The Defiant - DeFi Podcast

This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Robert Lauko, founder & head of research at Liquity, an overcollateralized DeFi lending protocol and issuer of the LUSD stablecoin. Following the fallout from CeFi services such as Voyager, BlockFi, and Celsius, the focus has shifted back to the core values of decentralization, which Liquity tries to apply to the fullest: LUSD is backed purely by Ether and Liquity is governance-free and has no centralized frontend. Crypto mixer Tornado Cash was recently sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury together with addresses that interacted with the protocol.   This prompted other DeFi protocols such as Aave and dYdX to blacklist those addresses in a bid to minimize legal risk.  Robert discusses how DeFi projects can deal with censorship. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN. ZenGo a crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC  wallet cryptography instead of private keys. ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.

This week on the Defiant Podcast we speak to Stani Kulechov, founder & CEO of Aave, one of the first lending protocols in the DeFi space. He has been around since the inception of DeFi, now Aave Labs is the leading force in this completely new side to the web3 universe; social media. Lens aims to reimagine how social networks are built; providing an open protocol for applications to flourish, and giving users the freedom to own their information and take that data with them when they from one app to the next. Creators and influencers would monetize their content by reaching their audiences directly, and applications would gain revenue from these transactions, rather than relying on ads. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN. ZenGo a crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC  wallet cryptography instead of private keys. ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.

This week on The Defiant podcast we speak to Zooko, the founder of  Zcash. Privacy remains one of the hottest issues in crypto after the U.S. Treasury’s recent move to sanction Tornado Cash. Zooko believes the ability to consent to what information is made public is more about freedom than privacy and he thinks that eventually, this will be expected in the blockchain space. We explore what a private transaction using ZEC actually looks like, with shielded addresses visible only to the sender and receiver. Finally, Zooko talks about The Electric Coin Company’s future plans, which include moving Zcash from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake and a standalone wallet. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN. ZenGo a crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC  wallet cryptography instead of private keys. ApeX Protocol: Engineered for high-performing precision trades in the decentralized derivatives market.

This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Jake Chervinsky, the executive vice president and head of policy at Blockchain Association, a non-profit trade association representing the crypto industry in Washington DC. Jake is one of the most qualified to discuss the US Treasury Department sanctioning Tornado Cash, a development that’s caused shockwaves through crypto. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Pods stETHvv allows you to accumulate more ETH in only one click. Every time ETH price bounces, up or down, the vault earns more ETH. In this market it's not a matter of IF price will move, but WEN. ZenGo a crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC  wallet cryptography instead of private keys.

This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak Will Warren, founder and CEO of 0x labs, one of the oldest and largest decentralized exchanges.  0x API is currently the 5th largest DEX by trading volume but is structurally different from other DEXs as it aggregates liquidity from multiple venues. We talk about the effect this bear market has had on the DEX ecosystem and how sliding prices have affected DEX volumes in 2022. We discuss the evolution of DEXs, having seen some massive innovations such as concentrated liquidity with Uniswap V3. Will goes on to talk about the major impact that miner-extractable value (MEV) has had on the DEX sector. Finally, Will talks about 0x’s vision to see a world where all forms of value are tokenized on public blockchains, from fiat currencies, stocks and bonds, to video game items and airline miles. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.

This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Hart Lambur, co-founder of the UMA protocol. UMA is an optimistic oracle on Ethereum that aims to record any knowable truth onto a blockchain. We discuss his take on the crypto market and how the current crisis is not a DeFi crisis, but rather a failure of risk management at centralized institutions. We dive into UMA's plans for its 2.0 release, the risks posed by centralized cross-chain bridges and Outcome Finance, an upcoming brand that will encompass all the DAO tooling that the UMA team has been building. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.

This week on The Defiant podcast we speak with Justin Drake. Justin is a researcher for the Ethereum foundation. He’s at the forefront of the biggest change to happen in Ethereum's history: The transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, also known as The Merge. We go into what the next steps are before this change happens, how exactly it will be executed, and what the risks are. Last week, right after we recorded this interview, fellow researcher Tim Beiko suggested the switch would happen in September. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant.

This week on the Defiant Podcast we speak to Arthur Breitman, the co-founder of Tezos. Created together with his wife Kathleen way back in 2014, Tezos mainnet was launched in 2018 as a proof of stake chain with smart contracts, a combo that has now become the industry standard. They were very much ahead of their time. Yet, Tezos has been slower to pick up than other Layer 1s such as Ethereum & Solana.  We discuss its upcoming upgrades and roadmap, and how Arthur sees a deeper DeFi and NFT ecosystem evolving on the network. He argues that with the hype and vanity metrics of the bull run fading away, Tezos approach of what he considers is more thoughtful building, will shine through. Thanking our podcast sponsors: dYdX has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC. Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling. APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenization trend in Web3 with 'APwine'

Joseph Delong is the former CTO of SushiSwap, one of the biggest decentralized exchanges, and the founder of Astaria, a recently created NFT lending protocol. Joseph has been heavily involved in building and managing DAOs. With the recent controversial proposals surfacing on MakerDAO and Lido, we are once again reminded of the importance of DAO governance. We begin by talking about Joseph’s analogy on what would happen if a lemonade stand was run by a DAO and reflect on some of the DAO experiments that occurred over the last couple of years. Thanking our sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant. Web3 with a16z, a new podcast about the next internet, from a16z crypto

This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with Hasu, strategic advisor at Lido, strategy lead at Flashbots, MakerDAO delegate, researcher at Paradigm and host of the Uncommon Core Podcast. That’s a lot of titles and it goes to show just how deeply plugged into DeFi and crypto this anon researcher is.   In this episode, we’ll focus on Lido, as it’s become a crucial piece of infrastructure for Ethereum. Thanking our podcast sponsors: dYdX has launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders. Come help build the future of decentralized trading at dydxgrants.com Nexo is a platform where you can swap 300+ market pairs and borrow against your crypto from 0% APR. Sign up to Nexo until June 30 & get a welcome bonus of up to $150 in BTC. Avalanche Subnets allow anyone build custom, app-specific blockchains - the future of Web3 scaling. APWine - get your future yield today, speculate on APY evolution or fix APY rates. Discover the latest yield tokenization trend in Web3 with 'APwine'