Raoul Pal: The Journey Man

Micah Johnson, artist and creator of Aku Inc, joins Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Delphi Digital, on Kelly's series on community tokens to discuss his journey into the NFT space and his popular character Aku. From a young age, Johnson’s sole ambition in life was to play in Major League Baseball. Once he achieved this goal, he discovered a passion for painting and art. Upon retirement, he discovered the chaotic yet nascent world of NFTs and became immersed. Johnson has since pioneered the hugely successful Aku series, which centers around a young astronaut who explores different worlds and is intended to be an inspirational beacon for young people. Kelly and Johnson discuss this journey into NFTs and social token communities, and they brainstorm several directions in which these trends could develop. Filmed on October 12, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nationally syndicated iHeartRadio host and founder of Market Disruptors, Mark Moss, joins Real Vision to discuss the convergence of cultural, technological, and financial cycles and what it all means for the future of crypto. Moss takes us through a bit of history to demonstrate the persistence of cyclicality throughout notable benchmarks in human ingenuity. He sees a lack of sound money as the source of all the world's problems—censorship, mutable law, and abuse of power from centralized organizations. Moss believes the answer is a decentralized revolution with Bitcoin at the center. He outlines how the Bitcoin network will change the way people transfer money and the framework between governments and the people they represent. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on October 7, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How much do you really know about NFTs? The current perception is that they are just a tradable version of art, but Ryan Berckmans, an Ethereum community member and investor, outlines its intricacies and nuances in this analogy-filled interview. Berckmans seamlessly explains the working relationship between NFTs, a platform like OpenSea, ERC-721 tokens, and a metamask wallet with real world objects like scarfs, soda cans and shipping containers. Following these explanations, he explores why we will see a multiple blockchain future and explains the key differences between Ethereum, Solana and Cardano. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on September 8, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings, joins Real Vision ceo Raoul Pal to discuss investing in the crypto space, the risk curve, and accelerating crypto adoption. Novogratz breaks down how he allocates his own crypto portfolio and touches on some of the lessons he learned in the 2017 crypto bubble. He explains the impact that COVID-19 had on crypto and the digitization of everything. Novogratz describes the different products and funds available through Galaxy Digital Holdings. Filmed on December 10, 2020. Key Learnings: The crypto investment space is growing quickly, and Novogratz shares some of the lessons learned from the previous crypto bubbles he has experienced. He explains the importance of staying rational, and touches on some of the key metrics he follows, such as, market cap and fully diluted market cap. Community and use or "pick up" of a project are core components he looks at when studying a new crypto investment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The addition of smart contracts to the Cardano network has many in crypto buzzing. Angie Lau, editor in chief at Forkast News, hosts Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and co-founder of Ethereum, to discuss the details around the Alonzo hard fork and the importance of smart contracts. Additionally, Hoskinson dives into the hurdles DeFi has to overcome both from a structural and a regulatory framework. Until accessibility and price volatility concerns are addressed, he feels it will be stuck in a speculative bind. Filmed on September 15, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Garry Tan, co-founder of Initialized Capital and one of the earliest investors in Coinbase, shares his outlook on crypto products, his concerns with crypto regulation, and how it will challenge America's democracy. Deeply rooted within the world's tech hub, Tan expresses that Silicon Valley will continue to be home to the internet. Tan explains what he learned in Y Combinator, his peers who have gone on to develop multi-billion dollar companies, and what it means to invest in early stage startups. What role does crypto play in all this? Tan outlines where that fits in as well. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on September 16, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn about smart contracts inside and out. David Salem, contributor at Epsilon Theory, is joined by Anders Brownworth to discuss from technical and philosophical perspectives. Beginning by coding his own smart contract, Brownworth gives viewers a visual breakdown of the inner workings of currencies like Ethereum. Salem and Brownworth then pivot to conceptualize how smart contracts might work in the real world. How do you enforce contracts that reach beyond the digital realm? They discuss "the trilemma" and the trade-offs that come with a truly decentralized coin like Bitcoin versus coins with an organization's backing like Ethereum. This is essential content for anyone who wants to truly understand crypto. Filmed on August 16, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chart guru Willy Woo, founder of The Bitcoin Forecast, has been a pioneer in harnessing on-chain metrics for trading analysis, an area that is seeing rapid institutional adoption. A true expert in the space, Woo describes his experience locating and refining what he now identifies as the most important metrics to watch. He walks viewers through his charts on topics such as identifying Bitcoin supply shocks, monitoring Bitcoin whale activity, and recognizing patterns in the "Hodlers". Interviewed by Ash Bennington on September 2, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Axie Infinity paving the way, Anil Lulla, COO at Delphi Digital; Yan Liberman, managing partner at Delphi Digital; Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity; and Gabby Dizon, CEO and co-founder of Yield Guild Games, join to discuss the new trend taking over the metaverse, which is expanding at a rapid pace. One of the latest developments is the play-to-earn gaming model, in which players can enjoy a video game while earning actual income. In the case of the Philippines, some players earn more than the minimum wage. Dizon and Zirlin were early pioneers in the space while Lulla and Liberman were early investors who recognized the potential. Filmed on August 23, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Breedlove, founder of the "What is Money?" podcast, sits down with Brad Mills, host of the Magic Internet Money podcast, to thoroughly breakdown the Bitcoin fundamentals from both a philosophical and a technical standpoint. Starting off with the evolution of money, Breedlove and Mills discuss the desirable properties of money from first principles, followed by a brief history of historical phases of money throughout human history. Breedlove makes the case for Bitcoin as the best form of money we have seen in history, being efficiently portable through both time and space. He analyzes the properties that make a network effect robust and elements that make Bitcoin distinct from altcoins. Ultimately, Breedlove and Mills leave all crypto investors with an important message on overcoming tribalist notions about those who hold different views. Filmed on July 29, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A contrarian thinker in the DeFi space, Sean Lippel, partner and head of digital assets at FinTech Collective, joins Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research LLC, to bring us through the many facets of DeFi with a new perspective. Lippel, a true expert in the field, makes a case for a possible solution to crypto's propensity to volatility, one of the primary criticisms to its feasibility as a standalone currency. Lippel suggests that continued integration of DeFi with real world assets—whether that’s real estate, commodities, business loans, etc.—will gradually reduce the volatility due to the robustness of real world demand. In addition, Lippel shares intriguing insights on central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, and regulation that break the mold of typical commentators in the space. Filmed on July 21, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Strap in for the deepest of deep dives into all things DeFi. Blake Richardson, investor at BlockTower Capital, enlightens viewers with his expert perspective as an investor in the space. Decentralized finance is a relatively new industry, but the number of subtopics continues to grow. A helpful discussion for beginners and experts, Richardson educates viewers on a wide range of material including synthetics, stablecoins, DeFi in the insurance industry, smart contracts, bonding curves, and more. He also shares insight into the due diligence process undergone by his team at BlockTower when assessing the ever-increasing number of DeFi companies emerging today. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on July 16, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As much a philosopher as he is a technologist, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, joins Real Vision to discuss some of the core theses of DeFi and the meta-layer’s role in smart contracts. Smart contracts will likely play a large role in the future of finance, but they have a long way to go. Companies like Chainlink and their partners are working to expand what they call “the meta-layer,” the framework connecting blockchain ecosystems to off-chain datasets in order to build out more complicated smart contracts. This is all part of the Chainlink 2.0 mission. Nazarov walks viewers through interesting developments on this front as well as additional topics like the quantum risk to DeFi, lessons from the ‘08 financial crisis, and more. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on July 14, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On day five of After the Hype: Reality Sets in for NFTs, Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO & founder of Chiliz & Socios.com, and Raoul Pal, CEO & co-founder of Real Vision, discuss tokenization of world-class sport franchise communities. Giving fans the power to participate in a franchise’s decision-making process is a valuable proposition. The Chiliz & Socios.com network is expanding quickly with over 40 sporting franchises on the platform and over 800,000 active users. Dreyfus walks viewers through his company’s evolution and the ways in which he and his team are innovating to create more real-world utility for their token holder—whether that’s voting on the design of a team’s jersey or issuing token rewards based on a team’s performance. Filmed on July 1, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peng Zhong, CEO of Tendermint, joins Ash Bennington, Real Vision senior editor, for a deep dive into the various projects emerging from Tendermint and how they mesh with the