Chorus One Podcast

In the first episode of 2025, kicking off Season 3 of the Chorus One Podcast, hosts Thalita Franklin and Rafal Klich sit down with Alex Pruden, Chairman of the Board at Aleo, to discuss his remarkable journey from serving in the U.S. Army to becoming a trailblazer in the crypto space. The conversation takes us through Alex's transition from A16Z to leading Aleo, a pioneering privacy-preserving Layer 1 blockchain. Along the way, Alex shares his expertise on: The fundamentals and intricacies of zk-proofs. The challenges and innovations involved in building Aleo. Why privacy and security are critical for the future of blockchain technology. The discussion dives into Aleo's unique approach to proving systems, highlighting practical applications like age verification and compliance solutions, while offering a glimpse into the future of privacy in crypto. 

Welcome to an exciting episode of the Chorus One Podcast, where hosts Kam Benbrik and Yannick Socolov sit down with Rachel Chu of Solayer to explore innovative advancements in the crypto space, particularly, within the Solana ecosystem. Rachel shares her journey into crypto, her role at Solayer, and the bold vision behind the company. The discussion dives into Solayer's unique approach to restaking on Solana, highlighting how it differs from Ethereum and its implications for the network's future. They also cover the launch of sUSD, a yield-bearing Solana-native stablecoin, its benefits for the ecosystem, and Solayer's efforts to integrate real-world assets into blockchain technology. Additionally, Rachel discusses Solayer's collaboration with the Solana Foundation and its engagement with the Solana community.

We're excited to welcome Bo Du, Co-Founder of Polymer Labs, in this insightful episode of the Chorus One Podcast, hosted by Kam Benbrik [Researcher]. He shares his journey from Web 2.0 to Web 3 and discusses the mission of Polymer Labs in enhancing blockchain interoperability. Key topics include the intricacies of rollup mechanisms, the importance and challenges of blockchain interoperability, and Polymer's integration into a rollup-centric world. Bo also explores the future of scalable infrastructure, the trade-offs in the design of interoperable protocols, ZK technology, and where the market is going.   About Chorus One Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/chorusone

Join us in this episode as we welcome Matt Sorg, VP of Technology at Solana Foundation. In this episode, we explore Solana's ambitious vision for a truly decentralized future, delving into its latest technical advancements, the intricacies of MEV, the evolution of liquid staking, and groundbreaking innovations driving blockchain scalability. We'll also unpack the rise of the memecoin economy and offer an exclusive preview of what to expect at Solana's upcoming Breakpoint event. Don't miss this engaging and future-looking discussion, brimming with insights and future possibilities for the Solana ecosystem! More resources:

In this episode of the Course One Podcast, host Thalita Franklin welcomes Michael Repetný from Marinade to discuss the innovations and developments in the Solana ecosystem. Michael shares an in-depth look at Marinade's journey, from its inception in 2021 as a liquid staking solution to the launch of Marinade V2. They cover the challenges faced during crypto's bear market, the introduction of features like Marinate Native, Protected Staking Rewards (PSR), and the Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM). Tune in to understand how Marinade V2 aims to enhance decentralization, yield optimization, and security while building a more resilient Solana network.

In this special episode of the Chorus One Podcast, we dive deep into the world of Stacks, a leading Bitcoin Layer 2 solution that introduces smart contract functionality to Bitcoin. Guest Andre Serrano, Head of Product and Partnerships at the Stacks team, shares his crypto journey, the challenges of building on Bitcoin, and how Stacks aims to solve these with their upcoming Nakamoto upgrade. We explore the technical architecture, the unique features of Stacks such as sBTC, and its integration into the Bitcoin network. Andre also provides insights into the evolving developer landscape and exciting future projects within the Stacks ecosystem.

Our Avalanche Expert (And Head of Generative AI for Staking) sits down with Breevie (Head of Growth, GoGoPool) and Nathan Windsor (Co-founder, Landslide Network) to discuss web3 interoperability, and how Landslide connects the Avalanche and Cosmos ecosystem. Additionally, they talk about how Landslide and GoGoPool are collaborating to match Avalanche validators with networks, enabling them to easily validate custom blockchains.  ✨ TEASER: In this episode, Breevie offers a first-time glimpse of the L1marketplace (https://www.l1marketplace.com/?type=Registered) - the one-stop-shop for users to easily select and validate custom blockchains built on Avalanche.

Episode 14 of the Chorus One Podcast S2 welcomes Matt Luongo, the Founder of Mezo. Mezo is a pioneering Bitcoin L2 solution designed to enhance Bitcoin's real-world usability. The project is rooted in the technology developed by Thesis, particularly leveraging tBTC, a decentralized Bitcoin bridging system.

