The DCo Podcast

Have you ever made an impulse purchase on Instagram? Our guest today may have a role to play in it. Antonio García Martínez was part of the team that helped Facebook build its ad engine.He is also the author of Chaos Monkeys—a beautiful memoir of how the startup ecosystem used to be in the early 2010s and what it took to survive it. He was also a former advisor to Twitter.Antonio’s latest startup, Spindl, helps Web3 native firms attribute users to their traffic sources. Think of it as a Web3 native ad network. In our issue today, we explore why ads as primitive are here to stay, the challenges with business models in Web3, and why a fully on-chain ad network is a necessity for scaling the industry to a billion users.Tune in to our latest episode for some distilled wisdom on what it takes to survive market cycles, the need for conviction, and why advertisements are here to stay.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Gin Chao, an experienced professional in the crypto space, discusses his investment philosophies, the evolution of crypto cycles, and his focus on key sectors. They touch upon successful investments, meme coins, macroeconomic impacts, emerging blockchain projects, traditional finance's influence on crypto, and price discovery metrics in the stablecoin market.

Today, we’re joined by Mike Silagadze, the CEO and founder of EtherFi. Before EtherFi, he was the founder and CEO of Top Hat, a dynamic courseware company for educators. He scaled that to over 500 employees and $60 million in revenue before switching his focus to crypto.Mike was also early to Bitcoin. His first Bitcoin purchase was at 80 cents in 2011, and he has been closely following the space ever since.Our conversation delves into the waters of the liquid restaking landscape, discussing the value and risks associated with it.  We uncover the genesis and evolution of EtherFi over the years. Mike shares how EtherFi went from being a hedge fund to becoming the largest liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum.We also get Mike’s thoughts on the difficulties of doing an airdrop and the low float high FDV meta.Listen for a crash course on liquid restaking and the road ahead for EtherFi. _________Links.1. Newsletter : Decentralised.co2. Our Twitter: https://x.com/Decentralisedco3. Saurabh Deshpande: https://x.com/desh_saurabh4. Mike Silagadze: https://x.com/MikeSilagadze This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Today, we are joined by one of our portfolio founders, Prasanna Sankar. We have been huge fans and investors in what he has been building with 0xppl. The product helps users know what their friends are doing on-chain. Think of it as Facebook, but for user wallets. Prior to founding 0xppl, Prasanna was involved with building Rippling - a company currently valued at $10 billion. He has been building consumer social products since the early 2010s and brings a wealth of knowledge around what it takes to go 0 to 1. We discuss why optimists win in markets, how philosophy helps persevere and the similarities between 2008 era Silicon Valley and Web3 today. Tune in for insights from a seasoned operator. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Monad was in the news in April 2024 for raising a little over $225 million. As of publishing, it is the largest venture round round in crypto for the year. But what even justifies that amount of money going into a new network? Why is it even needed?Our latest episode is an hour long conversation with Keone Hon. Prior to building Monad, he spent a decade as a quant working on high frequency trading strategies. He and his crew, have been building a blockchain from the ground up, with the intention of supporting large-scale financial markets. What would that take? A custom state database, a whole new consensus mechanism and an alternative approach to transaction execution. Sounds like jargon? It likely does. Keone explains how these things work in fairly simple terms. Along the way, he breaks down notes for founders looking to raise and how to engage with communities while building a protocol.Tune in for some alpha on what could be built on Monad and what it takes to make 10,0000 transactions per second possible on a blockchain.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

How do you scale as an employee alongside a network that is on its way to a multi-billion dollar valuation? What does it take to go from being an intern to Head of Strategy at a network that has acquired some of the most talented people in Web3? Sankset Shah may have the answers. In today’s episode, he joins us to discuss his journey over the years with Polygon Network. Early on, he had joined in a part-time capacity while juggling the needs of a startup and B-School. In his own words, he “focused where the fire was”. That focus had him juggling roles in marketing, BD and strategy. He joins us to explain Polygon’s evolution over the years and what’s next for the network trying to be the trust layer for the internet. Tune in for a brief on how early-stage employees adapt to the needs of a rapidly growing rocket ship and a good explainer on what’s cooking under the hood at Polygon Network.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Our guest for the episode is Austin Adams from Anagram . We discuss the reasons for Solana’s congestion, fixes that have already gone live, and other measures in the works that will further alleviate the problem. We also discuss the highly anticipated Firedancer client and the state of L2s on Solana. Austin also helps us keep up to speed on the developments of ZK projects on Solana. This is a technical discussion. If you’re new to the Solana ecosystem, we recommend reading our past articles on Solana to get adequate context. 1. The Solana Ecosystem2. Jito’s Joyride3. MEV on Solana This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Sunny Aggarwal from Osmosis labs joins us in this episode to discuss the emergence of L2s, meme-assets, and the future of shared security. Sunny was an early member of the team behind Cosmos and is currently a co-founder of Osmosis labs. He joins us to share how his career has evolved over the past three cycles, what he has learned along the way, and a few contrarian stances on where the market is headed. His takes are backed with substance that comes from operating deep in the industry. Stream for lessons from one of the best in our industry.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Today, we are joined by Vishwa from Anera Labs. From setting up a fund of funds to running a fintech company and using ChatGPT to enter crypto hackathons - this is a unique tale. One that captures the soul and spirit of crypto. He joins us today to explain the emerging market for intents and the role they would play for UX in the years to come. Along the way, he breaks down the economics of MEV, why founders should build goodwill while going from zero to one, and the importance of market-makers in DeFi. Listen for some rich context from an operator on how to break into an emergent sector while being a complete outsider.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co

Hello,We are joined by Arjun Chand from LiFi today to discuss all things bridges. They have grown into an ecosystem handling close to $20 billion today. As the number of blockchain ecosystems increase, bridges will become crucial infrastructure enabling the movement of money between them. LiFi is a dominant player facilitating SDKs for developers looking to embed bridges in their applications. Think of them as tooling that helps developers make their applications function across chains.Arjun joins us to explain how bridges work, the challenges with maintaining them and the trade-offs involved in developing bridges for new ecosystems. Along the way, he also explains how industries tend to adopt new standards. You can listen to the podcast directly on Substack, or use the following links* iTunes* SpotifyIn a multichain world, exchanging value and information across chains has become a norm. If you want to access an airdrop on Arbitrum based on the activity of your wallet on Ethereum, you will have to bridge some small amount of ETH as gas to Arbitrum. If you want to mint an NFT on Solana but have all your funds on Ethereum, you must use some bridge to get your stables on Solana. Why is this a big deal? The chart below offers some clues. At close to 325k users each week, bridging related applications see the most users and money flowing through them.More than $3 billion worth of value was moved in the last week alone. As of March 25, over $20 billion is locked in bridge contracts. It's safe to say that bridges are crucial and here to stay. Arjun has had a front-seat view watching this critical infrastructure evolve over the years. He has built a following writing long-forms on bridges as a theme. You can read some of it in the following links.* Trust is a spectrum* Aggregation in a multi-chain world* Trade offs in intent based bridges* Risk framework for bridgesListen to the podcast for context on how bridges are enabling that transition and the economic opportunity in building them.Happy Weekend!SaurabhIf you liked reading this, check these out next:- Abstracting Chains- Money Routers This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.decentralised.co