Base Layer

Simon joins us on Base Layer to discuss the very important work he and Valiu are doing creating opportunities for people to send and receive money internationally, especially in areas hit by hyperinflation like Venezuela. A lot of people talk about Bitcoin and crypto in Venezuela but executing effective platforms to really help haven't been seen, until now. Their goal is to build trust with their customers through a simple and transparent remittances platform designed for their customer’s financial needs. Utilizing a blockchain platform and an expansive network of locations for customers to deposit and receive cash, Valiu is disrupting the international currency transfer market in Latin America. This is one to definitely listen in to!

Muneeb comes back to Base Layer to talk all about version 2.0 of Blockstack's Stacks blockchain coming out because there's a significant change: miners on the network will need to post BTC to mine a block. That BTC will then get shared with nodes maintaining a copy of the ledger. Muneeb and I talk about how the team acknowledges bitcoin as the most secure blockchain in the world and why. Come listen and learn all about Proof of Transfer and what the implications are.

What an episode with Jack from Skale! The SKALE Network has been designed with the goal of resolving the technical scalability, user experience, and cost issues affiliated with decentralized networks such as Ethereum. We discuss transactions per second and the appropriate measures for evaluating throughput; we talk technicals in terms of using side chains, sharding and much more. We talk about the 35 dApp's in their Innovator program, from DeFi to real estate and much in between. And in terms of important news we talk about this headline: "Blockchain scaling network SKALE chosen as launch partner for ConsenSys Codefi's Activate token platform", why that happened and the implications for Skale. Amazing episode!

Leighton joins Base Layer to discuss one of the most talked about projects, PoolTogether which is a no loss lottery built on Ethereum. Their mission is to create financial security by offering a healthy alternative to lotteries. PoolTogether is based on the proven concept known as “No Loss Lotteries” or “Prize Linked Savings Accounts”. These products have been shown to divert money from traditional lotteries and increase savings. We talk about how this all works, from using smart contracts to stablecoins and the dramatic growth Leighton and the PoolTogether team have seen in the last few months.

Loi joins us on Base Layer for a full breakdown on Kyber Network and it's a really good one! Kyber is an on-chain liquidity protocol that aggregates liquidity from a wide range of reserves, powering instant and secure token exchange in any decentralized application. We make some analogies to traditional finance like the power of what Bloomberg Terminals would provide, we talk a lot about atomicity, wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and a host of other narratives. Not one to miss!

Joe joins us on Base Layer and it's an amazing episode which highlights how important I think Bison Trails is in the overall development and maturation of digital assets and distributed & decentralized platforms. Joe talks about his past before BT and then we launch into how they are creating an interoperability platform that allows one to plug & plug different protocols for file storage, video, search and much more into a more unified operator. We talk about how Bison Trails is also working to minimize slashing of stake in PoS systems and their work with Libra. Don't miss this and pass it around!!

Jeremy joins us on Base Layer and it's a great conversation about everything from his early days in technology and seeing the diffusion of innovation and the curve of adoption; we talk about Web 1.0 to Web 3.0, about stablecoins and USDC, his work with policy makers and politicians to educate them on digital assets, especially during the Libra testimony and so much more.

Kevin joins us on Base Layer to give us a great breakdown on Ava Labs! AVA's mission is to democratize financial markets and bridges all blockchain platforms together into one interoperable ecosystem; they provide the ability to build your own custom blockchains or to digitize any assets with arbitrarily complex rulesets. Kevin discusses the different consensus algo's from Nakamoto, Classical to Avalanche, their own consensus algo. They tout the ability to get to 5000 transactions per second (TPS) so we discuss how, the use of DAG's and how they could fit in the climate focused investors toolkit these days.

Stani joins us on Base Layer to discuss Aave - a project that everyone seems to be talking about right now. Aave is an Open Source and Non-Custodial protocol to earn interest on deposits & borrow assets and has emerged in the DeFi space as a player. We discuss this move from matching lenders & borrowers in digital assets to pooling assets; we discuss the collateral and different digital asset Aave is working with. More importantly we also discuss the underwriting of those different digital assets, the scoring methodologies and why they are working with Chainlink with their smart contract and oracles who main the lending pools. So much in this one...

