Hello Defiers! Today, I'm bringing you a very special episode from a session I moderated at SXSW this year. SXSW is a massive festival annually held in Austin, Texas, that merges music, film, and tech into an exciting blend of creativity and innovation, drawing artists, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts from around the globe. At SXSW, I had the opportunity of leading a session with Chris Dixon, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where we focused on his recent publication, "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet." This book is an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the essence of the Web3 movement. Dixon has a way of making complex topics accessible to all. I'm excited for you to hear our conversation and dive into the insights Chris shared. Let's dive in!0:00 Intro0:50 Panel with Chris Dixon 1:50 Read, Write, Own6:55 Tokens14:33 Hyperfinancialization19:01 Main Use Cases of Crypto27:14 Plutocracy 33:42 Corporatization in Web342:20 AI Content50:05 POS Blockchain Risks54:13 CBDC's 56:08 Future Applications✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Li Jin is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. She is the co-founder and managing partner at Variant Fund, a venture firm that invests in Web3 and the ownership economy. Before founding Variant, Li Jin worked at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, where she helped to shape the firm’s views on the emerging tech landscape, including the gig and passion economies. In today's discussion, we delve into memecoins, Web3 social media, and the evolving landscape of token models, examining how these elements are shaping the future of digital economies and influencing user interaction in decentralized networks. 0:00 Intro 1:11 Variant Fund 3:20 Li Jin 4:55 Benefits of Blockchains at Consumer Level 7:55 Web3 Social Media 12:50 Speculative Media 18:20 Memecoin Products 24:24 Censorship 25:47 Web3 GTM Strategy 34:30 Token Models 47:41 Governance Tokens 52:00 Trends ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

In today's podcast we host Mike Silagadze, founder of ether.fi, an Ethereum restaking protocol, and Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder of Aethos, a decentralized policy engine being built on EigenLayer. Liquid restaking has recently emerged as a significant trend in the Ethereum ecosystem. In today's podcast, we'll delve into the use cases that restaking unlocks via Active Validating Services (AVSs) through EigenLayer, shedding light on how this innovation is shaping the ecosystem. 0:00 Intro 2:08 ether.fi 7:40 Aethos 13:15 Economic Security 18:28 AVS Allocations 23:20 Aethos Revenue 30:08 Risks of AVSs 39:40 Rehypothecation 43:07 Depeg Risk 54:14 ether.fi Roadmap 57:28 Aethos Roadmap Our sponsors https://www.solanacrossroads.com/ https://summer.fi/?utm_source=Defiant&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_content=Synfutures: https://oyster.synfutures.com/ ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

TN Lee is the founder of Pendle Finance - a DeFi platform that enables users to tokenize and trade future yield on Ethereum assets. Pendle has shown remarkable expansion since the beginning of the year, elevating its TVL from $250 million to over $3 billion in just a few months. In this podcast, we explore the fundamentals of Pendle Finance, providing a comprehensive understanding of one of DeFi's most complex and innovative products. We start off with a background into Lee, then breakdown Pendle's core concepts and gradually dive deeper into Pendle's use cases, risks, and future plans. 0:00 Intro 0:53 TL;DR Pendle 2:06 TN Lee 7:30 Pendle V1 12:13 Growth of Pendle 22:04 Pendle Basics (PT, YT) 30:53 Use Cases 36:25 Pendle Users 38:25 Risks 48:43 Learnings From Kyber 49:39 TradFi vs Pendle 51:20 $PENDLE 58:19 What's Next? Our sponsor Synfutures: https://oyster.synfutures.com/ DeFi Saver: https://defisaver.com/?utm_source=Defiant+Youtube&utm_medium=Podcast+Shoutout+february&utm_campaign=Defiant+podcast+shoutout+ad ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Tomer Weller is the VP of Product at Stellar, one of the earliest alternative Layer 1 chains that existed before Ethereum. Stellar recently launched Soroban, its smart contract platform, designed to enhance the blockchain's functionality with efficient, developer-friendly tools for building sophisticated applications. In today's conversation, we dive deep into Stellar, overview their fundamentals, reflect on its decade long journey as a Layer 1 blockchain, and have a closer look into the current use cases. Thanks to Stellar for supporting independent journalism. 