How are we going to put trillions of dollars on-chain? w/ Sheldon Hunt (Founder @ Sundial Protocol)
In this episode of Overnight Success, I sit down with Sheldon Hunt, a founding member of EMURGO—one of Cardano’s original entities. We unpack the philosophical and technical rifts between Ethereum and Cardano, trace the evolution from Bitcoin to Ethereum to Cardano, and dive deep into what true decentralization really looks like—especially in Cardano’s approach to governance. If you’ve ever wondered: What really happened when Vitalik pitched Ethereum in Hong Kong What it takes for blockchains to handle trillions on-chain Why scarcity matters (and why Ethereum doesn’t have it) —then this episode is a must-listen. Episode Highlights with Timestamps [00:00] – Introduction: Who is Sheldon Hunt & EMURGO’s role in Cardano [00:42] – Vitalik’s original Ethereum pitch in Hong Kong [01:53] – Scarcity wars: Why Cardano caps supply and Ethereum doesn’t [02:40] – Ethereum’s nonprofit roots vs. Charles Hoskinson’s business-first vision [03:30] – Cardano’s community-first design and token distribution [04:25] – Intersect and the shift to decentralized governance [05:20] – The risks of handing over $30B in infrastructure to “the mob” [06:10] – Balancing privacy and mass adoption: Midnight chain + real-world use cases [07:25] – Why Cardano has never gone down (and why it matters) [08:20] – Final thoughts: Security, uptime, and building for trillions on-chain About Our Guest Sheldon Hunt was part of the founding team at EMURGO—one of Cardano’s three core entities alongside IOG and the Cardano Foundation. Today, he’s building Sundial Protocol, a Layer 2 solution bringing programmability to Bitcoin by bridging it with Cardano. The focus: secure, decentralized, cross-chain interoperability between BTC and ADA. Resources Mentioned: Cardano [https://cardano.org/] Sundial Protocol [https://www.sundialprotocol.com/] EMURGO Website [https://www.emurgo.io/] Cardano Foundation [https://cardanofoundation.org/] Midnight Privacy Chain [https://midnight.network/] Intersect: Cardano’s Member-Based Org [https://www.intersectmbo.org/]
Metaverse, Digital Land & the Future of Ownership | Sébastien Borget (Sandbox)
🎙️ Welcome to Episode 1 of The Good News Is… We’re kicking off the season with a visionary guest: Sébastien Borget, Co-Founder & COO of The Sandbox, and President of the Blockchain Game Alliance. In this episode, host Rachel Wilkins explores how digital ownership, virtual spaces, and decentralized economies are transforming the way we create, connect, and build. 🔥 What You'll Learn: The future of the metaverse and digital land ownership How The Sandbox empowers creators and communities Why decentralized identity and ownership matter What’s next for Web3 culture and commerce 👤 About Sébastien Borget: Sébastien is a pioneer in the Web3 space and a driving force behind The Sandbox—a decentralized metaverse platform where users can create, own, and monetize virtual experiences. He also leads the Blockchain Game Alliance, advocating for the adoption of blockchain in the gaming industry. 🔗 Learn more about The Sandbox: https://www.sandbox.game/ 🐦 Follow Sébastien on Twitter: / borgetsebastien ✨ Follow The Good News Is… 🌐 Website: https://goodnewsstudio.io 🐦 Rachel on Twitter: / rachelwilkinsb 📸 Instagram: / goodnewsstudios This is The Good News Is…the future, told by the optimists building it.
Hyperlegible 002: Utsav Mamoria
Utsav Mamoria recently wrote How to Live an Intellectually Rich Life (https://utsavmamoria.substack.com/p/h...) on his Substack, Tumse Na Ho Paayega. It blew up, breaking out of containment in India and spanning the globe to the tune of 1,100 likes at the time of recording. For good reason: Utsav combines philosophy, mathematics, biographies, personal experience, and hand-drawn sketches to create a map – quite literally – for living an intellectually rich life. He takes us on a journey through Moradoom, Igamor, and Evermore, before arriving at Luminspere, the Mountains of Knowledge. His one sentence takeaway: Consistency trumps everything. I loved reading the essay, and was pleasantly surprised to enjoy our conversation even more. You can find Utsav on X at @utsavmamoria (https://x.com/utsavmamoria) and subscribe to Tumse Na Ho Paayega here: https://utsavmamoria.substack.com/ I asked Utsav for some recommendations. Substack to Follow: Ted Gioia’s The Honest Broker (https://www.honest-broker.com/) Favorite of his own pieces other than this one: Why we understand time wrong (https://utsavmamoria.substack.com/p/w...) If you enjoy Hyperlegible, subscribe and leave us a rating. We have some great conversations scheduled and I want to bring this to as many people as we can.
