Cross-Chain Examination

Ash sits down with Archetype's newest team member, Dmitriy Berenzon, for a wide ranging conversation. The two discuss the crypto ecosystems of NYC and SF, hardware becoming cool again, weird stuff at the intersection of AI and blockchain, and being both thesis and founder driven.Dmitriy is the newest Partner here at Archetype, and will be driving research, investments, portfolio support, and fund strategy. He was previously a Research Partner at 1k(x), where he focused on research, investments, and working with founders on fundraising, business development, and token model design. 

Another rollercoaster of a year in crypto has come and gone. To kick off 2024, we reached out to some founders and builders to get their takeaways from 2023 and perspectives on where crypto is headed in the new year. Our guests for this episode are:Ash Egan, Founder of ArchetypeAsta Li, Co-founder of PrivyNick Johnson, Lead Developer of ENSSheila Warren, CEO of Crypto Council for InnovationThere's a lot to be excited about, but some common threads formed around web3 social, onchain gaming, continued progress on the UX front, and crypto finally reaching consumers in a meaningful way. 

On this episode of Archebyte, Katherine Wu and fellow Archetype team member, Nick Pai, are joined by the CEO and co-founder of Risk Labs, Hart Lambur, to talk bridges, L2s, and interoperability.Hart and Risk Labs are best known for creating UMA, an optimistic oracle, and Across Protocol, a crosschain bridge. In the multichain future that is quickly becoming the present, infrastructure like oracles, bridges, and sequencers play crucial roles. But, these tools that are meant to facilitate interoperability between blockchains still have plenty of room for improvement.During our conversation, we dig into the problems that bridges currently face, how Across is designed to mitigate them, and what a safer multichain ecosystem looks like. Hart and Nick give their thoughts on centralized, decentralized, and shared sequencers, intents, and the role aggregators play in regards to bridges. They also answer the loaded question - are bridges L2s?

On this episode of Archebyte, Ash Egan is joined by Lagrange's founder and CEO, Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh to talk zero knowledge, storage proofs, and unlocking blockchain data.Today, blockchains have a difficult time leveraging data from other chains, but Ismael and Lagrange are working to fix that. Leveraging ZK and storage proofs, Lagrange enables blockchains to better utilize blockchain data itself, removing the need to leverage offchain sources and the security risks that come with doing so.Ismael walks us through using blockchains as databases, shifting trust from provers to verification layers, crosschain data access, and what all of this means for the future of crypto and onchain applications. 

Until now, we have had almost no way of evaluating Ethereum validator performance. This lack of accessible data around nodes and their operators has been keeping users, builders, investors, and other validators in the dark about the very health of the Ethereum network. But Elias Simos and the Rated team have created a solution.Elias joins us today to shed light on the state of Ethereum infrastructure. He explains the importance of accessible blockchain infrastructure data, how Rated turns that data into usable performance ratings, and how the idea came about in the first place. We also discuss the challenges that come along with building a product like Rated in a multichain world, and Elias sends us off with some advice for staying sane while working in crypto.  

Welcome back to Archebyte! We're kicking off Season 4 with a deep dive into the MEV supply chain, SAUVE, order flow auctions, and the future of programmable privacy with Shea Ketsdever from Flashbots ⚡

On this episode of Archebyte we are joined by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce. Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was also a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues.Hester joins us today to give us some insight into the SEC and the regulatory world. She explains the many challenges that come along with trying to regulate the crypto industry, including lack of time and resources, a potential desire to push the industry abroad, and navigating the US's complicated existing financial regulations. Hester also agrees that regulatory progress is failing to keep up with crypto while reinforcing the idea that the industry requires new regulations outside of existing securities laws. We later discuss Hester's Token Safe Harbor proposal, which lays out a potential path for new crypto projects to gradually work towards decentralization without fearing SEC enforcement. We also touch on fostering innovation, the pros and cons of decentralization, and the best ways of communicating with the SEC and Hester herself. 