Jalak joins us on Base Layer and it's an amazing discussion with an investor who has been active in the digital asset/blockchain world for over 6 years. We discuss the changing narratives from the early days to now, the geographic niche's of certain projects like Bitpesa vs what it takes for global adoption, Libra and DCEP as big stories of 2019 and the work she's doing with local politicians in NYC to make a "public Venmo" and much more.

Alex joins us on Base Layer to talk more about zero knowledge proofs and what they are doing at Matter Labs. Initially found by a tweet from Ari @ BlockTower, Matter Labs recently revealed their vision for ZK Sync: a trustless scaling and privacy solution for Ethereum based on ZK Rollup". We discussed that in heavy detail, including tx receipts but also addressed Matter Labs mission which they discussed in their blog: "A successful solution to the scaling problem in public blockchains is not only a matter of high transaction throughput. It must also be defined as the ability of the system to meet the demands of millions of users without sacrificing decentralization. The prerequisites of mass crypto adoption include high speed, low cost, smooth UX, and privacy." All this and more with Alex from Matter Labs.

Zhuoxun joins us on Base Layer to tell us all about dydx. dydx is building a decentralized exchange for margin trading and eventually derivatives. With dYdX users can trade, borrow, and lend any supported asset. dYdX is powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum Blockchain, which eliminates the need to trust a central exchange while trading. We discuss the overall maturation of DEX's and also spend time discussing how smart contracts & oracles factor in this very exciting aspect of DeFi. Capital markets are also maturing in digital assets; powerful financial products like margin and derivatives are essential. They empower traders to better manage risk, more efficiently allocate capital, and express more complex opinions on price and volatility.

Bart joins us for the 100th episode of Base Layer and it's truly an amazing conversation to listen to. Bart has a storied career following early stage technology and he talks about how he and his brother, both gamers, found themselves in Bitcoin and blockchains about 7 years ago. Via their family office they wanted to invest via funds that were following the technology but when they couldn't find the right one they started Blockchain Capital. After 80+ investments in the space we had a detailed conversation about the change in narratives, the technology, the people coming in, valuation and much more. Also we discussed Blockchain Capital's 2020 predictions which include the beginnings of what could be some sizable M&A. The predictions can be found here

Alan joins us on Base Layer to give us a great in-depth overview of the happenings at Radar; going from Relay which the team believes is the most secure way to trade ERC20 tokens directly from your Ethereum wallet; to Ion and Redshift which allows users to trustlessly swap assets between chains to Deploy which the team says is the easiest way to spin up and maintain blockchain infrastructure so you can ship faster with less. This was a great chat about the entire ecosystem Radar and the team are working on and you'll learn a lot!

Angela joins us on Base Layer today and it's one not to miss! We talk a lot about gaming, esports and this thesis about how over 2B people who play games could be the next wave of adopters of digital assets. We discuss the current state of the state of blockchain games, what they are working to build and why it's an important narrative.

What a show! The founder of Docusign, Tom Gonser, joins Sergey Nazarov for a follow up to our podcast about 2 months ago to further discuss smart contracts, the oracle problem and how Chainlink is addressing it, how enterprises large and small are looking at distributed & decentralized networks and so much more. This is a very special show - hearing from Tom who is an Advisor to Chainlink was amazing.

Harry joins us on Base Layer for a fun and interesting conversation about everything relating to Bitcoin mining and the work they are doing at Griid; we talk about next generation equipment, valuation and modeling, energy consumption and prices and most importantly the Bitcoin halving and what effect it could have on the mining community.

A great episode with Eli and Uri from Starkware! This is a special project focusing on cryptographic proofs using zero-knowledge, succinct, transparent and post-quantum secure processes. We had a really interesting conversation about zk's -- furthering helping listeners understand their impact. We also discussed quantum -- in light of Google's recent announcement - the cause and effect of quantum on encryption in blockchains. Lastly we discussed StarkPay vs Lightning. Must listen!

Max and Vadym join us from Geo Protocol who's mission is to empower the Internet of Value by creating a universal value transfer ecosystem. GEO Protocol is an open-source base layer protocol for cost-efficient, lightweight and infinitely scalable value transfer, merging blockchain and traditional finance worlds together. We talked about this notion of merging blockchain based assets with non-blockchain based assets, atomic swaps and this ability to coordinate among different exchanges in a new way without a lot of the friction from the past iterations. This one gets a bit technical but the team is creating some tech that is very exciting.

Benny & Brian stop by Base Layer to have a great discussion on gaming to digital collectibles in the blockchain space. We touch on the popular rise of Cryptokitties to some digital collectibles going for $1M. Dapper Labs is building out some news games, one especially with the NBA that looks very exciting, so we talked extensively about gaming as it relates to blockchains and how it could be the portal to broad based adoption of digital assets.

Dave, the CEO of Flipside Crypto, joins us on Base Layer to tell us all about what Flipside Crypto does. For those not familiar, Flipside provides analysis on project health (on protocols like Ethereum, Tezos, etc) and created a rating system called FCAS. We also discuss how behavioral analysis goes into something called Chainwalkers and much more. Dave has done 7 different start up's and has successfully sold some of them - amazing hearing such a successful founder talk about his entry into digital assets and build key infrastructure in it.

Luis, the co-founder of Aragon, joins us on Base Layer to talk all about Governance. Aragon is a project that many in the digital asset ecosystem are starting to look at for their unique governance tools -- a subject area that has show itself to be very difficult for some protocols to see through successfully. We also discussed the ability to create your own organization in 5 minutes and 2020 being the year of the DAO (question mark there). So much good stuff in this chat - def check it out!

Will joins us on Base Layer to give you great overview of 0x. When I began thinking about starting Base Layer over a year ago 0x was one of the projects that inspired me - helping build key infrastructure for blockchains to interoperate, exchange value and much more. We discuss the 4 product lines they've embarked on esp Governance which is a key feature we will be highlighting on Base Layer going into 2020. We also find interesting metaphors between traditional markets & the world we live in to explain how some of the functionality in 0x works. Must listen!!

Roneil joins us again to bring us up to speed on the beta launch of Audius over the last two months and the numbers they are seeing are very exciting! Thousands of artists joining the platform like Deadmau5 and others; tens of thousands of users on the platform - real usage and adoption!! We talk about that all and also sprinkle in some chats about Taylor Swift and some of the recent narratives of artists and their labels.

Guido joined us on Base Layer during San Francisco Blockchain Week to discuss the confluence of economics and differing models and blockchains. We discuss token economics and the differing socioeconomic theories associated with the adoption of different blockchains and protocols. Super interesting conversations with someone with such an amazing background in econ.

Tomer from Spacemesh joins us today to give a great overview of the project. There are 3 problems Spacemesh is trying to solve:to be a fairly mined, permissionless and race free open source" programmable cryptocurrency that has a low barrier to entry. We also discuss what Proof of Space is and how is it different than what people are becoming more familiar with like Proof of Work or Proof of Stake? Additionally we also unpack this: "Spacemesh is designed to be run by home desktop PC owners from around the world. There are tens of millions of such people with sufficient system and internet connectivity who can join the platform, form a global decentralized computer and cryptocurrency and provide security for it." A great chat and one not to miss!

Jake, project lead for community directed digital asset Decred, joins us for a special Friday episode to discuss why the crypto ecosystem was afire this past week with privacy talk in the wake of the massive exposure on Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy implementation. According to an investor in the ecosystem who performed some testing, a group of users can be identified with a $60/wk spend on AWS, thus there’s no privacy guarantee. The crypto space needs a renewed approach to privacy to avoid this exposure of user addresses. We discuss this and how Decred is addressing the issue of privacy. Check out Jake's writing about privacy projects & there differences here

Galen from Mousebelt joins us on Base Layer on a live recording during San Francisco Blockchain Week. MouseBelt is the world’s first full-service blockchain accelerator that goes beyond just seed capital, connections, and mentorship. The accelerator is uniquely equipped with more than 25 experienced blockchain developers, project managers, business developers, marketers, and lawyers. We had a great conversation about the world of early stage development and funding of projects and what themes they see prevalent in the space right now.

The CEO of Ledger, Pascal Gauthier, joins us on Base Layer to discuss some breaking news and a general overview of the last 5 years of their existence. Pascal discusses the news that the Ledger Vault platform now has a customized crime insurance program insuring crypto assets for up to USD 150 million that was obtained with working with two financial institutions. We also discuss Ledger's 5 year anniversary, the evolution of wallets and how investors custody their assets. A great discussion for those aware of Ledger and not in addition to the big news they discuss.