In this episode, we sit down with Aki B, the founder of DLC Link, to dive into how his company is revolutionizing Bitcoin's role in DeFi. Aki and our host Luis Nuñez delve into the mechanics of transactions on DLC Link and the key participants involved. They also discuss innovative Bitcoin bridging techniques, highlighting DLC's unique approach using Discrete Log Contracts. Additionally, you'll hear about their collaborations with ChainLink and other partners, the importance of dlcBTC (DLC's safer wrapped Bitcoin), remote staking, enhanced security measures, and a broad view of the Bitcoin L2 ecosystem. Watch the episode to learn how DLC Link is making Bitcoin more composable and usable in decentralized finance, leveraging its inherent security for truly decentralized transactions.

Welcome to Episode 12 of the Chorus One Podcast S2. In this episode our CTO and co-Founder, Meher Roy, sits down with Derek Anderson, the CTO of Blockless to discuss how Blockless provides a unique experience for developers. They discuss Blockless' core mission to empower the creation of complex applications in Web3, how it redefines blockchain applications, going beyond decentralized applications to introduce the concept of network-neutral applications. Additionally, they discuss performance issues in traditional blockchain models and offers dynamic, decentralized solutions for modern applications.  

In this episode of the Chorus One Podcast S2, we welcome Matan Si of eOracle. eOracle is a programmable data layer that extends Ethereum Proof of Stake to connect smart contracts with real-world data. In this conversation, host Thalita Franklin and Matan chat about eOracle's vision to move beyond centralized oracle nodes and fragmented security pools. They discuss how eOracle's transparent, on-chain architecture that leverages EigenLayer validators and the largest pool of stake capital. As an eOracle Operator, we're proud to host eOracle on the podcast and discuss the details of how eOracle works, and its vision for the future. About eOracle: ⚡️Website: https://www.eoracle.io/ ⚡️Twitter: https://x.com/eoracle_network  ⚡️Discord: https://discord.gg/eoracle  About Chorus One: ⚡️X: https://twitter.com/ChorusOne ⚡️LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ ⚡️Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/chorusone ⚡️Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone ⚡️Check out our website: https://chorus.one About Chorus One Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 50+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.  

The 10th episode of the Chorus One Podcast S2 welcomes Morgan Krupetsky from Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche. Avalanche's mission, as stated often, is to "tokenize all the world's assets." In this engaging conversation, Morgan chats with hosts Erwin Torreao Dassen and Alexis Tabak, unpacking how Avalanche aims to achieve this ambitious goal and discussing the incredible initiatives undertaken by Avalanche around the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). Additionally, the conversation touches on what makes the structure of the Avalanche blockchain so appealing to institutions and how Ava Labs operates in terms of business development and growth, highlighting the unique approach taken by Layer 1 blockchains.

In episode 9 of the Chorus One Podcast S2, we are thrilled to welcome a special guest: Sreeram Kannan, the founder of EigenLayer!  Sreeram joins our podcast to delve into restaking and the AVS economy, covering topics ranging from optimal strategies for restakers and node operators respectively, through to the sophisticated design decisions behind the recently launched EIGEN token. Throughout the conversation, Sreeram and host Yannick also explore upcoming slashing and payment mechanisms on EigenLayer, discuss distinctions between objective and intersubjective attributable faults, and outline EigenLayer's overarching long-term vision.  Resources mentioned in the discussion: 1. Chorus One's AVS Selection Framework (21:20): https://chorus.one/articles/the-chorus-one-approach-to-avs-selection 2. EIGEN Whitepaper (28:40): https://docs.eigenlayer.xyz/assets/files/EIGEN_Token_Whitepaper-0df8e17b7efa052fd2a22e1ade9c6f69.pdf 3. EigenLayer's blog on LRT Risks (56:25) https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/liquid-restaking/ Host: Yannick Socolov, Ventures Lead at Chorus One

The current growing interest in Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions is remarkable, and Babylon Chain is at the forefront, setting the standard for empowering the Bitcoin ecosystem with innovative staking and timestamping features.  In this episode of the Chorus One podcast, we're thrilled to welcome David Tse, co-founder of Babylon, who shares the fascinating story behind Babylon's origins, the evolution of their timestamping protocol alongside Bitcoin staking, integration with Cosmos Hub, comparisons between Ethereum and Bitcoin L2s and more. In addition, David also dives into how Bitcoin staking exactly works, its complexities anbroader implications for the crypto space.   About Chorus One ⚡️X: https://twitter.com/ChorusOne ⚡️LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ ⚡️Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/chorusone ⚡️Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone ⚡️Check out our website: https://chorus.one About Chorus One One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 50+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.