On this episode of Archebyte we are joined by Justin Melillo, co-founder and CEO of Mona. Mona is an infinite network of immersive experiences with a focus on openness, decentralization, and creator/developer ownership.A lifelong artist with a focus on computer animation, visual FX, and immersive content, Justin has worked at companies like DreamWorks and Magic Leap, designed tour sets for artists like Drake and Sia, and worked on various AR experiences. When he found blockchain and NFTs several years ago, he saw it as a real alternative for digital artists outside of design work, freelancing, or working for a studio. He then combined these worlds, alongside friend Matt Hoerl, to bring Mona to life.During our talk, we dive into Justin's view of the metaverse and its many challenges, opportunities, and misconceptions. Justin also tells us about building for a metaverse-native generation, we look at the future of AR and VR, and we talk about how much we love Tears of the Kingdom. 

On this episode of Archebyte we are joined by Jonathan Kau, Co-founder of Satsuma, a blockchain indexing and query platform.We begin our conversation with Jonathan walking us through his founder journey and a 101 lesson on blockchain data. We discuss the unique challenges that web3 developers face and explore how Satsuma can ease some of those challenges. We also touch on the challenges of selling to DAOs and navigating their unique decision making processes. We discuss the importance of giving customers a voice in shaping the product, while still maintaining a strong sense of direction and opinion about the solutions being offered. 

On this episode of Archebyte we are joined by Aya Kantorovich, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Fractal, to discuss crypto's history, what it's like to be a founder in the industry, and the importance of building institutional grade crypto infrastructure.As a former founding member of FalconX and current Co-CEO of Fractal Clearing, Aya deeply understands the role that institutions play in the world of crypto. She begins our conversation by highlighting exactly that before giving us a quick (but fantastic) history lesson on the crypto industry as a whole.As Aya explains, institutions have been playing a major role in the space for several years now. They bring with them not only capital and knowledge of the traditional financial world, but needs around privacy and quality assurance that require more robust tools to be created.While we have certainly seen some less savory companies give cefi a bad rap, Aya believes that we are beginning to see a new wave of robust, institutional grade crypto tooling that will more strongly honor crypto's fundamentals of transparency and self custody. We close out our talk by exploring how Fractal is helping bring this vision to reality, explaining the need for disintermediation, and discussing the many hats that founders wear. 

On this episode of Archebyte, we are joined by Collin Meyers, Founder of Obol Labs. The Obol Network is an ecosystem for trust minimized staking that enables people to create, test, run and coordinate distributed validators. Collin kicks off the episode by laying some groundwork and explaining the history of staking infrastructure and how it has led us to where we are today, post Ethereum Merge. We briefly discuss withdrawals and how they affect staking dynamics before diving deep into DVT - Distributed Validator Technology. Collin breaks down what DVT is, how it works, and what it can enable for validators as well as the crypto ecosystem at large. We discuss the challenges that at home validators face and Collin shares his advice for becoming an at home validator and overcoming these challenges. We close out our conversation as Collin looks to the future and shares what he's excited to see develop in the crypto infrastructure space in the coming years as we acknowledge that blockchain tech is at its core one incredible use case of applied cryptography.  

On this episode of Archebyte, we are joined by TuongVy Le to discuss crypto regulation. Vy is currently a Partner at Bain Capital Crypto, Head of Regulatory & Policy at BCC, and previously worked in the enforcement division at the SEC.Vy starts off the conversation by giving listeners an overview of crypto regulation and policy as it stands today - an enforcement only approach with lack of guidance that leaves both founders and customers vulnerable. She explains how the events of the past year have led regulators to become hostile towards the crypto industry as a whole, without fully understanding the diverse range of use cases for blockchain technology. We discuss the dangers of innovation outpacing regulation, and we acknowledge that if U.S. policy fails to keep up with the inevitable advancement in technology, the next Google or Apple of crypto could be founded overseas. This devastating prospect is a direct implication of regulators' failure to provide guidance. Katherine and Vy leave listeners with advice on how to navigate the current regulation landscape, and share what you can do to help the cause. After all, it's not too late for the U.S. to be a world leader in crypto regulation and take advantage of all blockchain technology has to offer. Archebyte is presented by Archetype, an early-stage crypto venture firm accelerating the decentralized future. Learn more about Archetype at https://www.archetype.fund/ 

For the final episode of season 2, I'm changing things up a bit! To close out a year that has been very eventful, and a bit chaotic, I went to some of my favorite crypto founders for their words of wisdom.I asked everyone three questions and compiled all of their answers here to help everyone decompress from the craziness of 2022 and start getting on track for 2023:Give me one or two reasons to stay in crypto and remain optimistic on the future!What are some big themes you're interested in/ following now and in the next year? Any predictions?Do you have any advice to founders who are raising or building in this bear market?Thank you again to all of the founders who gave their time and thoughts for this episode, as well as all of the viewers who have joined me throughout season 2 of Cross-Chain Examination. See you in the new year! 