An honor to have Haseeb, recorded live from San Francisco Blockchain Week; Haseeb is a highly respected investor in digital assets - we hone in on his past as a professional poker player, how his ability to discern risk and reward from those experiences and the ability to find "tells"; how his experience as AirBnB furthered his interest in distributed and decentralized systems and much more. We delve into what Dragonfly is doing in the space as an investor and what the future looks like in the "protocol wars" and much more.

Sergey, the co-founder of Chainlink joins us on Base Layer for an amazing episode from a project that has garnered a lot of attention this year after Google announced a partnership with them. Sergey has many years of experience in blockchains and we spend a lot of time discussing Oracles and the "Oracle problem" as it relates to the efficiency and execution of smart contracts. We talk about some integrations they made this past year and what the future holds for Chainlink in public and enterprise level blockchain development. Amazing episode -- one not to miss!

Mariano joins us on Base Layer to give a fantastic overview of MakerDao and it’s stablecoin Dai. We discuss the evolution of stablecoins and their purpose in the digital asset ecosystem. Additionally, as Mariano lives in Argentina we discuss how digital assets are becoming in more focus with inflationary issues.

Bill joins us on Base Layer during my recent visit to Dallas for the Digital Asset Strategy Summit (DASS) to discuss his time in traditional finance over the last few decades and his most recent focus on Bitcoin and the revolution associated with distributed and decentralized systems. We discuss the what led up to the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and how that effected his opinion in finding an asset that was deflationary and censorship resistant. This is a great chat from an investor to understand how he views this new emerging asset class and technological revolution.

Claire from Celo joins us on Base Layer to give a great overview of Celo: driven by purpose -- to solve real-world problems such as lack of access to sound currency, or friction for cash-transfer programs aimed to alleviate poverty. Their mission is to build a monetary system that creates the conditions for prosperity for all. We talk about what that means, how they are doing it and much more.

Tuur and Dhruv join Base Layer live from the Digital Asset Strategy Summit (DASS) that was recently hosted in Dallas, bringing together Institutional Investors, Family Offices and many great investors and founders in digital assets together to share what they are learning about Bitcoin and other digital assets. Tuur and Dhruv gave a great presentation on Bitcoin and its potential for societal change so we extended that chat about adoption, BIP's and all the things happening in the Bitcoin camp. Enjoy!!

Zac joins us on Base Layer today to bring us up to speed on BlockFi, a project I've mentioned many times on the show when I discuss the emergence of Open Finance or #defi. Many participants in digital assets have been shut out of traditional finance (loans, business banking, etc) while they maintain assets like Bitcoin & Ethereum. One of BlockFi's mantra's is "don't sell your crypto if you don't have to" - they have created mechanisms to give participants access to loans by acknowledging that these are assets and have value. We talk about the modeling (LTV, yields, etc) and just how they do that and the success they've had, while also discussing the future...hint, credit card?? One not to miss!

Tom, the CEO of ErisX, joins us on Base Layer to discuss key milestones at ErisX and what role & function it plays in digital assets. This is one not to miss; ErisX has operated a designated contract market for seven years and have used that expertise and applied it to digital assets. We discuss working with the CTFC, how and why it takes some time to get things approved and then all the way to discussions on the processes of listing a new coin or contract to stablecoins and much more. Again, do not miss this one...great conversation with Tom and you'll learn a lot about ErisX and the derivative market in digital assets.

Stephane joins us in another live recording from Voices of Blockchain hosted in Chicago a few weeks back to talk to us about Numerai; a project in existence for a few years working to essentially re-invent the hedge fund. We talk about the tournaments they are hosting with some of the brightest mathematicians and minds of the world, working to create data that can be used to hopefully make exceptional investment decisions. This was a fascinating conversation about governance & how how blockchains can continue to further the evolution of finance.

Come join us for a live recording from Voice of Blockchain this past week in Chicago when I to sit with Sunayna from TD Ameritrade. The "Institutions are Coming"!! Remember that? Yes, Sunayna and her team are reviewing ways to provide access to digital assets and leveraging blockchains for their millions of clients - and they've already made progress with work with ErisX. Sunayna and I discuss how large institutions like there's are reviewing the technology and why it's so important to provide the best education possible. One not to miss!

Gavin joins us on Base Layer today to talk family offices and crypto! Gavin and YGC spun out of Yeoman's Capital - a 100% crypto focused family office down in Texas -- that's right folks...they do exist! We talk about their focus on hybrid blockchains - finding opportunities to address enterprise blockchain use and much more. We also talk about deal origination, valuation and how to navigate this world as a family office investor.

Jordan joins us today on Base Layer for a heavy Bitcoin talk! We discuss everything from the new BIP's such as Schnorr signatures, MAST, Taproot and more to the new Institutional infrastructure being provided by Bakkt which went live this week...how futures help with price discovery and much more.

Jutta joins us on Base Layer to break down all that is happening at Parity and especially Polkadot; it's an amazing episode! Jutta is the co-founder and CEO of Parity Technologies. Parity Technologies has developed the most advanced Ethereum client and has recently started a new blockchain network protocol called Polkadot—a pioneering work to address governance, interoperability, and scalability of blockchain technology and a fundamental building block of the future decentral Web 3. She previously served as Chief of Security for the Ethereum Foundation, overseeing security audit and integration prior to the launch of the public blockchain in 2015. Heavy discussion on interoperability and it's importance as well as Substrate - a way to speed up develop in blockchain applications.

Itamar joins us on Base Layer and it's a very exciting discussion with a founder of a project a lot of people are talking about. Argent has arguably built one of the simplest crypto wallets out there and has really taken the notion of creating simple user experiences to heart. With concepts like Guardians and the ability to freeze funds, you will learn how they are doing this and why there is such a buzz.

Seth joins us on Base Layer to tell us what Market Protocol is and why people are getting excited about it. MARKET Protocol, using Ethereum, allows users to trade the price of anything while leveraging the benefits of the blockchain. Market Protocol enables people to trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, and traditional assets -- we discuss position tokens, reference assets and much more as it relates to the who, what and how. With Seth's background in traditional finance, starting as a derivatives trader in 2005, we discuss the emergence of #defi and also get into a discussion about systemic risk.

Ed joins us on Base Layer and it's a great episode -- not often have we had the chance to talk with people who have advised the President of the United States and our government on technology like Ed has in his not to recent past! Ed and I discuss Artbitrum - a L2 solution to make Ethereum scale which also has features to add privacy and a layer of "guaranty" that smart contracts will be abided by. Really enjoyed this episode and so will you!

Jeanine and Brian from Gemini Trust Co join us on Base Layer to discuss some of the recent work Gemini is doing to offer Institutional Investors more professional services to buy & sell digital assets in the most secure and compliant way possible. This episode Jeanine and Brian have some breaking news to discuss on an important new offering they will be providing to clients. A must listen!

Dean joins us on Base Layer for an in-depth discussion on Agoric and it's not to be missed. Dean designed the negotiation process and contract for the first smart contracting system, AMiX which dates back to the 1980's. As a Principal Architect at Microsoft, he designed the Midori distributed object-capability operating system. While most smart contract platforms currently use an identity-based security architecture where access is granted based on the sender of a transaction, it has been shown that identity-based security architectures have issues. In contrast, Agoric uses an object capacity security architecture, in which access to a programming object itself is the authority to use the object. We discuss all these differences and why companies like Google and Salesforce are currently using these designs as well.

Roneil from Audius joins us on Base Layer for episode 60 and it's really a fun one! Aside from an exceptional career that has had stops at places like Kleiner and being early to the blockchain party, Roneil and team are focusing on a use case of blockchains - getting people who create content paid and removing a lot of excesses paid to the "middleman". We discuss how Audius is doing that for content creators and the technology stack involved in decentralizing what has been a legacy centralized system.

Akin from Decred joins us on Base Layer for a great overview of the project. Decred forked from the Bitcoin codebase when a proposal for new suite of features to be added to Bitcoin from Company 0 was rejected by the Bitcoin core team. Named btcsuite, these features became the core of the Decred project. Decred’s governance and consensus mechanism relies on a PoW/Proof-of-Stake (PoS) hybrid, which the project regards as a sort of “second authentication factor for consensus” by enabling coin holders to curb potential miner centralization, Decred employs a governance body called the Politeia to guide the project’s direction and fund operations from its treasury. We learn all about their special governance mechanisms and why people are talking about Decred.