In episode #7, we're thrilled to have Yair Cleper from Lava Network joining us. Your hosts for this episode are Thalita Franklin and Luis Clavijo. Lava Network uses a novel mechanism called Incentivized Public RPC which allows chains/rollups to permissionlessly bootstrap and subsidize infrastructure for dapp developers. This means free, performant and decentralized infrastructure for dapp developers and users. During this episode, we'll explore:  - The fundamentals of RPC, - Yair's creative analogies of Lava as the "Uber for blockchain data," and “a a “Permissionless Amazon” - The significance of the #LAVA token for stakers, - Lava's incentivised Public RPC - The final steps to Mainnet … and more!    

In Episode 6, we're excited to welcome Kerem Ozkan, the Founder of Soarchain, and Deniz Kalaslioglu, the Co-founder and CTO, as they dive into Soarchain's pivotal role in harnessing the full capabilities of its Layer 1 DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) built on the Cosmos SDK.  They shed light on how Soarchain simplifies the complexities of vehicular connectivity, offering a groundbreaking platform for applications that range from real-time insurance adjustments to AI-driven diagnostics and safety enhancements.  Read our comprehensive article on Soarchain: https://chorus.one/articles/how-soarchain-unlocks-depins-potential Stay in the loop: Soarchain ⚡️X: https://twitter.com/soar_chain ⚡️LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/soar-robotics/ ⚡️Website: https://www.soarchain.com   Chorus One: ⚡️X: https://twitter.com/ChorusOne ⚡️LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ ⚡️Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/chorusone ⚡️Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone ⚡️Check out our website: https://chorus.one   About Chorus One Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally operating infrastructure for 50+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures.

Welcome to the S2 Ep 5 of the Chorus One Podcast! Every quarter, Chorus One releases an ecosystem review of a chosen protocol we support and have confidence in. In the third quarter of 2023, our spotlight was on NEAR Protocol, and now we're thrilled to welcome Altan Tutar, Senior Technical BD at NEAR Protocol, on the Chorus One Podcast to provide further insights into the protocol's intricacies. You can read the NEAR Ecosystem Review at https://chorus.one/articles/ecosystem-review-near or peruse the complete quarterly report at https://chorus.one/reports-research/quarterly-network-insights-q3-2023-2024. In this conversation, Altan, and our host Thalita Franklin, Research Analyst at Chorus One, delve into NEAR's strategic direction for 2024 and a succinct exploration of its technical architecture. The discussion expands to the unique challenges and approaches in business development for a Layer 1 protocol, contrasting it with the strategies employed by infrastructure providers and other entities. Altan and Thalita share insights into how projects like KaiKai incorporate NEAR into their frameworks. Additionally, they explore the intricacies of NEAR's collaborations with major protocols and conclude with an in-depth exploration of NEAR's core thesis and vision for the future.  Watch the video-version at https://youtu.be/vf9u35ypr50  About NEAR Protocol Website: https://near.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol Discord: http://near.chat/ Blog: https://near.org/blog About Chorus One: Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChorusOne LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ Blog: https://chorus.one/blog Get in Touch: Altan: https://twitter.com/mraltantutar Thalita: https://twitter.com/ethalita_

S2Ep #4 features Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo, Head of DeFi at Ava Labs. In October 2023, Patrick O'Grady, Ava Labs' VP of Platform Engineering, unveiled ACP #13, proposing revamped minimum requirements for Subnet validators.  In this podcast, our Engineering Lead Erwin Dassen and Luis Nunez of our Ventures team speak with Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo to dissect the proposed changes, how it impacts Subnet validators, the state of institutional adoption of AVAX, and more. To Stake AVAX with Chorus One, visit here.   

In Season 2, Episode 3, we revisit Passage.io to get an update on their ecosystem roadmap. Join us in this episode as we talk to Lex Avellino, the Founder of Passage.io! Passage.io, built on the Cosmos platform, is an innovative platform that equips creators with the tools to develop games and social experiences without the need for coding or downloads. During this episode, Lex Avellino and our host, Thalita Franklin, delve into the current progress of Passage on the roadmap to Mainnet. Additionally, they explore the significance of creator economies and virtual experiences in establishing online communities. 

In Episode 2 of Season 2 of the Chorus One Podcast, we have the pleasure of welcoming Steven Gates, the Founder of GoGoPool. In this conversation, hosts Luis Núñez Clavijo and Erwin Dassen speak with Steven about GoGoPool's primary mission, which is to simplify the process of launching a Subnet within the Avalanche ecosystem. The conversation also touches on various technical aspects of the protocol, its long-term vision, and its DAO. Furthermore, they discuss GoGoPool's latest offering, GoGoPool Pro.   About GoGoPool: Website: https://www.gogopool.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoGoPool_ Discord: https://discord.com/invite/4fNtjkyuNw Docs: https://docs.gogopool.com/ GoGoPro: https://pro.gogopool.com/   About Chorus One: Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chorus-one/ Blog: https://chorus.one/blog   Get in Touch:  Steven: https://twitter.com/stvngts Luis: @luisnu3 (Telegram)  Erwin: @erwindassen (Telegram)