We kickoff the episode by broadly discussing how Pooja thinks about the future of work and she shares how the future of work could look different in web2 and web3 settings. We analyze these topics from the perspectives of both workers and organizations, and examine how web3 offers each of them new and exciting possibilities.Pooja predicts that the future of work will be small teams tackling big problems in a more dynamic way than we've ever seen before. She sees web3 as more of a means to an end and a set of ideologies to build by - privacy, transparency, and autonomy to name a few. As Pooja gives us the inside scoop on Tephra Labs and Radius, we touch on the possibilities for things like coordination, decision making, and leadership in a web3 future.

On this episode of Cross-Chain Examination, we're joined by Devin Walsh, Executive Director of the Uniswap Foundation. UF was founded this year with the goal of supporting the decentralized growth and sustainability of the Uniswap protocol and its ecosystem. Devin and Ken Ng submitted the initial proposal to found the Uniswap Foundation during the summer of 2022. Uniswap token holders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal with an impressive 95% yes vote - a feat that took Devin months of hard work, collaboration, and implementation of feedback. To lay some groundwork, she begins the episode by sharing her process for creating the proposal and bringing the Uniswap Foundation to fruition.We then get into the importance of foundation structures for crypto protocols, and specifically for Uniswap Protocol. We also dive into the benefits of having a non-profit label for the foundation. Devin shares the three pillars of the Uniswap Foundation (growth and innovation, governance, and advocacy and stewardship) and we discuss how UF is measuring their success and progress in these fields. We close out our conversation with an overview of all the work UF has done so far as well as what is in the works for their short and long term future. Devin leaves us with some advice for starting a foundation and tells you where to go if you'd like to follow along the UF journey!-  Article Mentioned: https://gov.uniswap.org/t/alastor-fee-switch-report/18020/2 

On this episode of Cross-Chain Examination, we're joined by our good friends and supporters, Anton and Ethan from Talos! Talos is an institutional trading platform for digital assets that was built to support the entire trade lifecycle. With backgrounds in the institutional finance space, and a very robust crypto platform under their belts, Anton and Ethan are the perfect guests to help us sort out all of the craziness going on right now in the wake of the FTX collapse. We kick off our discussion with a breakdown of crypto as an asset class and the importance of institutional adoption. We then dive into Vitalik's tweet where he suggested crypto is rushing into institutional and mainstream adoption too quickly. Turning to mainstream adoption more broadly, we discuss the reliance on centralized businesses to more easily onboard new users. Anton touches on the friction between cefi and defi tools and, instead of picking a side, explains that there is a time and place for both. He then reflects on the inception of Talos, from digital asset fund to a fully integrated crypto platform made from scratch. Later in our talk we get into the details of crypto as a unique asset class, the advantages of building financial systems on blockchains, the evolution of Talos, and effects of the FTX collapse.  

This week on Cross-Chain Examination, we're taking a break from our usual deep-dives and turning our attention to current events in the industry with Ash and Danny from the Archetype team. Over the course of the past week, we have watched FTX collapse, sending the entire crypto market into freefall. At the time of this recording (11/11/22), much of the situation is still unfolding. We do our best to lay out the facts around FTX, Alameda, SBF and co, and the misappropriation of user funds. We recap everything we know so far and discuss the unfortunately long list of potential repercussions before touching on some silver linings.In light of the current market conditions, we turn the conversation to Archetype's thesis around Ethereum. We measure the ongoing risks and call out what we're keeping an eye on as the space moves forward. We also discuss Ethereum's role not just as a financial ledger, but a global, social computer. At the end of the day, we're still bullish.  

