Making Markets

We’re back, a year after our first quarterly recap, to talk through the big ticket items from the past three months. We go in depth on the banking problems that affected crypto and traditional markets, tie that back to Bitcoin’s performance, and close with some thoughts on NFTs. Enjoy.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----This episode is brought to you by OKX. You may have seen OKX on McLaren’s Formula 1 race car or Manchester City’s football kit. But what is OKX? OKX has over 730 spot trading pairs, 280 derivatives markets, and 1000 options markets. It processes 400,000 requests per second with 99.95% uptime. That’s why over 20 million traders and institutions choose OKX when they want to trade. Visit okx.com to learn more.-----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes(00:02:12) - (First question) - The general feel and landscape of crypto in Q1 of 2023(00:04:53) - The fallout Eric sees for the crypto space from recent bank collapses and more generally, risk in the industry(00:18:12) - How 24/7 markets and the broader banking system will function going forward(00:27:09) - An argument for the international stability of DeFi as enforced by bond vigilantes(00:29:38) - Balaji Covid tweet(00:34:55) - Why Ethereum now seems to be underrepresented in mainstream discourse(00:38:33) - The importance of Ethereum and the state of Solana as a competitor(00:41:04) - The state of the NFT market and why it seems so volatile and elusive (K2 NFT Collector)(00:46:24) - Matt’s recent NFT purchase(00:47:27) - How NFT creators are shaking up the art industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Christian Dittmeier. A former financial analyst, Christian was pulled into the crypto world after the wild and unexpected success of one of his side projects. Today, Christian is the co-founder of Evaluate, a platform for trading and swapping NFTs like Top Shot trading cards and Doodles wearables. In this episode, he talks about his insights and experiences in the world of NFTs. We discuss the different types of users, the value of swapping, and the decision to build on the Flow blockchain over Ethereum. Please enjoy my conversation with Christian Dittmeier.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.-----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes(00:02:33) - (First question) - How the founding team of Evaluate came to be(00:04:23) - What it was like for Evaluate to gain popularity so suddenly in the NFT boom(00:05:39) - How they made decisions about their business model and image(00:07:08) - How they think about collaborating with other builders in the space and branching out from their small niche market(00:09:51) - Dealing with the fast-moving and cut-throat nature of this nascent market(00:11:32) - Building a defensible and profitable business in an open-source world(00:13:35) - The nuances and challenges of deciding which chain to use for an NFT platform(00:16:14) - The irony of re-centralizing DeFi on an NFT platform(00:17:51) - His perspective on the community built around NFT capital(00:19:51) - Evaluate’s direct NFT-swapping system(00:23:28) - How sentimental value and “the endowment effect” play in to NFT valuations(00:25:40) - How NFTs can unlock new levels of fandom(00:27:37) - Key factors in building successful NFT systems and infrastructure(00:30:13) - Weathering volatility and staying innovative in the wake of the NFT boom(00:37:43) - The difficulties of avoiding speculators and securing a stable customer base (00:39:48) - What he’s most excited to build over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Itai Turbahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Dynamic Labs, talks about the current methods of logging onto a website, the promise and challenge of crypto wallets, and how Dynamic Labs is building an authentication system. They also discuss the evolution of crypto, potential use cases of wallets, revolutionizing real estate titles with blockchain, and prioritizing resources in a multi-chain thesis.

In this episode, Kevin Miao, Partner and Head of Credit at BlockTower Capital, discusses bringing the multi-trillion dollar securitization market on-chain. He explains how this will reduce friction, errors, and fees. They also explore the potential of blockchain technology in financial markets, securitization's role in reducing binary risk, and revolutionizing the mortgage industry. They discuss the challenges and potential of utilizing blockchain technology for loans and express excitement for bringing more aspects of the crypto space on chain.

