Base’s Head Jesse Pollack Responds to the Backlash Around the ‘Coin It’ Experiment
Jesse Pollak on ‘Base Is for Everyone’ + Guy Young and Carlos Domingo on Converge - Ep. 820 On Wednesday, Coinbase’s layer 2 network Base posted a tweet that read: “Base is for everyone,” followed by a tweet: “Coined it.” That second tweet linked to a page where the post had already been turned into a coin. Within an hour, the coin hit a $17 million market cap, then dropped to under $2 million, then went back up to over $13 million. Crypto Twitter exploded. Some called it a rug. Others accused insiders of sniping the launch. Coinbase later issued a statement saying that Zora auto-tokenizes content, but Jesse Pollak, head of Base, tweeted that he personally greenlit the post. So what really happened? In this episode, Jesse sits down with Laura to discuss: Whether this was a memecoin launch or a media experiment Why he thinks the crypto community overreacted Whether insider trading occurred And why he believes coins, not NFTs, are the future of creator monetization Plus, he explains why he’s okay being the “punching bag.”
The Chopping Block: Hester Peirce on Freedom, Fraud, & Fixing the SEC
Hester Peirce Speaks Out, Regulating Memecoins, and the SEC Rethinks Its Strategy. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the crew is joined by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce—aka “CryptoMom”—for a rare, candid conversation. They unpack the SEC’s vibe shift, why airdrops might be doomed, and whether memecoins are just collectibles or cleverly disguised securities. Plus, Hester dishes on Paul Atkins’ potential leadership, the SEC’s new crypto task force, and what real regulatory clarity might finally look like.
Why Ethereum Builders Are Still Bullish (Even If CT Isn’t)
Amir Forouzani is the CoFounder and CEO at Puffer Labs. In this episode, we unpack why Ethereum builders according to Amir, remain heads-down focused on building, how based rollups like Puffer UniFi could unlock a simpler UX across all rollups on Ethereum, and what’s coming this year to boost Ethereum/ETH’s fundamentals. ------ 🔗 Essential Show Links 🔗 ► Newsletter: https://the-edge.xyz ► Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DeFiDad ► Apple: https://tinyurl.com/edgepod ► Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/edgepodspotify ► Linktree: https://linktr.ee/edge_pod ► Follow DeFi Dad: https://x.com/DeFi_Dad ► Follow Nomatic: https://x.com/Nomaticcap ► Learn DeFi: http://defidad.com/ ------ The Edge Podcast Sponsor Resources 🔮 PYTH NETWORK | SMARTER DATA FOR SMARTER CONTRACTS https://pyth.network/ ⏳ HOURGLASS | LEVERAGED AIRDROP FARMING AND BOOSTED POINTS https://hourglass.com/ 🐐 GOAT NETWORK | A BITCOIN L2 TO EARN WITH BTC & DOGE https://www.goat.network/ 🪄 TANSSI | LAUNCH YOUR SYMBIOTIC RESTAKED NETWORK IN MINUTES https://www.tanssi.network/ 📊 iYIELD | YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE, SIMPLIFIED https://go.iyield.com/edge 🧪 MANTLE | START YOUR RESTAKING JOURNEY TODAY WITH CMETH https://meth.mantle.xyz/restake 🌔 MOONWELL | THE LEADING LENDING AND BORROWING APP ON BASE https://moonwell.fi/ ⚙️ GEARBOX PROTOCOL | ONCHAIN LENDING REIMAGINED https://gearbox.fi/ 📈 DEFINITIVE | THE MOST ADVANCED PLATFORM FOR ONCHAIN TRADING https://app.definitive.fi/r/DEFIDAD ------ Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 5:35 - What are Ethereum’s strengths according to builders? 8:25 - Why should investors be excited about ETH the asset? 11:17 - How Puffer products fit into Ethereum’s roadmap 13:52 - Major improvements to Ethereum’s UX about to be realized 16:58 - What it means when we say “based rollup” 20:01 - How will we gain access to apps via based rollups? 22:42 - Sponsor break 23:20 - What would a naysayer say about based rollups? 25:36 - Anticipated advantages for based rollups users 29:14 - Overview of L1 scaling, Pectra upgrade and blob space 34:06 - Sponsor break 35:04 - vePUFFER governance and onchain incentives with CARROT 40:25 - What keeps Ethereum builders bullish despite CT? 42:15 - Closing ------ 🔗 Guest Links 🔗 ► Puffer website: https://puffer.fi/ ► Puffer UniFi website: https://unifi.puffer.fi/ ► vePuffer staking: https://vote.puffer.fi/ ► Puffer on X: https://x.com/puffer_finance ► Puffer UniFi on X: https://x.com/puffer_unifi ► Amir on X: https://x.com/amironchain ------ If you're a DeFi/Web3 builder, contact our team at: https://fourthrevolution.capital/ All opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and not necessarily those of Fourth Revolution Capital. Podcast guests and 4RC may have positions in the assets or other matters discussed in this podcast. DeFi Dad is an investor in Puffer Finance and both DeFi Dad and Nomatic hold ETH. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Do your own research. This is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token(s) related to any platform(s) discussed.