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the freshly unveiled season two of the Chorus One Podcast! In this episode, we welcome Griffin Anderson, the CEO of Phi Labs and Co-founder of Archway Network, for the second iteration of our conversation centered around Archway Network. Now just a few weeks after the successful launch of Archway's Mainnet, our host, Thalita Franklin, engages Griffin in an insightful discussion about the protocol's transformative journey en route to Mainnet, shedding light on the array of fresh developments that the team has been diligently crafting. The conversation traverses a diverse spectrum of subjects, delving into the significance of a developer-centric protocol, the advantages of building on Cosmos, the intricacies of ICS, the robustness of Replicated Security, and an array of other captivating topics surrounding the vision of Archway. Connect with Thalita: https://twitter.com/ethalita_ Connect with Griffin: https://twitter.com/andergri About Archway Network Website: https://archway.io Twitter: https://twitter.com/archwayHQ Medium: https://medium.com/@archwayHQ Github: https://github.com/archway-network Docs: https://docs.archway.io Discord: https://discord.com/invite/5FVvx3WGfa Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Archway/ Telegram: https://t.me/archway_hq About Chorus One Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChorusOne  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chor... Github: https://github.com/ChorusOne Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

The highly anticipated ATOM 2.0 whitepaper was released at Cosmoverse 2022 and it proposes a swathe of changes to the way we currently know Cosmos Hub as. We talk to Sam Hart from Interchain Foundation who's also one of the authors of the whitepaper to understand the proposed changes in more detail and their possible impact on the Cosmos ecosystem. Read the ATOM 2.0 whitepaper here - https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/QmWXkzM74FCiERdZ1WrU33cqdStUK9dz1A8oEvYcnBAHeo   Connect with Sam Hart - https://twitter.com/hxrts   Connect with Interchain Foundation - https://interchain.io/ https://twitter.com/interchain_io   Connect with Chorus One - https://chorus.one/ https://twitter.com/chorusone https://chorus.one/telegram https://medium.com/chorus-one https://discord.gg/bQ6JWVa  

Blockchains generate loads of data and tackling the issue of data availability and validity is an important one. KYVE is a Proof-of-Stake network that uses Arweave to facilitate data storage and data retrieval. Connect with KYVE - https://www.kyve.network/ https://twitter.com/KYVENetwork https://blog.kyve.network/ Connect with Chorus One - https://chorus.one/ https://twitter.com/chorusone https://chorus.one/telegram https://medium.com/chorus-one https://discord.gg/bQ6JWVa  

In this episode, we talk to Vasiliy Shapovalov, Alex Esin, and Spaydh from team Neutron. The new smart contract chain aims to be the best platform for smart chain developers to build a wide range of apps in Cosmos, by maximising interoperability with the rest of the ecosystem and minimising overheads for developers. Connect with Neutron - https://twitter.com/Neutron_org Connect with Chorus One - https://chorus.one/ https://twitter.com/chorusone https://chorus.one/telegram https://medium.com/chorus-one https://discord.gg/bQ6JWVa  

Evmos is a decentralized proof of stake blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem, that is also Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible. Evmos' goal is to bring the world of Ethereum-based applications and assets to the Cosmos ecosystem. In this episode, we talk to Federico, co-founder of Evmos, about what differentiates Evmos from other chains, its ambitions and much more.

Archway is a smart contract platform that aims to reward its developers that build on the network with baked in incentives and rewards. In this episode, we talk to Michael & Griffin to understand Archway's mission, how it's different from other smart contract platforms, and a lot more.

In this episode, we talk to David and Oak from Autonolas. Autonolas has been conceptualised with a vision to 'make DAOs autonomous again'. It does that by providing a software stack to help DAOs with their off-chain operations and also with the help of an on-chain protocol. We discuss David and Oak's history, how Autonolas came about, its journey, and more. Dig in! 

In this episode, we talk to Billy Rennekamp, Cosmos Hub Product Lead at Interchain GmbH. As of May 2022, there is an ongoing governance vote on Cosmos to add CosmWASM to Cosmos Hub. The vote right now is leaning towards no, however some people in the Cosmos ecosystem feel like this vote is a mistake. Billy is one of those in the Cosmos ecosystem that believes adding CosmWASM to the Hub is a good move. We have Billy on the show to express his views about Cosmos Hub, CosmWASM, interchain security, liquid staking and a lot more.

In this episode, we talk to Ganesh Swami, co-founder of Covalent. Covalent provides a unified API that brings visibility to billions of blockchain data points. There are over 500 cryptocurrency projects using Covalent's API currently. We talk to Ganesh about Covalent's origins, technology, and its future.

