
The Defiant - DeFi Podcast
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.
Latest episodes

Feb 19, 2024 • 52min
Polygon's Plan for a Simplified Blockchain Experience
Brendan Farmer, Co-founder of Polygon, discusses scaling technologies within Polygon's framework, ZK technology benefits, Aggregation Layer, and future blockchain efficiency. Topics include ZKP vs Optimistic Rollup, AggLayer benefits, non-EVM chains, and Polygon's 2024 outlook.

Feb 12, 2024 • 1h 5min
Crypto's Most Dystopian Project? Worldcoin Deep Dive with Alex Blania
Alex Blania, cofounder of Worldcoin, discusses the controversial aspect of the project aiming to become the largest digital identity and financial network. Topics include the $WLD token, the Orb, scanned data storage, bribing with crypto, UBI, use cases of Worldcoin, decentralization, and potential risks.

Feb 8, 2024 • 1h 28min
How Terra is Trying to Rise from its Ashes with Terraform Labs' New CEO Chris Amani
⚠️IMPORTANT NOTICE ⚠️
Today we're joined by Chris Amani, who's the CEO of Terraform Labs. Our conversation with Chris unfolds in two parts. Initially recorded on January 17th, we begin by catching up on the latest developments and the new strategic direction of the Terra ecosystem following its collapse in May 2022. Intriguingly, just days after our initial dialogue, Terraform Labs announced its filing for bankruptcy. In the latter part of our discussion, we delve into the intricacies of this voluntary decision to explore the potential implications and expected outcomes stemming from the bankruptcy filing.
Chapters
0:00 Important Notice
0:49 Podcast Intro
1:50 Terra Reborn
5:55 The Day of the Crash
18:58 Terra Recap
31:20 The SEC Trial
36:30 Terra Classic vs Terra 2.0
41:04 Terra 2.0 Vision
54:02 TFL Treasury
58:00 Lessons from Building in Crypto
1:13:00 Terra 2.0 Roadmap
1:15:28 EXTENSION: Terraform Labs Files for Bankruptcy
1:22:54 Ideal outcome
1:26:13 Impacts on Roadmap
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#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3

Jan 22, 2024 • 48min
Deep Dive into Celestia (TIA) with CEO Mustafa Al-Bassam
Mustafa Al-Bassam, CEO and Co-Founder of Celestia Labs, discusses how Celestia provides data availability and acts as a bulletin board for computers. They talk about building Celestia, challenges faced, and its role within the blockchain ecosystem. Mustafa also shares his expertise in ethical hacking and his focus on decentralized stablecoins. The conversation touches on developer experience, advice for teams launching a network, and Celestia's culture of high-quality work.

Jan 15, 2024 • 50min
The Real Impact of Bitcoin ETFs on Markets: Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan
Matt Hougan is the CIO of Bitwise, which is a crypto index fund manager and one of the issuers of Bitcoin ETFs. Hougan is a renowned figure in the financial sector, known for his expertise in cryptocurrency and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In our conversation we get into Matt's initial reaction to the BTC ETF launch, the expected inflows for 2024, and the often underestimated impacts of these developments. We also discuss unique Vanguard's stance, the evolution of Bitcoin ETFs, why Bitwise maintains the lowest fees, Matt Hougan's background, possibility of Ethereum ETFs, and the growing understanding of Ethereum in traditional finance. Finally, we touch upon the centralization risks of Bitcoin, the future of Bitcoin ETFs, and Bitcoin price forecast.
0:00 Intro
0:46 Initial thoughts on BTC ETF launch
2:17 Inflows for 2024
4:37 Underestimated impact
8:11 Vanguard is goofy
9:40 Self sovereignty
12:30 History of Bitcoin ETFs
16:53 Why Bitwise has the lowest fees
20:20 Matt Hougan's background
23:10 ETF hate
26:45 Crypto ETFs
29:08 Ethereum ETF
31:07 TradFi understand Ethereum better than Bitcoin
36:30 Normalizing Bitcoin
42:00 Centralization risk of Bitcoin
45:47 What's next for Bitcoin ETFs
47:20 We're in a bull market
48:40 Bitcoin price forecast
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https://thedefiant.io/
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🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here
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✊ Follow The Defiant
Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews
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Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews
📬 Contact our Newsroom
editorial@thedefiant.io
🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships
sponsors@thedefiant.io

