Podcasts about paraswap

For EP26 of Chain Reactions, we sat down with Mounir, founder of Velora (formerly Paraswap), for a deep dive into the evolution of DEX aggregators, intent-based trading, and what it really takes to build in crypto—through every cycle.We talked about the early days of bootstrapping Paraswap, the transition to Velora, and why intent-based design is key to the future of onchain UX. Mounir shares hard-won lessons on building community-driven products, finding product-market fit in DeFi, and the difference between hype-driven marketing and sustainable growth. If you're interested in the future of crypto UX, cross-chain liquidity, or just want to hear a founder who's seen it all—this one's for you.Please enjoy, and as always, be sure to subscribe, give us a five star review, and mint our episode at https://pods.media/myosinxyz!

What is the point of a DEX aggregator? How do they work? why are they useful? and how could this become a big driver for institutional adoption?  Listen in, as we sit down with Mounir Benchemled from Paraswap and Martin Burgherr from Sygnum Bank, as we explore opportunities for optimizing trades in the crypto world. We look at questions liek: What differentiates a CEX and DEX?Between a DEX and DEX aggregator – what are factors users need to look out for ? How do we see DEXs enter the mainstream? What is the institutional journey for DEXs and DEX aggregators? How do you expect this to unfold? DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content. 

In this episode of Empire, Jason and Santi are joined by Eric Peters, the founder and CEO of One River Asset Management. Eric, a renowned macro investor, made a splash in the cryptoverse in November 2020 by making a $600M BTC purchase before sagely exiting the market with a $1B+ profit. Eric shares his views on the current macro cycle, investment strategies, the future of DeFi and crypto's inevitability. Highlights include: - The state of macro and why inflation was a choice - End of the 60-40 portfolio - Why this market cycle is over - The catalyst behind Eric's $600M BTC purchase - How to "time" markets - Why current DeFi implementations won't cut it - Crypto's breakout moment - Why Bitcoin is the most interesting trade - When will the Fed reverse course - What Eric would tell his younger self - - Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw - - Referenced in the show: One River Asset Management https://www.oneriveram.com/ - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out http://paraswap.io/empire ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. Disclaimer: 0 fees are limited to 3 weeks or first 500k. - - Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ -- (00:00) Intro (01:49) The Current Macro Environment (07:06) How Eric Navigates Market Cycles (11:19) Deflationary Cycles & Expensive Ubers (17:04) Inflation is a choice (21:42) The $600M BTC purchase (27:26) How Do You Time the Trade? (33:20) Paraswap Ad (34:26) How to think about asset allocation (39:20) Why Eric's firm doesn't touch DeFi (43:27) Why Crypto is Here to Stay (49:55) DeFi's Zero to One Moment (55:00) How Eric views BTC (1:02:33) When will Bitcoin's price recover? (1:09:08) The 80 Year Debt Cycle (1:16:15) Eric's advice to his younger self -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Empire, Jason and Santi are joined by Sunny Aggarwal (Osmosis co-founder) and Derek Hsue (Reverie co-founder & "I Pledge Allegiance" co-host) to discuss the future of Osmosis, appchains and protocol governance. Show highlights include: - Learnings from the CeFi fallout - How protocols should re-think token incentives - Thoughts on dYdX moving to Cosmos - Why applications should launch their own chain - One of the biggest shortfalls of rollups - Osmosis as the interchain DEX - Mars protocol on Osmosis - Why Cosmos governance is so active - Experimenting with a DAO's org structure - Osmosis exploit and learnings - The Osmosis roadmap - What Sunny and Derek are looking forward to - - Follow Sunny: https://twitter.com/sunnya97 Follow Derek: https://twitter.com/derek_hsue Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw - - Referenced in the show: "I Pledge Allegiance" podcast co-hosted by Derek https://tinyurl.com/493vrmpp - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. Visit paraswap.io/beta to learn more about Paraswap's new app. - - Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ -- (00:00) Introduction (00:50) Lessons Learned From CeFi Fallout (03:04) Rethinking Capital Spend (06:17) Osomosis Incentive Structure (08:04) dYdX Moves to Cosmos (10:27) The Downside of Rollups Today (15:38) Why Projects Should Launch Their Own Appchain (18:56) The Cosmos Hub and Shared Security (22:09) Appchains Will Expand Their Scope (26:38) Paraswap Ad (27:48) Applications on Osmosis (31:00) The Fat Application Thesis (33:47) Active Governance in Cosmos (37:54) Governance Is Not the Goal (40:22) What Should DAOs Be Used For? (42:41) DAO Org Structures (47:30) Osmosis Exploit & Learnings (50:35) The Osmosis Exploit & Learnings (1:00:55)The Osmosis Vertical Integration Bet (1:05:40) The Future of DeFi (1:14:40) Web of Trust & zk Applications -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Empire, Santi is joined by Alok Tayi, scientist and founder of Vibe Bio. Alok started Vibe Bio because the biggest obstacle in treating patients with overlooked diseases isn't finding potential treatments — it's funding them. Vibe Bio is leveraging crypto's economic and coordination tools to fund the research and development that the legacy biotech industry ignores. Don't miss this fascinating conversation! We discuss: - Vibe Bio's origin story - How Vibe Bio works - Big pharma's dilemma - Why these diseases don't receive funding today - How to prioritize projects - Crypto's unique advantages - The $VIBE token - How to grow & leverage Vibe's community - Diseases don't care about interest rates - Biggest challenges - - Follow Alok: https://twitter.com/aloktayi Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7  Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. Visit paraswap.io/beta to learn more about Paraswap's new app. - - Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ -- (00:00) Introduction (02:27) Official Vibe Bio Launch (03:50) The Origin Story (06:32) How Funding Works in Biotech (12:15) Vibe Bio's Gameplan (14:50) Community Inspiration (17:48) Big Pharma's Dilemma (19:42) How Has The Community Responded? (22:25) Why Now? (24:58) How To Prioritize (30:42) Paraswap Ad (31:51) Is There An Adverse Selection Problem (36:50) Two Key Milestones (42:17) The Biggest Risks (45:15) The $Vibe token (48:18) Does IP matter? (51:47) Help The Mission -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Josh Rosenthal - a former historian turned serial entrepreneur and crypto VC. Josh's encyclopedic knowledge of history - from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond - and ability to draw a throughline between historical events, Web3 and our world today is truly fascinating. Josh contends that we are living through the greatest Renaissance in history. How will historians look back on today? Tune in to find out. We discuss: - medieval life - what defines a Renaissance - the advent of a dynamic identity - signs of a reformation - what drives history - layering ownership into communication - the pendulum between aggregation and decentralization - how Web3 brings the missing element to the internet - why we are living through THE greatest Renaissance - how will society be impacted - - Follow Josh: https://twitter.com/JoshuaRosenthal Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw -- Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. - - (00:00) Introduction (04:07) Medieval You (10:30) Taking the Red Pill (17:45) Self-Generating Demand (21:16)The New Reformation (27:42) A Recreation of Society (32:15) Crypto Is A Counterweight To Aggregation (37:18) Paraswap Ad (38:26) Choosing Your Identity (41:59) Synthetic Worlds and Chaotic Change (46:51) Distinguishing the Institution From The Ideology (53:37) Zoom Out (56:46) Our Questions Affect the Outcomes (57:51) Have We Lost Our Ingenuity? (1:06:09) Institutions Eventually Give In (1:07:10) Embracing Pluralism (1:11:36) What Will the World Look Like? (1:15:08) Crypto's Impact on the Middle Class (1:21:18) New Jobs and Opportunities -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Haseeb Qureshi and Tom Schmidt from Dragonfly Capital. Haseeb and Tom are top venture capitalists with unique insights into crypto's current trends, new innovations and market sentiment. If you want expert advice on the market, these are two people you ask. We discuss: - the venture capital landscape - power is shifting to investors - being long crypto while fighting the Fed - supercharged crowdfunding - convertible bonds & debt financing - the changing meta - how projects choose where to build - the end of airdrops - market outlook - - Follow Haseeb: https://twitter.com/hosseeb Follow Tom: https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw - - Referenced in the show: Dragonfly's letter to founders https://tinyurl.com/493vrmpp Tom's tweet on Porter Finance https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt/status/1533779269851176960 - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. - - (00:00) Introduction (01:33) Today's Narrative (05:25) A venture capitalist perspective (08:17) Rising interest rates and available capital (16:15) The big outstanding problems (21:29) Utilizing debt financing (27:35) The changing meta (31:49) Paraswap Ad (32:58) The layer one wars (36:00) How projects "shop around" protocols (39:10) Where should new projects build? (42:22) The end of airdrops (47:28) How founders should approach growth (51:25) Advice on down rounds (59:32) Public vs Private markets (1:02:47) How long will the bear market last? -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Qiao Wang and Imran Khan, core contributors at Alliance DAO (the Y Combinator of Web3). Alliance DAO is a Web3 startup accelerator whose portfolio includes 0x, dYdX, Paraswap, Synthetix and top Web3 protocols. Qiao and Imran are former founders who now assist Web3's top entrepreneurs in building, launching and growing their products. As a result, the duo has a front-row seat to the latest trends and innovations in crypto. This episode is for you if you want to know what it takes to build a top Web3 product. We discuss:  - how to think about tokenomics  - why product should come before community - what tech stack developers are building on - why Qiao recommends launching your product on Avalanche - how to scale a team in Web3 - the top 3 things founders should think about - why you shouldn't start a DAO, and much more! -- Follow Qiao: https://twitter.com/QwQiao Follow Imran: https://twitter.com/Imrankhan Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw - - Referenced in the show: Empire's previous episode with Qiao & Imran https://tinyurl.com/bznjm8ub Alliance DAO https://alliance.xyz/ Qiao's "Common Pitfalls for Web3 Founders" post https://twitter.com/QwQiao/status/1503365524272689156 Imran's tweet thread on "leveraged CAC" https://twitter.com/lmrankhan/status/1501247894325768194 Imran's tweet on a Robinhood acquisition https://twitter.com/lmrankhan/status/1527353717741490178 Imran's tweet on DAO treasuries growing to $11B https://twitter.com/lmrankhan/status/1517551697148747777 The Obol staking protocol https://obol.tech/ - - ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. - - (00:00) Introduction (01:37) State of The Market (06:37) Is This Crypto's Last Cycle? (11:24) The Best Time To Launch A Product (12:49) Leveraged Customer Acquisition Cost (16:09) Don't Start Your Company As A DAO (18:02) Paraswap Ad (19:09) Why Do We Even Need DAOs? (21:26) Building Community Around A Project (24:47) Scaling a Team In Web3 (26:55) The Use Case for Creator DAOs (30:22) How Do Builders Choose Which Platform to Build On? (35:42) Will Talent Flock to Ethereum L2s? (38:49) Web3 Unit Economics (42:38) Top 3 Things Founders Should Focus On (45:04) How to Think About Community (48:43) Is Coinbase undervalued? (49:59) Will Robinhood Be Acquired in 2022? (51:25) Coinbase vs FTX (51:56) Where is the NFT Market Headed? (55:08) Lido's Future Dominance -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

