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In this episode I sit down with Joseph, also known as CupoJOSΞPH, for a deep dive into the world of decentralized finance and the fascinating journey that led to the creation of Nerite—a feature-packed stablecoin protocol on Arbitrum.

From Joseph’s early days impressing a crush by learning Solidity and his time working at ConsenSys during the launch of DAI, to experimenting with unpegged stablecoins like RAI and Open Dollar, you’ll get an insider look at how stablecoins have evolved—and the hard lessons learned along the way. Joseph and Gramajo unpack why most users say they want non-USD pegged stablecoins but rarely use them, the challenge of driving adoption for genuinely novel DeFi tech, and what it means to build for “users who lie.”

They also explore the special sauce behind Nerite—borrowing at self-selected interest rates, supporting multiple types of collateral, composable design, and native money streaming via Superfluid (no wrapping required!). You’ll hear about the double-edged sword of immutability, the power of combining governance rights with DeFi utility, and why the Nerite team isn’t chasing decentralization theater with pointless frontends.

08:52 How Dai Maintains $1 Peg

14:11 "Liquidy V2: Superior Stablecoin Security"

15:59 "Liquidy V2 Licensing Model"

25:48 Delayed Compensation Critique

31:07 "Nerite Superfluid Token Feature"

31:53 Innovative Real-Time Payment System

39:49 Customizable Loan Interest Rates

45:39 Governance Token Trade-off Issues

50:28 "Neurite DAO's Role in Arbitrum"

56:40 Collateral Limitations and Future Adaptation

01:03:37 Developers' Challenges in Crypto

01:04:29 "Challenges of Building for Users"

Links:

Nerite.org

This whole podcast can be found onchain, check out my page if you would like to mint this episode.

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