This is Eric Golden and today we’re going to break down the mechanics behind three major blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. Blockchain is a term you hear a lot, both in this show and in Web3 more generally. But what do they actually mean and how do they work? That is the subject we’re going to cover today and something I’ve wanted to do for some time. My guest for this episode is Keone Hon. Keone is a Math Prodigy who spent close to a decade building systems for high-frequency trading. Today, he is the co-founder and CEO of Monad Labs and is building a blockchain alternative to Ethereum and Solana. He has that rare blend of deep technical knowledge and the ability to communicate clearly, so he is the perfect guest for this episode. Please enjoy my conversation with Keone.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here-----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes (00:02:47) - (First question) - An analogy to explain how crypto and blockchain work(00:11:20) - Scenarios to further explore his schoolyard analogy for Bitcoin(00:17:03) - The reality of the math and power balance surrounding blockchain technology(00:23:28) - Expanding the analogy to explain Ethereum(00:25:26) - The broad impact of Ethereum on smart contracting and proof of staking(00:29:08) - Major differences between proof-of-work versus proof-of-stake models(00:31:09) - Comparing Solana’s stateless design to the older chains(00:34:44) - The added privacy and speed advantages enabled by Solana(00:35:56) - The real security and risk profiles of these major chains(00:38:09) - Explaining Solana’s parallel transactions (00:40:52) - Why the creation of new chains and further chain optimization still matters(00:42:27) - Why he got interested in the problem of chain efficiency and accessibility(00:44:54) - How crypto tech continues to build upon itself and expand to new use cases(00:48:34) - How Monad is building their blockchain to solve inefficiencies in crypto markets(00:50:09) - How he thinks about competition given the open-source nature of the space(00:52:12) - The process of actually building and testing a new chain(00:55:49) - What motivates him to continue building(00:56:53) - Diffusing a new blockchain innovation to users and coders(00:58:38) - What he’s most excited to see built over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Avery Akkineni. As President of Vayner3, Avery has been at the forefront of guiding CMOs, brands, and corporations into Web3. This conversation is a little different for me as we focus on marketing and how to both connect and grow audiences in Web3. I’m fascinated by Avery’s work on Super Bowl commercials and learning what it is really like to work with creative brands such as Budweiser and Pepsi. To start this episode, I asked Avery to teach me about how traditional marketing works, before diving into case studies of how brands successfully leverage blockchain technology like NFTs. We then go behind the scenes with Vayner Media and their rapid testing of ideas on Gary Vee himself and her personal experience with their VeeFriends. Please enjoy my conversation with Avery Akkineni. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here -----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes(00:02:36) - (First question) - How her background in marketing informs her work at Vayner3(00:07:12) - The competitive and dynamic nature of the marketing industry(00:10:55) - How Vayner3 leverages agility and keeps up with trends(00:14:00) - Her pivot from corporate marketing to Web3 brand-building(00:16:24) - What attracted her to the NFT space in the early days(00:19:48) - Balancing risk aversion versus early adoption in marketing(00:22:30) - How different brands have come online to Web3 and how Vayner3 enables them(00:25:55) - Common mistakes made by brands trying to enter the space(00:29:00) - What she learned from the launch of VeeFriends(00:33:29) - How VeeFriends came to be and how it keeps momentum up(00:36:27) - How she approaches brands following the recent crypto downtown(00:39:59) - The aspects of Web3 adoption and growth that she’s most excited about(00:41:56) - What she’s most excited to see built over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Austin Campbell. Between my time working at Fidelity on money market funds and my passion for blockchain technology, I became obsessed with the idea of Stablecoins. Stablecoins can serve as a means of payment and a store of value for transactions. They also act as the bridge between the traditional finance system and the digital world. After my interview with Mike Dudas, I asked, who is the smartest person I can talk to about Stablecoins? He instantly responded, you need to speak with Austin and as you'll hear, I think he's right. Austin spent 15 years in traditional finance before managing $22bn of Stablecoin reserves for Paxos. Today, he's an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and the managing partner at Zero Knowledge Consulting. In this conversation, Austin helps me break down the nuts and bolts of how Stablecoins work. We also discuss the lessons crypto should learn from the traditional finance world and how the current US regulatory crackdown will shape the ecosystem going forward. Please enjoy this Stablecoin primer with Austin Campbell. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here -----Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes[00:03:21] - [First question] - What can be learned from TradFi and applied to crypto[00:05:13] - The basics of Stablecoins and why they are important[00:07:39] - The logistics and mechanics of Stablecoins from the ground up[00:17:14] - Time-delay and infrastructure problems when trading with Stablecoins[00:21:18] - Liquidity, time sensitivity, and credit risk for issuers and buyers of Stablecoins [00:24:59] - The roles, challenges, and faults of regulators in the space [00:33:04] - The extent to which he sees regulators favored versus fouled by crypto natives[00:34:50] - The SEC’s imposition that qualified custodians are needed to exchange crypto assets[00:37:53] - His takes on news regarding Paxos and the BUSD[00:43:01] - Concerns regarding Binance and its Stablecoin consolidations[00:46:30] - Aspects of global Stablecoin regulation he’s optimistic about[00:49:01] - Why the US may not be a promised land for crypto[00:50:21] - The positives and potential impact of Stablecoins broadly, despite the pushback[00:54:03] - The possibility of traditional assets using crypto rails[01:00:04] - What he’s most excited to see built over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Dan Finlay, the co-founder of MetaMask and Chief Web3 Ethos Officer at ConsenSys. MetaMask is a crypto wallet and has become a critical piece of web3 infrastructure, with over 30 million users around the world. We've likely all used MetaMask at some point, so I was excited to understand Dan's philosophical approach and long-term vision for the product, as well as talk to him about the challenges of securing digital assets and how they combat those with MetaMask. Please enjoy my conversation with Dan Finlay. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes[00:02:17] - [First question] - His view of hyperlinks and self-security[00:05:38] - What’s happening when you’re signing a smart contract with MetaMask[00:10:33] - An elevator pitch of what MetaMask Learn is [00:12:45] - Thinking about adoption when building general purpose tools in a technical space[00:15:21] - How people feel about computer security versus Web3 security [00:18:38] - Whether or not he wishes the stakes were lower for perfecting MetaMask[00:20:03] - Stepping into crypto and the founding story of MetaMask[00:23:12] - What their intentions were for building MetaMask in the first place[00:27:13] - Some examples of what they tried to solve that didn’t pan out [00:29:11] - Dealing with asset co-location and the pros and cons of it [00:35:24] - Whether or not MetaMask will deploy the first ‘revoke all’ button  [00:41:32] - Users generally being displeased with the program’s UX[00:44:40] - Thoughts about what to prioritize as they improve MetaMask [00:46:34] - The account abstraction without a protocol change proposal [00:49:27] - An example of someone building on SNAPS and how it is beneficial to users  [00:53:14] - What he’s most excited to build over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Eric Golden and my guest this week is Andrew Parish. Andrew's Twitter account @AP_Abacus has grown based on his access to rumors and information about crypto. He is no stranger to controversy and getting information flow. Andrew is aware his views and tweets can upset some, especially those in power he may be calling out. Andrew's background and information gathering helped him identify several high-profile issues with businesses like FTX and Gemini, and his Twitter account has become a go-to source for breaking rumors. Andrew is the co-founder of Arch Public, which is building automated trading algorithms and blockchain authentication for brands and alternative assets. We dive into the Gemini-Genesis and DCG Saga before raising an alarm on the coordinated actions of crypto regulators. Please enjoy my conversation with Andrew Parish. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.  ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes[00:02:40] - [First question] - His look behind the curtain at DCG Genesis and Gemini [00:05:46] - The connections he discovered between DCG and Gemini[00:07:40] - The special circumstances that led to Gemini’s unique exposure and platform[00:09:45] - How external lending by Genesis led to cascades of trouble in crypto markets[00:13:27] - DCG’s problematic transactions associated with Three Arrows[00:16:19] - The unraveling of DCG’s integrity following the collapse of FTX[00:17:27] - How Gemini tried to hang on to its image and win over public opinion[00:21:25] - A basic overview of the DCG-Gemini deal as it stands today[00:23:37] - His correction of the mainstream story about Grayscale (GBTC)[00:29:04] - His process of sourcing information and separating signal from noise[00:35:11] - How regulators are choking out crypto-based businesses using banking infrastructure[00:44:22] - The potential for legal escalation between banks and federal regulators[00:45:59] - A deeper look at circumstances that may point to conspiracy by regulators[00:49:25] - Additional concerns he has that he hasn’t shared yet on Twitter[00:50:54] - What he’s most excited to build over the next six months and six years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Will Weinraub. Will is the CEO and co-founder of OnChain studios, which is building Cryptoys. Cryptoys is a digital toy company that embraces different elements of web3 innovation, from collectible NFTs to play-to-earn gaming. We discuss the evolution of Cryptoys, how kids are increasingly used to digital products, and we have a really interesting discussion on the importance of different blockchains to build upon. Please enjoy my discussion with Will Weinraub. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.  ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag Show Notes[00:02:18] - [First question] - The success of Cryptoys brand deals despite crypto downturns[00:04:23] - The basics of IP licensing deals in the crypto industry[00:05:49] - The kind of external partners he typically deals with for toyetic brand deals[00:07:02] - Rewinding to the company’s genesis and how people reacted early on[00:14:50] - The prototype design for Cryptoys[00:16:06] - A closer look at the Cryptoys business model then and now[00:18:37] - How kids are increasingly attracted to digital products[00:21:05] - Why they can’t buy and sell their NFTs to kids today [00:23:13] - What stops a child from joining Opensea and buying an NFT [00:25:26] - His take on digital ownership and the pushback from the gaming community[00:29:31] - Where Cryptoys on their timeline for developing a gaming component  [00:30:24] - What building on different blockchains means for the competitive landscape [00:35:19] - Blockchains aren’t a one size fits all solution for application development [00:38:36] - Why Cryptoys needs a blockchain at all compared to being hosted on a server [00:40:41] - Potential risks to owning an asset on a newer blockchain [00:43:00] - His take on going from a tech startup to a toy-focused startup [00:44:47] - What he’s most excited to build over the next six months and six years   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices