The DeFi Decoded Podcast

On today's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew discuss some of the steps centralized exchanges (CEXes) can take to restore user trust. These solutions split into the "fiat variety" such as better governance, stronger regulation and regular audits and "on-chain variety" such as proof-of-reserves and proof-of-solvency. They also discuss the ongoing fallout from FTX which has engulfed crypto lender Genesis and had a knock-on effect with the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and discuss how asset management giants Apollo and Hamilton are embracing tokenized securities.

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew sit down with Mike Belshe, Founder and CEO of BitGo, one of the world's leading firms in institutional staking, custody and trading firms, holding over $20 billion for some of the world's largest cryptoasset investors and many companies. Mike gives his perspective on the collapse of FTX, adding a few sensible recommendations for what industry leaders can do to prevent the "next FTX." He tells us why he's super bullish on DeFi but also why we will still need trusted third parties like BitGo in the future. Andrew and Alex mostly just listen as Mike gives a masterclass on how to run a digital asset business safely, sustainably and with an eye for future growth.

FTX, a top global exchange that counts supermodel Giselle Bundchen as a spokesperson, and was once valued at over $30 billion USD, is on the brink of collapse following a historic liquidity and solvency crisis that left the company scrambling to raise capital or sell itself to rivals. Founder SBF, who we once compared to J. Pierpont Morgan for his role as lender of last resort during the Summer 2022 lending crisis, has himself succumbed to the hubris and poor risk management that sent the industry into turmoil this year. Today, we stand on the brink of a long, bleak crypto winter. Will crypto emerge from FTX's collapse with a renewed commitment to trustless, decentralized tools? Or will we end up with an effective monopoly with one too-big-to-fail business in Binance dominating the market? Andrew and Alex give their best shot at predicting where we go from here.

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew sit down with Jack Zampolin, Co-founder of Sommelier, and former Product Manager at Tendermint. He's no Doctor, but the Strangelove Ventures founder has breathed life into several Cosmos's most well-known applications such as Akash Network, where he was also product manager. This "Jack of all trades" now has his sights set on cross-chain implementation of IBC, starting with Polkadot. Jack tells us about his investment thesis for Cosmos, why a portfolio approach is best, and why he thinks most of the killer apps on Cosmos and in Web3 generally are yet to be built. He may try to build them all!

Cosmos is highly regarded in the Web3 world for its novel and robust design, which allows developers to launch application specific chains while benefiting from the shared architecture of the Cosmos "Hub." For example, dYdX, the popular DeFi derivatives platform, recently migrated from Ethereum to Cosmos, citing a desire to be masters of their own fate. However, ATOM, the token most people associate with Cosmos, has never properly gotten its due, languishing outside the Top 20 cryptoassets behind Litecoin and Shibu Inu. The Team at the Cosmos Hub want to change that by making ATOM a key rallying point for the ecosystem, which they hope will lead to greater value capture at the token level and improve the overall state of Cosmos. On this episode, Alex and Andrew speak to Sam Hart, Strategy lead of the Cosmos Hub and the lead author of the ATOM 2.0 whitepaper on this vision for an ATOM-centric future.

On today's episode, Alex and Andrew speak with Aryan Sheikhalian, Head of Research at CMT Digital, one of the world's leading digital asset venture capital firms. Aryan walks through CMT Digital's investment philosophy, its core focus areas within crypto, and he makes a few predictions for 2023. Aryan is interested first and foremost in infrastructure - ways to make Web3 work better. For example, he talks about the need for better sources of off-chain data (so-called "Oracles") to input into smart contracts and how to invest in it as a theme. You won't want to miss it!

On this week's episode, Andrew and Alex start by discussing recent exploit of the Binance chain's most popular bridge, which led to the theft of nearly $600 million of BNB, the chain's native token, before the network was paused and much of the theft reversed. Binance chain is more centralized than Ethereum and others, and the swift pause, though effective, was controversial. Some argued that any blockchain that can be paused and reversed is no blockchain at all – just another centralized system. Others argued that the pause was sensible considering the potential loss. After dipping on the news, BNB again traded in line with the market, suggesting investors and holders didn't penalize them for the decision to pause (and may have even rewarded them for it). The Binance Chain situation exposed a philosophical rift in the industry between "decentralization maxis" who believe decentralization should be put ahead of all other considerations, and "adoption maxis" who believe trade-offs must be made to scale Web3. Who is right? Alex wrote up the discussion for Ninepoint's weekly newsletter, Digital Asset Digest. Subscribe here: www.digital.ninepoint.com

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew talk about how the Twitter take-over battle has illuminated how the world's richest people think about blockchains and Web3. In some revealing text exchanges made public because of the civil suit, Elon Musk is seen considering the value of turning Twitter into a protocol, with the urging of billionaires like Jack Dorsey and Sam-Bankman-Fried before concluding, in essence, the technology is not ready for prime time. But is there value in reimagining traditional businesses like social media as web3 protocols with token-holders rather than stockholders? Would that lead to better network health or more of the same? Tune in to find out.

On today's episode, Alex and Andrew dig into the current macro situation and debate the 'Milkshake Theory" that the US dollar sucks all liquidity from other currencies (Cue Daniel Day Lewis: "I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!"). Right now, global currencies are collapsing as the US dollar steamrolls its way across the globe. Financial conditions are as tight now as in March 2020. In U.S. dollar terms Bitcoin is down but for global traders pricing in their local currency, the situation looks better. Still storm clouds are raging and the water level is rising. Will the levy break? Also, they dig into how enterprise adoption of public blockchains is likely to accelerate post-Ethereum merge, and how that will impact the investment case for Ethereum and others.

On today's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew speak to Anthony Di Iorio, co-founder of Ethereum and Founder of Jaxx and Decentral. Anthony dedicates much of his time to helping Ethereum and other blockchains become more decentralized, resilient, and widely used. He's also a passionate advocate for Canada and his hometown of Toronto. It's a little-known fact but Ethereum is a made-in-Canada story, with key founders including Vitalik Buterin, from Toronto. Anthony talks with Andrew and Alex about how Canada missed an opportunity to be the centre for Web3 and what it can do to be a leader again.