The Gwart Show

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Bitcoiner Post Capone joins us to talk about the risks of OP_CAT activation, MEV extraction concerns on Bitcoin, how increased expressivity could lead to mining centralization, the promise of scaling solutions like Arc and Spark, and why constrained covenants like CTV might be a better path forward than unlimited expressivity. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:27 Who is Post Capone? 03:05 OP_CAT 07:11 Erosion of MEV 11:29 Expressivity of OP_CAT 20:56 Execution on L2 23:33 Elipsis Labs 24:33 OP_CAT vs CTV 28:20 What should be on Bitcoin? 35:32 Stablecoin Maxi 38:42 Programmatic lending contracts 40:30 Ark 44:14 BitVM 47:02 Scaling solution adoption 50:07 Oden.fun54:12 Rollups The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs, which is building Atlas, a blockchain for verifiable finance. Ellipsis Labs is known for Phoenix, an on-chain orderbook DEX with over $50 billion in unincentivized volume. They are a top crypto team. Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance for Atlas. Learn more and apply on Twitter at @Ellipsis_Labs. Check out Atlas at @atlasxyz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Wilson Huang from DRW Cumberland joins us to talk about the explosive growth of Bitcoin options markets, why crypto volatility attracts both miners and hedge funds, how ETFs are reshaping institutional adoption, and why traditional finance principles are finally making sense in digital assets. We dive deep into market structure, OTC trading, and the future of crypto derivatives. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: • Bitcoin dominates 90% of crypto options volume • DRW started 30 years ago in CME trading pits • ETF volumes reached historic highs recently • Crypto vol trades in 40-60% range typically • Cumberland handles thousands of BTC clips OTC • Mining companies hedge at specific cost levels Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:48 Background 02:04 Crypto options markets 04:52 Requirements for a good options market 10:13 How exposed are miners? 19:05 OTC 21:24 Custody 29:53 Spot selling 36:13 Coinbase buying Deribit 41:40 Options & DeFi 45:02 Perpetuals 49:11 The future

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Smac, partner at Compound VC, joins us to talk about why stablecoins have become the dominant crypto narrative despite being "boring fintech," DePIN opportunities in energy and water networks, venture capital market structure issues with massive fund sizes, the lack of creativity in crypto development, and why most social crypto apps are features not companies.  Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Follow our guest on Twitter: @0xsmac Notes: • Compound VC focuses on pre-seed/seed stage investments • $100M checks at $3B valuations more like growth investing • Stablecoins captured outsized narrative due to lack of innovation • Virtual power plants represent distributed energy networks • Crypto needs more non-crypto native talent for creativity Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:16 Who is Smac? 01:53 Market overview 03:25 Are stablecoins the killer use case? 06:09 Stablecoin are just FinTech 09:51 Let a thousand stablecoins bloom 13:16 Decentralization & stablecoins 16:04 Users don't care about centralization 21:47 Worldcoin 24:20 DePin 25:19 Virtual power plants 30:20 ElLipsis Labs 31:21 Water harvesting 34:17 Venture funding is too high 41:21 Funding NOT infrastructure projects 43:25 What's interesting? 52:23 Friend.Tech 1:01:24 Wrap up

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Ethereum bull Ryan Berckmans joins us to dissect Ethereum's current strategy and why he believes it remains on the right path despite recent challenges. Ryan explains the "hub and spokes" L1+L2 model, arguing that communication failures—not technical problems—damaged ETH sentiment. He breaks down why L2 growth combined with L1 scaling will drive Ethereum toward becoming a multi-trillion dollar asset, how blob fees will generate significant revenue, and why Solana's success doesn't threaten Ethereum's long-term dominance in the institutional market. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: • L2s like Base hit 100M+ in Bitcoin-backed loans • World L2 has 12M verified humans with 25M accounts • Ethereum plans to scale to 48 blobs per block • Current blob usage at ~80% full (2.4 per block) • Rollups may pay ~30% of revenue for blob space • Median user fees could remain at ~$0.01 with scale Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:22 Who is Ryan B? 01:12 Why bullish on ETH? 06:38 Failure to communicate 11:01 Is this a pivot? 18:32 Justin Drake is bad at PR 24:31 Lido 28:05 Solo staking 31:50 It's all SOL's fault 33:03 Vitalik changing narratives 35:14 Thoughts on Solana 44:03 WHY NGU now? 48:50 Blobs need to pay up

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Noah Goldberg of Theia Research, joins us to dive deep into the world of liquid token markets. Noah breaks down why the "token premium" is unsustainable, how his firm evaluates fundamental value in DeFi applications, and why the market structure creates perverse incentives. He explains why on-chain finance hasn't supplanted traditional finance as quickly as many expected, discusses problems with market making in crypto, and offers insight into how crypto can build sustainable moats. A must-listen for understanding crypto's real financial underpinnings. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: • Token premium is unsustainable long-term • RTV (Revenue to Transaction Volume) models for L1s • Market makers often artificially prop up token prices • Money markets account for $800B in traditional finance • Most tokens are marked at unrealistic valuations • Venture investors create circular valuation patterns Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:37 Who is Noah? 02:36 Why Liquid? 05:03 Tokens vs equity 09:03 Token premium 12:25 Are tokens irrational? 17:55 Why isn't RadFi embracing DeFi? 23:26 Global investor base for tokens 25:46 Infrastructure apps 29:30 Cash flow modeling 31:31 REV on L1 32:32 Investing in L1s & REV 35:46 Is the market valuing REV? 39:16 Unitoken 42:43 Uniswap valuation vs equity 45:53 Token moats 48:18 Liquidity as moat 58:50 Improvements for markets 1:02:00 Market making vs token price 1:06:29 Whay are weak tokens valued so high? 1:11:28 Value of low liquidity tokens

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Santisa @Tiza4ThePeople from Lucidity joins us to discuss market neutral strategies in DeFi. He breaks down how his fund extracts alpha from stablecoin pairs and incentive programs while maintaining a risk-neutral position. We dive into the sophistication behind monitoring protocols, identifying opportunities through on-chain analysis, and why DeFi tokens rarely represent true equity value. Santisa explains why his fund immediately dumps governance tokens, how they achieved double digit APY with "negligible risk," and why Bitcoin remains his primary conviction despite years in the DeFi ecosystem. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: - Fund achieved 21.3% APY with "negligible risk" - Stablecoin strategies focus on risk-adjusted returns - DeFi getting safer but smart contract risks remain - Massive accounts ($40-50M) farming UniChain - Athena paying up to 39-40% yields initially - Most DeFi tokens lack fundamental value connection Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:28 Santisa's story 01:48 Lucidity 02:22 What's a market neutral strategy? 03:50 Can a pleb trade market neutral? 06:33 Long or short ETH? 08:10 Structure risk strategies 10:22 Unichain 12:46 Farm & dump 12:57 Farming in size 15:15 Market maturity & deal killers 19:10 Covering hacking losses 23:18 USDC pairs & incentives 24:40 Are you long ANY asset? 25:46 Bearish DeFi tokens 27:24 Any hope for DeFi tokens? 31:14 It's a Bitcoin market, hop on 33:51 Maker DAO buy back model 36:46 Athena is NOT a stablecoin 39:20 Athena farming 41:06 Athena token losing value 42:49 Token vs VC money burn 45:16 What is actually exciting 47:17 SOL 48:48 Future of Lucidity? 50:40 Identifying opportunities 52:21 Outperforming BTC 56:14 Is crypto VS over?

