The DeFi Decoded Podcast

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.

This week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on Tornado Cash, a popular 'mixer' that allows individuals to do crypto transactions anonymously. Typically, sanctions are placed on individuals and institutions. In this case, the government was sanctioning an open-source software project and a neutral tool used by many. This sets a potentially dangerous precedent, which Alex and Andrew discuss on this week's episode. Plus the guys talk about the better than expected CPI print and the impact on crypto before finally giving an update on the status of the Merge.

On today's episode, Alex and Andrew discuss the latest DeFi exploit - a hack of the Nomad "bridge." But first, what's a bridge? What problem does it solve? Do these exploits prove bridges are unfeasible or are they simply implementation challenges to overcome. DeFi boosters talk about dApps and digital assets as being composable, like interlocking LEGO pieces. But we're not dealing with one uniform form factor - DeFi isn't a box of Lego but a mixed bag of Lego, Duplo, Mechanix, and others. How do we figure out a way to get these pieces to click together? Plus we dig into the Ethereum Merge and do a quick macro update.

Solana (SOL) typified the explosive growth of crypto and blockchain in 2021. A new blockchain protocol with a novel and ingenious design, Solana was able to attract thousands of developers and millions of users to an application ecosystem that started with DeFi but diversified into NFTs, Gamefi and beyond. At its peak, Solana was worth $90 billion USD. And while crypto prices have cooled, the thesis for Web3 remains intact and the future of Web3 on Solana looks bright. On this week's episode, Anatoly explains how Solana's birth in the bear market of 2018-2019 helps explain its success today. He talks about how a relentless focus on developers has set the protocol up for success. He also tells us how despite the dip in prices, developer activity has been higher recently than during the bull market. Finally we talk about how Solana's smart phone might be the key to unlocking a crypto-native app store and bringing hundreds of millions of people into Web3. This episode ended up running 45 minutes and we could have gone much longer. Strongly encourage you to check it out!

On this week's episode of DeFi Decoded, Jake Hannah of SX Network steps in to help SX co-founder Andrew co-host the podcast while Alex is out fishing in Northern Canada. Jake and Andrew cover everything, starting with what the betting markets are saying about the Fed interest rate decision. They also cover the current betting market's view on the probability that Ethereum's highly anticipated "Merge" will actually happen in September. Jake shares what he thinks the best sector of the crypto asset economy will be, how the crypto market will perform over the next 12 months, and how Ethereum's "merge" will affect its tokenomics. Jake and Andrew cover a number of other issues such as whether there's any spillover left from 3AC's collapse, and whether USDC will usurp Tether as the largest stablecoin. Check it out, as you won't want to miss two crypto experts give their takes on the future of crypto.

"It's faster to drive money from Nigeria to Ghana than it is to send a wire transfer because with a wire, the money must first go to New York, and then London before coming back to Africa" says Dickson Nsofor, identifying one of many absurd examples of how the global financial system fails African countries, businesses and individuals. This is the problem and opportunity Dickson identified four years ago when he launched Korapay, a Pan-African payment infrastructure company using APIs for payment collections, disbursements, and conversions for businesses anywhere in Africa. Underneath it all are cryptoasset payment rails like Bitcoin and USDC. For him, blockchain is like electricity, unseen but essential to everything. On this episode of DeFi Decoded, Alex and Dickson discuss how blockchain is connecting Africa to the world.