Sreeram Kannan is the founder of EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking collective leveraging trust, hyperscaling blockchains, and unleashing open innovation. In this highly technical episode, we dive deep into proof of work vs. proof of stake, staking, restaking, Ethereum throughput, and permissionless innovation.  Sreeram kicks off the episode by introducing and explaining fragmented trust networks. One of the amazing value propositions for blockchain technology is that it allows permissionless and trustless innovation - any developer can join the ecosystem and start creating. But this trustless technology is only valuable if the core infrastructure innovators around the world decide to actually utilize it. To help them do so, Sreeram created Eigen Layer with the intention of lowering their barrier to entry into the Ethereum ecosystem.We discuss the ways in which Eigen Layer enables restaking and Sreeram walks us through the actual process of native staking. He explains how he foresees the Eigen ecosystem growing and shares a few of the possibilities Eigen enables. We discuss the importance of increasing Ethereum's bandwidth and Sreeram shares how Eigen Layer can help this initiative. We also explore risk mitigation and all of the ways in which the folks over at Eigen are tackling the issue of security, with decentralization not only being a core value of the Eigen team, but its main value proposition. To close out the episode, Kathrine and Ash recap the discussion and break down some of the more intellectually challenging topics discussed.  

Eleni Steinman is the Co-Founder of Loop, a tool enabling autopay in crypto. In this episode we dive into how Loop came to be, how Loop works, and what to expect from Loop in the future. Loop was designed with all users in mind - not only does it have the ability to integrate with complex crypto protocols but it's also simple and easy enough for crypto novices to understand. With its B2B2C business model, Loop is a flexible tool that allows for not only crypto subscriptions but fiat subscriptions as well, and even integrates seamlessly with Stripe. We discuss how Loop works on the backend, giving listeners some insight into the mechanics of how it uses smart contracts to allow recurring payments while still giving the user full control and ownership over their assets. Users are provided with a convenient dashboard-like interface to clearly see what they are subscribing to and make changes to those subscriptions with just a few clicks. They even have the ability to cut off recurring payments and revoke companies' access to their funds.Eleni shares some of the possibilities being explored in the crypto payment arenas and she shouts out some cool projects working on a “buy now pay later” function. We also discuss crypto donations and how a recurring payment option for donations would enhance contributions to charity. We close out our conversation touching on the issue of privacy for on-chain transactions and Eleni shares what she's most excited about at Loop in the coming months.  

Jon is the Co-Founder of VectorDAO - a collective of designers, artists & developers contributing to web3.After working as a designer at Coinbase for several years, Jon decided to take a leap of faith, quit his job, and he began working for himself as a freelance designer. After realizing that the work he was doing was highly integral to the success of his clients, Jon began to feel that taking an hourly wage for his work was a bit old school. So, to better participate in the upside of his work and more closely align his incentives with those of his clients, he began taking a portion of his earnings in their native tokens.After connecting with a friend who was also a great freelance designer in the space, the duo decided to pool together the tokens they were earning, invite other designers to do the same, and socialize their gains and losses. Thus, Vector DAO was born. By aligning incentives, socializing risk, and giving independent freelancers a community to thrive in, Vector DAO became a perfect storm for success. The collective worked with over 40 organizations in their first year and grew to a point where they could no longer accept applications. Drilling down into the details, Vector DAO actually considers itself an internet community as opposed to a DAO. Yes - there is a decentralized component to how they make decisions about their treasury, but ultimately, Vector DAO is not fully decentralized or autonomous, and that's okay! By keeping the team relatively small (about 90 people) and creating a shallow hierarchy, Vector is extremely efficient and doesn't face many of the coordination issues that “true” DAOs face. In this episode we discuss the differences between a “true” DAO and an internet community, and we dive into the ins and outs of Vector DAO, how it works, and how they have attracted some of the best talent in the industry. We address the importance of great design in the crypto space, and Jon leaves listeners with some advice if you're thinking of starting a DAO.  

Dan is the Co-Founder of Farcaster, a protocol for sufficiently decentralized social networking.  Instead of whipping up a traditional social network, Dan decided to create Farcaster as a protocol in order to give users a more direct relationship with their audience., as well as give developers direct access to the underlying data and APIs of the ecosystem they are building in. The result is the foundation for a new, flexible social network that is truly in the hands of its user and builders.Dan walks us through the journey from web1 to web2 to web3, setting the stage for the rest of our discussion. We dive into the user experience for web3 social, and how Farcaster creates a friendly web3 experience for people who may not be familiar with blockchain wallets. On the back end, Farcaster protocol offers developers an entirely new playground to build in and leverage the fact that all Farcaster users have a public and private key. We talk about how Dan onboarded the first 3000 users of Farcaster and how he sees the protocol reaching critical mass. We discuss the community that resides on Farcaster today and Dan's views on cultivating community. We also cover decentralized content moderation, Dan's ideas of conversation liquidity, and we look to the future as Dan shares what he hopes will be built on Farcaster down the line.  