Jan 8, 2024 • 58min
Accidentally Airdropping $300 Million: NFT OG Jason Bailey
Today we're joined by Jason Bailey, Co-Founder and CEO of ClubNFT. ClubNFT provides solutions to help collectors analyze, monitor, and protect their NFT collections. Jason is an O.G. in the NFT space and today he shares many stories from back in the day. He was an early collector on SuperRare. He created the first NFT IRL drop at Christie's art event back in 2018. He'd been Red Pilling traditional art collectors before the term NFT was even coined. In our conversation we get into Jason's background in both art and tech, his views on generative art, as well as a deep dive into ClubNFT and the solutions they help solve for. But first, Jason tells us why he's passionate about the NFT space.
Chapters
0:53 Passion for NFTs
2:52 Blockchain x Art
7:22 IRL NFT Airdrop
11:42 TradArt vs Crypto Art
17:20 Problem with NFTs
22:34 Arweave
24:40 ClubNFT
33:28 NFT standards
35:30 NFT culture
41:25 AI
43:39 Hopium for NFT space
48:30 Embracing crypto art
50:55 Imposter syndrome
✨ Check out our new website ✨
https://thedefiant.io/
🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀
https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup
🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here
https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha
✊ Follow The Defiant
Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/
Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews
📬 Contact our Newsroom
editorial@thedefiant.io
🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships
sponsors@thedefiant.io
#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3

7 snips
Jan 2, 2024 • 1h 5min
What is NEAR Protocol? | A Comprehensive Overview & Future Prospects
Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, discusses the shift from AI to crypto. They explore NEAR's core principles, technology, users, builders, and new features. Topics include consensus, delegation, liquid staking, bridging, attracting users/builders, crosschain mechanism, and future prospects.

Dec 25, 2023 • 1h 17min
Deep Dive into Bitcoin with GOAT Jameson Lopp (TRIGGER WARNING FOR ETHEREUM COMMUNITY)
Jameson Lopp, CTO of CasaHODL, discusses topics such as Bitcoin's major accomplishments, privacy on Bitcoin, setting up a home node, and Casa's support for Ethereum. The podcast explores the importance of individual privacy, syncing a Bitcoin node, trade-offs in self custody, and the relationship between DeFi and Bitcoin.

Dec 18, 2023 • 1h 15min
Becoming the Front Page of Finance: The Summer.fi Vision
Chris Bradbury is the CEO of Summer.fi (previously oasis.app). Summer.fi is the 6th largest DeFi protocol that enables users to borrow, lend, and multiply assets across multiple DeFi protocols. In our conversation we dive into the basics of Summer.fi, the rebrand from oasis.app, learn about popular strategies within the platform and their risks, UX updates, competition, and much more.
0:04 Intro to Chris Bradbury
0:50 TL;DR Summer.fi
2:26 Rebrand from oasis.app
9:20 DeFi in one frontend
16:20 Popular DeFi strategies
30:30 Risks of looping strategies
40:40 Risks of leverage
47:40 DeFi vs CeFi
57:26 UX changes coming for summer.fi
1:02:55 Summer.fi competition
1:06:55 noob vs degen
1:09:01 wen token?
1:09:45 Summer.fi in 10 years

Dec 16, 2023 • 1h 3min
How Paradigm Is Shifting The Crypto Policy Landscape | Policy Lab's Brendan Malone
Paradigm announces the launch of the Paradigm Policy Lab, a collaborative space for academics, policy experts, lawyers, and technologists in the crypto sector.
The lab, a first in the field, focuses on research and analytical thinking applied to policy in the crypto world. Over the last year, Paradigm has become a policy leader, involved in legal battles, hosting discussions, and publishing research.
The Policy Lab, guided by three principles, aims to impact the crypto policy landscape through evidence-based advocacy, interdisciplinary research with technical depth, and a commitment to humility, iteration, and crypto expertise.
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