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The Defiant - DeFi Podcast

Latest episodes

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Nov 15, 2021 • 39min

Nadya of Pussy Riot: "We Can Be Truly Unstoppable if We Combine Our Ideals With Tools that Crypto Provides"

In this week’s episode I, speak with Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the founding members of the feminist punk rock protest collective, Pussy Riot. Nadya has been protesting against the repression of individual freedoms in Russia since she was 17. She started Pussy Riot to focus on women and non-binary people as she noticed leadership would always fall on men. The group started performing in the streets of Moscow and were being repeatedly arrested for a few hours at a time, until one day in 2012, Nadya was put in jail for two years, for performing in a church. She believes art is a more effective vehicle for influencing hearts and minds than politics and that’s why she continues to perform. This year, she discovered she can use cryptocurrency and NFTs as tools to amplify her art, and coordinate people and capital on a global scale. Thanking our sponsors: Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions. Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
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Nov 8, 2021 • 1h 8min

Zeneca: "The Market is Fed Up With the Same Sorts of NFT Projects and There's a Flight to Gaming NFTs"

Zeneca is an NFT investor and content creator who grew his collection of non-fungible tokens from 0 to about 3,000 pieces worth millions in less than a year. He comes on the podcast to talk about how he went from professional poker player to full-time NFT trader, and what lessons from poker he has brought over to crypto.Zeneca believes the NFT market has hit a downturn amid rising crypto prices because it has become saturated with the same types of projects. He believes avatars will take a back seat to projects where NFTs have utility beyond displaying the art itself and being part of a community. That’s why gaming is setting up to be the next big movement in NFTs, he says. Still, he doesn’t believe we’ve seen a true bull and bear market yet — that will come when NFTs better integrate with DeFi and leverage comes into play. Thanking our sponsors: Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions. Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
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Nov 2, 2021 • 1h 25min

Eric Wall of Arcane Assets: "Bitcoiners Protect BTC Against 'Shitcoinism' But They're Also Keeping it From Valid Technical Ideas"

In this week’s episode I speak with Eric Wall, chief investment officer at Arcane Assets. He used to be known as the Altcoin Slayer, thanks to his brutal takedowns of non-bitcoin tokens in the 2017 ICO era, which made him popular among Bitcoin maximalists. But he’s not a maximalist anymore, and sees value in other blockchains as he has recognized they can fulfill use cases that Bitcoin can’t. He even argues Bitcoin risks being overtaken by Ethereum if it doesn’t adopt some ETH’s own features and developments, such as a fee-burning mechanism and a more expressive scripting language. Thanking our sponsors: Matcha, which routes orders across DEXs on Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, fantom, and Avalanche to provide the best possible prices without taking any commissions. Tracer Perpetual Pool tokens, leveraged tokens that can be put into cold storage OR used as collateral throughout the DeFi economy without worrying about liquidation risk, or margin requirements Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
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Oct 25, 2021 • 1h 11min

🎙 Scoopy Trooples of Alchemix: "Liquidity Mining is Like a Drug; You Have to Wean Yourself Off Over Time"

In this week’s episode I speak with Scoopy Trooples, founder of Alchemix, a protocol that programs self-paying loans without the risk of liquidations. Think about that; here’s a DeFi application that promises to automatically pay users’ collateralized loans, and on top of that, guarantee they won’t be liquidated. Scoopy explains how something like that can work and it’s all about plugging into other money legos like Yearn Finance to earn yield off that collateral and use that yield to pay off loans. Scoopy also goes into Alchemix v2 and into what he believes is a new movement in DeFi, which he helped coin as DeFi 2.0. Scoopy says dapps will now have options besides yield farming to attract liquidity to their protocols, which will allow teams to better control assets in their smart contracts, increasing capital efficiency. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
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Oct 18, 2021 • 1h 3min

Braintrust's Adam Jackson: “Nike is in Crypto Now and They May Not be Fully Aware”

In this week’s episode, I interview Adam Jackson, co-founder of Braintrust, a user-owned talent network. Think Fiverr for web3. Braintrust runs on Ethereum, has thousands of users, household names like NASA, TaskRabbit, Nike and Nestlé are clients, it has processed millions of dollars, yet not many people in the crypto community have heard of it.  And it may be by design, as the team has focused on building the platform looking outside of crypto. Adam believes the so-called gig economy is broken because platforms are incentivized to extract as much value as they can, leaving workers feeling like they’ve been cheated.  The way to fix it, he says, is through market-driven solutions using Web 3.0, DeFi and user-owned marketplaces. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4!
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Oct 11, 2021 • 56min