In this episode, we talk to Lex Avellino, founder of Passage, a platform that will enable people to build virtual worlds on Cosmos. Metaverses have been the talk of the town since 2021 and Passage is its torch-bearer on Cosmos. We deep dive into Lex's history, Passage's roadmap and much more.

On the show today, we have Bijan Sharohki, Head of Product and Brandon Case, Head of Product Engineering from O1 labs, the development company working on Mina. Mina is the first protocol to use recursive zero-knowledge proofs to track the entire state of a blockchain. Using zero-knowledge proofs to track states rather than a full ledger of transactions, Mina is able to keep their blockchain to a fixed size of ~22kb. Mina enables a new category of applications called ‘Snarkified Applications' or ‘Snapps'. Snapps get executed once by developers and thereafter nodes verify associated SNARK proofs, making these new types of applications highly scalable on Mina's recursive blockchain. Snapps are going live on testnet by the end of 2021, so we caught up with Brandon and Bijan to discuss what problems Snapps can solve that dApps as they exist today can't solve. The podcast forays into how Mina snarks can be used as a bridging tool, the dynamics of their snarketplace and future Mina scaling solutions, plus so much more.

On the show today, we have Arjun Bhuptani, founder of Connext. Connext is an interoperability network, which is going to market with NXTP, a non-custodial cross-chain protocol. Connext is trustless, meaning there is no trust placed in external validators outside 2 native blockchains where a cross-chain transaction is occurring. Connext makes use of ‘routers', which are nodes that facilitate cross-chain transfers and hold liquidity of different assets on multiple chains. If a user wants to move from Chain A to Chain B, they would signal their desired route to Connext network. Connext then broadcasts a user's desired route across chains for routers to submit the best price they can give the user (like Uber). A user would then receive the cheapest route possible to transfer their assets across chains, from routers that have the most available liquidity and most competitive fees. We talk to Arjun about the trustlessness nature of Connext, how it locally verifies transactions versus other possible models, how routers facilitate transfers, the intricate economics of Connext, how Connext ecosystem actors interact with each other, plus so much more.

On the show today, we have Arjun Bhuptani, founder of Connext. Connext is an interoperability network, which is going to market with NXTP, a non-custodial cross-chain protocol. Connext is trustless, meaning there is no trust placed in external validators outside 2 native blockchains where a cross-chain transaction is occurring. Connext makes use of ‘routers', which are nodes that facilitate cross-chain transfers and hold liquidity of different assets on multiple chains. If a user wants to move from Chain A to Chain B, they would signal their desired route to Connext network. Connext then broadcasts a user's desired route across chains for routers to submit the best price they can give the user (like Uber). A user would then receive the cheapest route possible to transfer their assets across chains, from routers that have the most available liquidity and most competitive fees. We talk to Arjun about the trustlessness nature of Connext, how it locally verifies transactions versus other possible models, how routers facilitate transfers, the intricate economics of Connext, how Connext ecosystem actors interact with each other, plus so much more. About Connext: Website: https://connext.network/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnextNetwork Medium: https://medium.com/connext About Chorus One: Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone Newsletter: https://substack.chorusone.com

On the show today, we have Shane Vitarana, co-founder of Stargaze. Stargaze is a fully decentralised NFT marketplace. Stargaze has built the first standard in the Cosmos ecosystem for NFTs, which is similar to the ERC-721 standard on Ethereum. Stargaze is IBC-compatible, meaning NFTs minted on Stargaze will be able to be sent to any other sovereign network in the Cosmos ecosystem, which is also IBC-compatible. Stargaze is using novel incentive mechanisms such as staking rewards to incentivise users to take certain actions within the network, which has never been done before in NFT marketplaces. Tune in to hear more about the evolving idea of Stargaze, from a web3 version of twitter to a staple NFT network in the Cosmos ecosystem. About Stargaze Website: https://stargaze.zone/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/StargazeZone   About Chorus One: Website: https://chorus.one Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone Newsletter: https://substack.chorusone.com  

On the show today, we have Hendrik Hofstadt, director of digital assets at Jump Trading and core contributor to Wormhole. Wormhole is a simple, generic protocol that delivers a pathway for any kind of information—funds, votes, programs and more—from any blockchain in the network to any other. In short, Wormhole acts as a notary that allows message passing between networks. Recently, Wormhole announced they would launch version 2 of their network, which will go-live connecting four networks - Ethereum, Terra, Solana and Binance Smart Chain. Wormhole has a set of 19 validators known as guardians, which attest to finalised chain state in a p2p network that is verifiable. 19 guardians publish a signature if they see a finalised message being posted on a network and Wormhole network aggregates the signatures to produce verifiable action approvals to be consumed on other networks. In a way Wormhole acts as a light client itself on networks it connects to. This podcast is a deep-dive into one of the hottest networks of 2021, tune-in to hear all about the origin story, the intricacies of the network, how it can be used, what's to come in the future and so much more.

On the show today we have Brent Xu, founder of Umee. Umee is a suite of cross-chain DeFi protocols that interconnects between Cosmos and Ethereum. Umee takes inspiration from Brent's experience in DeFi, Proof-of-Stake and Fixed Income. Umee has 3 core products at launch, multichain staking, cross-chain DeFi rates and interchain leverage. The podcast explores Brent's background in TradFi and some TradFi concepts such as the term structure of interest rates and covers how Umee is bringing a lot of TradFi concepts to DeFi such as a term structure of interest rates. We discuss everything from why time-values are important in crypto, Umee 2-token model for cross-chain lending/borrowing, how Umee builds yield curves for staking rates and much more.

On the show today, we have Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar. Axelar network is a decentralized state machine responsible for facilitating cross-chain requests. Axelar's gateway protocol is a delivery and routing protocol that can work with any arbitrary blockchain regardless of consensus. This means any decentralised network can plug-in to Axelar seamlessly to access liquidity amongst other things from all other decentralised networks. Axelar also gives developers the freedom to connect their dApp into external networks that might have been previously inaccessible to them without redesigning the smart contracts. The show with Sergey covers his previous experience, how Axelar is different from Cosmos and Polkadot, what validators do for the network, their solution for scaling threshold cryptography and their vision for an interoperability network that is consensus and state transition agnostic.

On the show today we have Jack Zampolin, co-founder of Sommelier. Sommelier network improves tooling for DeFi liquidity providers (aka LPs) on Ethereum. The first DeFi vertical that Sommelier is targeting is Uniswap V3 liquidity provision. Right now, the experience to swap assets on Uniswap is great but the tools for liquidity providers to optimise their returns are lacking. Sommelier will be used as a one-stop shop for Ethereum LPs to maximise their returns through pooling of liquidity, informed optimisations and structured products. We speak to Jack about how Sommelier democratises the LP experience, how they built the protocol and what a user can expect before their upcoming mainnet launch.    

Joining Felix Lutsch and Xavier Meegan on the show today we have Dean Tribble, co-founder and CEO of Agoric Systems. Agoric is a developer-friendly environment and economy for expressible, programmable, composable and secure smart contracts. Agoric aims to be a platform that offers developers a secure version of Javascript to deploy smart contracts safely into. Agoric's own network encourages cooperative economic activity using two tokens, RUN (a stablecoin) and BUILD (a staking token). The Agoric economy uses novel incentives to promote the safe execution of smart contracts in a stable economy. We speak to Dean about using Javascript to enhance security of smart contracts, the pros and cons of composability, the minimal set of market institutions to run a smooth economy and why paying for execution of rent and postage using a stablecoin is critical for economic accounting and interoperability.

On the show today we have Eric Chen, co-founder and CEO of Injective Protocol. Injective is an EVM-compatible, interoperable order-book based decentralised exchange that acts as a layer-2 sidechain, built using Tendermint-based consensus. Injective's canary-chain phase 2 mainnet recently went live earlier in July, which introduced staking and governance to the network. Injective's Governance has already passed the activation of spot market trading and is likely to enable derivative trading soon. We caught up with Eric to discuss Injective's go-to-market strategy, the mechanism for proposing arbitrary markets using governance, how Injective improves price discovery for liquid staking assets, their unique usage of yield boosting for community participation, institutional interest in Injective and much more.

On the show today we have Derek Yoo, CEO of PureStake and co-founder of Moonbeam. Moonbeam is a Polkadot parachain designed for developers that combines full Ethereum compatibility with the power of Polkadot. Moonbeam uses another network known as Moonriver to test and verify code under real economic conditions on Kusama. Moonriver won the second-ever parachain auction on Kusama just days ago and is now producing blocks. We have Derek on to discuss Moonriver's winning auction on Kusama, the tangibility of community on Polkadot, why some projects choose to deploy on Kusama and not Polkadot, upcoming plans in store for Moonbeam, plus so much more.

On the show today we have Sunny Aggarwal and Josh Lee, co-founders of Osmosis. Osmosis is a fair-launched, customizable automated market maker for interchain assets. Osmosis' differentiator compared to other decentralised exchanges is the customisation it gives all participants in the network. For example, liquidity pool creators have the flexibility to create their own formulas and fees that determine prices of assets. Liquidity providers have customisable tools to provide liquidity to suit their own risk preferences. Whilst users can swap any asset connected to the IBC, making it the world's first truly interoperable AMM. During the show, we discuss Osmosis network launch, the first stress-test of IBC, the importance of privacy on DEXs, reverse staking derivatives and more.

