ZEROPOD

Welcome back to another episode of ZEROPOD, this one featuring Serpin Taxt, the ambitious young founder of a new protocol called Ethos, which aims to help solve the age-old problem of who to trust (and who not to) in the onchain space.

Host Toady Hawk talks about his childhood, his career in web 2, and his goals for Ethos, namely, to tame the wild, wild west of the crypto space… just a bit. So without further ado, let’s go learn about the mythos behind the Ethos.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - The $9B Problem: Scams, Trust, and the Wild West of Crypto
02:25 - Welcome to ZEROPOD: Meet Serpin Taxt, Founder of Ethos
05:00 - Inventor Dreams and Web2 Career
08:00 - Escaping B2B SaaS
11:00 - Discovering Ethereum: Interoperability and Smart Contracts
13:30 - When Crypto Finally Clicked
15:00 - Inspiration from Friend.Tech and the Birth of Ethos
17:00 - Reputation is Everything: Why Trust Signals Matter
19:10 - Realizing a Bigger Vision
21:00 - A Wild West Without Accountability
24:00 - Proof-of-Stake for People: Ethos’s Core Mechanism
26:30 - Avoiding Mob Rule: Risk, Reputation, and Social Slashing
29:00 - Open Moderation and Algorithmic Challenges
31:00 - Reviewing ETH Wallets, Twitter Accounts, and Beyond
33:30 - Identity, Anonymity, and the Risk of Sockpuppets
36:00 - Using Ethos in the Wild: Kaito, Bots, and Reputation vs. Attention
39:00 - Why It's Hard to Call Out Scammers (but Why We Must)
42:00 - The Power of Named Reviews vs. Anonymous Drama
44:00 - NFT Ethics, Gotcha Culture, and the Chaos Incentive
46:00 - Social Slashing 101: How It Works in Ethos
49:00 - Toward Financial Slashing: The Next Big Risk Layer
51:00 - Onboarding: Slow Growth
53:00 - Staying Power: What Keeps Users Coming Back Daily
56:00 - Finding People to Vouch For (and How to Ask for Vouches)
58:30 - Using the Chrome Extension for Discovery and Reviews
1:00:00 - Integrations
1:02:00 - Building Influence Onchain: Ratings for Businesses, Not Just People
1:04:00 - Alpha Drop? Business Leaderboards Are Coming
1:06:30 - Why Ethos Launched on Base
1:12:00 - The Token Question: Contributor XP, Incentives, and Future Possibilities
1:14:25 - Wrap-Up

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Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. Produced by Zero Rights Media.

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