MetaMask is the de-facto standard self-custodial wallet for Ethereum. It started off as a web browser extension on chromium. More recently, it also launched a mobile app. MetaMask allows you to interact with decentralized applications (dapps) natively.We were joined by Dan Finlay, Founder & Group Manager at MetaMask, to chat about the motivation for building MetaMask, the security of the platform, decentralization, the future of seed phrases and much more!Topics covered in this episode:Dan's background and how he got into the spaceThe journey of creating MetaMask ConsensysWhy this was built as a browser extensionMetaMask mobile: What's the scope? How do people use it?Number of MetaMask accounts, funds stored in MetaMask wallets and some use casesSecurity on the platformThe future of seed phrasesHow thinking has shifted from smart wallers to EoA's with enhanced capabilitiesWhat is MetaMask Snaps?When will we see the MetaMask token?Episode links:MetaMaskForumTwitterDan on TwitterSponsors:CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswapSteakwallet: Steakwallet is your new favorite multi-chain, mobile wallet. Tired of having a different wallet for every chain? Get Steakwallet today and get the power of Web 3 across all chains right at your fingertips: https://steakwallet.fi/ -This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/446"

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Charles Cascarilla, co-founder of Paxos, to discuss the state of the market. How did we get here, and what should we expect next? Show highlights include: How the everything bubble started in 1995 What tradeoff the Fed has to make How low interest rates perpetuated the greatest lie The 3 likely scenarios going forward How Paxos plans to bring $700T of assets on chain Why stablecoins aren't actually stable What Richard is looking forward to next - - Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. - - Referenced in the show: Paxos Website https://paxos.com/ Charles on "Invest Like the Best" (2019) https://tinyurl.com/32x95pfb Charles on "Invest Like the Best" (2020) https://tinyurl.com/2p92aszt -- (00:00 Introduction (01:12) The Macros Mess (08:17) The Everything Bubble (10:27) How To Invest In This Environment (13:06) What is Bitcoin's Narrative? (18:34) BTC and Crypto's Outlook In A Macro Bear Market (24:18) Short Or Long-Term Pain? (28:05) Paraswap Ad (29:13) Almost All Stablecoins Aren't Stable (35:54) Paxos Aims To Bring All Assets On Chain (38:28) Privacy Is A Requirement For Adoption (40:17) Crypto's Unlock (43:32) What Projects Emerge From The Bear? (45:35) The Most Exciting Thing in Web3 Today -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In today's episode of Empire, Jason and Santi are joined by the founders of Scroll - Sandy Peng, Ye Zhang and Haichen Shen - to discuss how ZK tech will scale Ethereum. Scroll is a general-purpose zkEVM rollup that combines Ethereum's security with drastically reduced fees and low latency. We start the conversation with a deep dive into zero-knowledge tech, the power of validity proofs and the different L2 scaling techniques. The team then explains Scroll's advantage, the difficulty of building a general-purpose L2 and why Scroll's “EVM equivalence” is a massive breakthrough for Ethereum developers. Scroll has been flying under the radar, but they won't be for long. Don't miss this conversation on the most sci-fi tech in crypto. - - Follow Scroll: https://twitter.com/Scroll_ZKP Follow Sandy: https://twitter.com/SandyPeng1 Follow Ye: https://twitter.com/yezhang1998 Follow Haichen: https://twitter.com/shenhaichen Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. -- Referenced in the show: Layer-2 for beginners https://gourmetcrypto.substack.com/p/layer-2-for-beginners?s=r Optimistic vs ZK Rollups https://blog.matter-labs.io/optimistic-vs-zk-rollup-deep-dive-ea141e71e075 -- (00:00) Intro (05:00) Scroll, a zkEVM Rollup (05:26) Why Is zk Tech Interesting? (07:58) Optimistic vs ZK rollups (10:26) The Evolution of ZK Tech (13:27) zkSync and Starkware (20:26) Where Is Scroll Today? (22:09) The Scroll Team (24:16) Moats In An Open-Source Industry (26:42) General-Purpose vs App-Specific Rollup (28:44) Paraswap Ad (29:44) Creating The Best Developer Experience (32:12) Working With The Ethereum Foundation (36:02) What Scroll Will Enable for Web3 (41:22) China and Web3 (46:17) Building and Investing (47:19) What's Next For Scroll? -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Aave is an open-source moneymarket protocol. An Ethereum native, it's deployed on Avalanche and Polygon, with more than $1 billion deposited on each. V3 is now live on seven different blockchains, including Fantom, Arbitrum, Optimism and Harmony. Aave, which has a decentralized governance system, collects about $50 million in revenue per year to its treasury through its various activities, which makes it self-sustainable. Two years after his last visit to the show and after the recent Aave 3.0 release, we had Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, back on to chat about governance within the DeFi space, his new project Lens Protocol, and the road ahead for not only his projects, but also the ecosystem as a whole.Topics covered in this episode:In view of the situation this week with Terra and UST, we hear Stani's take on stable coins and stable coin mechanisms and how this has evolved over timeNew collateral - how a collapse of an asset can affect lending marketsGovernance within Aave and DeFi protocols in generalHow interoperability looks for a lending protocolStani's new project LensProtocol - the composable and decentralized social graphWhy have other decentralized social networks not managed to take off?Stani's recent ban from Twitter #freestaniThe roadmap for both Aave and Lens over the next 2 yearsWhat is coming next for the ecosystem?Episode links: AaveLens ProtocolAave on TwitterLens on TwitterStani on TwitterSponsors: Steakwallet: Steakwallet is your new favorite multi-chain, mobile wallet. Tired of having a different wallet for every chain? Get Steakwallet today and get the power of Web 3 across all chains right at your fingertips: https://steakwallet.fi/ - CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswapTally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycashThis episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/444

On today's episode of Empire, Joe Lallouz, Head of Coinbase Cloud, joins Jason and Santiago to discuss how Coinbase Cloud is building the AWS of crypto. Coinbase Cloud is building blockchain infrastructure and APIs that abstract the complexities of staking, data access, deployment and more. Joe explains the challenges of building in crypto, how Coinbase Cloud is taking on this challenge, and why developer tooling is critical for rapid innovation. We then discuss the importance of crypto's low switching costs, proof-of-stake systems, Lido's staking dominance, and Coinbase's approach to MEV. Blockchain infrastructure isn't the hot topic on Crypto Twitter, but it's the base layer of the entire ecosystem and will soon be a primary talking point. Don't miss this fantastic conversation to stay ahead of the blockchain infrastructure narrative! - - Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Joe: https://twitter.com/JoeLallouz Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices and lowest slippage. -- (00:00) Introduction (01:27) The AWS of Crypto (10:57) The Multichain Thesis (16:24) Bundling and Unbundling in Web3 (21:56) The Magic of Low Switching Costs (28:11) Move Fast and Don't Break Things (33:48) Building The Secure Foundation (35:19) Is Coinbase a Bridge? (37:27) Paraswap Ad (38:35) Is Lido a Threat to ETH? (45:40) A Coinbase ETH Staking Derivative (48:16) How Coinbase Approaches MEV (51:43) MEV's Moral Hazard (55:19) Blockchain On Demand (59:38) Why ApeCoin Doesn't Need Its Own Chain (1:03:11) Every Company Will Be a Crypto Company (1:06:08) Segments Ripe For Innovation -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Vance Spencer and Michael Anderson, co-founders of Framework Ventures, join Jason on today's episode of “Empire.” The founders have grown Framework's assets under management from $14 million to over $1.4 billion in just three years. The co-founders share their thoughts on the layer-2 scaling thesis and why every project will eventually fork their own layer-2. Vance and Michael believe the shift to layer-2s is inevitable — it's the endgame in maximizing token value. They then dive into staking and staking derivatives and why the Ethereum merge will bring about the birth of a new industry. This might be the most alpha ever dropped in one podcast — don't miss it! - - Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe To Our Podcast: apple.co/3srZf7M or sptfy.com/8bQc -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:21) Yuga Labs debacle and scaling solutions (07:40) Application-specific L2s (09:07) Are L2 tokens parasitic to L1 tokens? (11:27)The multichain future (15:58) $10B hack prediction (17:57) Lido and Staking (23:27) Is The ETH Merge Priced In? (27:41) How To Outperform ETH (30:24) Fundamental Analysis (32:54) Institutional strategies and the ETH flippening (38:56) Paraswap Ad (40:05) Bearish AMMs, Bullish PFOF (45:14) Are we just recreating TradFi? (47:22) Revisiting the OG DeFi protocols (50:50) Tokenomics (55:14) Investing in GameFi (1:04:58) Enterprise blockchains (1:09:54) Super DAOs (1:11:54) 2022 Outlook -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