"NFTs Gave Me a Sense of Security and Economic Stability I Never Felt Before:" WoW Creator Yam Karkai

In this week’s episode I speak with Yam Karkai, the digital illustrator and artist behind NFT project World of Women. She’s had all sorts of odd jobs, before becoming a full-time illustrator, and none of them had anything to do with crypto. She was freelancing from gig to gig when she discovered NFTs this year and that’s when everything changed for her. For the first time ever, she had some economic stability, oddly thanks to volatile crypto. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets Integral is a new DeFi primitive and OTC trading protocol built for large crypto trades. Join the waitlist for a new version launching in Q4! https://bit.ly/IntegralSIZE
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Oct 4, 2021 • 1h 10min

"Wall Street Bets Taught Me to Have Faith in the Collective Intelligence:" WSB Founder Jaime Rogozinski

In this week’s episode, I interview Jaime Rogozinski, founder of Wall Street Bets, the famous Reddit trading group which earlier this year organized to push up the price of heavily shorted stocks like Gamestop and AMC to create a short squeeze, which had the double benefit of amplifying the group’s gains and screwing over big hedge funds. Jaime goes over what led him to create the subreddit back in 2012 and how it grew into several thousands and then millions of members. He started Wall Street Bets to make money, but also because he believed the financial system was broken and so-called retail traders should have a chance against the big guys. A lot of those sentiments mirror ideals that fuel the cryptocurrency community and so it’s only natural that after his exit from Wallet Street Bets, he has found his way into crypto. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification.  Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
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Sep 20, 2021 • 1h 9min

"ETH and most DeFi is Trading Cheaper Than Web2 and With Better Growth:” VanEck's Matthew Sigel

In this week’s episode we speak with Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, an asset management firm overseeing $80 billion, which has shifted its focus heavily into crypto. They started out with investments almost exclusively in Bitcoin, but now, with Matthew on board, the firm is becoming increasingly bullish on Ethereum and DeFi. Matthew has a very methodical way of analyzing cryptocurrencies, applying the same rigorous methods used in traditional finance, and so it becomes even more compelling to hear him make the case for Ethereum’s market cap growing to $2 trillion. He also believes even after this year’s bull run, Ethereum and most DeFi protocols are trading cheaper than Web 2.0 and with better growth. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification.  Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
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Sep 14, 2021 • 43min

"There's Going to Be a DeFi Universe Geared Towards Non-Fungible Assets:" NFTfi's Stephen Young

In this week’s episode I speak with Stephen Young, the founder and CEO of NFTfi, a platform for enabling NFT-backed loans. For some people, decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens sit on two separate worlds; DeFi on one end with its different lending, boring, and trading applications, and NFTs, with their digital art, music royalties and collectibles. Entrepreneurs like Stephen sit at the intersection, with a platform that uses NFTs to provide a financial product. He says volume on the platform is booming, as many new NFT owners find they can now get liquidity from digital property they don’t want to sell, while lenders can get more attractive rates for their crypto. Stephen believes this is just the beginning, and that eventually, real-world assets will also become digital property incorporated in the growing world of NFT and DeFi. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification.  Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.
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Sep 6, 2021 • 1h 2min

"NFTs are Giving Way to The First Art Revolution Since the Internet:" SuperRare's John Crain

In this week’s episode, I speak with John Crain, the co-founder & CEO of SuperRare, one of the top NFT marketplaces. SuperRare wants to differentiate itself by being the NFT marketplace that best curates art, specifically. John believes the natural evolution for NFT platforms will be to specialize in verticals. The team recently launched a token and a DAO, and John explains how the move will be instrumental for SuperRare to scale its curation, as the original team gives up control and other participants propose and vote on what should go on the platform. We talk about the NFT boom more broadly, and how John believes NFTs are enabling the first artistic revolution since the internet. Thanking our sponsors: Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools here! Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi Aave, an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets The DeFi Pulse Index, by Index Coop - DPI is the easiest way to capture the upside of DeFi with the benefit of diversification.  Buy DPI today on your favorite DEX.He started doing so well, collecting Axies, which are NFT tokens linked to digital, mystical animals, that he started renting out his NFTs. He realized this could lead to an entirely new business model, and that’s how Yield Guild Games was born.

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