The DeFi Decoded Podcast

Join Alex Tapscott and Andrew Young as they decode the world of DeFi with special guest Rebecca Liao, Co-Founder and CEO at Saga. Listen in as they discuss Saga, Rebecca's incredible past leading into Web3, Web3 Gaming and Entertainment ecosystems, and more! Rebecca Liao is the CEO of Saga, a Web3 protocol for launching dedicated blockchains. Saga allows developers to create their own blockchains with just a single click. It provides dedicated runtime environments for high performance and low, predictable gas fees. Users can freely transfer assets between ecosystems using Saga's dedicated chains, which are IBC+ enabled. Rebecca was previously a Co-Founder and COO at Skuchain, a top blockchain company in trade and supply chain finance, reaching $5 billion in annual volume under her leadership. Rebecca is an Advisor to Sommelier Protocol, a Fellow at Stanford Law, Science, and Technology, and has a background in law, writing, and advising presidential campaigns with the Biden and Clinton administrations. Tune in to the 81st DeFi Decoded episode to hear Alex, Andrew, and Rebecca discuss all things Web3 Gaming and learn more about Saga. What led Rebecca to dive into the world of Web3, and what is her experience with presidential campaigning? How does Saga work for users? Which ecosystems should we be most excited about?

Join Alex Tapscott and Andrew Young as they decode the world of DeFi and Web3 with special guest Sasha Ivanov, Waves Ecosystem Founder. Today's topic: algorithmic stablecoins. Will they ever work? Waves is a global open-source platform for decentralized applications launched in 2016, based on proof-of-stake consensus and a community-driven technology stack. Ivanov has announced plans to launch a new stablecoin after their current USDN algorithmic stablecoin in the Waves ecosystem depegged, angering many in the Waves ecosystem. Tune in to the 80th DeFi Decoded episode to hear Alex, Andrew, and Sasha discuss all things stablecoins and learn more about Waves.

On today's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew sit down with crypto researcher Sam Andrew. Sam cut his teeth as an equity and fixed income analyst at a prominent New York-based hedge fund before turning his attention to Web3. His training on Wall Street has helped him bring a rigour and discipline to analyzing this new asset class. But it also forced him to re-train his brain to rethink valuation methodology and come up with some new ways to understand this technology. We discuss: does "value" exist in Web3? What are the top metrics we can use to measure it? Which assets does Sam think are undervalued, and which are overvalued based on his reasoning? Tune in to find out!

On today's episode, Andrew and Alex talk about crypto's stellar start to 2023. Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin and Ethereum are up more than 20% while some smaller names like Solana have fared even better. Is this a dead cat bounce? Short covering? A macro-driven rally lifting all risk-on boats? Or is this the start of a new bull market? Next they talk about how Ethereum is becoming 'ultra-sound' meaning net new-issuance of tokens is flat or declining. How does Ethereum compare to other big profitable enterprises like Apple who use excess profit to buy back stock much in the same way the Ethereum network uses excess network fees to retire ETH (a process known as 'burning'). As always, a little knowledge of traditional finance is helpful to understanding Web3!

On this episode, Alex and Andrew briefly summarize the situation with Solana. It turns out reports of the death of the once-ascendant Layer 1 blockchain were premature. Then, Alex shares his four Web3 predictions for 2023. First, enterprise adoption of Web3 will accelerate rather than slow down. Second, DeFi will grow beyond the insular crypto community because of better reputation scoring and the integration of real assets. Third, Web3 gaming will drive the next wave of digital asset adoption. New Web3 games will make earning and owning a nice to have rather than the point of the game. Fourth, the U.S. will pass a major law around crypto. Alex is cautiously optimistic the blockchain caucus in the U.S. congress and the Web3 lobby can steward this towards a reasonable outcome, but it comes with plenty of risks. Tune in to hear more!

Happy New Year! On today's episode of DeFi Decoded, Andrew and Alex discuss the situation with Solana. The prominent Layer 1 blockchain was heavily backed by disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankamn Fried. Solana was once dubbed an Ethereum killer and at its zenith had a market capitalization of $70 billion. Today it is fighting for its survival. Andrew explains why the current collapse, while painful, could set up Solana for a new era of more sustainable growth, so long as it can survive in the short term. Then, Andrew gives us his top three predictions for 2023. What are they? Tune in to find out.

On this episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andew sit down with Tom Dunleavy, Senior Research Analyst at Messari. 2022 was crypto's annus horribilis so they start with post-mortem for a challenging year. There were some huge setbacks, notably the collapse of FTX and other centralized exchanges and lending platforms, but also several major breakthroughs, such as the Ethereum Merge. Next, they discuss the outlook for 2023 and talk about core themes for investors, users, and builders in 2023, including the rise of app-chains, Web3 gaming, enterprise adoption, distributed physical infrastructure (DE-PIN), the future of layer 2's and competing layer 1's, and preview Messari's Crypto Theses report, which will be released before year-end.

Hollywood screenwriter Jesse Nickson-Lopez has brought some of modern TV's most indelible characters to life. As a founding member of the writing team on Stranger Things, she developed the storyline for the character Eleven and has written for The Outsiders, Narcos: Mexico, and other hit shows. Her next project, Lucia, will be directed by Damian Chazelle, the Academy Award-winning director of La La Land and Whiplash. At age 35, she has a résumé most writers aspire to. Despite her success, she considers screenwriting her day job. By night, she is the co-ounder of Web3 startup MV3. At the intersection of storytelling and technology, MV3 promises to disrupt TV, film, and the Hollywood business model itself. In this episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew chat with Jesse and MV3 co-founder Torey Kohara about how Web3 can reimagine storytelling and the business of entertainment.

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew talk about OpenAI's smash hit Chat GTP and how Andrew is using it to unlock new capabilities, debug software and accelerate the growth of SX Network. On the topic of SX, Andrew gives us a sneak peek into the roadmap for the SX Network Merge, and shares his vision for how prediction markets can help solve big problems, manage risk and support new governance models. But before all that, Alex tells us about his recent trip to Turkey where he was the keynote speaker at the Turkish Capital Markets Congress. Plagued by inflation many in Turkey have chosen crypto as an off-ramp. Alex was very impressed by the working knowledge of Web3 in many of the country's leading financial firms. The future of Web3 in Turkey looks bright!

WBTC and WETH have both been in the news recently. Though they have similar sounding names, they are different in both composition and utility. WBTC is an Ethereum-based token (known as ERC-20) issues by BitGo, backed by Bitcoin. It allows users to use Bitcoin on the Ethereum network. Frequent listeners will recall that Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, joined us on a previous episode where he told us about BitGo's custody business. WETH is also an ERC-20 token, but in this case, it is backed by ETH rather than Bitcoin. Also, unlike WBTC, the collateral for wETH is held in a smart contract, not with a company. wETH allows users to use ETH more easily in DeFi and other Web3 applications. On this episode Andrew and Alex discuss the origins, use-cases and risks of these products and what they tell us about where Web3 is today.