In this discussion, MC Lader, President and COO of Uniswap Labs, and Marvin Ammori, Chief Legal Officer, dive into the intersection of technology and financial empowerment. They reflect on their experiences in building Uniswap and advocate for decentralized finance while addressing regulatory challenges. The duo draws parallels between the net neutrality movements and today’s crypto landscape, emphasizing the transformative potential of stablecoins and their vision for a future where open finance reshapes global economic access.
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insights INSIGHT
Technology As Power Shifter
Technology redistributes power by widening access to networks and financial infrastructure.
Who controls technology determines who gains economic and social power.
question_answer ANECDOTE
From Net Neutrality To Crypto Counsel
Marvin described his path from net neutrality fights to buying Bitcoin and engaging activists.
That activism led him to join decentralized internet projects and later Uniswap Labs.
insights INSIGHT
Money Changes The Open-Layer Dynamics
Crypto mirrors the open internet as an open layer above existing incumbents, but money raises distinct risks.
Financial rails face more regulatory friction and higher switching costs than attention markets.
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In this episode of The Slow Hunch, I spoke with MC Lader and Marvin Ammori, who spent four years together helping build Uniswap into one of the most important companies in decentralized finance. MC was President and COO; Marvin served as Chief Legal Officer after a long career as one of the internet’s leading policy lawyers.
We traced their shared slow hunch that technology can shift power: first through the open internet, and later through open financial systems.
We also spoke about the parallels between the net neutrality battles of the 2000s and the present-day struggle over how crypto is regulated, the challenge of building in the face of policy headwinds, and why stablecoins, programmable markets, and open protocols are placed to be the next rails for global finance.
This was a fun conversation, recorded at a moment when the policy climate for crypto is starting to thaw.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapters:
00:00:00 Cold open - policy headwinds under Gary Gensler
00:05:50 Their shared slow hunch: technology as a force for redistributing power
00:14:47 Winning the net neutrality fight
00:18:36 First encounters with Bitcoin
00:21:14 Parallels between the open internet and DeF
00:22:58 Spotting early policy threats and forming the DeFi Education Fund
00:23:34 Marvin recruits MC to Uniswap Labs
00:29:27 Scaling Uniswap from a tiny team to a full-stack protocol
00:34:36 Navigating growth amid SEC opposition
00:39:11 Gary Gensler’s impact on US crypto entrepreneurship
00:40:45 Stablecoins as the “lily pad” for mainstream adoption
00:43:20 Shifting perceptions on Wall Street
00:46:12 What’s next: stablecoins, tokenized markets, and on-chain identity
00:47:00 Building open, permissionless financial infrastructure
The Slow Hunch 
