Bits + Bips: Trump Has Spread Uncertainty Across All Markets. What’s Next?
The market is a wreck, and nobody knows where it’s going next. With Trump’s unpredictability, Fed policy on edge, and crypto in limbo, the gang examines what could turn this around—or make it even worse. The markets are a bloodbath. If you’re feeling lost in the markets right now, you’re not alone. Stocks are getting crushed, bonds are sliding, and crypto isn’t escaping the carnage. The question is: why is everything selling off—and where does it go from here? One thing is clear: the next market move is extremely hard to predict. Between Trump’s economic policies, inflation worries, and DOGE’s cuts, there’s a storm of conflicting signals. So, is this pain temporary? Or are we looking at a long trend downward?
The Birth of Bonsai: From Meme Coin to Culture Currency
The episode welcomes Carlos Beltran, the creator of MadFi and the Lens-native culture currency, Bonsai. Throughout our discussion, we dive into his journey as a founder, the highs and lows of building MadFi, and how Bonsai is shaping culture and creativity within the Lens ecosystem. Carlos also shares his ambitious vision for Lens to reach a billion users and how Bonsai plays a key role in that growth. Finally, we chat about the importance of grants and the need for founders to rethink social from the ground up. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
The Creator's Guide to Web3 Social ft. Stani Kulechov
Mint Season 6 episode 18 welcomed the founder of Aave and Lens Protocol, Stani Kulechov. Throughout the hour we discussed: - His vision for web3 social - How creators use crypto to build communities - How creators make money on Lens - User-generated content as an asset class - Migrating collectors from other chains onto Lens - How to use the lens social graph outside of their protocol ....and so much more. I hope you guys enjoy our conversation.
Erik Voorhees' New Venture: Why AI Desperately Needs Privacy and Uncensorability
Erik Voorhees, a crypto OG, has launched Venice, a private, uncensorable, open-source competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, powered by a decentralized crypto network. In the episode, Erik and Venice’s COO Teana Baker-Taylor delve into the problems with censorship and data in current AI agents, including how they create honeypots of information about users’ search history for hackers, or that they can be absurdly politically correct, such as refusing to create images of Caucasian people. As they point out, there’s also the risk that the companies managing them could be censoring the models to please the Chinese government, in order to access the market in that country. They talk about their plan for Venice to gain market share, considering that DuckDuckGo, a privacy-preserving competitor to Google, has a much smaller market share. And they explain why they intend for Venice to eventually use the compute of Morpheus, or other decentralized crypto-powered compute networks. They also critique the SEC’s current regulatory approach to crypto, calling it “a joke.” Additionally, they explore the concept of AI agents using cryptocurrencies as their primary currency.
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!
