktr.ee/wallfacerlabs
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.
Modular March EP 15: Where Espresso Fits In The Modular Thesis
We really enjoyed this presentation. While we’ve had multiple shared sequencers talks on Modular March, each one has been far different. Today’s deep dive is around the game theory and incentive designs behind creating a rollup ecosystem which feels completely seamless and interoperable. At its core, Espresso leverages a two part system to enforce how transactions are ordered and finalized across rollups via its sequencer. This system mirrors Ethereum's, but with a twist, aiming to streamline interactions between different rollups and thereby improve user experience significantly. We discussed the based sequencing approach, their auction & lottery mechanism, and where Espresso fits in the broader modular thesis. While we are bullish on Espresso (and Ellie is amazing), we didn’t let their vision go untouched so to speak. There were areas where we pushed back around the incentive designs and whether or not this would actually work in practice. We also tried to understand why potentially making things more complex is really the solution for scaling the modular L2 landscape. Also, if Espresso is another chain with trust assumptions, what tradeoffs does that bring for rollup operators? Finally the big question…Will rollup operators really want to use Espresso if it could cause a big revenue reduction? Ellie flipped that narrative on its head, ever so graciously. She helped us understand how Espresso works under the hood and answered our questions. We were impressed and left feeling extremely optimistic on shared sequencing. Happy April Fools Day (no jokes here, yet!) & let’s have a great week!
Ep 53 - Tools for Modern Life
Ep 53 - Tools for Modern Life We're joined by Mykel Online to talk about the second collection of Tools for Modern Life - an onchain music project launched exclusively on Sound and Farcaster.
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.
How 'a Criminal Choice' Got Sam Bankman-Fried a 25-Year Prison Sentence
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), FTX's co-founder, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and $11 billion in forfeiture for massive fraud, marking a historic moment in the crypto industry. Judge Lewis Kaplan emphasized the sentence's necessity due to Bankman-Fried's risk-oriented decision-making philosophy known as “expected value” and lack of remorse. Sam Enzer joined Unchained to unpack the sentencing, discussing the fairness of the length, explaining how the $11 billion forfeiture would work and how it’s different from the bankruptcy proceedings. Additionally, Enzer provided insights into the kind of prison SBF would end up in and into the three-year supervised release SBF will face after his prison term. The conversation further delved into the broader impact of the sentencing on the crypto industry, suggesting it could signify the end of a dark chapter.
Ep 49 - Music NFTs at NFT Paris
We’re back with a special episode recorded on the mainstage with Matt Medved and IllaDaProducer. In 25 minutes we cover everything from onchain social to AI and much more.
Ep.18: Perl & Fantasy Social, $Enjoy, Decentralized Social, Blast, Software Companies as Lifestyle Brands
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 Hosts: Josh Cornelius & Jess Sloss Web VJ: Peacenode Production: Cheryl Douglass Development: David Hurley Operations: Merna Makar
Web3 on Fire - 0x013 - Ambire Wallet - Rob & Ivo - Free Mint!
In this conversation, Ivo Georgiev, CEO and co-founder of Ambire, discusses his background in programming and how he got interested in crypto. He shares the challenges of building user-friendly wallets and the importance of decentralization. Ivo also talks about the vision for Wallet DAO and the development of infrastructure and tools. The conversation highlights the need for progressive decentralization and the role of the community in shaping the future of crypto. In this conversation, Rob and Ivo discuss the future plans for Ambire Wallet in 2024, including the launch of the browser extension and support for multiple account types. They also talk about the relaunch of AdEx and its exciting developments in bridging the decentralized AdTech world with the traditional AdTech world. Finally, they wrap up by plugging the projects and providing information on where to find Ambire Wallet, AdEx, and Stremio. https://ambire.com
Ep 48 - Oscillator
We’re joined by RAC and Jack Spallone to unpack their plans to make onchain music data globally accessible in the company’s first podcast!