Rebecca Rettig is the General Council at the Aave companies, which build open source, blockchain based software for the web3 world. She's a respected lawyer and longtime friend of our host, Katherine Wu. We dive right into the episode with Rebecca answering the question that's on all of our minds - why is regulation so difficult? We discuss the negative narrative that mainstream media portrays about the crypto industry and Rebecca offers some advice on how to flip that narrative. Because there is such a disconnect between lawmakers and crypto builders, it's difficult for both sides to find common ground about what crypto is and how to regulate it. Blanket statements like “same risk, same regulation” need to be thought about deeply as blockchain technology, and decentralization more specifically, certainly add levels of nuance to the discussion and change how we think about risk.At the end of the day, crypto regulation is inevitable. This conversation covers what we should do as crypto community members to help build a future where regulation can guide and help us instead of stopping and stifling us. During our talk we also touch on regulation for DAOs, DeFi, centralized web3 tools, and we get the inside scoop on The Rebecca Test.  

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu   and Espresso Systems' Jill Gunter about what tornado cash is + the use cases + reactions to tornado cash sanctions, the issues when it comes to privacy in Web3 and how crypto users should have various options when it comes to privacy. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu   and Crypto Council For Innovation's (CCI) Sheila Warren chat about why crypto regulation is so difficult, what a day in the life looks like for Sheila when she's working on the Hill and her thoughts on the best practices for founders looking to build in crypto.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Gitcoin's Annika Lewis about how crypto fits in as a public good, what Annika's excited about in crypto right now and whether all companies should become a DAO.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Nomad's Pranay Mohan about why safety is so important to Nomad, what optimistic verification is and what makes block space so valuable. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Parcl's Trevor Bacon about how Parcl is helping users reimagine real estate investing and why they use blockchain technology for their product.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Iris' Kristen Stone chat about what the importance of DAOs are and loops back to whether  Kristen still thinks giving early contributors tokens to a project incentivized greed or not. They also talk about how to structure compensation for DAO contributors to ensure the work is missions based and not solely focused on the monetary gains. And  Kristen drops a hot take on what she thinks DAO contributors will be in the near future. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and guest co-host Ash Egan chat with Ethereum Foundation's Justin Drake about all things Ethereum, from what the merge is to the impact the merge will have. And what's the future for Ethereum in 50 years? 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Privy's Henri Stern about all things privacy, what data sovereignty means and why it's important as well as the dangers of convenience when it comes to your online experience. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Archetype's Ash Egan about watershed moments in the Crypto industry, how to deal with market volatility and their day-to-day at Archetype. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Crypto Coven's xuannu and astrea about how the team thinks of fostering a sense of belonging in their community and how NFT goes beyond just jpegs.Cross-Chain Examination is presented by Archetype and sponsored by parcl and Protocol Labs.

This is cross-chain examination, a crypto/ web3 podcast focused on 102-level content.I'll be your host, Katherine Wu-- I've been working full-time in the crypto/web3 industry for the past five /six years, starting as an operator and then as an investor. These days, I am a venture partner at Archetype, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the top crypto/ web3 companies. Over the years, I've had so many friends and family members reach out to me wanting to learn more about crypto-- one of my friends even described it as learning a secret language! Having these conversations showed me that there is space for an inclusive podcast about the crypto/web3 space that is focused on 102-level content- for folks who know the basics, but want to dig in one level deeper.I hope you all can come on this learning journey with me! We'll have new episodes every week. Join me as we unlock this secret world of crypto!____________________________________________________________________________This season is sponsored by Protocol Labs, creators of IPFS, libp2p, and Filecoin. They are an open-source R&D lab building protocols, tools, and services to radically improve the internet.This season is also sponsored by Parcl, a digital real estate platform that lets you gain exposure to the real estate market with no minimum investment, high liquidity, and low transaction fees.Cross-chain Examination is presented by Archetype, an early-stage crypto vc firm based in NYC.