

Empire
Blockworks
Empire features interviews with top crypto founders to get the real stories that aren’t shared elsewhere. Empire is your look behind the curtain of the crypto industry. We release two episodes per week: guest interviews on Monday and a weekly roundup on Friday.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 21, 2022 • 46min
Why Crypto is Africa’s Next Big Bet | James Zhang, Jambo
In this episode of Empire, Jason and Santiago are joined by James Zhang of Jambo Technology, a crypto team pioneering the largest Web 3.0 super app in Africa. Discussing the foundation of Jambo to how it can empower the next generation of Africans, James Zhang provides an insightful perspective to the crypto infrastructure in Africa & how Web 2.0 companies are approaching Web 3.0. They discuss the current state of crypto in Africa, developing web 3.0 infrastructure, Jambo's roadmap for Africa, China's investment in Africa and more.--ParaSwap:If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.--Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Feb 18, 2022 • 1h 1min
The Unintended Consequences of Social Tokens | Weekly Roundup
On this episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup Jason and Santiago catch up on the latest with Bitcoin's changing narrative, Canada and America's moves against banking freedom, BlockFi & the SEC and more. Discussing their observations and thoughts on the developments in the space, they cover everything from DeFi acquisitions to social tokens.Follow Jason Yanowitz: @JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: @santiagoroel Follow Blockworks: @Blockworks_--Avalanche:Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/-Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.--Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Feb 14, 2022 • 1h 17min
Jane Street: Crypto Markets vs Equity Markets | Thomas Uhm
On today’s episode of Empire, Jason sits down with Jane Street’s Thomas Uhm for Jane Street’s first ever crypto podcast. Thomas and Jason compare traditional capital markets to crypto markets, get deep into financial plumbing, and explore Jane Street’s crypto strategy. You don’t want to miss this one! Accelerating the U.S. Securities Settlement Cycle to T+1 - https://www.sifma.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Accelerating-the-U.S.-Securities-Settlement-Cycle-to-T1-December-1-2021.pdf—ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.—Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks’ free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/—Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Feb 11, 2022 • 38min
Bitcoin’s Resurgence: Russia & BlackRock Are Bullish | Weekly Roundup
On this episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup Jason and Santiago cover Russia officially cosigning cryptocurrency as a legal form of currency, KPMG taking an undisclosed Bitcoin & Ethereum position & BlackRock providing crypto trading & financial services. Jason and Santiago exchange thoughts and musings on what this means for the space- and what we can expect to come in 2022.--Avalanche:Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/-Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.--Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Feb 8, 2022 • 1h 7min
How The DeFi Ecosystem Grows | Tom Schmidt & Tarun Chitra
On today's episode of Empire, Jason sits with Tom Schmidt of Dragonfly Cap and Tarun Chitra of Gauntlet for a DeFi deep dive. They cover a range of topics, from DAOs and governance, to the digitization of corporations in our increasingly technology-based world. Revisiting familiar subjects like tokenization and Web 2.0 creators coming to Web 3.0.--ParaSwap:If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.--Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.--Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Feb 4, 2022 • 1h 8min
Consequences Of DeFi’s $320M Hack | Weekly Roundup
On this episode of Empire’s Weekly Roundup, Jason and Santiago cover the Ethereum hack on Wormhole and MakerDAO’s governance proposal. They also dig into why everyone is misunderstanding the importance of DAOs (hint: it has nothing to do with governance).Explanation of the Wormhole Hack--Avalanche:Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/-Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.--Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Jan 31, 2022 • 1h 10min
Inside China’s Crypto Scene | Jason Kam
On today's episode of Empire Jason Yanowitz & Santiago Santos and are joined by Jason Kam. Jason runs Folius Ventures, a Hong Kong based crypto fund. After years working as an Analyst in TradFi at Deutsche Bank, 40 North Management & Briarwood Chase Management, Jason took the leap into the world of DeFi after seeing the potential in 2018. Jason shares his insights on launching Folius Ventures, whether we are in a bear market, big trends in crypto for the next decade, the reaction and response to the crypto space from China, investing in Web 3.0 & more.Follow on Twitter:Jason Kam - @MapleLeafCapJason Yanowitz - @JasonYanowitzSantiago Santos - @santiagoroelBlockworks - @Blockworks_--ParaSwap:If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.--Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.--Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Jan 28, 2022 • 1h 14min
Fraud in Frog Nation | Weekly Roundup
On today's episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Santiago and Jason both tackle wild news in a crazy market environment. From uplifting fundraisers to shifty characters, the space is rife with commentary to be had and neither hold back. They go over DeFi, protocols, regulation, NFTs and more as they navigate market news and recent events in crypto.--Avalanche:Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/--Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Jan 27, 2022 • 48min
The Current State of DeFi Investing | Ben Forman
On today’s episode of Empire Blockwork’s co-founder Jason Yanowitz and his co-host Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Ben Forman, managing partner at ParaFi Capital.Ben launched ParaFi in 2018 after seeing the potential of DeFi. Now with around $1 billion AUM, he provides his thoughts on how the DeFi ecosystem has evolved.Ben also shares his insights into how the recent Jan. 21 2022, market sell-off compares to March 2020, the explosive growth of stablecoins, the layer-1 wars, opportunities in NFTs, gaming and the biggest crypto trends for 2022.This episode was recorded on January 21, 2022.ParaSwap:If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage.--Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Jan 21, 2022 • 1h 21min
Why Microsoft Could Win the Metaverse Wars | Weekly Roundup
On today's episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Jason and Santiago gear up for a jam-packed narrative week as they explore the hottest in crypto news. Echoes and reminders of last week's discussion crop up as they review changing opinions on tokenization, DeFi, and the Curve Wars. They look at the biggest in acquisitions, from new funds stepping into the cryptospace with billion dollar backing to Microsoft's metaverse news- and what all of these things could mean for the future of crypto. From liquidity to portfolio management, they cover it all on this week's roundup!--Shownotes
https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/blockchains-are-cities-564327013f86
https://medium.com/momentum6/lockdrop-lba-the-future-of-tokenomics-479ccb2afeed
https://0xrusowsky.substack.com/p/an-attempt-to-analyze-all-the-drama?r=rx2fd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://blockworks.co/everything-you-need-to-know-about-illuvium/
--Avalanche:Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/--Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show!Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M