On today's episode of Empire, Jason and Santiago are joined by Jeff Dorman, CIO of Arca. Jeff is a prominent crypto investor known for his fundamental analysis, contrarian bets and ability to simplify crypto's arcane topics. In this episode, Jeff explains crypto's response to macro, why fundamentals matter, equity tokenization, crypto's most exciting developments and more. Don't miss Jeff's insights on where crypto is headed next! Resources: BTC/NASDAQ correlation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-11/bitcoin-s-correlation-with-big-tech-increases-to-record-chart Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdorman81 Follow Empire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theempirepod -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (01:27) The Real Reason Crypto Is Correlated To The NASDAQ (04:27) Is The Fed In Control of Inflation? (09:02) Crypto's Strength During Macro Turbulence (13:04) The Ownership Narrative (15:25) Everything Is Based On Trust (18:12) Ownership and Aligned Incentives (25:27) Liquidity Incentives (30:28) Governance (33:57) Paraswap Ad (35:06) CeFi Merging With DeFi (39:32) What Is Jeff Excited About? (44:09) DeFi Is Boring But Works (47:42) Tokens That Accrue Value (49:50) Business Development in Crypto (54:38) How To Value Layer One Blockchains -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Travis Kling, founder of Ikigai Asset Management. Travis is a prolific investor who sits at the intersection of macro and crypto.  We discuss the implications of the ETH 2.0 merge, why ETH is prime for institutional capital, what a macro bear market means for crypto, Ikigai's investment strategy, and more. This is a must-listen if you're interested in the ETH 2.0 Merge and ETH's investment prospects (warning, Travis is a mega bull).  -- Travis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling Ikigai Newsletter: https://www.kanaandkatana.com/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. --- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:58) Bitcoin's 2022 Outlook (07:30) ETH 2.0 Merge Catalyst (12:33) Why Is This Time Different? (15:20) Paraswap Ad (16:37) When Will Institutions Start Deploying Capital? (19:36) The Bear Case (21:31) The Merge's Perfect Timing (23:35) Will Institutions HODL? (28:48) Crypto's Progress and Runway (33:00) Moving Beyond Just BTC (39:52) The Most Important Rule In Crypto Investing (41:00) Layer 1 Wars (48:40) BTC As Pristine Collateral (54:30) Bitcoin Defi (56:00) Ikaigi's Investment Style (57:20) Investments and Mistakes

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by gaming expert Brooks Brown, co-founder of the PlayFi platform NOR. Brooks has an encyclopedic knowledge of gaming and has worked with studios such as Universal Pictures, Lucas Arts (Starwars), and James Cameron's Avatar. We discuss the intricacies of world-building, what P2E games get wrong, how financialization shapes game design, NFTs, and the significance of permadeath in Nor. This is a masterclass on the confluence of gaming, finance and Web3. -- Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (01:36) What Makes A Good Game? (05:11) Open vs Closed Games (14:41) Improving Is The Human Condition (19:19) The Evolution of Gaming (25:18) How Money Shapes Our Games (29:17) The Two Magic Circles (33:13) Access Drives Adoption (35:58) Building Nor In Layers (39:56) Cohesive Gameplay and Composability (44:35) What Is The Metaverse? (48:50) Sponsor Segment (49:58) Are Games Meant For Escaping Reality? (53:53) NFTs and Building In The Digital Space (01:00:46) The Value of Permadeath (01:10:03) Blockchains Enable Unique Contribution (01:13:57) Most P2E Games Are Just Jobs (01:19:28) Adding Scarcity To Games (01:22:47) Defi vs Gaming (01:25:45) Closing Thoughts -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Anoma is a set of protocols that puts privacy front and center. It aims to facilitate “Self-Sovereign Communities” by providing tools that grant increased control to individuals and communities governing their day-to-day interactions and activities. We were joined by co-founders Adrian Brink and Christopher Goes, to help unravel the complex offering that is the Anoma Network. Hear as we chat about why they created Anoma, some use cases to explain how it works, and the roadmap going forward.Topics covered in this episode:What led Adrian and Christopher to starting their own PoS blockchainWhat 'undefining money' actually meansHow Anoma worksThe Namada blockchainMulti asset shielded pools - why aren't they used more often?A deep dive into the technical components of AnomaThe relationship between Anoma and NamadaThoughts on FATF and recent moves to make sending KYC information with transactions mandatoryTimelines for upcoming launchesEpisode links: AnomaDiscordAnoma on TwitterAdrian on TwitterChristopher on TwitterSponsors: Tally: Tally is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycashCowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswapThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/438

My guest today is Billy Rennekamp, Grants Manager of the Interchain Foundation. Interchain Foundation develops and maintains foundational decentralized protocols, and supports organizations in building an internet of shared resources, security, and value creation. Their goal is to responsibly shape a new technological paradigm that is open-source, interoperable, and community-owned. Billy is an artist and developer from Louisville, KY living in Berlin, Germany. Billy is the Grants Manager of the Interchain Foundation where he supports different entities and contributors across the ecosystem. His work in software, sculpture and moving images uses influences from games, play, and cognitive science. He is also the founder of Bin Studio multidisciplinary research, design, and development studio based in Berlin, DE. Additionally, he is a contributor to ETH, cosmos, and gnosis. Billy is also the founder of Clovers Network, a Blockchain game that encourages the creation of scarce art. We discuss a variety of topics: Comos Ecosystem, Interchain Foundation, Clover Network, Bitcoin, Interoperability, and much more. Our conversation begins by discussing the intersection of crypto and art. Billy discusses how art was his gateway into crypto. We also touch on how distributed systems make it possible to more elegantly align incentives. Another topic we discussed was how the game Othello inspired the creation of the Clover Network. Billy explains the parallels between proof-of-search and proof-of-work consensus mechanism. A very cool topic we discussed centered around the Clover Network. Billy discusses his experience designing one of the first NFT projects. We also discuss that there is a tremendous amount of white space in NFTs/Web3. Our next major conversation topic centered around Cosmos. Billy discusses what initially attracted him to Cosmos and how Cosmos is building the blockchain for the future. We discuss the Cosmos ecosystem and how IBC enables them to be interoperable. Billy discusses how Cosmos SDK is enabling builders to build application-specific blockchains to tailor the infrastructure of an applications blockchain to fit the problem it's solving. We go on to discuss the relationship of ATOM within the Cosmos Ecosystem. Billy explains why creating an internet of blockchains is how you scale blockchain technology for the masses. Our next conversation centers around grants. Billy explains how grants are awarded to fund projects. We also discuss Interchain Academy as a way to onboard new builders to the crypto space. Our next conversation topic centered around Interchain Security and how it will streamline the process of creating new applications. Our final discussion topic centered around the upcoming Cosmos upgrade. Billy explains one of the major updates coming in the upcoming upgrade, Liquid Staking. Billy also discusses the tools they are building for new applications that people haven't even thought of yet. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