0:00 Intro 0:58 Stellar Overview 2:01 Tomer Weller 3:48 Stellar Fundamentals 8:49 Being Early 12:06 Smart Contracts 17:26 Attracting Developers 23:09 Use Cases 29:52 Argentina 33:10 Franklin Templeton 36:49 Censorship Resistance 39:30 Scaling 55:17 Stellar Validators 1:00:58 What's Next? ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Erica Kang is the CEO and founder of KryptoSeoul, a leading community building team in South Korea that focuses on blockchain projects. Erica has been a bridge between the East and the West for a very long time, and today we get to dive deep into her journey. She grew up in Korea, then moved to the United States and did a stint in Vietnam. She has not only reshaped the blockchain landscape, but she's also championed a new era of community driven empowerment. Before we dive into all of that, Erica will share a little bit about how she first got involved in the crypto community. 0:00 Intro 0:48 Community in Crypto 5:16 Erika Kang's Personal Journey 8:03 Differences in Culture 13:12 BUIDL Asia + ETH Seoul 15:47 Crypto Projects in Korea 20:30 Kimchi Premium 22:20 Information Flow 26:55 BTC as SOV 30:09 Terra's Implosion 33:00 KryptoSeoul Community 38:17 Events in Asia 40:50 How are you defiant? ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

In today's podcast we host two guests: Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin, and Meg Lister, GM at Gitcoin Grants Labs. Gitcoin is a platform that connects developers with open-source projects for funding, collaboration, and building digital public goods through various forms of contribution like coding, design, and more. In our conversation we learn about the origin story of Gitcoin and breakdown the main funding mechanisms, such as quadratic funding and retroactive funding, benefits of onchain capital allocation over traditional funding mechanisms, and we delve into Allo Protocol, an open-source protocol that enables groups to efficiently and transparently allocate pooled capital. 0:00 Intro 1:37 Kevin Owocki and Meg Lister 4:12 The Story of Gitcoin 12:39 Quadratic and Retroactive Funding 18:21 Main Usecases 24:35 Grants Programs in the Bull 28:44 Onchain Capital Allocation 33:53 Allo Protocol 37:33 Gitcoin Token 38:17 Revenue 41:01 Ultimate Vision 49:05 Fiat Onramps Our sponsor Synfutures: https://oyster.synfutures.com/ ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Evan Cheng is the Co-founder & CEO at Mysten Labs, which is the team behind Sui Network. In their words, Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform "designed to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible". In our conversation we explore the potential of this up and coming Layer 1 by learning about the underlying motivation of the founder, what makes it different from other blockchains, in particular Aptos, the current main uses cases, and more. 0:00 Intro 1:06 Who is Evan Cheng 8:32 Why Web2 doesn't work 12:05 Lessons from building Libra 15:46 Sui vs Other Layer 1s 27:11 Modular Blockchains 28:50 Sui Use Cases 33:51 Challenges of usng Move 36:43 Future of DeFi 44:00 Bull Market 2024 46:12 Incentive Program on Sui 51:30 Future of Blockchains 53:50 What's Next for Sui? Our sponsor https://oyster.synfutures.com?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=news_release#/odyssey ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Guy Young is the founder and CEO of Ethena Labs, which is the entity behind Ethena, the synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum. Ethena also introduces a universally available dollar-linked savings option known as the 'Internet Bond'. Ethena introduces an innovative stablecoin model. Throughout our discussion, we thoroughly explore the mechanics and intricacies of Ethena, gaining a deeper understanding of its operation and the risks involved. 