On the show today we have Scott Sigel, Director of Operations for the Decentralized Wireless Alliance. Helium network is a novel decentralised network because it is not just a blockchain or an application, but a worldwide decentralised physical wireless network, powered by hotspots. The wireless network is known as LongFi and incorporates state-of-the-art wireless network tech with blockchain. Companies use Helium network as a cost-effective alternative to track their IoT devices and network participants set-up hotspots to earn HNT rewards. We have Scott on the show today to talk about their newly announced transition to a Proof-of-Stake network and cover things ranging from hotspots to consensus to their ambitions to build the world's first user-owned 5G network.

On the show today we have Tushar Aggarwal, CEO of Persistence One. Persistence One is a network in the Cosmos ecosystem with bold ambitions to bridge traditional finance to decentralised finance. Already with 5 products outstanding, we took the time to speak with Tushar about Persistence's journey so far. In the show we discuss the many products of Persistence, their initial use of validating nodes to bootstrap their protocol, their future plans to bring liquid staking to Cosmos, the importance of interoperability for liquidity and a lot more. Intro Song: Track: Split — KV

Lunie is a multi-network wallet focused on staking networks and on-chain governance. Lunie was one of the first wallets for Cosmos (then Voyager) and has since expanded to support multiple networks from the Cosmos ecosystem (Terra, E-Money) with Polkadot and other networks coming soon. In this episode, Felix is joined by Jordan Bibla. CEO and Co-Founder of Lunie, to discuss the crypto wallet and staking ecosystems. The episode begins going into the background of Lunie and the products the team has built (web and mobile apps, as well as a browser extension). Felix and Jordan explore UX difficulties in staking networks, how newly launching networks should go about building communities, protocol governance, and insights from developing one of the most used wallets focused on staking. The second part of the episode dives into Lunie’s upcoming freemium notification feature and Jordan shares his views on the most important developments in the blockchain ecosystem.   Lunie Website: https://lunie.io Jordan’s Post on Bootstrapping a Community: https://medium.com/luniehq/how-to-bootstrap-a-proof-of-stake-community-543a29585b62 Delegations to Inactive Validators on Tezos: https://www.reddit.com/r/tezos/comments/dvucah/wake_up_delegators_dead_bakers_have_you_follow/ Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

In this episode, Brendan and Felix are joined by Soravis Srinawakoon, Co-Founder and CEO of Band Protocol, a data governance framework for Web3. Band is soon launching its own Cosmos SDK chain focused on provisioning oracle data for blockchain applications. We cover what the oracle problem is, how Band is able to provide off-chain data to blockchain applications in a single transaction, what the team imagines the role of Band Chain to be within the ecosystem and take a look at the parties involved in Band’s ecosystem. The second part of our conversation focuses on decentralized finance and the need for reliable oracle solutions, as well as a discussion of recent events following the “Black Thursday” crash that shook the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. We wrap up with Soravis telling us about upcoming hackathons and the current state of the network leading up to mainnet. Band Protocol Website: https://bandprotocol.com/ Cross-Chain Hackathon with Band: https://medium.com/bandprotocol/cross-chain-virtual-hackathon-w-cosmos-agoric-band-protocol-spread-the-pandemic-inside-487747e2b1e Game of Zones: https://goz.cosmosnetwork.dev/ Band x Chorus Announcement: https://blog.chorus.one/partnering-with-band-protocol-to-bring-off-chain-data-to-the-internet-of-blockchains/ Band x Chorus AMA Summary: https://blog.chorus.one/band-ama Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

Centrifuge is building the operating system for trade finance. In this episode, Brian is joined by Lukas Vogelsang, CEO of Centrifuge, to speak about the technologies Centrifuge is building to enable more efficient, transparent, and privacy-preserving supply chain financing. We start by exploring the background of the idea and the founders’ decade long background in the area of trade finance with Taulia, a company focused on invoice financing and working capital management, which is currently handling over $20bn in invoices a year. Lukas then goes into how his interest in crypto and the idea for Centrifuge, which is to build to tools to bring off-chain financial assets into the decentralized finance ecosystem, came about. He goes into how Centrifuge turns off-chain documents such as invoices into NFTs and how these NFTs can be bundled into collateralized pools to enable their usage in DeFi using Centrifuge’s asset-backed lending protocol Tinlake. Lukas explains the advantages of transparency for asset-backed lending, Tinlake’s tranched two token model, and their experiments using this system in collaboration with the Maker team and other partners such as Paperchain and Shuttle One. Lukas goes into how real-world assets as collateral could bring stability to Maker’s Multi-Collateral DAI system. Finally, Lukas talks about launching their own Substrate-based chain that allows Centrifuge to mint tokenized assets using Tinlake while maintaining privacy for asset originators. Centrifuge Website: https://centrifuge.io Tinlake: https://centrifuge.io/products/tinlake/ Centrifuge Twitter: https://twitter.com/centrifuge Centrifuge Blog: https://medium.com/centrifuge Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