On today's episode of Empire, Jay Clayton, former-SEC Chairman, joins Santiago and Jason in a discussion about the merits of crypto and how regulation threatens its freedom. Giving a special perspective as a former head of the epitome of traditional finances, Jay Clayton talks about his journey in embracing crypto, how enforcement could affect it, and what he sees for its future in the markets. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. --- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:52) Stabalizing Markets (05:25) Decentralized Market Operations (12:55) Embracing Crypto (14:32) The Tradeoffs (18:44) The Real Opportunity (27:14) Paraswap Ad (28:02) Bitcoin ETF (31:44) Enforcement (35:44) Biden's Executive Order (39:52) Stablecoins  (43:32) Final Thoughts -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

My guest today is John deVadoss, the founder of NGD Enterprise Inc. NGD Enterprise focuses on the blockchain developer experience and tooling for the NEO blockchain. Neo bills itself as a “rapidly growing and developing” ecosystem that has the goal of becoming the foundation for the next generation of the internet — a new economy where digitized payments, identities, and assets come together. Initially known as Antshares, this project was believed to be China's first-ever public blockchain when it was launched in February 2014. The open-source platform was subsequently rebranded to Neo three years later. As well as creating a worldwide community of developers who create new infrastructure for the network and lower barriers to entry, the team behind this project operates an EcoBoost initiative that's designed to encourage people to build decentralized apps and smart contracts on its blockchain. Previously, John was a co-founder of the InterWork Alliance, which is now part of the GBBC. Earlier, He was a general manager at Microsoft for close to two decades, during which he built out the architecture for .NET v1, Visual Studio Tools, the Microsoft Application Platform, Microsoft Digital (which he scaled to billion-dollar P&L), and more. He led the early service-oriented architecture and cloud architecture incubation initiatives for Microsoft, which led to Azure. Our conversation covers a wide range of topics including Neo, Bitcoin, developing software, scaling infrastructure, multi-chain and interoperability, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing John's background and his experience leading teams at Microsoft. John discusses how his time at Microsoft gave him insight into how to scale infrastructure and how to create tools for developer communities. Our conversation transitions to discussing developers. John explains general misconceptions and the network effects of programming languages. We discuss why we should be building developer tools in the crypto-space to attract millions of developers globally to the blockchain. Our next conversation topic centered around Bitcoin. John illustrates the importance of Bitcoin and how Bitcoin is an institution. We also discuss general misunderstandings traditional technologists have about blockchain and the major themes they fail to grasp. John excellently discusses the developer ecosystem of the blockchain space and why we attract nontraditional builders. Our next conversation topic was centered around code and auditing code. John gives great insights into how you should think about code and what to look for when auditing a project's code. We transitioned from blockchain and web3 to discuss web2. John discusses why web2 was a bad detour for humanity. John illustrates how web2 evolved from being focused on user-generated content to surveillance capitalism. Another major topic of discussion was the possible applications of web3 protocols and projects. One area we discussed was the application of the protocols to municipalities and other government organizations. We finish our conversation discussing interoperability and the future of multichain. John excellently demonstrates why we are headed to a multichain world and the difficulties we face implementing interoperability. This was an amazing conversation with so many insights from general software scaling to Bitcoin to web3. Please enjoy my conversation with John deVadoss. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Li Jin and Jesse Walden of Variant. Bringing their specific expertise on the creator space, Li and Jesse discuss what it means to form a crypto creator economy that not only supports quality content but attracts players to actually invest in the concept. With Jason and Santiago, they cover mainstream adoption, NFTs, what it means to be an owner, and more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Imran Khan is the cofounder of AllianceDAO. AllianceDAO the world's first digital startup nation, accelerating the top 1% of Web3 founders. In the last two years, they've accelerated more than 210 startups including 15% of the top 100 DeFi projects by market capitalization. Their companies include 0x, dYdX, Kyber, Olympus DAO, Paraswap, Ribbon Finance.In this episode we discuss the origin story of the accelerator, what he looks for in Web3 founders, and his learnings from forming a DAO.Learn more about Imran and AllianceDAO:Imran's Twitter: @lmrankhanAllianceDAO Website: https://alliance.xyzAllianceDAO AnnouncementEpisode notes and links:The origin of Chicago Defi Alliance as an Informal Industry GroupThe super power of being in Chicago - home to 60% of the market makers globallyDefi Alliance's first accelerator batch included dYdX, Kyber, Set Protocol, SynthetixWhy Imran loved the first accelerator batchWhy Imran believed in DeFiHow it felt being at the center of DeFi and seeing it explode during DeFi summerWhy Alliance finally raised a fundHow the fund actually helped glue founders and market makers togetherWhat Chicago DeFi Alliance's initial major offering was:CapitalRegulatory help - Specifically regulations around tradingProduct + go to market strategyHow Web3 founder applicants have changed:First batches started as tinkerersChris Dixon: What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten yearsToday's applicants are FAANG talentImran's favorite founder storiesAllianceDAO helps startups deal with regulationsHow to building product, keeping in mind that you could be sub-poened.Dane - Corporate governanceMike - General Counsel Clearbit/AtriumLegal market fit. Sufficiently de-centralized and compliantKeeps de-centralization and also a strong argument if something was to happen30% trading; now it's how do you start your company; how to structure your DAO (should it be a foundation), where to incorporateBuilding effective productsTokens can be a great customer acquisition strategyPros and cons: your customers are your investorsBuild something people wantNew Web3 founder mistakes: not taking enough time to study the spaceHow Imran assesses Web3 startup ideasOriginality of ideaTraits Imran looks for in founders:Resilience, creativity, thoughtfulness, leadership, empathy, sense of urgencyWhat's the best way to recruit talent?How Imran's perspective on tweeting has changedWhy a Web3 company is more challenging than Web2Why Alliance transitioned to a DAO and what the process was likeHow DAO's can represent new, digital nationsImran's take on NFT valuationWhat Imran is most excited about in the spaceWho is Alliance DAO looking for?CTO - to help spearhead the bleeding edge of what the DAO should look like 5 to 10 years out.Head of Partnerships:Head of Marketing:Where Web3 founders go to apply: alliance.xyzIf you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