0:00 Intro 1:24 Guy Young's Background and Ethena Origin Story 5:33 How is USDe Different? 11:56 Off Exchange Provider Risks 20:23 ETH Short Positions 31:08 Insurance Fund 38:35 USDe Scalability 42:44 New Collateral 45:35 Staked ETH Depeg 48:48 Stablecoin / USDe Use Cases 57:33 Ethena Airdrop 1:00:00 Biggest Risk 1:02:42 Success for Ethena 1:05:40 Revenue Our sponsors https://defisaver.com/?utm_source=Defiant+Youtube&utm_medium=Podcast+Shoutout+february&utm_campaign=Defiant+podcast+shoutout+ad https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Avery Ching is the co-founder and CTO of Aptos, which is a Layer 1 blockchain developed by former Facebook employees that launched towards the end of 2022. Aptos uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism and aims to achieve high throughput and high security for smart contracts. In our conversation, we cover the fundamentals of Aptos, with Avery highlighting the unique features that set Aptos apart from other Layer 1s, we delve into the technical aspect, focusing on the concept of Dynamic Parallelism, Avery addresses the concerns surrounding the significant venture capital investment in Aptos, we also explore the current and potential future use cases, including the introduction of the Aptos Phone. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:45 What makes Aptos different? 10:15 Trilemma 15:07 Aptos fundamentals 17:45 Aptos VS Sui 20:07 Dynamic Parallelism 23:30 VC Chain 25:15 Points and Airdrops 27:05 Aptos Labs + Foundation 28:27 Aptos Use cases 38:17 Verifying Content On Chain 42:30 Aptos Phone 48:33 Future of Blockchain 51:45 Success for Aptos ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Brendan Farmer is the co-founder of Polygon, which is a project that is focused on scaling Ethereum. Brendan's contributions have been instrumental in the research and development of key scaling technologies within Polygon's framework, including Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, and Polygon Miden. Our conversation begins with an exploration of the foundational elements that constitute the Polygon ecosystem. We then delve into the realm of ZK technology, discussing its advantages as a preferred scaling solution, its comparison with optimistic rollups, and the intricacies of Polygon's Aggregation Layer and CDK. We also discuss how the future of blockchain activity can be made more efficient and optimized with Aggregation Layer. Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:13 Polygon's Products 7:55 Zero Knowledge Proofs 11:15 ZKP vs Optimistic Rollup 15:42 Aggregation Layer 38:00 Non-EVM Chains x AggLayer 41:40 Monolithic Chain 47:40 Consumer Apps 50:30 Polygon in 2024 Our sponsors https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Alex Blania is a cofounder of Worldcoin alongside Sam Altman and Max Novendtsern. Worldcoin is aiming to become the world's largest digital identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. Worldcoin could be considered the frontrunner in terms of ambition, leveraging unique methods to accelerate the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency technologies globally, to a point where critics have labelled it as "dystopian". In our conversation we dive into the controversial aspect of Worldcoin, get a better grasp of what the project is about and its founding story, the $WLD token, the (new) Orb, how scanned data is stored, and much more. Our sponsors https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 https://defisaver.com/?utm_source=Defiant+Youtube&utm_medium=Podcast+Shoutout+february&utm_campaign=Defiant+podcast+shoutout+ad TS 0:00 Intro 1:20 What is Worldcoin? 7:52 $WLD Token 8:35 Who is Alex Blania? 12:04 The Orb 22:28 Dystopian Scenario 27:16 How Scanned Data is Stored 31:08 Bribing with Crypto 33:40 $WLD Utility 34:36 UBI 36:00 Usecases of Worldcoin 48:20 Bigger Issues 50:55 The New Orb 53:30 Decentralizing 54:50 The End State 56:30 Biggest Risk 57:30 Treasury 01:00:50 Doing things differently ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