existing DeFi industry. As the Ethereum chain becomes crowded, rising gas fees are forcing developers to look for alternatives. From Cosmos, "The Internet of Blockchains", to Gravity DEX, a liquidity pool and order book protocol, Tendermint is constructing a number of different projects aimed at solving scalability issues and ushering in a multi-chain era. Zhong guides us through both the conceptual and technical aspects of his work during this chat. Filmed on June 28, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Real Vision senior editor Ash Bennington is joined by Evan Kuo, founder of Ampleforth, to discuss how Ampleforth was engineered specifically to satisfy characteristics of the ideal reserve currency. By working with Stanford's Hoover Institute for several years, Kuo and his team have been refining what it means to be a "good" reserve currency. A key innovation lies in their maneuver to substitute price volatility with supply volatility. Kuo's goal is to create the ultimate unit of account, resistant to demand shocks typically seen in business cycle contractions. Filmed on June 17, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Real Vision senior editor Ash Bennington welcomes Eric Demuth, CEO of BitPanda to discuss the creation of BitPanda and the BEST token, Bitcoin's role as a digital asset, and interoperability within blockchain ecosystems. Since there is an absence of a stock investing culture in Europe, Demuth explains the need for an educational component of BitPanda that will help it become the investment platform for investors looking to participate in the market. He dives into the creation of the BEST token that allows users to benefit from the BitPanda platform. Demuth argues that a decentralized system that combines all of the capabilities from existing blockchains will make projects easier to build and thereby moving closer towards his goal of tokenizing the world. Filmed on June 7, 2021. Key Learnings: Demuth argues that new investors should only invest in things that are simple, easy to understand, and are constructed with their interests in mind. He stresses that the best investments are made by the individual after proper diligence and preparation are conducted. This ensures that the investment satisfies the investor’s risk appetite and long-term strategic goals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ash Bennington, senior crypto editor for Real Vision, welcomes Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, to discuss consensus algorithms and the creation of Hedera Hashgraph. Starting in 2012, Harmon and his team were working to solve a distributed consensus math problem, specifically how to create a consensus algorithm that maximized both performance and security simultaneously. He states that this has been a decades old problem, and while it is clear already how to have the best security via asynchronous byzantine fault tolerance, it has always come at the expense of resource requirements—bandwidth or scaling issues. This was solved in 2015 with the creation of Hashgraph, and with its algorithm, it has led to a public distributed ledger with scalable and maximized performance and security properties. Filmed May 18th, 2021. Key Learnings: It's possible to create a consensus algorithm that makes it possible for the participants within a network to vote on transactions—however, as the number of transactions increases, the voting and, by extension, bandwidth required go up exponentially. What Hashgraph has innovated on is that by submitting just 2 hashes of information, that being the last transactions sent and received, the network can chain them into a graph and conceptually represent who knew what and when. When paired with a consensus algorithm, anyone who receives that data can calculate what the consensus would be without having to vote or ask the question, thus cutting out the middleman or bandwidth requirement and resulting in the creation of virtual voting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eric Kryski, CEO and co-founder of Bidali, sits down with Ethan Buchman, CEO of Informal Systems and co-founder of Cosmos, to discuss the Cosmos network and interoperable blockchains as well as a vision for localized economies and municipal sovereignty. Kryski and Buchman explore the challenges of building blockchain application layers on Bitcoin's and Ethereum's networks as well as achieving interoperability between protocols—even within the same network. Buchman shares how Cosmos' ecosystem is able to accomplish interoperability that restores sovereignty with an application-specific chain while providing a mature development environment. The work being done at Cosmos flows in Buchman's vision for more localized, interoperable economies, and he expands on this by breaking down his thoughts on community currencies, municipal sovereignty, and mutual credit systems. Filmed on May 18, 2021. Key Learnings: Buchman explains how Cosmos is aiming to become "the internet of blockchains" by allowing developers to build their blockchains in such a way that it will enable communication with each other in a decentralized way. He acknowledges how this sort of functionality within the crypto ecosystem would support economies that would become more localized and municipalities that become sovereign as diverse needs and values call for varied means of governance. Buchman argues that a shift toward localism and away from our dependence on globalization will lead to more sustainable, self-sufficient, and anti-fragile economies and societies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Santiago Velez, entrepreneur and digital assets investor