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Kiln: Democratising Value Creation in Digital Assets - Laszlo Szabo

Jan 23, 2025

Laszlo Szabo, co-founder of Kiln, transitions from hospitality to revolutionizing digital assets with his staking-as-a-service platform. He discusses Kiln's impressive achievements, securing over $13 billion in assets without slashing events. Laszlo sheds light on the intricacies of liquid staking and the growing institutional interest in decentralized finance. The conversation also highlights Kiln's mission to simplify staking for businesses through innovative solutions, making value creation more accessible in the crypto space.

59:58

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Episode guests

Laszlo Szabo

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Kiln leverages institutional-grade infrastructure to provide professional staking services, enhancing security and yield management for institutional investors.

Laszlo Szabo discusses the importance of balancing institutional support with decentralization to ensure the integrity and security of the Ethereum network.

Deep dives

The Journey to Founding KILN

Laszlo Szabo recounts his unique path into the crypto space, transitioning from a hospitality background to becoming a key player in blockchain technology. His initial exposure to Bitcoin in 2014 sparked a fascination that led him to explore the potential of decentralized applications through his involvement with ConsenSys. By 2017, he shifted his career focus from tech recruitment to entrepreneurial ventures in the blockchain sector, signaling a significant pivot toward product development. This journey laid the groundwork for his co-founding of KILN, where he could leverage his enthusiasm for technology and desire to build products within the blockchain ecosystem.

Intro

2min

From Hospitality to Blockchain: A Journey of Passion and Innovation

4min

From Hospitality to Tech: The Journey of Recruitment

3min

Navigating the Staking Landscape

16min

Unlocking Staking Potential with KILN

27min

Navigating DeFi: Risks and Institutional Strategies

8min

Kiln operates as a staking-as-a-service platform, primarily focused on Ethereum, enabling users to stake assets programmatically, managing validators, rewards, and commissions through an API-first approach. In addition, it offers white-label solutions that allow institutional clients to integrate staking functionalities into their own offerings, with unified API for all assets and rewards, making it easier for businesses to provide staking services without developing the infrastructure themselves. With more than $13bn worth of assets secured, Kiln has proven its reliability, having no slashing events thus far. Moreover, Kiln widget offers a no-code experience for launching custom earn options, integrated with every major wallet and custodian.

Topics covered in this episode:

Laszlo’s background
Founding Kiln
Enterprise-grade validators and slashing
DevOps & infrastructure maintenance
ETH staking and custody
Liquid staking and restaking
The evolution of staking providers and requirements
DeFi yield
Institutional investors
Kiln roadmap

Episode links:

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
Chorus1: Chorus1 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 Friederike Ernst.

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