⚠️IMPORTANT NOTICE ⚠️ Today we're joined by Chris Amani, who's the CEO of Terraform Labs. Our conversation with Chris unfolds in two parts. Initially recorded on January 17th, we begin by catching up on the latest developments and the new strategic direction of the Terra ecosystem following its collapse in May 2022. Intriguingly, just days after our initial dialogue, Terraform Labs announced its filing for bankruptcy. In the latter part of our discussion, we delve into the intricacies of this voluntary decision to explore the potential implications and expected outcomes stemming from the bankruptcy filing. Chapters 0:00 Important Notice 0:49 Podcast Intro 1:50 Terra Reborn 5:55 The Day of the Crash 18:58 Terra Recap 31:20 The SEC Trial 36:30 Terra Classic vs Terra 2.0 41:04 Terra 2.0 Vision 54:02 TFL Treasury 58:00 Lessons from Building in Crypto 1:13:00 Terra 2.0 Roadmap 1:15:28 EXTENSION: Terraform Labs Files for Bankruptcy 1:22:54 Ideal outcome 1:26:13 Impacts on Roadmap ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Today we're joined by Mustafa Al-Bassam, CEO and Co-Founder of Celestia Labs. 15 years after Satoshi, we finally have what a blockchain actually is Celestia provides the ability to publish data and make sure that data is available. Celestia had what many are calling one of the best launches of 2023, and they are the first Data Availability Layer live today. In our conversation we get into how Mustafa built Celestia, other Data Availability Layers in the space, how Celestia can be thought of as a bulletin board for computers with some cryptographic and economic assurances - computers posting info so everyone can see it. It's so simple. It's an obvious fundamental building block. Yet they were the first to do it. Prior to Celestia, Mustafa was generally known for his expertise in ethical hacking. He had the US government at the age of 16 and was sentenced for it. We get into this and so much more, but first to ground the conversation, Mustafa shares what he is focused on at Celestia today. 0:00 Intro 1:10 Mustafa Al-Bassam 8:45 Hacking the US Government 10:47 Lazy Ledger 14:13 Colab with Vitalik 16:00 Challenges 18:00 DA and Celestia within Blockchain 19:27 Modular Blockchain 21:54 Monolithic Chains 24:55 Celestia within Cosmos 25:40 Celestia technicals 29:08 Requirements to run a node 35:05 The Graph vs Celestia 36:42 Developer experience 38:23 Starting fresh 40:21 Advice for teams 41:10 Celestia's culture 43:27 Payments 45:10 Decentralized Stablecoins ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Matt Hougan is the CIO of Bitwise, which is a crypto index fund manager and one of the issuers of Bitcoin ETFs. Hougan is a renowned figure in the financial sector, known for his expertise in cryptocurrency and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In our conversation we get into Matt's initial reaction to the BTC ETF launch, the expected inflows for 2024, and the often underestimated impacts of these developments. We also discuss unique Vanguard's stance, the evolution of Bitcoin ETFs, why Bitwise maintains the lowest fees, Matt Hougan's background, possibility of Ethereum ETFs, and the growing understanding of Ethereum in traditional finance. Finally, we touch upon the centralization risks of Bitcoin, the future of Bitcoin ETFs, and Bitcoin price forecast. 0:00 Intro 0:46 Initial thoughts on BTC ETF launch 2:17 Inflows for 2024 4:37 Underestimated impact 8:11 Vanguard is goofy 9:40 Self sovereignty 12:30 History of Bitcoin ETFs 16:53 Why Bitwise has the lowest fees 20:20 Matt Hougan's background 23:10 ETF hate 26:45 Crypto ETFs 29:08 Ethereum ETF 31:07 TradFi understand Ethereum better than Bitcoin 36:30 Normalizing Bitcoin 42:00 Centralization risk of Bitcoin 45:47 What's next for Bitcoin ETFs 47:20 We're in a bull market 48:40 Bitcoin price forecast ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io

