DeFi Sparks

Persistence provides staking, liquid staking, and now, restaking services for the Cosmos ecosystem. The protocol is comprised of two components, in pSTAKE, the liquid staked asset hub, and DEXTER, a DeFi application with LST and yield-bearing token use-cases. The Cosmos ecosystem surprised some when the likes of Celestia were introduced last year, bringing attention back to the sector. Cosmos and Tendermint provide infrastructure that allows appchains to have more sovereignty, as seen with the migration of dYdX. In this podcast, our Founder and CEO, Nick Drakon, sits down with Mikhil Pandey, Co-Founder and CSO at Persistence Labs to discuss everything Persistence, Cosmos, Parallelized EVM chains, and more.

Aperture is an Intents-based architecture that helps users manage their Uniswap V3 LP positions. The protocol contains an auto-rebalance feature, automated liquidity management strategies, as well as the Aperture swap DEX on Manta network. This is all made possible through the power of Intents...Aperture is a long ways in the making; the team is releasing their highly-anticipated Litepaper after 2.5 years of DeFi experience. Aperture is building out an Intents-based future with some innovative implementations being announced. In this video, our Founder & CEO, Nick Drakon, sits down with McDavid Stoddard, Core Contributor and Growth Lead at Aperture, to discuss everything Intents.

Mantle may have the most opportunity of any chain currently. It is a L2 built on Ethereum and may benefit from $ETH's EIP-4844 upgrade. It also uses EigenLayer's DA, making it a potential candidate for airdrops. In this video, our CEO, Nick Drakon, sits down with Jordi Alexander, Chief Alchemist at Mantle, to discuss the chain's plans going forward, exciting initiatives, and more. 

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Access to Revelo Intel  500+ Page Annual Intel FREE

Thorchain is the first DEX to introduce a cross-chain native-to-native asset settlements in DeFi and has survived 3 bear-bull crypto cycles. Chad Barraford (Core Dev) & Nick Drakon discuss Thorchain's approach to solving liquidity fragmentation in DeFi, their potential to grow more, and the complex but efficient products and services they have made.On today's agenda, we discuss:

Monad is new Layer 1 blockchain built for speed and high performance by utilising parallel execution and pipelining. Keone Hon (CEO & Founder) & Nick Drakon discuss Monad's approach to solving for high performance problem sets and the infrastructure choices they have made.On today's agenda, we discuss:

Welcome to another episode of DeFi Sparks with @NickDrakon and @ChainLinkGod!On today's agenda, we discuss:

Nick Drakon and Francesco Biviano discuss Arcton's overview, business model and pathways for potential adoption. Francesco also explains how advanced the Swiss regulatory framework is and if it is being talked about anywhere else in Europe. He also explains how will they facilitate high quality deal flows, and what are the reporting and disclosure requirements of the companies that are raising money through their platform.Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/FREENick Drakon Twitter

Nick Drakon and TN Lee discuss Pendle's overview, design and feature improvements. TN explains how they think when it comes to expanding into different verticals and blockchains. TN discusses his view on current on-chain t-bills activity. TN shares a high-level looping strategy using Pendle's products in order to maximize yield. He also gives a teaser on what their future would look like!Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/FREENick Drakon Twitter

Nick Drakon and Tiago Pratas discuss the potential use cases of LSTfi and its role in spurring consolidation. Tiago explains how Lido remains dominant in the liquid staking derivatives (LSD) market. Tiago discusses ANKR's B2B services for financial institutions and get insights into their exciting roadmap, the concept of flash loan staking, and Tiago's vision for the future of liquid staking. They discuss whether Binance Smart Chain can continue its thriving journey and also explore the possibilities of ANKR expanding to more chains.Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/Revelo Intel Twitter

Stader Labs is a well-known protocol specializing in liquid staking, with a multichain focus. The conversation in this episode centers on the upcoming launch of ETHx on the Ethereum network. ETHx is a liquid staking derivative designed to address several issues present in Ethereum staking. Currently, a significant amount of ETH is staked with a limited number of entities, such as Lido, Coinbase, and Binance, among others, with the top three holding around 50% of staked ETH.Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/Nick Drakon Twitter