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! We got Round II of the Crypto VC debate with Gwart and Haseeb. Are tokens actually worth anything? Do VCs provide real signal value? What's the right benchmark for success? The conversation gets spicy as they examine Dragonfly's portfolio performance, discuss whether tokens truly capture value, and question if early-stage crypto investments can ever live up to their promises. With occasional moderation from Tarun, this debate exposes the tension between VC optimism and market skepticism. Follow our guests: @tarunchitra @hosseeb # Notes: • Tokens launched in bull markets typically underperform • Bitcoin has decoupled from alts as a "macro asset" • VCs typically invest at much lower valuations pre-listing • Zora launched at $200M valuation as a "fun token" • Crypto VC returns are power-law distributed Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:03 THE tweet heard around the world 01:17 Tokens must be traded 07:36 BTC dominance 10:50 Pricing tokens 17:03 Apples to apples 20:44 VC is going to ZERO 37:09 Uniswap token 44:56 Different reality 50:14 Moving the goalpost 1:01:14 Infinite money printer 1:05:24 Who's the fool? 1:17:06 Claim on cashflows 1:24:53 Steel-man my argument 1:36:41 Investor protection

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! Today we have Haseeb Qureshi and Tarun Chitra about whether VC-funded tokens are vaporware or valuable investments. They tackle fundamental questions about crypto market structure, token valuation models, and the long-term economics of L1 blockchains. Is there a carrying capacity for tokens? Are smart contract platforms overvalued? Will L1s converge to their utility value or maintain monetary premiums? Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: - Crypto market caps follow power law distribution - Solana valued at ~$80 billion despite skepticism - Stablecoin market grew from $130B to $240B - Bitcoin dominance may increase over time - Most tokens trending down in USD since launch - L1 valuation combines utility, equity & monetary use Timestamps: 00:00 Start 03:09 Infinite tokens - Haseeb 06:10 Infinite tokens - Gwart 09:55 Infinite tokens - discussion 11:47 How to value a token 21:32 Proof of stake 30:02 Staking pro & con 33:38 ETH value 35:18 ETH is money (or not) 39:20 Value of new L1s 44:44 ROI for tokens 46:33 REV 50:46 Payments.. meh

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Jarry Xiao, co-founder and engineering lead at Ellipsis Labs, joins to chat tradfi to crypto infrastructure. Jarry dives deep into Phoenix, their central limit order book on Solana, and introduces Atlas - their purpose-built blockchain for financial applications. The conversation touches blockchain trading challenges, the economics of validator networks, and why truly effective trading systems require opinionated design. Follow our guest on Twitter! https://x.com/jarxiao?lang=en Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: - Phoenix did $70B+ in organic trading volume - Solana's 400ms blocks still too slow for HFT - Atlas uses single verifiable sequencer model - Market makers need priority cancellations - Blockchain revenue sustainability questionable - MEV/sandwiching not sustainable for finance Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:33 Who is Jarray? 01:09 TradFi experience 01:50 What was Jarry trading? 03:23 Phoenix order book 06:45 Aggregators 10:31 Open validator set blockchain 13:15 Market making on SOL 17:05 Atlas 20:57 Limitations of SOL 25:02 Rejecting SOL base assumptions 28:09 What does Atlas unlock? 34:46 Purpose built? 36:31 Opinion sequencing 37:53 Multiple use cases 42:37 Stock market on-chain 46:53 Why L2 sequencer design? 54:11 Memecoins here to stay 1:04:39 Why did it take so long?

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, @rajivpoc from @hiFramework joins us. We discuss the L1 trade narrative (“not cooked”), the influx of talented builders entering crypto, and dynamics between VCs and retail investors. Rajiv offers perspectives on Hyperliquid's success, the future of memecoins, and why Bitcoin-based financial products represent a massive opportunity. He also shares his optimistic outlook on washing away "grift" from the space while supporting serious builders with real business models. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:50 Who is Rajiv? 01:35 Venture capital vibes 04:26 What are builders focused on? 05:54 AI + Crypto = ? 07:51 What's Rajiv's specialty 09:54 Are L1 investments cooked? 13:49 Application development 16:16 Infra vs Apps definitions 19:19 Pump Swap 20:41 Are memecoins done? 22:42 Hyperliquid 27:48 Hyperliquid & VC funding 32:37 Direct investment 36:35 Investment time horizons 40:11 Tokens don't make assets NOT securities 43:46 Long TSLA at 75x leverage LFG 47:21 Where's the trade in stablecoins 49:35 VC gonna get REKT? 57:21 Bleeding value from tokens 1:01:20 Golden age of pump & dump 1:05:48 I WANT TO BELIVE

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, we are joined by Guy, the founder of Ethena, one of crypto's fastest-growing stablecoin projects, which reached $6 billion faster than any dollar-pegged asset in history. We discuss how Ethena's synthetic dollar works by capturing funding rates from perpetual futures markets, why they've embraced centralized exchanges while maintaining neutrality, and their ambitious new Converge blockchain. The conversation explores stablecoin competition, the limitations of decentralized approaches, and how they plan to bridge traditional finance with crypto through their partnership with Securitize. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: - Ethena reached $6B faster than any dollar asset - Currently offering ~16% yield (avg 18% last year) - Uses Bitcoin perps funding rates for yield - Maintains neutrality across exchanges - Converge is launching with Securitize partnership - Looking to tokenize equities and T-bills Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:19 Guy's background 03:11 What's Ethena? 04:52 What hasn't this been tried before? 06:50 Rival stablecoins 10:57 Where are the risks? 15:13 Hyperliquid cancels order 18:04 How to compete with other stablecoins 21:01 One stablecoins to rule them all! 22:47 Why no yeild yet? 24:54 Why USDE isn't for payments (yet) 27:25 Superiority of a yield asset 30:54 What is Converge? 34:16 Alt L1? 34:31 Why build a new chain? 37:51 ETH in stagnation? 39:43 Vitalik the business man? 41:35 ETH as collateral for stablecoins 43:58 RWAs 48:15 Regulatory capture 49:57 Why equities on-chain? 54:16 On-chain price discovery 56:47 Airdrops 58:52 AMMs 1:01:57 Perpetual Futures funding rates 1:06:54 Trading edge 1:07:39 Citadel 1:10:09 Payment for order flow

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Andrew Bailey–fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute– joins Gwart to discuss Bitcoin's role as resistance money, the philosophical implications of cryptocurrency, and why simplicity might trump utility in digital assets.  Follow our guest on Twitter: @resistancemoney TOPICS -Bitcoin as Resistance Money -Philosophy in Cryptocurrency -Stablecoins vs Bitcoin -Ethical Money Creation -Future of Financial Freedom CHAPTERS 00:00 Start 01:07 Andrew bio 01:55 Why philosophy & Bitcoin? 04:26 Bitcoin background 06:31 What is resistance money? 07:14 Why is this book important? 10:24 Examples of BTC as resistance money 13:14 Tron is the People's Blockchain 18:12 ETH as alternative 20:48 Long EVM, Short ETH 32:40 What new-coiners care about 35:27 The philosophy of ETH 36:07 Vitalik's writing 41:50 Legitimate use cases 46:13 What is "utility"? 51:21 Lightning & MoE 54:16 What crypto tech should come to BTC? 1:03:05 Worldcoin 1:09:17 Effective altruism 1:14:16 Ends justify means? 1:17:28 When David Hoffman cries

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Willem from Botanix Labs joins us to discuss their pioneering "spider chain" approach for Bitcoin's second layer. Unlike traditional rollups, Botanix creates a decentralized network of multi-sig validators to bring EVM capabilities to Bitcoin while maintaining censorship resistance. Willem explains why decentralization matters for DeFi applications, how their validator system works with Bitcoin staking, and why they've chosen a different path than rollups. With mainnet launch planned for Q2, Botanix aims to enable Bitcoin holders to use their BTC in familiar DeFi applications without sacrificing security. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: - Spider chains prioritize decentralization over speed - Botanix launching mainnet in Q2 2025 - Initial 15 validators expanding to hundreds - Block time is 5 seconds with ~$0.01 fees - Uses Bitcoin as gas fee, no separate token - Validators will stake 3-5 BTC as bond Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:21 Intro 01:04 Spiderchain 02:20 Proof of stake on layer 2 06:14 Risk vs reward 08:02 Spiderchain vs rollup 14:55 BitVM 16:42 ZK tech 20:34 Data availability w/ Spierchains 21:25 Data on Bitcoin chain 22:13 Alt DA 24:23 Updates on Botanix 26:47 Wen token? 28:00 Primary users? 30:27 Block interval 30:50 Decentralization design limits 32:55 Fees 33:43 Porting ETH apps to Botanix 34:52 Bitcoin staking 36:34 EVM wallet compatibility 37:28 Place in L2 ecosystem 39:35 Functional BitVM rollup? 40:32 Changes to BTC 41:16 L2 protocol consensus? 42:17 Social consensus in BTC 45:49 Ordinals & Runes

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, joins us to discuss how Bitcoin functions as essential "money dictators can't stop" for human rights activists worldwide. With nearly 18 years at HRF, Alex shares fascinating stories of Bitcoin adoption in authoritarian regimes, his journey from skeptic to advocate, and why Bitcoin—not general "crypto"—provides the unique properties needed for financial freedom in oppressive environments. He explores privacy solutions, scaling challenges, and the future of complementary technologies like ecash and Nostr. Follow Alex on Twitter: @gladstein Notes: - HRF quarterly Bitcoin grants - The "currency of activists" - Most global humanitarian funding stays in free countries - Alex's "Check Your Financial Privilege" book - Bitcoin users in Malawi upgrading from saving with goats - Stablecoins are primarily valuable when permissionless Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:30 Alex intro 11:48 HRF Bitcoin focus 17:08 Current projects 21:55 Cross border vs circular economies 27:30 Stablecoins 38:17 Bitcoin privacy 45:59 Covenants 51:17 Education is lagging 55:24 Does "crypto" have value? 1:02:31 NOSTR

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Welcome back to The Great Show! Today, we finish the second half of our chat with Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research on traditional private equity valuation methods and crypto investing. We explore fundamental analysis in DeFi, token valuations, shareholder rights, and the evolution of crypto markets. Felipe shares insights on identifying quality revenue streams, evaluating moats, and building sustainable value in the crypto ecosystem. Topics:  • DeFi Investment Strategies • Token Valuation Methods • VC vs Liquid Fund Dynamics • Revenue Sustainability • Market Psychology • Risk Management Approaches

Welcome back to The Great Show! Today, Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research joins to discuss traditional private equity valuation methods and crypto investing. We explore fundamental analysis in DeFi, token valuations, shareholder rights, and the evolution of crypto markets. Felipe shares insights on identifying quality revenue streams, evaluating moats, and building sustainable value in the crypto ecosystem. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Topic: 3. PE vs Crypto Valuations 4. Finding Crypto Fundamentals 5. Investing in Token Cash Flow 6. Crypto Moats & Real Value

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Jacob Phillips, founder of Lombard Finance, joins us to talk Bitcoin staking. From Babylon protocol's approach to Bitcoin security to Lombard's role in creating liquid staking derivatives, we chat about Bitcoin as a productive asset. Plus thoughts on technical infrastructure, market dynamics, and Bitcoin staking in DeFi. TOPICS • Bitcoin Staking Mechanisms • Babylon Protocol Overview • Liquid Staking Derivatives • DeFi Integration • Security Models • Cross-chain Bitcoin Solutions

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Peter van Valkenburgh breaks down Coin Center's legal battle against the DOJ's crackdown on privacy tools like Tornado Cash. From First Amendment rights to money transmission laws, we explore how these cases could alter development. Peter explains why software isn't money transmission and how these prosecutions threaten innovation in America.

In this deep dive episode, Kevin Mills from Triton Liquid Fund joins us to examine the fundamental value of Ethereum through multiple analytical frameworks. Building on John Pfeifer's influential 2017 paper, Kevin explores cash flow models, equation of exchange, and the internet bond theory to assess ETH's true value. The conversation challenges popular narratives around monetary premium and questions traditional valuation approaches in crypto markets. Essential listening for anyone interested in crypto asset valuation fundamentals. Read the paper: https://whatisethereumworth.com/

Happy Sunday and welcome back to The Gwart Show. Today we are joined by Jordi Alexander, founder of Selini Capital, discusses HyperLiquid's success, the future of AI in crypto, market making strategies, and shares insights on Ethereum's potential changes and Solana's surprising performance. Follow our guests on Twitter:@gametheorizing 00:00 Start 00:56 Jordi intro 01:23 Selini Capital 03:11 Prop shop vs VC money 04:35 What is HFT? 05:38 Which DeFi protocols for Selini Capital? 06:35 Volume of Hyperliquid 07:59 Marketmaking CeFi vs DeFi? 09:02 Why no Wall Steert marker makers? 10:19 How good is Hyperliquid? 13:30 Will Hyperliquid survive? 16:18 Small validator set 18:59 Hype token 21:30 ETH vibes these days? 23:06 Does the Ethereum Foundation even matter? 25:00 Does SOL flip ETH? 27:17 AI agents 30:08 Agents vs Bots 33:08 AI tokens 34:46 AI for endless promotion 36:43 Pigeon dox 40:31 DeSci

Steve Lee from Spiral and Ren from Electric Capital join The Gwart Show to talk Bitcoin consensus! We cover how Bitcoin changes, stakeholder weight, and the future of protocol upgrades like covenants. Follow our guest on Twitter: @moneyball @0xren_cf Read our paper: https://bitcoin-cap.github.io/bcap/ 00:00 Start 01:00 Introductions 03:01 Partnering for the paper 04:25 Motivation to write paper 08:17 Reluctance to define a BTC consensus process 12:20 Defining the stakeholders 13:48 Consensus game theory 15:51 Blocksize war 20:36 Learnings from the Blocksize War 22:33 Signaling & other activation routes 26:13 Bounty claim attack 29:44 Are miners up to speed on covenants? 31:59 measuring state of mind 34:38 Education 36:45 Self custody = power 40:59 Role of influencers 45:20 Current state of possible changes 49:39 Echo chambers vs reality 53:42 Will we get to a breaking point? 58:16 OP_CAT 1:01:44 Productive paths to change 1:04:47 What does Bitcoin NEED?

Today we're joined by Uma Roy of Succinct Labs to discuss ZK-VM technology, the upcoming prover network, and the alternative scaling paths. We got into rollup architectures, Bitcoin integration, and the landscape of ZK proofs in crypto. Follow our guest on Twitter: @pumatheuma 00:00 Start 00:53 Who is Uma? 01:16 What's a ZKVM? 03:07 Starkware vs Prover Network 04:20 How does it work? 05:28 Who plans to use this ZKVM? 07:50 Why does it take an hour? 10:01 What is the Prover Network? 14:15 ASICS for Prover Network? 21:07 System design 24:55 Roll ups remaining optimistic? 26:04 Let a thousand roll ups bloom 28:14 App chains 30:50 Solana ZK? 32:06 Solana target applications? 34:38 Scaling L1 fallacy 37:12 Interoperability 42:21 Beamchain 45:46 Differences in ZKVMs available? 50:17 Why will ZKVMS be profitable? 54:36 BitVM

Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of Starkware, joins The Gwart Show to discuss Ethereum L2s and Bitcoin scaling solutions. We go through rollup controversies, Starkware's airdrop drama, and how we might actually scale protocols through ZK proofs and STARKs. Lastly, we touch on OP_CAT, which the Starkware team has been pushing behind the scenes. Follow our guest on Twitter: @EliBenSasson 00:00 Start 00:44 Guest introduction 01:25 What is Starkware working on? 03:15 Working on BTC vs ETH 06:27 Why did Bitcoin dev stagnate? 08:44 Chain agnostic 11:52 Why will Validity Rollups win? 14:59 What Starkware is doing differently 18:17 Hardware 20:38 ETH's Rollup roadmap 22:13 Optimistic rollups 25:37 ETH Starknet adoption 31:27 Airdrop fumble 39:48 Would you do the airdrop differently? 42:33 Stark token for gas 45:13 Selling Bitcoiners on Stark token? 47:26 Based Rollups won't work 50:01 Base capturing marketshare 54:51 Is OP_CAT required? 57:00 What if no OP_CAT? 58:57 Why should Bitcoiners care?

Charlotte, creator of Milady NFTs, discusses building a counter-cultural art movement, embracing controversy, fostering community through derivatives, and aiming for "thousand-year dynasty" influence across tech, politics, and culture while rejecting traditional VC-backed NFT models. Follow our guest on Twitter: @CharlotteFang77 00:00 Start 01:01 Who is Charlotte Fang? 01:29 Inspiration for Milady ? 04:39 Art style 10:24 Path to success? 17:43 Community engagement 21:37 Milady Cancel? 25:10 Milady 911 27:08 VC backed NFTs 35:07 Memecoins 37:17 Crypropunks 44:08 Derivatives 51:04 Future of NFTs 57:15 Fidenza 1:02:22 Ordinals 1:05:28 Base 1:08:54 Grand vision

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today we are rejoined by Jon Charb of DBA. A fellow podcaster and SOL bag holder, Gwart digs into Jon's recent blog post on Ethereum's future, community alignment, value of ETH, and Bitcoin rollup development. Follow our guest on Twitter: @jon_charb 00:00 Start 00:41 ETH's North Star Blog Post 03:57 Is SOL a true competitor? 05:44 WTF is a settlement layer? 09:35 Main points of North Star post 16:08 Community alignment 19:21 Gas limit increase 22:30 L1 performance increase 25:35 Is the value in the execution? 28:28 TradFi does care about credible neutrality 34:44 L1 blockspace premium 40:35 Does world computer = money? 44:15 Store of value vs utility 48:38 ETH at $1 50:39 Effects of 32 ETH to stake 52:29 Distribution of stake now 57:28 Beamchain 1:02:36 Why would Bitcoin rollups be different?

Max is leaving Ethereum, and we have the details. On this Gwart Show special filmed at Pubkey in NYC, Max and Eugene join Gwart to go through Max's decision to leave Ethereum dev shop Conensensys in favor of a Solana client which frankly we don't know how to spell or pronounce. We go through Ethereum's major problems basically one-by-one in this 1.5 hour show, finishing with a Holiday Special game of ‘cooked or not cooked' narratives. Follow our guest on Twitter: @MaxResnick1 @0xshittrader 00:00 Start 00:32 Quitting ETH 02:38 Other people quitting? 04:08 Did you always doubt? 06:20 Execution layer 07:51 ETH Foundation blinders 09:51 New role in Solana? 11:42 Leadership in SOL vs ETH 14:10 Launching an L2 on ETH 16:58 Jitter 18:38 More rollups, more problems 21:48 Does SOL end up w/ L2s? 24:54 Solana is a real ETH competitor 26:11 MEV research on SOL 33:32 Is a meme sandwich really a sandwich? 36:06 Does SOL take MEV seriously? 37:37 Cooked or not cooked? 37:47 Intents 41:27 Interoperability 44:27 L2s functionally becoming l1s 46:46 ZK tech 52:21 Allowing innovation is the killer app 55:24 Nodes faster than tradfi 57:55 Ultrasound money... LOL 1:05:40 MEV kings will be Citadel 1:08:04 Forcing tradfi to play our game 1:09:50 Bitcoin cooked? 1:10:40 Memcoins cooked? 1:12:26 Depin cooked? 1:13:51 Prediction markets cooked? 1:18:06 Hype cooked? 1:20:10 Time boost cooked? 1:24:28 Futarchy cooked? 1:31:06 Future of Solana 1:33:02 Is Solana gonna win

Justin Drake joins us as the dust settles on his ‘Beam Chain' pivot (?) for Ethereum. Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation joins The Gwart Show! We discuss his Beam Chain proposal, covering improvements in block production, staking mechanics, and cryptography. He explains the path toward more efficient validation and the future of Layer 2 scaling solutions. Follow our guest on Twitter: @drakefjustin Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:57 Beam chain 05:36 Beam Chain highlights 11:19 What is the Bean Chain meme? 13:06 Speculation about Beam Chain 17:22 Pre-confs require capital centralization? 19:53 Temporary trusted relay 20:32 Inclusion vs execution pre-confs 25:44 Changing ETH issuance, again? 28:08 Centralized validator set? 30:16 Cost of capital wins? 34:40 Base rollups 39:50 Base rollups are App Chains? 44:19 Merge mistakes 49:15 Was PBS a mistake? 52:25 Legitimate criticism 58:17 Building on L1 vs L2 1:00:41 Decentralized stablecoins 1:03:05 Restaking 1:04:59 Exciting use cases? 1:06:56 Don't care about DeFi?