After more than three years in the making, Laura Shin has just released her first book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze. In it she dives into the history of Ethereum and the 2017 ICO craze by telling the tale of the early tensions and power struggle that defined Ethereum's founding. It gives the inside story of The DAO, and depicts 2017's global initial coin offering tidal wave that boosted prices and fortunes. Laura Shin, former Forbes journalist, podcast host, and now author, joined us for a fascinating chat about the research that went into the book (including the 200+ interviews), revealing the infamous Ethereum hacker, and how the book has been received and her future plans for another.Topics covered in this episode:Laura's background and how she got into cryptoWhy did Laura choose to write this book?Researching for the book and the people she interviewedLaura's takeaways about the Ethereum foundersThe reveal of the hacker and the reactions from those close to themThe Ethereum 'Shadow Government'The importance of Vitalik to Ethereum today and where he might be headed nextWhere are the other co-founders of Ethereum now?What's next for Laura?Episode links: Buy the bookLaura ShinThe Unchained PodcastLaura on MediumLaura on TwitterSponsors: CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswapThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/436

My guests today are Fred Jin and Kenzi Wang, the Co-Founders of the Cere Network. Cere Network is the first Decentralized Data Cloud platform optimized for service data integration and data collaboration. While most blockchains are simply distributed ledgers, the Cere network of blockchains allows for turnkey hyper-customization of enterprise data ecosystems. Cere Network is the first Decentralized Data Cloud platform optimized for service data integration and data collaboration. Cere aims to be more ethical, more efficient, and more interoperable than any of its centralized counterparts. Fred is the co-founder and CEO of the Cere Network. Prior to Founding Cere, Fred is a Silicon Valley veteran, been in the valley since ‘93, co-founded 50cubes, a Tencent-backed gaming company. He was also early at Bebo where he helped lead the $850 million acquisition by AOL. Kenzi Wang is a Cere Network co-founder. Previously he was the Ex Vice-President, General Manager of Huobi, and a Partner at AU21 capital, a US VC investment firm. We discuss a variety of topics including Cere Network, the DaVinci Platform, the importance of decentralized data storage, the future of NFTs, and much more. If you are interested in understanding NFTs and the future of the creator economy you need to listen to this episode. We begin our discussion with Fred and Kenzi giving a general overview of the Cere Network. We discuss the importance of decentralized storage. We discuss the dangers of centralized platforms controlling our data and the privacy abuse that is prevalent throughout the data tech stack. A shocking fact that was raised during our discussion of data storage was that most NFTs are stored on centralized cloud providers like AWS and Snowflake and the systemic problems those platforms present to the long-term viability of NFTs. We discuss at a high-level on how Cere addresses these systemic risks by revolutionizing the data tech stack to ensure everyone's data is encrypted and can be monetized by the person who created the data. Our conversation transitions to discussing how Cere's technology is enabling better functionality around NFTs to empower creators and artists to deepen their relationship and connection with their audience. Our next conversation topic centered around how the DaVinci Platform will be able to enable DAOs as a Service. The following discussion topic we focused on was how NFTs will enable creators to provide more value to their fans by being able to identify and build relationship maps with their core fanbase with exclusive content and experiences to fans who are engaging with their content the most. Please enjoy my conversation with Fred Jin and Kenzi Wang. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Jason and Santiago are joined by Gabby Dizon (co-founder YGG) and Felix Sim (co-founder Salad Venture) for a deep dive into crypto-gaming guilds. We discuss the future of play-to-earn (P2E) and how guilds provide the core infrastructure necessary for gaming's exponential growth. This is a must-listen if you're curious about how P2E economies work, how guilds add value to the gaming ecosystem, or where P2E gaming is headed in the next 5 to 10 years. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

My guest today is my friend, Chris Pizzo, Co-Founder and General Partner of Druid Ventures. Druid Ventures is a boutique investment firm focused on Blockchain and Crypto. Druid's team consists of Crypto and Web3 OGs including myself and Scott Melker and LPs ranging from prominent high net worth individuals and family offices. Chris has a background in investing in and working with companies to shape their goals and success. Prior to Druid Ventures, Chris was a Vice President for SCP & CO, a mid-market investment firm. Before his work at SCP and CO, Chris developed and managed the coaching and corporate partnership programs at Embarc Collective, a Tampa-based innovation hub spearheaded by Jeff Vinik. Previously, Chris held the position of Associate at the investment firm Murray-Bertron, LLC. While there, Chris divided his time between working with portfolio companies on operational improvements and sourcing/executing new transactions. Prior to his position with Murray-Bertron, Chris co-founded VitalStream Networks, a remote patient monitoring company seeking to reduce hospital readmissions and achieve the quadruple aim. We discuss a variety of important topics including Druid Ventures, talent acquisition, crypto sectors to watch, early-stage investing, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Tampa's burgeoning crypto scene. We also discuss how COVID is decentralizing talent and how Tampa is at the forefront of attracting this new wave of builders. We also touch on how crypto is dominating the mindshare of the youth and attracting them to the space in unprecedented numbers. Our conversation pivots to discuss how crypto has changed the culture around work and the importance of working for a company you believe in. The next major topic we discussed was the possible impact of Biden's Executive Order on Cryptocurrency. Chris discusses how the executive order will lead to more regulatory clarity to open the doors for further investment into the crypto space. We follow our discussion about the Executive Order opening further investment into crypto by discussing the role of venture capital in crypto. Chris discusses why venture investing is vital to help progress the space forward. We also discuss why investing in bear markets is the best time to invest and frameworks for investing during volatile periods. Chris does an excellent job at explaining the market dynamics that exist within venture and how the current inflationary macro landscape is driving valuations artificially higher. Our conversations shift to discuss the future of DAOs. Chris discusses the possible pitfalls for DAOs but also discusses why DAOs are the future. Our next major discussion topic centered around where the next big opportunities could be within crypto. Chris breaks down possible sectors that could be disrupted by blockchain technology and crypto. Our final topic centered around the future of the metaverse and the real-world impact the metaverse is having. Please enjoy my conversation with Chris Pizzo. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

