Bribery and Governance in DeFi

A smart contract’s rigid rule system represents a double-edged sword. ‘The Code is Law’, but what happens when rogue large language models or AI agents bend the Law? Can smart contracts be weaponised to serve a criminal agenda? In his ‘Oracle’ novel, Ari Juels explores this thesis and issues an eery warning regarding the blockchain x AI intersection. In this imminent future, oracles play a crucial role, allowing LLMs to push data on-chain or smart contracts to pull off-chain data.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Criminal Smart Contracts
• Oracle x LLM convergence
• Preventing malicious intents through oracle systems
• AI x crypto use cases
• DAOs
• Entropy in voting behaviours
• Dark DAOs
• TEEs & private smart contracts
• MEV & proofs of transaction ordering
• Future blockchain research

Episode links:

• Ari Juels on Twitter
• 'The Oracle: A Novel' by Ari Juels
• Chainlink on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
• Chorus One: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.