Can we get Ethereum without tradeoffs? Probably not but we're gonna try. This week we're joined by MEV searcher and developer 0xprincess to discuss “trustless order flow operations layers,” or how 1-second block times with no protocol changes or L2s can happen today. Later on we get into Wintermute, Flashbots and chain order flow. Follow our guest on Twitter: @0x9212ce55 Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:47 Who is 0xPrincess? 03:52 How does T.O.O.L. work? 05:30 Designing TOOL 07:41 Trusted execution environments 11:05 We'll decentralize it soon(TM) 15:50 Network participants 18:24 Validator load 21:02 TOOL reduces ETH block times 26:23 TOOL v pre-confirmation 28:55 Wintermute & Flashbots 34:54 Bye bye builder? 38:25 Off chain order flow 41:46 Private order flow, obvious in hindsight? 45:45 Can't get rid of monopolies? 50:01 ETH protocol development 55:08 L2s 58:58 MAKE THE L1 GREAT AGAIN!

Rebecca Rettig, Chief Legal Officer at Polygon Labs, joins The Gwart show to discuss crypto regulation, the future of DeFi, stablecoins, and the impact of upcoming elections on crypto policy. Deep insights into regulatory challenges and opportunities in the evolving crypto landscape. Note this show was recorded before the election occurred! Follow our guest on Twitter: @RebeccaRettig1 Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:50 Rebecca's bio 01:38 Appearing in Congress 05:06 Language matters 07:17 What the "people" want 09:28 Talking to representatives 10:32 What has been the biggest failure? 12:44 What regulation would be good? 16:21 The role of tokens 20:27 KYC & tokens 22:17 Stablecoins 24:04 Using stablecoins 26:16 Stablecoin in US future? 28:13 What have we done wrong? 29:58 Do you actually NEED a token? 33:22 Vampire attack on fiat 34:41 What's Gensler's deal? 36:00 Uniswap fees 38:44 Validators & OFAC 40:04 Politics 45:49 Memecoins 49:19 Line in the sand 50:39 Privacy 52:37 Predictions 53:45 Banks gonna crush

Spirits on the blockchain? We're joined by a digital marketplace for Whiskey, BAXUS, to get a better understanding of RWAs.  Follow our guest on Twitter: @BAXUSco @web4o Timestamps: 00:00 Start 01:27 Baxus background 03:20 Whisky quality level 07:19 Creating Baxus 11:28 How does Baxus work? 12:54 KYC 17:48 Low end whisky market 22:23 Whisky fandom 23:53 The oracle problem 26:52 Why does this need a blockchain? 32:05 Brick and mortar locations 33:27 UI & blockchain 34:10 Crypto users vs normies 38:34 Web 3 future? 40:25 Blockchain as trusted ledger 44:55 Trend toward high value assets 47:00 User arbitraging the assets 48:41 Wouldn't makers just go to Baxus not stores? 49:21 Distributors & regulations 51:37 Opting out of legacy systems 54:58 Investing in bottles 59:17 Whisky as store of value 1:04:42 Subject theory of value

Elijah, protocol designer at DeFi exchange Neutron, joins The Gwart Show! We get pretty deep into some tech topics on Ethereum like decentralizing oracles and AMM designs so be sure to bring a notepad. Follow our guest on Twitter: @PossibltyResult Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:42 Elijah background 01:25 Multiple concurrent proposers 05:03 App integration 09:31 Hyperliguid 12:10 Opinionated blockspace 17:27 MCP risks 21:27 ETH's goals? 29:56 Is DeFi just FinTech 2.0? 35:33 Future of AMMs 40:56 Long tail assets 47:07 How dumb is restaking? 58:52 ETH vs BTC 1:03:41 The ETH vision

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! Today we are joined by James Prestwich, a OG Ethereum engineer and leader of @init4tech, an Ethereum research group. On the show, we dive back into Ethereum's plight, beginning with the fundamentals. We start with a review of Ethereum's origins, James' mental model for ETH, why PBS is broken (and was from the start), if Rollups work and how we skipped sharding, Vitalik and more Vitalik, and what Solana really means for Ethereum. Follow our guest on Twitter: @_prestwich Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:50 Jame's bio 02:30 ETH's evolution 06:08 Mental models for ETH 08:40 How's ETH doing these days? 13:05 Current Roll Up sequencers 14:42 Other sequencer models 20:48 Fixing PBS 24:38 Not addressing known problems 28:54 Current roll up landscape 31:54 Macro & crypto 32:48 Future of roll ups 35:01 Real world impact 40:22 Goals for ETH 42:37 Consensus for ETH 46:32 Vitalik 's bad decisions 48:48 Vitalik from a tech perspective 51:47 Hard & soft power in ETH ecosystem 54:16 SOL vs ETH 56:28 If SOL is better rails, what should ETH do? 58:35 What are you optimistic about?

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! Today we are joined by Alex Watts, CEO and co-founder of Fastlane Labs. They discuss MEV, Ethereum's challenges, and UX. He explores the tensions between DeFi and traditional finance, the potential risks of stablecoins, and the need for crypto to focus on real-world outcomes beyond just decentralization. Follow our guest on Twitter: @ThogardPvP Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:57 Alex's background 01:35 Becoming a Seeker 03:13 MEV opportunities 04:56 Fastlane 06:36 Polygon sidecar? 09:36 MEV extraction 12:01 Composability 17:15 App Specific Sequencing on Solana 22:41 End of the PBS experiment 27:28 Fixing PBS 29:50 Multiple concurrent proposers 33:56 Effects of MPC 39:59 ETH l1 fees 43:37 Future of ETH L1 45:30 ETH as money 50:21 Are l2s parasitic? 52:33 ETH & hard truths 56:31 Valuing blockchains based on MEV 1:04:05 Validators: more than construct blocks 1:05:34 Institutionalization of validators 1:09:28 Future of blockchain activity