On today's episode of Empire Jason and Santiago are joined by investor, entrepreneur & Co-Founder of Twitch Justin Kan, for a deep dive into NFTs. Sitting at the crossroads of gaming and NFTs, after launching Fractal, a Solana based marketplace for gaming NFTs, we invited Justin to Empire to discuss what he anticipates for the future. He shares what it was like after leaving Twitch, getting into crypto, launching Fractal and so much more. Justin provides a look behind the curtain into the fast evolving world of Web 3.0, from the the traditional Web 2.0 and gaming perspective, discussing the new possibilities crypto provides for gamers, streamers & communities online. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

My guest today is Dr. Muneeb Ali, co-Founder of Stacks. Stacks is a layer-1 blockchain solution that is designed to bring smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) to Bitcoin (BTC). These smart contracts are brought to Bitcoin without changing any of the features that make it so powerful — including its security and stability. Stacks looks to take what makes Bitcoin so powerful, and extends it with additional functionality, without needing to fork or change the original Bitcoin blockchain. Dr. Muneeb Ali is the co-founder of Stacks, bringing apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin. He serves as the CEO of Hiro PBC, a Public Benefit Corp that builds developer tools for Stacks and Bitcoin. He has raised $75 million USD in funding from investors like Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, Winklevoss Capital, and others. Hiro PBC was recently featured in CNBC's list of 100 promising startups to watch. Muneeb received his Ph.D. and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University, where his Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the ACM SIGCOMM dissertation award. Muneeb gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton and his research publications have over 1,600 citations. He is one of the main characters in the book Life After Google and was a technical advisor to the HBO show Silicon Valley. IN our conversation we discuss a variety of topics including Bitcoin, the early days of Bitcoin, Stacks and building on Bitcoin, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the differences between Web 2 and Web3. Muneeb does an excellent job at explaining the platform risks that exist throughout the Web2 ecosystem. Our conversation transitions to Bitcoin. We discuss how Bitcoin is freedom money and how it is helping both Ukrainian and Russian citizens navigate this incredibly difficult time. We also discuss the early days of Bitcoin and what attracted us to the space. Muneeb shares stories from the early days of Bitcoin showing how small the community was and how much the movement has grown. Our conversation transitions to a discussion centered around building on top of Bitcoin. Muneeb explains the various different protocols being built on top of Bitcoin like Stacks, Liquid, and RSK. We discuss how these work and their various trade offs. Muneeb breaks down Proof-of-Transfer, merge mining, and federated systems. We also touch on the growth of the developer base within the Stacks ecosystem and some exciting new projects being built on Stacks. Our final topic of conversation centered around why build on Bitcoin and why Bitcoin is the future. Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Muneeb Ali -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out https://untoldstories.link/paraswap. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

On today's episode of Empire Jason & Santiago are joined by Andrew Yang an Entrepreneur, Author & 2020 Presidential Candidate. Andrew joins Jason & Santiago for a conversation to discuss the biggest challenges the U.S faces today. Andrew also shares his thoughts on income inequality, universal basic income, his vision for a multi party system, the growth of Web 3.0 & so much more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

On today's episode of Empire Jason Yanowitz is joined by Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Cap and Avichal Garg of Electric Capital. Both are strong voices in the space when it comes to tokenization, metaverse, and multichain futures. With their unique perspectives, Haseeb and Avichal debate the merits of the crypto as cities philosophy, the future of Crypto, what a multichain world will look like & more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

In this episode of Empire, Jason and Santiago are joined by James Zhang of Jambo Technology, a crypto team pioneering the largest Web 3.0 super app in Africa. Discussing the foundation of Jambo to how it can empower the next generation of Africans, James Zhang provides an insightful perspective to the crypto infrastructure in Africa & how Web 2.0 companies are approaching Web 3.0.  They discuss the current state of crypto in Africa, developing web 3.0 infrastructure, Jambo's roadmap for Africa, China's investment in Africa and more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

On today's episode of Empire, Jason sits down with Jane Street's Thomas Uhm for Jane Street's first ever crypto podcast. Thomas and Jason compare traditional capital markets to crypto markets, get deep into financial plumbing, and explore Jane Street's crypto strategy. You don't want to miss this one!  Accelerating the U.S. Securities Settlement Cycle to T+1 - https://www.sifma.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Accelerating-the-U.S.-Securities-Settlement-Cycle-to-T1-December-1-2021.pdf — ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. — Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ — Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

On today's episode of Empire, Jason sits with Tom Schmidt of Dragonfly Cap and Tarun Chitra of Gauntlet for a DeFi deep dive. They cover a range of topics, from DAOs and governance, to the digitization of corporations in our increasingly technology-based world. Revisiting familiar subjects like tokenization and Web 2.0 creators coming to Web 3.0. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

On today's episode of Empire Jason Yanowitz & Santiago Santos and are joined by Jason Kam. Jason runs Folius Ventures, a Hong Kong based crypto fund. After years working as an Analyst in TradFi at Deutsche Bank, 40 North Management & Briarwood Chase Management, Jason took the leap into the world of DeFi after seeing the potential in 2018.  Jason shares his insights on launching Folius Ventures, whether we are in a bear market, big trends in crypto for the next decade, the reaction and response to the crypto space from China, investing in Web 3.0 & more. Follow on Twitter: Jason Kam - @MapleLeafCap Jason Yanowitz - @JasonYanowitz Santiago Santos - @santiagoroel Blockworks - @Blockworks_ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

On today's episode of Empire Blockwork's co-founder Jason Yanowitz and his co-host Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Ben Forman, managing partner at ParaFi Capital. Ben launched ParaFi in 2018 after seeing the potential of DeFi. Now with around $1 billion AUM, he provides his thoughts on how the DeFi ecosystem has evolved. Ben also shares his insights into how the recent Jan. 21 2022, market sell-off compares to March 2020, the explosive growth of stablecoins, the layer-1 wars, opportunities in NFTs, gaming and the biggest crypto trends for 2022. This episode was recorded on January 21, 2022. ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M 

On this episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Mike Ippolito are joined by Qiao Wang and Imran Khan of AllianceDAO. Not only are Qiao and Imran announcing big news about launching AllianceDAO & raising $50 Million, but they're also diving into all their thoughts on what DeFi Summer set up for the current state of crypto, the metaverse & gaming projects they're interested in. You won't want to miss this! -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M 

On this episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Santos sit down with Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital. As one of the top performing crypto funds of all time, Kyle and Tushar have insight not only discuss their former and current contrarian opinions on the space but discuss what they've learned, how they're thinking, and what they're seeing when it comes to the crypto industry in 2022. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M 

In this episode of Empire Jason & Santiago are joined by Antonio Juliano. Antonio is the founder of dYdX one of the largest decentralized exchanges in the world. After leaving Coinbase to start dYdX in 2017, dYdX now settles over $2 Billion of trade volume per day and is backed by some of the largest funds in the crypto industry such as a16z, Polychain & Bain Capital. We invited Antonio on Empire to discuss how dYdX plans to become the largest crypto exchange in the world, futures trading products, order books vs AMMs, the layer-1 wars, Antonio's outlook for DeFi growth and much more. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M 

In this episode of Empire, Jason and Santiago are joined by Andrew Steinwold Managing Partner at Sfermion & John Crain CEO of SuperRare Labs. Andrew & John saw the potential of NFTs years before most in 2018, just after Crypto Kitties broke the Ethereum blockchain. We decided to invite them to Empire to discuss the explosive growth in NFTs throughout 2020/21, how the industry has developed since their introduction around 2018 and what is the future for the NFT market. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!

