Jason Chaskin is the newly minted head of app relations at the Ethereum Foundation, and he joins ZEROPOD as our first guest of season 3!In this conversation, host Toady Hawk chats with Jason about his journey from the halls of high finance to the trenches of ETH hackathons, his new EF role helping apps survive and thrive, and why he believes that Ethereum is uniquely positioned to bring power back to the people.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Why Ethereum? Open networks vs Big Tech servers 02:00 Introducing Jason + his background 02:44 Growing up in Connecticut, sports & early life 03:29 College years at Illinois, studying finance 07:00 First exposure to crypto during the ICO era 08:54 Corporate banking and investment banking disillusionment 11:30 Discovering crypto podcasts & influences 13:01 COVID money-printing → aha moment for Bitcoin & Ethereum 14:13 Entering NFTs and first onchain experiences 15:05 Learning to code + ETH Global hackathons 16:33 How Jason taught himself (CS50, Patrick Collins course) 17:22 Pivot point: job applications & rejection at Privy 18:18 Blogging, Farcaster channels, and breaking into EF 21:59 Landing a role with the Ethereum Foundation 22:42 Announcing his new role: Apps Relations & Research 24:59 What the new EF focus means for apps & use cases 27:03 Why stablecoins on Tron succeeded & lessons for ETH 30:03 Should Ethereum fight for stablecoin market share? 32:11 The bull case for apps on Ethereum 34:43 Vitalik’s vision, decentralization, and values 39:23 Are stablecoins bullish or bearish for Ethereum? 40:29 Favorite Vitalik blog posts + public goods funding 46:01 Why Ethereum is a counterbalance to centralization 49:41 Competition with Solana & L1 debates 53:10 Are L2s parasitic to Ethereum? 57:12 EF’s L1 vs L2 scaling roadmap explained 59:59 What new blockspace should be used for (apps, experiments) 1:01:21 Bull case for Farcaster & community building 1:03:50 Thoughts on Nouns DAO and funding public goods 1:09:37 Ethereum’s biggest challenges ahead 1:12:49 EF restructuring and adapting to regulation 1:16:28 Why EF is leaning into ecosystem support & comms 1:18:54 Reflections on FTX, regulation, and industry reputation 1:19:41 Looking ahead to 2025: apps, stablecoins, institutions 1:21:49 Lightning Round Q&A (food, music, hobbies, books, travel, inspirations) 1:28:06 Closing thoughts

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Podcast produced, edited and hosted by Toady Hawk. Zero Rights Reserved and Open Source (Just like Ethereum)Cover art commissioned from the talented @0xAprilia

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