Context S4: The Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Most Visited Museum in America Dives into NFTs
Blake speaks with The Metropolitan Museum of Art team who recently released Art Links, marking The Met’s first foray onto the blockchain. Art Links is a 12-week game that invites you to connect the dots between seeming disparate art works (whether centuries apart, completely different mediums, etc.) according to different themes, rewarding you in the form of NFT badges and IRL prizes. Blake has played religiously every week, and has learned a tonne! 3 of the project leads are here to talk about the game: Destinee Filmore, Assistant Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Met, Brett Renfer, The Met's Senior Project Manager for Emerging Technologies and Audrey Ou, co-founder and CEO of TRLab. They dive deep into the project, from how long it took to plan and launch, to the intended audience, to why they chose Base, to the art they included. Blake also couldn’t resist asking Destinee about if (and when) the Met will collect their first crypto art works. If you want to get a read on the traditional art world and how they are engaging with NFTs…you can’t really get bigger than this. The Met is the most visited museum in America, and one of the most important cultural institutions in the world. Art Links: https://artlinks.metmuseum.org/about TRLab: https://x.com/trlab_ Blake Finucane: https://x.com/blakefinucane Boys Club Newsletter: https://tooonline.beehiiv.com/
December 31, 2024: Russia Ukraine, Panama Canal, Canada PM
Today is December 31, 2024, and this is all the news that's fit to predict. 1. Russia x Ukraine Ceasefire in 2025? 2. Trump takes Panama Canal in first 100 Days? 3. Next Prime Minister of Canada? All of these stories are live and ongoing. Head to polymarket.com for updates.
December 26, 2024: Steam Awards, Elon and OpenAI, Syria
Today is December 26, 2024, and this is all the news that's fit to predict: 1. Steam Awards Game of the Year 2. Will Elon Musk Settle with OpenAI before 2025? 3. Who will recognize the Syrian government by March 31? These markets are all live and ongoing. Head to polymarket.com for updates.
December 24, 2024: Hyperliquid, SBF, Chess
Today is December 24, 2024, and here's all the news that's fit to predict: 1. Hyperliquid exploit before February? 2. Will Biden pardon SBF? 3. FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship These markets are all live and active. Head to polymarket.com to stay updated.
Writing, Podcasts and Minting Base Colors — JAKE
JAKE is a pseudo anonymous internet creator. Going with the classic blue, colour code #0000FF as his pfp. Host at Pod Of Jake where he’s interviewed almost 200 guests over 4 years. Most recently Jacob from Zora and others such as Vitalik Buterin, pplpleasr and Mark Cuban. Writer at Blog of Jake, where he’s published about creativity and writing, documenting his experiences as a podcaster, observing what’s happening on the internet, reviewing crypto news, thinking about how to learn and build. JAKE is also the founder of Base Colors, a new onchain collection where you can mint unique colour codes on Base and give them a name, an interesting primitive which many people are starting to play around and experiment with. We talk about the benefits of writing online. Go behind the scenes experiences of hosting a podcast. Thoughts on the crypto scene, Bitcoin and pseudo anon identities on the internet, decentralized social like Farcaster, and thinking too much about Colors. ___ UFO Sponsor Resources ↑ Higher — https://www.aimhigher.net/ 🌐 International Meme Fund — https://imf.bz/ --- @jake @ufoclub.eth @hollins For more episodes, go to ufo.fm
Electronic Music Scenes — Sound Of Fractures
Jamie Reddington is an electronic music producer, consultant and lecturer from London who recently released his debut album Scenes. His music is shaped by hiphop, UK dance music and soul. Leaning into telling stories, with textures and samples captured from his phone, featuring the sound of his daughter’s heartbeat. The record was released as a co-creation. ‘Over 350 memories were submitted and turned into Scenes, capturing a moment in time. People stopped, took time out of their lives and engaged in a process that connected music and emotions.' We talk about the past, present and future of music on the internet. What's most interesting for artists right now? ___ UFO Sponsor Resources ↑ Higher — https://www.aimhigher.net/ 🌐 International Meme Fund — https://imf.bz/ --- @soundoffractures @ufoclub.eth @hollins For more episodes, go to ufo.fm
Exploring the Memecoin Supercycle with IMF — Gami, Clouted
Gami and Clouted are core contributors from International Meme Fund (IMF) and $MONEY. Their team believes it is now crucial to have native liquidity and financial infrastructure for the meme sector. They're both from Sydney and have shared interests in defi financial engineering, game theory and the memecoin phenomonen. We talk about financial nihilism. Memes as emergent properties of the internet. Why do some meme assets succeed when the vast majority fail? How do you choose the tokens that go up? (no financial advice). The internet is stranger than you think.
Interpreting Technology with AIxDESIGN — Nadia Piet
Nadia Piet is Founder and Creative Lead of AIxDESIGN, a global community conducting critical AI research for the benefit of people, not profits. She's a designer, researcher, organiser and faculty member at ELISAVA's Design for Responsible AI. We talk about many things artificial intelligence. AlphaGO and Move 37. AI models trained on creative assets without permission. Commodification of digital life. What's causing the rapidly improving visual quality of generative AI such as DALL-E and Midjourney? Big picture, what are constructive ways to be thinking about AI?