In this episode of Empire Jason & Santiago are joined by legendary VC investor Bill Tai. Bill has successfully funded 20 startups that wen't on to IPO. Zoom, Canva, Dapper Labs, Twitter & Wish.com are just a handful of companies Bill was among the first investors in. Due to Bill's ability to spot key technology trends at major inflection points, we invited him on the show to discuss the exponential growth of technology, crypto vs the early days of the internet, creating new digital economies, online communities, DAOs & so much more! -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!

In this episode on Empire, Jason is joined by returning guest Jeremy Allaire. Jeremy is the CEO & Co-Founder of Circle the financial technology firm that enables access to the Stablecoin USDC. As USDC recently surpassed $40 Billion in circulation, we invited Jeremy back to discuss how USDC was created, how Stablecoins are a $120 trillion market, how crypto compares to the growth of the internet, DAOs & Jeremy's outlook for crypto. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!

In this episode of Empire Jason is joined by Blockworks Co-Founder Mike Ippolito for a very special episode. Six months after identifying the '7 biggest crypto trends', Mike returns to Empire to share his predictions for the crypto industry throughout 2022. Will Bitcoin surprise everyone with a major bull run in the new year? How large will DAOs become? Could a crypto company buy a bank?! Listen to find out. Today's 7 biggest crypto trends: https://youtu.be/JjrQiNKN5U0 -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Jack Butcher a designer, entrepreneur and the Founder of Visualize Value. After spending 10 years working in Fortune 100 advertising in NYC as a creative director for multi-billion dollar brands, Jack took the decision to start Visualize Value, allowing him to focus on highly-specialized consulting, and a product business that scales infinitely. Jason & Jack discuss how to monetize personal brands, the transition from web 2.0 to web 3.0, the advantages of NFTs and how large brands should be thinking about NFTs. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

Today we're discussing Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin outbidding crypto investors for a copy of the U.S. Constitution, Drake and Kanye's concert in LA, Peng Shuai reappearing in Beijing, the judge that banned MSNBC but allowed Tucker Carlson to film a Kyle Rittenhouse documentary, Elon Musk's email to Tesla employees about music on the job, and more. Visit ledger.com for the smartest way to secure, buy, exchange and grow your crypto assets. Swap with Paraswap! Swap your crypto with Paraswap at https://www.ledger.com/swap-paraswap Ken Griffin vs The Internet – Group Chat News 11.21.21 BIG name change! [1:07] In Vitalik we trust? [14:30] Ken Griffin vs The Internet. [18:21] Drake to join Kanye for LA concert. [32:40] Ad Break: Ledger. [36:33] Speculating on what celebrities will attend the Drake/Kanye concert. [41:34] Should you be forced to stand up against China? [47:30] Kyle Rittenhouse, the Amanda Gorman of the right? [1:03:20] Elon says you have 3 options. [1:13:26] Related Links/Products Mentioned Staples Center is getting a new name Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin Outbid a Group of Crypto Investors for Copy of US Constitution Why Bitcoin Will Die (w/ Peter Schiff) - IMPAULSIVE EP. 301 From Fighting to Friendship! Drake Will Join Kanye for LA Concert Drink Champs Podcast - Episode 287 w/ Ye & Larry Hoover Jr. Peng Shuai reappears in Beijing, WTA not reassured Judged Banned MSNBC, But Allowed Tucker Carlson Into A Secure Area To Film Kyle Rittenhouse Documentary Read the emails Elon Musk sent Tesla employees about music on the job and following directions Connect with Group Chat! Watch The Pod #1 Newsletter In The World For The Gram Tweet With Us Exclusive Facebook Content

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Nevin Freeman, Co-Founder & CEO of Reserve. Nevin set out to create Reserve as a way to protect individuals from currency destroying hyperinflation, providing access to a stable currency and financial services. Jason & Nevin discuss how having access to a stable currency is a human right, challenges of creating a stablecoin, hyperinflation, developments in the cryptocurrency industry & much more. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/

In this episode of Empire, Jason & Casey are joined by Senior Bloomberg ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas & CEO of Valkyrie Funds Leah Wald. With the recent approval of the Valkyrie Bitcoin futures ETF, we invited Eric & Leah onto the show to discuss everything you need to know from how an ETF works, the benefits of an ETF for institutional investors, the SEC's Bitcoin ETF regulation framework & if the SEC will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Aave founder/CEO Stani Kulechov & technology investor Santiago R Santos. Sitting at the forefront of the fast evolving DeFi ecosystem, we invited Stani & Santiago on to Empire to share their thoughts on the exponential growth and assess whether DeFi has hit escape velocity. This conversation was fascinating and covered a range of topics including how DeFi managed to attract $100 Billion of total value during the 2020 DeFi summer, when $1 trillion of value will be locked in DeFi, how social media could be decentralised in the web 3.0 transition, NFT's, Stani & Santiago's outlook for the end of year bull market & so much more. - Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/

In this episode of Empire Jason & Mike are joined by Cooper Turley an operator, advisor & thought leader in the fast evolving DAO ecosystem. Cooper has worked on projects such as Friends with Benefits, Forefront, Seed Club & many more. In this episode, Cooper shares his thoughts on the transition from web 2.0 to web 3.0, four steps to creating a DAO, the creator economy, how to invest in the ecosystem & the outlook for the rest of 2021. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. Find out more about them at https://www.paraswap.io/ --- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito & Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Anatoly has spent over 20 years as an engineer working for companies such as Qualcomm & Dropbox whilst contributing to open source software development. After the recent success of Solana, we invited Anatoly onto Empire to discuss how Solana was founded, the current layer 1 wars, the growth of crypto vs the internet, DeFi, DEXs vs CEXs and so much more! -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap's state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. --- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!