With an uncertain regulatory environment and growing interest in DeFi solutions for trading after the collapse of multiple centralized exchanges, Founder of ZKX, Eduard, recognized a significant gap in the market. Eduard saw an emerging opportunity with the adopting of CEXs int eh global markets - where there was an ease of transferring funds from user bank accounts into their CEX and back. However, users don't have custody of their accounts, which became a problem when it comes to transparency and security. ZKX aims to be a decentralized trading venue for derivatives and perpetual futures, offering self-custody and true community governance. This discussion covers a range of topics related to the emerging DeFi space and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. Founder of ZKX, Eduard, shares his background and the decision process behind moving away from a diversification standpoint. He also discusses Zero Knowledge Technology and the reason for building on StarkNet. The conversation then delves into the differences between DEX and CEX, and the importance of account abstraction.Later in the video, Eduard talks about what ZKX aims to solve, including issues related to transparency, security, and regulatory compliance. The discussion also covers the concept of liquid governance and how it's implemented in the ZKX platform. Eduard outlines the company's roadmap and the milestones they hope to achieve in the future.This is truly an interesting time to be discussing the perpetual futures in DeFi and the growth opportunity for DEXs.Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/Nick Drakon Twitter

Matt Blaine, a Respond Law partner, specializes in business law & litigation. In the past 12-18 months, he has focused on DeFi protocols, tackling legal structures and compliance best practices within the vague legal landscape of DeFi. BeethovenX and ByteMasons are some of the project he has consulted.In this episode, Matt and I dive into the crypto industry from a different perspective. We discuss the legal infrastructure necessary for setting up a protocol, the risk starting a DeFi protocol vs a traditional business, the SEC's attack on Coinbase, the intentions of the SEC harassing the crypto industry, the details of CFTC suing Binance, and more. Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/Nick Drakon Twitter

In this episode, I speak with Vasily Nikonov, the Founder & CEO of Velvet Capital, on the potential of passive investing through ETF funds on chain. Capital is a company that's building the infrastructure that allows individuals and institutions to create and manage ETF style funds in which individual investors can deploy capital into. With the success of passive investing in traditional financial markets over the last 20 years, there is no reason to believe that passive flows outstripping active flows is not going to happen in DeFi. Vasily, from Velvet Capital, is working to build an infrastructure for individuals and institutions to manage ETF style funds on-chain. If you're interested in investing in passive flows in DeFi, companies like Velvet Capital are ones that you will want to be aware of. Revelo Intel is now LIVE! Join FREE - https://revelointel.com/Nick Drakon Twitter

Alluo is a products that allow users to earn on-chain yield on their crypto assets in a streamlined and simple way. There exist a vast majority of users who don't want to transact on chain and manage their funds to earn yield on their assets. There is a large and continuous growing market for products like these, but the products of the recent past have given a bad reputation with the events that transpired at bankrupt firms like Celsius, BlockFi, among others. However, there is still a major opportunity for this business in the market in the future.In this episode, I speak with Didier Baclin, co-founder of Alluo, who has experience in cutting edge financial products and was deeply involved in the P2P lending space in the UK and in working through the complex regulatory framework of that business with UK regulators.

As we move into 2023 Nick Drakon predicts we are going to operate in a multichain world and that the infrastructure required to facilitate the transfer of value and information between these chains is going to be a huge business. In this episode, Nick and Atlas, CEO of Cryptolink, discuss the value of interoperability and the impact it has on infrastructure in DeFi. Cryptolink is a project that helps users and assets move from chain to chain, and operates in this lucrative space of interoperability and attempts to capture market share, providing a vertically integrated offering with products for both the B2B and B2C markets, trying to clip the ticket from a revenue standpoint. There is a significant market opportunity in the field of interoperability and the discussion that unfolds is informative and exciting.