for Block Digital Corporation & AD, Inc., sits down with Chris Spadafora, founder of BadgerDAO, to discuss his background, the journey to found BadgerDAO, wrapped digital assets, risk, governance, and his thoughts on the crypto ecosystem. Following several years of investing in the space, Spadafora came to the conclusion that there was a lack of Bitcoin that can be wrapped or ported off of the bitcoin network and used as a utility on other blockchains. Spadafora asked, "How do you build an open community and project that wants to enable Bitcoin to work in a trusted and non-custodial way in addition to having an organization or business that is managed by the people vs a traditional corporate structure?" He recognized that the smart contract capabilities of Ethereum met a lot of the needs he was looking for in trying to utilize the liquidity of Bitcoin. While there are other protocols building on top of the Bitcoin network, Spadafora believes that the robustness of the smart contract technology that Ethereum built, in addition to the lack of liquidity and lack of interoperability in relation to the tools for daily usage, were key to fulfilling that vision. Filmed on May 6, 2021. Key learnings: To date, 1% of Bitcoin has been wrapped to port over to other blockchains. Spadafora believes that, moving forward, there will be anywhere between 20-40% of all Bitcoin will be wrapped and living on other chains because it is the ultimate collateral. While seeing the appreciation of Bitcoin in one’s wallet is good, being able to use it, put it to work, and have access to different financial services and applications that are traditionally reserved to hedge funds brings the power back to the people. Spadafora identifies that DeFi users have access to many great opportunities to gain interest; however, it requires too many steps, knowledge, and fees. Meanwhile, BadgerDAO allows for users to earn anywhere between 5%-30% interest on their Bitcoin while still retaining custody of their digital assets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Vaynerchuk, chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia, sits down with Raoul Pal, co-founder and CEO of Real Vision, for a wide-ranging discussion on Vaynerchuck’s journey into crypto and the founding of VaynerX and VaynerMedia as well as Vaynerchuck’s thoughts on the current and future state of the blockchain ecosystem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thomas Walton-Pocock, co-founder and former CEO of Aztez, sits down with Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos, to discuss Tezos’ on-chain governance approach, smart contract platform, and scalability potential as well as his thoughts on the direction of decentralized finance (DeFi). Breitman breaks down the weaknesses of the forking model as a form of governance and argues that on-chain governance is the way to achieve innovation on protocols without centralization. Tezos implements this through a self-amending crypto ledger, and Breitman shares how the protocol accomplishes this through its scripting language, Michelson, for its smart contract platform, highlighting some of its benefits such as formal verification. He also shares his thoughts on scalability via a “portfolio of scaling” approach, the principles of a well-designed stablecoin, and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Key Learnings: Breitman points out that when forks occur on a blockchain, it’s not free choice by all stakeholders on the network—on the other hand, Tezos seeks open participation when amending the protocol so that all stakeholders can help secure its network. Tezos also distinguishes itself through its use of formal verification via Michelson. Historically, formal verification has been applied in the aerospace and nuclear energy sectors, where the costs of mistakes are drastic, and Breitman states that its use in Tezos’ protocol allows for developers to rule out and avoid whole classes of bugs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Beniamin Mincu, founder and CEO of Elrond, joins Santiago Velez, co-founder and R&D division lead for Block Digital, to discuss the Elrond Network and how it’s built as well as scalability, interoperability, and future applications. When he founded Elrond, Mincu’s goals were to move away from what he calls the “dial up” version of the blockchain space and simplify the UX in order to lower the barrier to entry. To that end, Elrond aimed to build a system that could bring a 1000x improvement in throughput, execution speed, and transaction cost . This is implemented through adaptive state sharding and a secure proof of stake. Filmed April 26th, 2021. Key Learnings: Elrond tries to solve the central problem of layer 1 blockchains where there is traditionally a trade-off between security, decentralization, and scalability by looking to build a transparent financial system that can extend access to anyone anywhere. Mincu believes this is fundamentally important as the current state of the economy is low-bandwidth and high latency—any user would still have to wait for overnight transfers. Mincu views this inefficiency as a broken piece of the traditional system that cannot be simply fixed from inside. A better solution, he feels, is instead opting to create a system that can act as a complimentary asset. According to Mincu, there are still 1.7 billion people that are not connected to the current financial system and don’t have any kind of basic financial infrastructure. Giving these people a chance to participate would increase the entire effectiveness of the system significantly for the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices