

The Defiant - DeFi Podcast
Camila Russo
The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 3, 2023 • 1h 6min
KZG Ceremony Duo Summons The Ethereum Road Map
Today we are joined by the dynamic Ethereum KZG Ceremony Duo, Carl and Trent of the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies. With Carl and Trent, we dive into the KZG ceremony, why it's important for scaling Ethereum, the ETH roadmap, demystify jargon like Dank Sharding, IP 4844, and we talk about the culture of the Ethereum Foundation, why Ethereum has become a bit more adversarial with time, how they plan to continue scaling without sacrificing decentralization or censorship resistance and so much more. But first, they tell us their origin stories about entering crypto, why they joined Ethereum and what they're focused on today.
Timestamps00:00 Crypto Journey04:57 Ethereum Foundation Work Culture08:08 Question from a Twitter follower11:30 Near and Long-term Roadmap18:06 Next Steps25:41 Question from a Twitter follower28:55 EIP-484431:58 Danksharding33:31 Staking Withdraws36:47 ETH Governance41:44 Proposer Builder Separation45:42 Single Slot Finality49:17 Use Cases55:33 Impact
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.

Mar 25, 2023 • 1h 5min
✊ Coinbase is ready to fight the SEC
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!

Mar 23, 2023 • 49min
Dan Finlay Explains How MetaMask Will Become The Google of Web3
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Dan Finlay, the co-founder of MetaMask - one of the leading Web3 wallets.
In our conversation, we dive into Dan’s background prior to co-founding MetaMask, where Dan sees MetaMask heading in the upcoming years, their privacy policies, a potential MASK token, and much more.
Dan shares his hopes and dreams for the next bull run. But first, Dan tells us the origin story of MetaMask.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by Silo Finance, the risk-isolated lending market on Ethereum and Arbitrum. Lend and Borrow your favorite crypto without compromising on security. Learn more: https://silopedia.silo.finance/welcome/what-is-silo-finance
web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
This episode is brought to you by Orbs Layer-3. Trade DeFi like a pro using decentralized TWAP order type on SpookySwap, SpiritSwap, and Pangolin. Learn more: https://www.orbs.com/dtwap/

Mar 18, 2023 • 1h 4min
Arbitrum Airdrop Is Confirmed!
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1200 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!

Mar 16, 2023 • 58min
How To Decentralize a Fortune 500 Company
This week on The Defiant podcast, Tegan Kline hosts Jesse Pollak, senior director of Engineering at Coinbase, Eva Beylin, the director of the Graph Foundation, and Ben Jones, the director of the Optimism Foundation, to give us a deep dive into the launch of Base, Coinbase's recently-launched Layer 2 blockchain.
Base is an Ethereum Layer two that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone anywhere to build decentralized applications.
In this episode, we talk about the evolution of Base from inside a Fortune 500 company, the importance of decentralized tools like the Graph and Optimism, and the importance of thinking positive sum, not zero-sum.
Jesse discusses decentralization inside a centralized company and how Coinbase plans to onboard millions of dapps and a billion users.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
This episode is brought to you by Orbs Layer-3. Trade DeFi like a pro using decentralized TWAP order type on SpookySwap, SpiritSwap, and Pangolin. Learn more: https://www.orbs.com/dtwap/

Mar 13, 2023 • 59min
Why Is The Crypto Market Dumping?!
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!

8 snips
Mar 10, 2023 • 1h 7min
Everything You Need To Know About Eigen Layer with Sreeram Kannan
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Tegan Kline chats with Sreeram Kannan, the founder of Eigen Layer and the director of the University of Washington's Blockchain Lab.
His research at UW focuses on distributed computing, information theory, queuing theory, networking, coding theory, and game theory of blockchain systems.
Eigen Layer is a proof of stake validation marketplace that reuses state capital and existing validation infrastructure. With Eigen Layer. Ethereum can enable permissionless and modular innovation across all blockchain layers.
Today, we dive into Sreeram's background in academia, how the blockchain space piqued his interest, and the hype around Eigen Layer.
But first, Sreeram is going to tell us exactly what he's up to at Eigen Layer and how he merges both a data availability layer and a restaking platform.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
MetaMask Learn is an educational and entertaining platform designed to immerse you in the world of web3: what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. You will learn core concepts in visually engaging lessons from the world’s leading self-custodial wallet.
web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.

Mar 3, 2023 • 49min
Unstoppable Domains' Matthew Gould Unpacks Digital Identity in Web3
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Camila Russo chats with Matthew Gould, the founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains.
Unstoppable Domains is a service that facilitates the creation of blockchain-based domains that users own to build and verify their digital identity and login into applications, games, metaverses, and much more.
In our conversation, we unpack the concept of digital identity in Web3 and discuss where the market is headed.
But first, Matthew explains the importance of having a blockchain-based domain name service.
This episode is brought to you by:
MetaMask Learn : an educational and entertaining platform designed to immerse you in the world of web3: what it is, why it matters, and how to get started. You will learn core concepts in visually engaging lessons from the world’s leading self-custodial wallet.

Feb 26, 2023 • 1h 2min
110 Million Users Going On-chain With BASE
The Weekly Recap is where The Defiant reporters discuss the week's hottest news and share further insights from our reports.
It goes live on our YouTube channel every Friday at 1230 ET.
Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our latest videos!

Feb 24, 2023 • 1h 3min
Synthetix, DeFi Summer 2, FTX, 3AC and Crystal Meth with Crypto OG Kain Warwick
This week on The Defiant Podcast, Tegan Kline chats with Kain Warwick, crypto OG and founder of Synthetix.
Synthetix is a new financial primitive enabling the creation of synthetic assets, offering unique derivatives and exposure to real-world assets on the blockchain.
Today, we dive into what's next for Synthetix with the latest V3 launch, and what will cause the next big leg up in DeFi - what we’re calling DeFi Summer 2.
We go on to discuss the differentiation between different perpetual products that exist in crypto, and how Synthetix made the decision to launch on a Layer 2 so quickly and burn all bridges behind them. And it gets pretty spicy with some tea on FTX and 3AC.
Before we dive into it, Kain tells us what he's been up to since we last spoke to him about what it takes to scale Ethereum.