Join Nick Drakon and Darren Camas, CEO of IPOR Labs, as they discuss interest rates in DeFi and explore the history and importance of LIBOR, the cost of capital, and the role of trust in finance. Learn about the potential for DeFi to disrupt traditional finance and the future of interest rates in a decentralized world.IPOR Labs has developed and launched the IPOR Indexes, which benchmark the cost of capital that is interest rates in DeFi. Using that foundation they've started to build products and services on top of that in the form of interest rate derivatives and swaps. These are very useful in DeFi and interest free, and we're going to go into that in this video. We delve into the role of trust in centralized finance and the potential for DeFi to offer a decentralized alternative. We also explore the future of interest rates in a DeFi-dominated world and the potential impact on traditional finance.

Souvlaki is the Head of Financial Reporting at BeethovenX, a decentralized exchange that runs on both Fantom and Optimism. Before moving to DeFi, Souvlaki spent a decade working at two of the Big Four auditing firms, and another five years at one of the largest TradFi investment banks in the world.Souvlaki's experience makes him the perfect individual to provide insights regarding Tether in the context of the ongoing controversy that surrounds them and their stablecoin, USDT, with respect to the recent issues of financial disclosures or lack thereof. In today's episode, Souvlaki and I dive in to uncover some the following topics:► Souvlaki's experience and misconceptions around auditing► Tether's background and the USDT controversy► Tether's disclosures and reports► How to digest information from these reports with respect to the landscape post-FTX collapse► Our thoughts on Proof-of-Reserves and the other disclosures investors need

LandX is a protocol that allows users to directly invest in the Real Yield generated by real world farmlands and crops. LandX has found a way to bring real world productive assets onto the blockchain that are otherwise difficult to gain access to unless you physically buy farmland.In my chat with LandWalker, we discuss what opportunities lie in the macro picture for farmland and the approach LandX has taken to bring these assets on chain along with other topics like:► Why commodities are an interesting investment► Economics of LandX► When is LandX launching?► How LandX makes money► Macroeconomic impacts on global farmland markets

Polysynth Protocol is a DeFi Options Vault (DOV) protocol powered by Ethereum and Polygon, enabling you to express your views on the market and earn in all market conditions. Polysynth's Options Vaults turns complicated financial instruments and derivatives into simple, easy-to-use front end offerings for users. Polysynth aims to abstract away complexity to offer a wide range of investment strategies that may otherwise be overlooked by users.In this video, I speak with Shailesh Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of Polysynth, discussing his approach to Structured High Yield Products and how they will develop in the future. In this video we are going to discuss:► Why the development of structured products are lagging behind► How Real Yield is generated by real financial activity► How we can identify true Real Yield from the "Real Yield" buzzword ► Leveraging B2B & B2C to ensure product safety, security, and reliability► The future of Structured Products► Polysynth's approach to regulation

DeFi Llama is a FREE platform that most active DeFi users use daily, providing relevant data across DeFi including TVL, statistics, fees, yields, rates, and more. DeFi Llama's unorthodox approach, in both traditional business and in crypto, make them extremely dangerous competitors in their category.I use DeFi Llama daily, and over time, I've generated dozens of very profitable trading strategies using their data. I'm interested to talk to the llamas not only because their products are so powerfully useful and 100% free, but because they operate using a unique model that I'm not entirely familiar with.► What is DeFi Llama?► Why is DeFi Llama succeeding?► How does the team benefit from providing FREE data?► Will DeFi Llama services remain FREE?► What products can we look forward to seeing?

