The Unstoppable Podcast

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we speak with Jarrod Dicker, a VC at TCG, about something both he and TCG are excited about: the intersection between consumers and crypto. We start by getting his reflections on his first learning experience in blockchain—a startup called Po.et that aimed to put digital content onto the blockchain. While he reflects that Po.et was probably too early to the market, Jarrod believes in consumers driving crypto, and that powers his work with TCG. We also get his perspective on digital ownership, tokens, and NFTs, and quiz him about his own DAO, Dark Star.   Part of why Jarrod has a media-focused DAO like Dark Star is his love for writing. Dark Star aims to be a constructive lens to think about where crypto is going, by looking at what it has done so far. Jarrod has a background in traditional media and knows how the real-world environment of a newsroom drives creativity, together with the ownership of multiple stakeholders in storytelling. He thinks this is an exciting direction for a media DAO to go in (and is part of why he loves pioneering it in Dark Star).Throughout this conversation, Jarrod’s excitement for how the new consumer wave is going to change and shape what’s coming is infectious. --You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Jarrod Dicker, on Twitter and LinkedIn, and you can learn more about his DAO, Dark Star, here.--Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep producing awesome content for you and you won't miss an episode. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we chat with photographer Kristopher Shinn to get his perspective on the growth of NFTs. We start with his journey to photography (via music and drums) and learn how he was inspired by seeing other travel photographers to go on that same journey himself. We also get inside the process of making an NFT from start to finish, what platforms he uses to sell them (including pros and cons), and finish by talking about what the future of NFTs is, as well as sharing some of his fun tweets from an ever-growing Twitter following.Kristopher has a focus on water in his photography, and a recent collection showcases his love of the ferry—which comes from using it so often and seeing people in their private worlds as they contemplate the beauty all around them. One of his collections is shot entirely on film, which is a format he prefers to digital and he sees himself mostly shooting on film going forward. The process of how something shot on film becomes an NFT is not obvious and he explains his own process. At the same time, he also explains what an NFT is for those who are still unclear about it.The path for artists is changing because of NFTs and Kristopher shares his perspective on two platforms he currently uses, Foundation and Opensea, and the pros and cons of both. It’s one thing to read about NFTs in the news and it’s another to hear from someone actually working, making a living, and influencing in that space, and it’s wonderful to hear Kristopher share his knowledge and experience.--You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Kristopher Shinn, on Twitter and LinkedIn, and you can find links to all his photography here.--Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep producing awesome content for you and you won't miss an episode. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we speak with Eva Beylin, Director of The Graph Foundation. She explains how she got into crypto, what led her to Ethereum and The Graph Foundation, what The Graph does and is doing, and what she sees the Foundation doing in the near and medium term. We also chat with Eva about eGirl Capital, of which she is a founding member.Eva speaks about her path into crypto after business school and management consulting for financial services companies. She sees that technology in its current form tends towards monopolization — and crypto is a cure for that. She knows that there are great financial rewards in crypto but is more philosophically involved: she likes the idea of decentralizing power and encouraging more people to participate.Eva also speaks about what The Graph is (“the Google of blockchain,” she says), what its stakeholders are and their roles, and the importance of attracting non-technical people to the project as a whole.In her role at The Graph Foundation, Eva is tasked with growing the ecosystem through grants and governance. She also shares the type of governance currently in use for the Foundation and how that relates to the way The Graph started: a hosted service, not a decentralized network, allowing for a lot of feedback as well as for devs to get used to the technology.We finish by talking about eGirl Capital, one of Eva’s passion projects, of which she is a founding member. It’s a personal outgrowth of what she’s doing at The Graph Foundation, encouraging and curating good projects, but by putting her own skin in the game.--You can follow Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Eva Beylin, on Twitter and LinkedIn, and you can check out The Graph Foundation here.--Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep producing awesome content for you and you won't miss an episode. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we sit down with Chase Chapman, Co-Founder at Decentology, and talk about everything from what got her into crypto originally, her passion for DAOs, and how those who want to get involved with them can get started. She shares her thoughts on the danger of burnout when working in the crypto space, as well as talking about how companies and social interactions will continue to evolve in an anonymous, time-asynchronous space. Part of what drives Chase (and Decentology) is a desire to make crypto more accessible to people in general. One of the ways she sees this happening is through DAOs. These make it possible for the developers and auditors—the actual community working on a project—to have the freedom of freelancing and with the upside of ownership.It isn’t risk-free, as of course the tokens earned for these projects can swing wildly in value: they’re nothing like a traditional fixed asset or currency.Chase also shares the tip of ‘lurking’—it’s a great way to find out what the vibe is like in a DAO and where you could contribute. She likens it to the real-life equivalent of being able to look at the Slack conversations of a company you are interviewing with.We finish by talking about the social implications of all this developing tech: What are some ways to avoid burnout?How can you build empathy with people whose identities are anonymous?How can IRL events (like retreats) help build your DAO?Will the corporations fall to DAO governance?--You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Chase Chapman, on Twitter and LinkedIn, and you can check out her podcast here.--Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so we can keep producing awesome content for you and you won't miss an episode. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to Tor Bair, Founder of Secret Network. It’s a data privacy platform for Web 3.0 and the first blockchain using smart contracts that have data privacy built-in by default.We talk about privacy and blockchains in general, and Tor tells us how he developed an interest in privacy and how the idea of Secret Network was born. We discuss some of the privacy issues facing blockchains today and the potential solutions for them.Should there be different privacy options for individuals, governments, and businesses? We talk about this, and whether the notion of “privacy by default” contradicts the transparent nature of blockchain.Tor shares some ideas on how to prevent bad actors from taking advantage of permissionless systems and gives some examples of applications that have already been built on Secret. He also explains how Secret works with Ethereum dApps.Finally, Tor teases a few things Secret is working on in the near term, along with their long-term vision, and gives his opinion on the best-kept secret in crypto.—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Tor Bair, on Twitter and check out Secret Network here.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to our CEO Matthew Gould about blockchain privacy. This is a big topic of debate in crypto — should blockchains be open and transparent by default, or should they keep our personal transactions and information private?We talk about the differences between individuals and corporate entities when talking about privacy, and what we really mean when we talk about public vs private data. Which types of data should be kept private and which should be made public?What about information that we don’t mind being public today, but might want to privatize in the future? Matthew explains how public or private blockchain transactions are right now, and how that could change in the future. Where do we ultimately want to end up?Matthew also shares some advice for people concerned about privacy, and what they should be watching out for right now. We discuss some best practices for builders to ensure privacy is built into new dApps and projects and, finally, talk about some of the companies and projects that are already working on privacy-related things.—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to Sarah Hamburg, co-founder of Opscientia, a community owned Open Science ecosystem, and essentially an Open Science DAO.Sarah talks about how she learned about crypto from her brother, Harry, and how she first began to join blockchain and science together. We talk about how Opscientia was born and how it’s developed since the early days, and how Sarah envisages people working together in Opscientia in the future. What’s her long-term vision? Sarah tells us why it’s so important to democratize science. We also discuss DAOs in general, where things are going well and what still needs to improve. Finally, we chat about the importance of building individual human relationships in the crypto community.—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Sarah Hamburg, on Twitter and learn more about Opscientia here.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to Jacob Martin. He’s an “NFT attorney” — an attorney in Southern California with an interest in crypto and blockchain.Jacob tells us about how taxes work with NFTs from a legal perspective, and how long-term capital gains work with NFTs. He also shares the best way for people to keep track of their NFTs and other blockchain transactions — are there tools for this?We talk about how gas fees play into the tax issue, and Jacob explains the legal definition of securities and collectibles (and which one best describes NFTs).Jacob shares his thoughts on the best things regulators could do for NFTs, and what would happen to the NFT community in the event of a big SEC lawsuit. We also talk about the legal implications of forming a DAO without making it an LLC or legal entity.Finally, Jacob talks a little about some of his other projects, like Ready Player DAO, and his own tax-based NFT project coming soon.—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Jacob Martin, on Twitter.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to Hamzah Khan. He’s the Head of DeFi at Polygon (formerly Matic Network) which is, in very simple terms, a protocol and framework for scaling on the blockchain.Hamzah talks about his journey to becoming Chief DeFi Officer at Polygon, along with the genesis story of MATIC and how it evolved into Polygon. We talk about what SDK is and what it means for the blockchain, some of the scalability challenges facing Ethereum, and whether Eth2 will solve these. Do we still need layer-two solutions and SDKs?Hamzah talks about security — are layer twos as secure as layer ones? We also discuss how the MATIC token works, along with some of the projects that have been built on Polygon and which ones Hamzah is most excited about.Finally, we chat about what’s coming next. How easy will it be to switch between Polygon and Ethereum in the future, and what does the future in general hold for this space?—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Hamzah Khan, on Twitter and learn more about Polygon here.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com

In this episode of The Unstoppable Podcast, we’re talking to Kinjal Shah. She’s a Senior Associate at Blockchain Capital, a crypto venture fund, and an investor at the Komorebi Fund, the very first investment DAO focused specifically on funding female and non-binary crypto founders.Kinjal talks about her experience moving from traditional financial services into crypto. She explains how Blockchain Capital works and the kinds of projects they typically invest in.We discuss how Blockchain Capital decides which projects to invest in, and Kinjal shares some underdog projects which people might not be aware of. We discuss infrastructure and the biggest needs in this space right now, along with some different approaches to bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.Kinjal shares how she feels about DAOs — are people jumping into them too fast? Will they ever replace traditional VCs? We also talk about how Komorebi started and where the idea came from, along with how decision-making takes place and how people can get involved.Finally, we discuss some ideas on how we can make the crypto space more welcoming for women in general.—You can follow Matthew on Twitter and LinkedIn, Diana on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about Unstoppable Domains and our work here.You can follow our guest, Kinjal Shah, on Twitter and learn more about Blockchain Capital and the Komorebi Fund.—Don’t forget to rate, download, and subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss an episode and we can keep producing awesome content for you. Check out $5 .com Fridays and $5.52 .com transfers for up to $2000 in discounts. Only at https://unstoppabledomains.com