Today we're joined by Jason Bailey, Co-Founder and CEO of ClubNFT. ClubNFT provides solutions to help collectors analyze, monitor, and protect their NFT collections. Jason is an O.G. in the NFT space and today he shares many stories from back in the day. He was an early collector on SuperRare. He created the first NFT IRL drop at Christie's art event back in 2018. He'd been Red Pilling traditional art collectors before the term NFT was even coined. In our conversation we get into Jason's background in both art and tech, his views on generative art, as well as a deep dive into ClubNFT and the solutions they help solve for. But first, Jason tells us why he's passionate about the NFT space. Chapters 0:53 Passion for NFTs 2:52 Blockchain x Art 7:22 IRL NFT Airdrop 11:42 TradArt vs Crypto Art 17:20 Problem with NFTs 22:34 Arweave 24:40 ClubNFT 33:28 NFT standards 35:30 NFT culture 41:25 AI 43:39 Hopium for NFT space 48:30 Embracing crypto art 50:55 Imposter syndrome ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Illia Polosukhin is the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, which is a sharded, proof-of-stake, Layer 1 blockchain. Originally conceived as an Artificial Intelligence endeavor, NEAR underwent a transformation, pivoting its focus to become a crypto project. We begin our conversation by exploring NEAR's shift into crypto, and later gain deeper insight into NEAR's core principles, underlying technology, the users, builders, as well as anticipated new features in the near future. Chapters 1:04 Who is Illia Polosukhin? 4:04 NEAR’s design 7:52 Mini Blockchains 9:30 Consensus mechanism 10:29 NEAR token 12:30 Participating in NEAR Network 13:11 Physical shards 18:10 Delegation 19:32 Liquid staking on NEAR 20:50 Goal & Design 26:23 Ideal use cases for NEAR 33:54 Bridging 39:38 Attracting users and builders 44:38 New crosschain mechanism 48:10 Future of Blockchain 54:31 Future of NEAR 59:15 AI run governance ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Jameson Lopp is the CTO of CasaHODL, a company specializing in Bitcoin security solutions. He has played a pivotal role in developing products and services that empower individuals to safeguard their digital assets. Jameson is a globally recognized voice from his written work on cybersecurity, privacy and the social implementations of Bitcoin. Trigger warning for those in the Ethereum community and beyond as this is a spicy episode that gets gritty with the importance of individual privacy and protecting personal info in the digital age. 0:54 Casa 1:50 The Bitcoin Journey 4:34 Time at BitGo 5:41 Blocksize Wars 9:24 Disappearance of Satoshi 10:49 F*ck You Money 12:17 Bitcoin's major accomplishment 13:12 Why did Bitcoin survive? 14:30 Why did Satoshi not touch his Bitcoin? 17:04 What happens after all Bitcoins are mined? 22:09 Jameson's passion towards crypto 24:10 Bitcoin node syncing 29:50 Decentralization 31:10 Privacy on Bitcoin 32:31 Setting up a home node 33:31 The Swatting Story 43:03 More on Casa 51:36 Self custody 53:10 Casa supporting Ethereum 56:10 Thoughts on Ethereum 59:41 Is $ETH Money? 1:02:06 Bitcoin developers 1:05:06 Evolution of Bitcoin/crypto 1:0838 Bitcoin's Roadmap 1:15:00 How is Jameson Defiant? Our sponsor https://thegraph.com/ ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io

Chris Bradbury is the CEO of Summer.fi (previously oasis.app). Summer.fi is the 6th largest DeFi protocol that enables users to borrow, lend, and multiply assets across multiple DeFi protocols. In our conversation we dive into the basics of Summer.fi, the rebrand from oasis.app, learn about popular strategies within the platform and their risks, UX updates, competition, and much more. 0:04 Intro to Chris Bradbury 0:50 TL;DR Summer.fi 2:26 Rebrand from oasis.app 9:20 DeFi in one frontend 16:20 Popular DeFi strategies 30:30 Risks of looping strategies 40:40 Risks of leverage 47:40 DeFi vs CeFi 57:26 UX changes coming for summer.fi 1:02:55 Summer.fi competition 1:06:55 noob vs degen 1:09:01 wen token? 1:09:45 Summer.fi in 10 years

Paradigm announces the launch of the Paradigm Policy Lab, a collaborative space for academics, policy experts, lawyers, and technologists in the crypto sector. The lab, a first in the field, focuses on research and analytical thinking applied to policy in the crypto world. Over the last year, Paradigm has become a policy leader, involved in legal battles, hosting discussions, and publishing research. The Policy Lab, guided by three principles, aims to impact the crypto policy landscape through evidence-based advocacy, interdisciplinary research with technical depth, and a commitment to humility, iteration, and crypto expertise.