In this episode, I have Xavier Ekkel on the podcast. Xavier founded prePO, which is a decentralized protocol that aims to offer the unique ability of trading assets that haven't yet been listed in the equity and/or crypto markets. The platform can allow users to gain exposure to businesses like SpaceX, Stripe, MetaMask, and OpenSea.We discussed the topics of accessibility, decentralization, and regulation as it relates to democratizing access to pre-public investment opportunities for the masses.Subscribe to FREE Daily Newsletter

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Today I am talking to Eitan Katz who is the founder of Kima Finance, a utility specific blockchain that aims to act as a settlement layer in a chain agnostic world. Put simply, they are working on the DLT Interoperability problem set. Eitan has been working at the cutting edge of technological innovation for over 35 years. He is a pleasure to talk to not just because of his wealth of knowledge but also for his talent in unpacking complex concepts in ways that everyone can understand.Today's topic is of course DLT Interoperability. We start with defining this concept and discuss why it is such a difficult problem to solve. We discuss the risks associated with current solutions for moving assets between chains such as bridges. We dive into the idea of universal liquidity across chains and what the implications are of achieving that goal. Finally we ponder a world where off chain liquidity can seamlessly merge with on chain liquidity.A reminder that if you enjoy this podcast please consider leaving a review on whatever podcast platform you use to listen in.

Nick Drakon Twitter

Nick Drakon Twitter

Nick Drakon Twitter

Welcome to Episode 3 of the DeFi Sparks Podcast. I created this podcast to facilitate conversations with some of the sharpest minds in DeFi around topics that I am curious about.Today I am talking to Rob Montgomery, who is the founder of Revest Finance. Revest builds technology and solutions around using NFTs to unlock value in real assets. They have deployed a range of financial NFT's that make illiquid positions liquid, and are expanding the product set  across chains and protocols. Rob is not only running the business but also technically minded,  writing a lot of the code, which makes him interesting to talk to, because he can speak intelligently and realistically about where we are on the development curve.His passion for innovation, and the fact that he has deployed workable solutions, instead of only theorising what is possible, is appealing to me as an investor and as a curious person in the space.Today's conversation will circle around some of the real world use cases that have been touted as ripe for disruption with NFT technology. I ask Rob to give us his thoughts about the status of these use cases, what the obstacles are, and what he thinks might happen next. We discuss real estate, music rights, IP related to fashion & content, the Metaverse and gaming, as well as financial NFTs. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

The DeFi Sparks podcast, hosted by Nick Drakon, involves long form conversations with the sharpest minds in DeFi.In this inaugural episode we talk to Daniel & Mr Kind from the Beethoven X protocol on Fantom. We discuss a wide range of topics which you can see a summary of in the chapters section. Both Daniel & Mr Kind demonstrate a depth of understanding around operational excellence that is rare in the space.Beethoven X is a leading DEX on the Fantom $FTM. Beethoven X is in partnership with the Balancer protocol on Ethereum, and uses cutting edge technology that allows for multi asset liquidity pools. This technology is a more efficient way of facilitating swaps and results in better price execution for users. They have recently announced, in partnership with Balancer, an expansion onto the Optimism blockchain.

Today I will be talking with "Safe Ratios" who operates the cross chain DeFi protocol called Growth Defi. They are active on Fantom $FTM, Binance Smart Chain $BSC & Avalanche $AVAX.Growth Defi issues an over collateralized stable coin called MOR using the CDP design.They are also innovating with products and solutions that allow users to earn the benefits from locking tokens, without sacrificing liquidity in the process. I came across his work due to the partnership Growth Defi has developed with Liquid Driver on Fantom and was extremely impressed by his depth of knowledge and the systems he has designed.Specifically, his knowledge on stable coins intrigued me. In light of recent events on the Terra blockchain with UST collapsing, I thought it would be a good idea to have an in depth discussion on the topic of stable coin mechanics with someone who actually knows what he is talking about. We go back to 1st principles around why stable coins exist and what problems they are trying to solve. We then dive into the different types of stable coins with a focus on the various business models of each system, in an attempt to understand how profitable these businesses are. By understanding the flow of value we can begin to understand how risks develop and why. We diagnose the UST collapse while discussing what they were trying to do and zoom in on the signals to look for when trying to assess such systems for vulnerabilities.We spend some time discussing the UST collapse, why it happened and what to look for in the future.