The DeFi Decoded Podcast

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.

On September 15th, 2022, Ethereum became a proof-of-stake network. On today's episode Andrew and Alex break down what happened, how it changes the investment case for Ethereum and what it means for the future of Web3. The significance is hard to overstate: by some estimates this will reduce Ethereum's carbon footprint by 99%. It will clear the deck for future upgrades to make Ethereum more scalable and useful. It will radically alter the supply and demand dynamics and may make Ethereum a high-yielding deflationary asset, attracting new kinds of financial investors. It will provide clarity to enterprises who want to build on public Web3 infrastructure. It could even improve the image of blockchain technology, easing pressure from policymakers. They also discuss the impact on cryptoassets as a whole, how it could impact Bitcoin and what it means for alt-L1s.

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Andrew sit down with Zaki Manian, a veteran crypto entrepreneur and co-founder of Sommelier Finance. DeFi is moving at such a rapid clip, it is difficult for most investors to stay on top of the latest trends and even more challenging to make educated investment decisions. Sommelier Finance aims to solve this problem by providing access to proven strategies supported by on-chain data in a fully decentralized way, essentially acting as a 'guide' to the bewildering world, similar to a wine sommelier. Sommelier is an Ethereum application built with Cosmos technology. But really, this is a stepping stone to a future state. Zaki believes by next year, Cosmos will be so advanced that most of the DeFi mind-share will be in that ecosystem, rather than Ethereum. In the spirit (ahem) of viniculture, if Ethereum is France (home to wine making for many years) than Cosmos is California – still undeveloped but with the potential for better terroir!

"Dogecoin is sponsoring the Jamaican bobsled team." This is the first time Sunny Aggarwal first heard about crypto, back when he was a high school student in California. The friend might as well have been speaking Klingon, because the sentence made no sense to Sunny, so he went home and googled Dogecoin which led him down the Bitcoin rabbit-hole. He was hooked, or shall we say "doge-pilled." Fast forward to today and Sunny is one of Web3's most creative entrepreneurs, having co-founded Osmosis, the most popular decentralized exchange in the Interchain ecosystem. He's also a fan favourite here at DeFi Decoded. When we last had Sunny on the show, Osmosis had just closed a major financing and its TVL was nearing $1 billion. Bitcoin was nearing an all-time high and crypto markets were close to topping $3 trillion. While market conditions have changed, the case for DeFi has never been stronger. On this episode, Alex and Sunny talk about the core value proposition for DeFi, which is "privacy for the individual, transparency for the system," why DeFi fared far better in the crisis than CeFi, what it will take to onboard the masses to Osmosis, why the recent crypto slump hasn't impacted funding for good projects, how Osmosis became a refuge for Terra Luna developers following that platform's collapse.

How do blockchain networks like Ethereum, supporting thousands of applications, billions in capital and millions of users, actually work? What is the essential infrastructure supporting cryptopunks, DeFi smart contracts, GameFi guilds, stablecoins, and other Web3 innovations? To the average user, the inner workings of blockchains are mysterious. In many ways, this reflects the technology's growing maturity and ubiquity. After all, most people are blissfully unaware of how their laptop, car and microwave functions. But sometimes, the technology gets thrust to the forefront of the conversation. The upcoming Ethereum Merge and the Tornado Cash situation have focused the spotlight on node operators, largely unseen but critical infrastructure providers. On today's episode, Alex and Andrew sit down with Sharon Byrne-Cotter of Infura, to look under Ethereum's hood at the engine parts that keep the Web3 car chugging along. Tune in!

Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin recently and now sits at 50% of Bitcoin's market capitalization. This has some observers suggesting the "flippening," where Ethereum surpasses Bitcoin in market value, is in grasp. Ethereum has gotten close to Bitcoin's market capitalization before, namely in Summer 2017 at the beginning of the ICO craze, hitting 80% of Bitcoin's value, only to crater to 10% at the bottom of the bear market. Is this time different? On this episode of DeFI Decoded, Andrew and Alex get into it. Plus, they discuss the fallout in crypto from the Tornado Cash crackdown, including a 'dusting attack' that sent celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal crypto from a Tornado Cash wallet, making them unwittingly in violation of OFAC...and what it all could mean for the future of decentralization.