
Validated
When it comes to blockchain, the thing people talk about most — the price — is actually the least interesting part. Crypto conversations are too often about who’s up and who’s down, what to buy and what to sell, and today’s drama on Twitter. Most conversations about crypto miss how it’s going to change ... everything.
On VALIDATED, we’ll be talking to the people who are rethinking the internet — and our world. No hype cycles. No financial advice. Just conversations on the biggest ideas shaping the future of the internet.
Web3 is complicated, but never boring.
Latest episodes

8 snips
Apr 23, 2024 • 42min
Why Does Mexico Want to Tokenize Its Treasuries? w/ David Taylor (Etherfuse)
In this episode, Austin talks with David Taylor (Etherfuse) about tokenizing Mexican bonds and equities. By bringing these assets onchain, Etherfuse is drastically reducing global barriers to entry in emerging markets. David discusses the Mexican government's enthusiastic response to their partnership and how their success could set a precedent for other governments tokenizing their treasuries through Etherfuse. Beyond their flagship "stablebonds", David speculates on how developers will use Etherfuse's SDK to build protocols to bring other secure financial assets, such as 401Ks, onchain. DISCLAIMER The content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Apr 16, 2024 • 57min
The Long-Term Vision for the DA Layer w/ Connor O'Hara (Celestia)
In this episode, Austin chats with Connor O'Hara (Celestia) about the scope of DA projects like Celestia. After a reflective discussion on a wide range of topics from the early days of Bitcoin to tradeoffs of proof-of-stake networks, Connor gets at the heart of how data availability works, how it differs from settlement and state, and where data availability and verifiability intersect. He also addresses questions around the long-term vision for the DA layer, what attacks on the DA layer may look like, tradeoffs of enshrining apps in the L1, and much more. DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Apr 9, 2024 • 1h 4min
The Restaking Thesis w/ Sreeram Kannan (Eigen Labs)
In this episode, Austin chats with Sreeram Kannan (Eigen Labs) about EigenLayer's vision for restaking. Sreeram argues that restaking is merely a way of making proof-of-stake networks more programmable, addressing the economic and architectural considerations required to make the restaking thesis work. The conversation also elucidates the relationship between EigenLayer and the Ethereum L1, particularly in the context of settlement and data availability, and how restaking may also one day be applied to blockchains outside the Ethereum ecosystem. DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Apr 2, 2024 • 43min
Level Up. Go Crankless. w/ Jarry Xiao (Phoenix)
In this episode, Austin chats with Jarry Xiao from Ellipsis Labs about Phoenix, the fastest on-chain orderbook on Solana. They explore Phoenix's innovative design, which enables settlement without the need for asynchronous cranks, setting it apart from previous order books on Solana. The conversation covers a range of topics including capital efficiency in DeFi, strategies for market making, the importance of competition within Solana's DEX ecosystem, and more.DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Mar 26, 2024 • 29min
Rethinking Solana's Validator Client Paradigm w/ Ahmad Abbasi (Syndica)
In this episode, Austin talks with Ahmad Abbasi (Syndica) about Sig, a new Solana validator client built in Zig. Unlike other Solana validator clients, Sig is optimized for reads as opposed to writes. Ahmad unpacks the seemingly herculean task of writing a new validator client from scratch and why this was an important decision for Syndica's core business of providing RPC node infrastructure. He explains Zig's unique advantages in this context and how Sig will ultimately make running validators node more accessible for the entire ecosystem. DISCLAIMER The content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Mar 12, 2024 • 29min
What Solana Unlocks for GameFi's Backend w/ Albert Chen (Genopets)
Web3 gaming is one of the oldest proposed use cases for blockchain. In this episode, Austin chats with Albert Chen (Genopets) about the state of web3 games on Solana and beyond. They dive into Genopets, exploring its gameplay, its web3 integration, and the philosophy guiding its backend design. The discussion also covers Genopets' semi-custodial approach to in-game assets, composability, and the crucial role of Phoenix in Genopets' design. Albert also compares transaction dynamics on Solana versus Ethereum, claiming a game like Genopets is only possible to build on Solana. DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Feb 27, 2024 • 35min
The Enterprise Self-Custody Problem w/ Connor and Nicolas from Cordial Systems
In this episode, Austin talks with Nicolas and Conor from Cordial Systems, an enterprise custody solution initially developed for Jump Crypto. They discuss how to build a self-custody solution that serves crypto-native businesses without compromising the security standards of traditional systems. Nicolas and Conor explain the limitations of current enterprise custody solutions and how Cordial Systems addresses these issues. They also go into detail about their approach to building a distributed policy layer and Cordial System's architecture. DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.

Feb 13, 2024 • 35min
How DRiP Is Able to Give Away Millions of Free NFTs
Vibhu Norby, CEO of DRiP, talks about the unlikely emergence of the company's vision, the innovation of compression, and the better web-based payment rails. They discuss the evolution of DRiP, benefits of compressed NFTs, scaling the platform, economics and revenue streams for DRiP creators, and the challenges of raising funds.

Jan 30, 2024 • 43min
A Cross-Chain DePIN Conversation w/ Alex Rawitz (DIMO)
In this episode, Austin chats with Alex Rawitz, co-founder of DIMO, a DePIN project built on Polygon which allows users to collect and monetize their car's data. Instead of pitting one blockchain against another, Austin and Alex have an optimistic, open-minded discussion about the DePIN space in general. The conversation also highlights a non-maxi, cross-chain attitude toward building DePIN projects; though built on Polygon, DIMO leverages the Helium network (which migrated to Solana last year) for its IoT piece.

Jan 16, 2024 • 44min
The Case for Onchain Options Trading w/ Lev & Serge from DeVol Network
In this episode, Austin chats with Lev Gelfer and Serge Levin from DeVol Network, a low-cost, fully onchain option trading platform. Serge and Lev dive deep into complex trades and the advantages of bringing options to blockchain, but at a higher level, this episode is an exploration of exactly the kinds of projects that are only possible on Solana. It's a testament to how every step-function change in performance or cost unlocks entirely new use cases that were impossible to build before and how projects like DeVol are making use of these changes. DISCLAIMERThe content herein is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, options, futures, or other derivatives related to securities in any jurisdiction, nor should not be relied upon as advice to buy, sell or hold any of the foregoing. This content is intended to be general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional advisor. Solana Foundation Foundation and its agents, advisors, council members, officers and employees (the “Foundation Parties”) make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of the information herein and expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or any errors or omissions therein. The Foundation Parties shall have no liability whatsoever, under contract, tort, trust or otherwise, to any person arising from or related to the content or any use of the information contained herein by you or any of your representatives. All opinions expressed herein are the speakers’ own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any entities.