Courtside Crypto Episode 3: Build Your Tomorrow with Moonwell
In this episode, Tristan sits down with Luke Youngblood from Moonwell to dive into their mission of bringing the world onchain with powerful financial tools designed for everyone. From Moonwell's new VISA debit card to virtual bank accounts, Luke explains how Moonwell is simplifying onchain finance and empowering people across the globe to take control of their financial futures. 00:00 - Introduction 01:44 - Who is Luke Youngblood 03:30 - Moonwell Mission and Vision 06:40 - Virtual Bank Accounts 10:54 - The Power of Stablecoin Payments 18:45 - TradFi vs. DeFi 21:00 - Saving in Moonwell Vaults 25:00 - Doing More with Moonwell 29:00 - From Memes to Onchain Finance 34:15 - Lending Made Simple 36:45 - What’s Next for Moonwell 38:42 - Starting Your Crypto Journey 📲 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell 🔔 for updates on future episodes!
"Take It To The BANKR" with TN100X & BANKR Founder 0xDeployer | ZEROPOD S2 E13
Welcome back, fearless Ethereum enjoyooors to another episode of ZEROPOD. And this episode is a special one because it is actually the very first podcast appearance by the elusive figure known only as 0xDeployer aka Big Daddy Ham, the creator of so many things but most recently the breakout success Bankr, an in-feed ai agent that can trade for you using natural language on X and Farcaster. Hosts Toady Hawk and JackWyldes dig in with Deployer to hear about his childhood, his crypto journey and the exhaustive lineage of all his projects leading up to Bankr, including The LP, TN100X, Hamchain and more. We learn that he taught himself to code from a book at Barnes & Noble, we hear about how he first bought Ethereum at $80 (and sold it at $90), and we get some exclusive alpha like the fact that he has a secret Bankr cofounder and fancies himself a glamper. All this and more, we hope you enjoy! If you do enjoy our content, please Like, Comment and Subscribe to help us reach more people on this app. --- Timestamps: 0:00 - The $DRB Story 2:16 - Welcome to ZEROPOD! – Special guest 0xDeployer joins the show 2:50 - First Podcast Appearance 4:06 - The Challenges of Anonymity 6:01 - Early Tech Influences – Super Nintendo, Zelda, and the 90s tech era 8:52 - Shifting Back to Quality Content – Decentralization vs. algorithmic extremes 11:42 - The Rise of AI & Misinformation – A scary but fascinating future 14:00 - Childhood Coding Journey – From Geocities to Onchain 19:18 - Learning to Code the Hard Way – A failed interview and a book from Barnes & Noble 21:16 - Falling Down the Crypto Rabbit Hole – CryptoKitties and digital ownership 24:57 - Decentralization Matters – Why blockchain beats traditional systems 31:12 - Discovering Farcaster – A decentralized social network for builders 36:04 - Onchain Tipping & Ham Token 42:02 - "The LP" Mechanic & Experimental Tokenomics 50:18 - The Ham Cult & Building a Loyal Community 53:35 - Banker’s Origin Story – The AI trading agent that took over 57:51 - How Banker Coin Was Born – A chaotic, unexpected launch 1:04:26 - The Evolution of Crypto Twitter – Real builders vs. max extraction 1:06:37 - Why Focus on X (Twitter)? – Scaling beyond Farcaster 1:08:54 - Debt Relief Bot 1:10:32 - How Bankr Became the First Clanker Deployment Method on X 1:12:45 - The Power of Viral Narratives 1:15:27 - Bankr’s Future Roadmap 1:18:14 - Introducing the Bankr Club 1:21:05 - Thoughts on AI’s Role in Ochain Space 1:24:40 - Outro --- Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes, edited by Toady Hawk, JackWyldes and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. Ad spot by JackWyldes. Produced by Zero Rights Media. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like!
"Agents of Change" with Moxie founder Jason Goldberg | ZEROPOD S2 E11
This week on ZEROPOD, host Toady Hawk sits down with Jason Goldberg, the founder of Moxie.xyz and the soon-to-be-launched Moxie AI platform. We dig into his previous startups, find out what made him want to organize the creator economy via Moxie, and what to expect from the new AI features. If you’ve always wondered about the man begin the moxie, this pod is your opportunity to find out.
9: Jacob Horne - Markets for What Matters
Jacob Horne (Website, Zora, X, Farcaster), is co-founder and CEO of Zora, a platform that allows the tokenization of media.Jacob started his career at Coinbase where he was a product lead and helped create USDC. Five years ago, he left to wade deeper into the waters of internet and crypto-native coordination and creativity and co-founded Zora.His central interest is how people coordinate together using the internet—the includes currencies, markets, ownership, art, speculation, and memes. We discuss how memes and symbols enable coordination, "The Meme and the Memo," words, money, and laws, Zora's premise built on Stewart Brand's "information wants to be free but it also wants to be expensive," a case for markets around attention, the new version of Zora and "a coin for every piece of content," speculation vs. gambling, token-powered brands, Ethereum and Solana, Coinbase and USDC, and a wide-ranging personal section that showcases why Jacob is so generative.The parting prompt I hope this conversation leaves all of us with is this: while information is ~free today (and also abundant, infinite), it is also quite expensive to consume in terms of time. We ought to think carefully about what content we spend our precious time consuming and rewarding. That you would spend some of yours listening to Dialectic is as always a privilege and I hope you find it worthwhile.Timestamps (3:03): Obsession with Memes: How do you get people to organize? (8:46): The Meme and the Memo via Balaji Srinivasan (11:32): Three Fundamental Questions: Words, Money, Laws (12:39): The Midwit Meme and other Favorites (15:55): What makes media and information valuable? (19:26): Zora, Tokenized Media, and Information wants to be Free and Expensive (22:53): Provenance (28:30): Why Do We Want Markets for Attention?Deeper Crypto Section (37:08): A coin for every piece of content: prediction markets on attention (42:49): Investing in People or “Creator” / “Social”Tokens (44:14): Not fighting internet gravity: NFTs, “utillity,” 1 of 1s, and skeumorphic ideas along the way (47:52): Speaking to potential concerns and incentivizing more durable and useful information (52:23): Speculation vs. Gambling: positive sum vs. zero-sum (56:00): AI: Market Data as an input for for Models (58:56): Speculating on how a future of AI and attention markets will be good for creatives (1:04:50): Small market cap content can still be meaningful (1:08:11): Crypto-optimism and regulation (1:13:52): Saint Fame, Nouns, and Ideas for Future Token-Coordinated Orgs (1:22:32): Reflecting on “Hyperstructures” (1:28:55): Jacob's shift toward market-oriented thinking for solving coordination problems (1:30:40): Ethereum, Solana, and Blockchain CompetitionCoinbase (1:36:23): The Coinbase Internship that Never Ended (1:40:49): Starting USDC (1:49:14): Bloomberg Terminal's DesignGeneral Jacob (1:50:09): Bezos and adoption of technology (1:52:47): Tokenized Identity (1:55:41): Matt Dryhurst and Holly Herndon and Bridging Art and Technology (1:58:43): What idea has the world not come around on yet? (2:00:12): What are the aesthetics of Jacob's AI model? (2:04:20): The FAFO Zone and Local Maximums (2:11:03): The alternate reality where Jacob didn't discovery Bitcoin (2:14:54): Cultural and Artistic Inspirations (2:17:55): Patronus Problems (2:20:44): Australians and Americans (2:23:42): Jacob's Favorite Ideas (2:28:27): Lessons for Jacob's kids about creativityLinks: "Meme Structure" Midwit Meme What is Cryptomedia? Jacob's Mints on Zora Mintellectual Property Onchain Predictions AI+ Saint Fame Nouns Hyperstructures Stewart Brand Pace Layers Tokenized Identity Tweet Herndon Dryhurst Jacob's Horse image meme "The FAFO Zone" Patronus Problems Earth is becoming sentient — Steph Ango Steve Jobs on agencyDialectic is available on all platforms.Join the telegram channelFollow on TwitterFollow on InstagramSubscribe on YouTube