We're rejoined by Mike Neuder, Ethereum researcher and general student of all things crypto-economics, to discuss the future of his bags, AKA Ethereum. We pick up on the conversation a lot of Twitter is having regarding Ethereum's fraught future. Is it worth the marketcap? Can Solana flippen it? Is the FUD legit? We discuss on this week's Gwart Show! Follow our guest on Twitter: @mikeneuder CHAPTERS 00:00 Start 01:01 ETH vibe check 05:43 Vibes at ETH Foundation 09:56 Make the L1 great again! 12:57 Are roll-ups parasitic? 17:58 Is Solana eating ETh's lunch? 21:20 ETh as money vs utility token 27:12 Is "store of value" important? 34:21 Is staked ETH money? 37:40 Is ETH's blockcpace "Premium"? 49:13 ETH security budget decline 1:05:25 ETH's monopoly on smart contract blockspace is slipping 1:12:28 Unichain, what's that? 1:16:45 Vitalik "Unichain makes no sense" 1:21:34 Is Unichain good or bad for ETH? 1:27:04 MEV 1:32:34 Relay vs EPBS system 1:35:35 Private order flow 1:39:39 Collusion to sidestep PBS 1:41:54 What's wrong w/ builders & validators colluding? 1:46:30 The advantage of unstaked ETH

Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital–a fund well known for its Solana bags and focus on DePIN–joins The Gwart Show! Today, we discuss Solana's potential to overtake Ethereum, the future of DeFi, token economics, and the emerging DePIN sector. We have some hot takes on Ethereum as a failed project, ultrasound money, etc. Also we talk about moats for dapps, wallets and infra (always infra…) Follow our guest on Twitter: @KyleSamani @multicoincap 00:00 Start 00:53 Breakpoint & Token impressions 08:27 Bitcoin is nonsense 10:12 Debt vs commodity money 12:55 SOL / ETH flippening 19:47 Arguments for ETH 27:06 Valuing base on MEV 33:50 NASDAQ on-chain 34:38 Tokenized equities 38:34 Future of ETH 42:28 Ultrasound money meme 48:17 Deflow, wallets & order flow 52:56 Order flow and centralization 1:02:57 SVM building L2s 1:07:50 DePINs - Decentralized physical infrastructure networks 1:13:50 Target prices of SOL/ETH flip 1:21:56 Are there any moats for apps?

Welcome back to The Gwart Show!In today's episode we are joined by the Alpen Labs team, a group of ZK dreamers working on SNARK-based verification of a second layer on top of Bitcoin. We hit all the big topics, like the current state of BitVM bridging, thoughts on sequencers, building a moat, Coinbase launching cBTC and EVM compatibility! Follow our guest on Twitter: @david_seroy @simanta_gautam 00:00 Start 00:31 Intro 01:20 Current projects 02:13 Applications on Bitcoin 04:16 Bictoin L2 landscape 10:36 Current state of BitVM bridges 14:35 Learnings from EVM 19:12 Bitcoin sequencers 23:54 Unilateral exit 31:31 Data availability 35:41 Walled garden L2's 41:28 Aplen's edge in the market? 46:16 Privacy 49:51 The wider L2 landscape 58:25 Roll-up tokens 1:01:11 Sequencer fees 1:03:13 Coinbase launching wrapped BTC 1:08:27 EVM compatibility

Adam Cochran–a familiar profil pic to anyone on crypto twitter-joins The Gwart Show! They tackle Ethereum's roadmap, DeFi's PMF, TradFi boys joining the party and regulatory & political challenges. At the end, we get a nice pitch on why we should take Ethereum seriously (or not). Follow our guest on Twitter: @adamscochran 00:00 Start 01:18 Who's Adam Cochran? 04:40 Don't get butt hurt 06:09 Adam history 09:23 Working on now? 10:42 Unique investment profile 12:47 ETH roadmap 15:34 L1 vs L2 18:40 BASE roll-ups 21:17 Non-financial Ethereum? 24:11 All the ETH maxis please stand up 25:51 Value in the L1 28:11 ETH's monetary premium 31:21 Solana.... discuss.... 34:09 Solana apps 35:35 Why Degen hate, bro? 37:32 The failure of DeFi summer 41:26 Bullish of what projects? 44:12 Who Wins? 45:49 Goldman will "follow fast" you dummies! 48:22 Regulations 51:19 Politics 55:44 Shill me beneath the willow tree 57:23 ETH/BTC chart 1:00:43 Pitch me Ethereum 1:02:10 ETH monetary properties 1:04:33 Value ETH on earnings? 1:08:22 Wrap up

Ludwig Thouvenin from Sorella discusses Ethereum MEV, Uniswap V4, and the launch of Brontes, an open-source MEV dashboard. He explores the complexities of DeFi liquidity, arbitrage strategies, and the future of Ethereum's protocol design, offering insights into the challenges and opportunities in the evolving crypto landscape. Follow our guest on Twitter: @SorellaLabs @0xvanbeethoven Link to the dashboard: https://t.co/tylzKFdetM 00:00 Start 00:57 What is Sorella? 03:38 Types of MEV 06:31 Confidence of MEV identification 11:28 Assumption & discoveries 19:10 Cross-chain MEV 22:08 Large firm advantages 24:41 Trading vs arbitraging 26:26 Big builder landscape 29:43 MEV accelerationist views? 33:58 Private order flow 35:18 Should users know about order flow? 37:38 Angstrom DEX 41:12 Uniswap 3 vs 4 42:52 Why doesn't Uniswap have this functionality? 45:22 Why a hook, not an app? 48:51 System architecture 50:00 Slashing & node count 50:45 Uniswap LPs, WTF? 57:45 Permissionless capital formation 1:00:43 Protocol design 1:06:41 Foreseeable hazards 1:10:21 Ethereum roadmap optimism

Gabe Shapiro, crypto lawyer and co-founder of MetaLeX Labs, joins The Gwart Show to discuss DeFi regulation, tokenized securities, and the future of crypto under Trump or Kamala. Follow our guest on Twitter: @lex_node Chapters 00:00 Start 00:42 Gabe's background 01:21 MetaLeX & Borgs 04:16 Problems with DAOs 09:40 Foundations vs corporations in DAOs 15:03 Well run DAO examples 18:06 The risks of tokens + equity 21:53 Regulating conflicts of interest 24:12 What don't lawyers understand? 27:21 Liquid staking tokens 30:39 Legalities of MEV 36:25 Changing rules 43:25 Governance attack vs code exploit 48:19 People are the DAO attack vector 54:41 Legal risks of single sequencers 55:20 WTF is a tokenized security? 59:50 Bearer asset laws 1:02:46 Crypto corp structures 1:07:51 World Liberty Financial 1:09:54 Trump vs Harris crypto regulation 1:14:37 Regulation = good? umm.. 1:18:50 Stablecoins 1:21:50 Does USDC now control ETH roadmap?

Can you short real life? That's the idea behind Futarchy. By applying financial logic and smart contracts to ordinary life, you can create prediction markets that help people create better decisions. Today Proph3t of MetaDAO joins the Gwart show to discuss what Futarchy is, how it relates to DAO governance for projects like DeFi, where the tokens are at and if traditional entrepreneurs could thrive in a world where DAOs run the ship. Follow our guest on Twitter:  @metaproph3t Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:50 Profit's background 01:51 What is futarchy? 02:22 Problems with DeFi governance 03:02 What projects need governance? 06:14 How does MetaDAO work? 07:25 Markets vs voting 09:14 What issues should be decided by futarchy? 11:15 Why markets know best? 16:20 Would Steve Jobs survive futarchy? 17:13 Does futarchy fix bad management? 20:34 Are DAOs companies? 22:09 Does futarchy always lead to NGU? 23:00 What is the Meta token? 24:26 Recent MetaDAO proposals 25:54 $250k bet on recent proposal 28:30 Why build on Solana? 29:59 Solana culture 31:19 Examples of novel ideas 34:02 Professional DAOs 37:21 Forking vs voting 40:12 Open source protocols vs DOAs 41:56 Tokens, tokens, everywhere 47:58 Shareholder rights? 51:28 It's all prediction markets 55:01 Prediction markets a threat to democracy? 58:38 Variables in social welfare

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today we tackle the hard problem of scaling with Rollups, among other conversations. We're re-joinbed by Shehzan, a Bitcoin builder focusing on borrowing and lending protocols on top of Bitcoin, and Shinobi, an out-spoken Bitcoiner and technical editor at Bitcoin Magazine.  Follow our guest on Twitter: @marediashehzan @brian_trollz Timestamps: 00:00 Start 02:12 L2s on Bitcoin 05:10 Do fees & speed effect payment adoption? 06:26 Why does lightning suck? 11:06 Lightning failed experiment? 12:21 Taproot assets on Lightning 15:59 Should stablecoins be on L1? 19:28 Stables are #1 use case 21:12 Roll ups 27:51 Why are devs interested in roll ups? 30:27 What roll ups are ready today? 36:26 Liquidity problems? 37:49 Other roll up limitations? 38:41 Roll up use case? 41:04 Are roll ups just a sneaky block size increase? 44:19 One roll up to rule them all 45:41 Do roll ups scale execution on BTC? 47:14 Single sequencer risk 50:12 Is Lightning "connective tissue"? 51:19 Unilateral exit in roll ups 53:09 Upgrades in roll ups 57:07 CATVM 1:00:18 New OP codes & scaling 1:06:58 Why will BTC expressivity be useful 1:08:19 VC backed projects pushing new OP codes 1:10:08 What is ARK? 1:14:47 MEV on Bitcoin 1:21:49 What roll ups will cause problems? 1:23:46 What roll ups have traction? 1:27:40 Are covenants on a deadline? 1:29:16 What's interesting right now? 1:30:12 The possibilities of eCash 1:32:49 Is Austrian Economics dumb?

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today we are joined by Shehzan, a Bitcoin builder focusing on borrowing and lending protocols on top of Bitcoin. While most people think of Bitcoin as a dumb rock, the Lava team led by Shehzan is working on a novel solution to natively lend and borrow (while maintaining self-custody but we'll let him explain that) on Bitcoin. Lava uses Discreet Log Contracts (DCLs) to thread the needle of both permissionless capital via DeFi markets and Bitcoin self-sovereignty via self-custody. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:56 Who is Shehzan? 01:29 Why no BTC lending yet? 02:29 What are DLCs? 04:19 Lava vs other lending protocols 05:30 P2P loans complications 06:59 Deposit & loan process 09:20 Privacy implications 11:32 Wrapped BTC 12:44 User risk profile 14:57 Fixed rate loans 17:53 Who are the lenders? 18:19 Oracles 19:42 Choosing oracles 20:49 Rates 22:11 Loan durations 23:13 Target user 25:33 Other chains? 27:21 Solana outages 28:41 Other DLC uses 30:13 Building in Bitcoin experience 32:19 Lightning 33:06 Lack of BTC spending 35:07 Bitcoin's monetary properties 37:48 Wrapped BTC and custodians 41:45 Bitcoin scaling 43:45 OP Codes 46:42 Not enough core devs 47:58 Stablecoins 51:50 Tokenized assets 53:08 Solana vibes Follow our host: @gwartygwart Follow our guest on Twitter: @marediashehzan

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Uri Klarman, known for his BloxRoute private mempool company, joins Gwart to discuss the future of MEV on Ethereum and Solana. Uri goes through ther Ethereum block builder journey, why public mempool's are a problem in today's on-chain economy, and his many (and we mean many) attempts to address MEV or miner malfeasance through token schemes.  Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:44 Uri's background 01:28 Blocksroute 05:52 ETH block building 11:44 DeFi vs CeFi 15:55 Can Defi compete w/ Centralization? 19:53 Block builders stealing fees 21:39 Bye bye mempool 23:52 Solutions for MEV 29:10 Bitcoin miners chase profit, always! 32:25 Incentives promote MEV on ETH 33:38 Multiple concurrent proposers 45:46 Palidin 1:01:26 Why PAL token? 1:11:33 SOL delegated stake 1:12:05 Why not RPC? 1:13:18 PAL token liquidity 1:16:04 Slashing by consensus 1:19:59 ETH gas limit token 1:24:39 SOL staking future? 1:29:53 Mining ORE Follow our host: @gwartygwart Follow our guest on Twitter: @uriklarman

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! We are joined by the 4th most important Taproot Wizard, Udi Wertheimer, to discuss, well, male pattern baldness. We also dive into the wizards roadmap (not just JPEGS) like CATVM, the use-cases for L2s, how blockspace doesn't solve blockspace issues and why ETH Maxis just keep losing. If you are enjoying the show, please subscribe to our email list for notifications when the podcast comes out, transcripts and more. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:54 Taproot Wizards update 01:39 Technical roadblocks 03:34 What new tech should Bitcoin have? 05:36 Are DeGens our saviors? 10:05 Lack of product market fit for crypto tech 11:55 SOL Degen = BTC Maxi? 14:59 Is DeFi interesting at all? 18:11 CATVM 20:46 Vision for CATVM 23:39 Where are the L2 use cases? 27:12 ETH roll up roadmap 31:02 Can't scale blockspace w/ more blockspace 33:33 CATVM does NOT solve scaling 36:36 On chain lending? 40:30 BITVM 43:15 VCs backing BITVM 46:03 Are tokens NOT terrible? 51:41 ETH maxis suck at predicting the future 1:00:17 Where are we at in 5 years? Follow our host: @gwartygwart Follow our guest on Twitter: @udiWertheimer

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! We we're down in Nashville recording some shows, but this week we have something a bit different with Mert, CEO of Helius and co-host of a BlockWorks podcast. So, it's a podcast with a podcaster today. We go through Solana's ecosystem, including MEV and architecture. Mert shares insights on Fire Dancer, state compression and Helius, while addressing criticisms and challenges. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:50 Mert's background 01:16 ETHCC experience 03:26 ETHCC takeaways 08:16 Can't L2s just get along! 11:01 Is ETH following SOL? 15:40 Base sequencing 20:02 What's exciting now? 27:47 Apps now & future 32:38 Will Solana be NASDAQ on chain? 36:18 MEV on Solana 39:21 Is MEV inevitable? 46:02 Stake-weighted QoS (Quality-of-Service) 48:49 DDOSing RPCs 50:12 Is Stake-weighted QoS centralizing? 51:59 Will Solana become the Helius-chain? Follow our host: @gwartygwart Follow our guest on Twitter: @0xMert_

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! We're re-joined by Max Resnick (@MaxResnick1) of the Special Mechanisms Group (@specialmech) to discuss Ethereum's potential shift towards faster block times and multi-proposer systems. He explores the implications for L2s, MEV, and market structure. The conversation covers Ethereum's comp21etitiveness with Solana, the future of DeFi, and the challenges of centralization in crypto. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 01:06 Matt's background 02:47 ETH vibes right now 04:39 Consensus around new EIPs 09:47 Node burdens 13:22 What about the L2 roadmap 16:47 Did ETH just rug L2s? 18:11 The future of roll ups 21:25 Is Base extracting value from users? 24:25 What is the multi-proposer? 25:39 Community response 27:12 Outcompeted by Solana 29:50 Who doesn't agree? 30:43 Changes for block builders 32:21 What does ETH Foundation think? 33:01 Benefits of 2 sec block times? 35:15 Trading back to L1? 37:11 L1 value = MEV available 40:42 Yield APR & loan APR converge? 41:45 Is the end game 100% staked ETH? 44:56 Moral judgements leading development 45:47 Restaking 48:14 Why does ETH win against Solana? 52:06 Infrastructure vs apps 54:01 What apps are unlocks 54:44 Stablecoin chokepoints 1:01:12 MEV on Solana 1:06:50 Future of AMMs 1:07:12 Trusted execution environments 1:09:56 SUAVE 1:11:57 Service provider adoption of EIPs Follow our host: @gwartygwart Follow our guest on Twitter: @MaxResnick1

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today we're joined by Bitcoin bull and on-chain analyst Checkmate to discuss Bitcoin's market dynamics, mining economics, and market outlook given the bear victory laps on the timeline. He shares thoughts on on-chain analysis, altcoin markets, ETFs, and the role of Bitcoin in the global financial system, offering a bullish perspective on its long-term potential. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:53 Checkmate intro 04:07 Checkmate charting product 07:29 Who's the customer? 10:37 Current market outlook 14:49 Why's everyone bearish? 19:03 Different this time? 23:46 Institutional interest 28:14 Bitcoin development 34:39 Bitcoin's future 39:40 Actually useful indicators 45:27 On-chain metrics 49:12 nation-state adoption 54:52 Miners holding BTC 1:04:28 BTC ETFs 1:08:55 ETH ETF Follow our guest on Twitter: @Rob1Ham Follow our host: @gwartygwart

Rob Hamilton, CEO of AnchorWatch and mini-script fan boy, joins The Gwart Show to break down the nuances behind Bitcoin script, why we should't be scared of a soft fork for rollups (if we need one!) and what a world with more Bitcoin functionality looks like. Rob and Gwart embark on discussions of L2 tokens, Bitcoin consensus rules and the value of VCs in Bitcoin.  Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:32 Rob's background 03:13 2013-2022 05:37 What is AnchorWatch? 13:02 Miniscript 19:53 Target user of AnchorWatch 21:33 Current Bitcoin development 35:45 Covenant use cases 38:34 Stablecoins 42:16 USD to BTC rails 44:41 Do rollups scale? 50:38 Challenges of trustless rollups 1:00:04 VC funding coming to Bitcoin 1:03:30 Ponzi coming to Bitcoin 1:13:29 End of altcoin ponzi games? 1:16:40 Do stablecoins need decentralized chains? 1:20:41 Bitcoin & IRL resources 1:23:06 Blockchain commodity value 1:25:23 Token unlocks 1:30:34 Government permission required 1:36:27 AnchorWatch as a memecoin 1:39:43 Funding for ideas 1:45:49 Antpool centralization via proxies 1:52:13 Lacking developer funding 1:57:20 P2P node encryption Follow our guest on Twitter: @Rob1Ham Follow our host: @gwartygwart

Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute, discusses market making in crypto, DeFi evolution, blockchain technology's relationship with capitalism, Solana's approach, GameFi potential, and the future of crypto in light of AI advancements. He shares insights on token design, DAO governance, and contrarian views on crypto's long-term prospects. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:52 Evgeny background 02:25 Crypto vs tradfi 04:04 Caring about more than market making 05:23 Wintermute business line 07:10 Why use a market maker? 10:11 Good vs bad market making? 12:07 On-chain price discovery 13:48 Is NOT having on-chain price discovery a failure? 15:27 ICO benefits 18:02 Good token design 20:22 Should token holders have rights? 24:09 Equity + tokens WTF? 26:04 DOA governance 27:35 Has governance gotten worse? 30:41 Big unlocks in DeFi? 34:45 Rebuilding TradFi on -chain (yawn) 39:23 Will crypto market makers get out competed? 42:56 ETH roadmap blues 44:12 Capitalist systems or bust 47:11 Solana 49:38 Bro, do u even Bitcoin? 50:27 What does DeFi solve? 51:29 What does DeFi NOT solve? 52:31 GameFi thesis 53:23 Why does GameFi still suck? 55:40 Star Trek = DeFi fail Follow our guest on Twitter: @EvgenyGaevoy Follow our host: @gwartygwart

Stefan Gosselin-co-founder at Flashbots and founder at OneBalance–joins The Gwart Show. We go through block builder centralization, Stephane's vision for Ethereum, properties of censorship resistance, censorship resistance, shared sequencers, and the future of Bitcoin L2s. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:32 Stephane's background 01:38 Beginning in Web3 04:59 Current projects 06:15 Starting Frontier 07:46 Infinite Games 12:11 Centralization 16:02 PBS design 22:08 Global vs local consensus 29:17 Censorship getting better? 34:34 Are block builders price setters? 37:09 One Balance 41:31 Wallet based roll-up? WTF! 44:55 Protocol design 49:24 Shared sequencers 52:48 Solvers 55:45 Private order flow 59:19 Solana grants & control 1:01:30 Benefits of One Balance 1:07:42 Bitcoin L2 1:12:29 10 yr crypto vision 1:13:35 Wrap up Follow our guest on Twitter: @thegostep Follow our host: @gwartygwart

Benedict Brady from Ergonia and Doug Colkitt from Ambient Finance join The Gwart Show, covering various aspects of decentralized finance (DeFi), high frequency trading (HFT), and automated market makers (AMMs).  Follow our guests on Twitter: @0xdoug @bqbrady Follow Gwart and the podcast: @gwartygwart @blockspacepod Timestamps: 00:00:30 Guest Introductions 00:02:13 HFT, AMMs and CLOBs 00:9:10 Improving the Ethereum L1 for apps  00:18:10 zkEVMs, validator and rollups  00:22:021 Trading on AMMs 00:24:55 Why AMMs on Solana? 00:35:03 MEV  00:40:00 Is ~any~ MEV illegal? 00:47:16 Everything will run on AMMs?  00:52:55 Block builder centralization 01:00:40 What if tradfi built blocks? 01:02:08 Solana orderflow is a goldmine 01:05:30 Stakeweight QS 01:10:35 Memecoins