In this episode, Felix is joined by Dieter “dete” Shirley, CTO at Dapper Labs. The team at Dapper Labs, a spin-off from Axiom Zen, are the creators of Cryptokitties and have spent recent years to create their own blockchain optimized for decentralized applications building on their learnings of writing some of the most widely used smart contracts. The podcast begins with Dieter going into his background in crypto and how Cryptokitties emerged out of a series of ideas his former company at Axiom Zen had for blockchain applications. We then talk about how Cryptokitties helped the team realize both the benefits and shortcomings of Ethereum and Solidity development. Dieter explains how Flow is designed from the ground up with composability and developer experience in mind. We go into detail as to how Flow is able to scale by having multiple separate node roles, the interplay between them, as well as benefits that Flow tooling and the programming language Cadence provide to developers. Finally, we wrap up with a discussion of the economics in a blockchain with multiple different roles. Flow Website: https://www.onflow.org/ Playground (live version of Cadence emulator): https://www.onflow.org/play   Flow Alpha Developer Program: https://www.onflow.org/flow-alpha Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

One of the major factors hampering blockchain adoption is that current decentralized applications only function when all associated data is public. Many real world use cases are only possible when participating parties can be assured that their information is kept private. Oasis is a network that is focused on enabling privacy-preserving smart contracts through the use of secure enclaves. In this podcast episode, Meher and Brendan are joined by Andrew Miller and Vishwanath Raman, who are part of the Oasis Labs team working in product marketing (Andrew) and engineering (Vishwanath). The four start with a discussion of how Oasis got started and the connection to UC Berkeley. Then, in the first part of the interview, an overview of the Oasis protocol and key target markets follows. The episode discusses how the Oasis privacy protocol works technically and how it compares to other privacy-enhancing solutions. Specifically, Andrew and Vishwanath walk through a voting example and go through other use cases, features of the Oasis blockchain, the project’s go-to-market strategy, as well as the roadmap including the ongoing incentivized testnet “The Quest”. Finally, the four discuss implications of Intel security vulnerabilities and the developer experience of writing privacy-preserving smart contracts. Oasis Website: https://www.oasislabs.com/ Oasis Twitter: https://twitter.com/OasisLabs The Quest Testnet: https://www.oasis-protocol.org/quest Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

While most other upcoming smart contract platforms seem to have identified throughput as the major bottleneck for why blockchains haven’t found mass adoption yet, Coda has focused on a different part of the stack that they perceive to be a much more important issue plaguing blockchain, which is how long it takes for new participants to verify the blockchain. Coda is using recursive zk-SNARK technology which enables them to create a constant-sized blockchain, making it really easy for clients to verify the correctness of the ledger. In this episode, Meher and Felix are joined by Emre Tekisalp, director of BD, and Brad Cohn, strategy & operations from the O(1) Labs team to discuss Coda’s approach to building a new blockchain platform. The podcast starts out going into the background of the two, a high-level overview of Coda follows and we discuss what Coda’s unique design enables and cover the go-to-market strategy of the project. From there the discussion leads us to discuss monetary policy and the implications of taxes on Proof-of-Stake networks. After this quick detour, we get back to discussing how the Coda protocol technically works leading to an extensive celebration of zk-SNARK technology during which Brad and Emre explain the progress in the field and why zk-SNARKs are so exciting. Finally, we wrap up the episode with some information on Coda’s Genesis testnet program. Coda Protocol Website: https://codaprotocol.com/ Genesis Program: https://codaprotocol.com/genesis Coda Discord: https://bit.ly/CodaDiscord Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone   Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

Insurance is a part of the finance stack that has received less attention in the Defi space compared to other segments like lending and derivatives. In this episode, Meher and Felix are joined by Marouane Hajji, Co-Founder at Unslashed, to talk about blockchain risk, insurance, and the protocol that Unslashed is building. We start out exploring why blockchain risks can’t yet be insured using traditional insurance methods, as well as the go-to-market approach of Unslashed and their first product: a fully collateralized slashing insurance. We also discuss the interplay between staking derivatives and insurance and the interplay of the Melon Protocol and Unslashed to manage collateral for risk underwriters. Unslashed Website: https://unslashed.finance Unslashed Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnslashedF Marouane’s Presentation on Staking x DeFi during Trust-Less 2020: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/trust-less-2020-validator-conf/21 Chorus One: https://chorus.one Chorus One Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone Chorus One Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone