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I Pledge Allegiance

Latest episodes

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Oct 12, 2023 • 1h 5min

Neel Somani - Eclipse, L2s, and Ecosystem Building

Neel Somani, the founder of Eclipse, discusses his personal journey in crypto, building an L2, dream customers, go-to-market strategy, differentiated ecosystem, Eclipse's culture, time management, and building a cap table.
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Sep 7, 2023 • 1h 8min

Yi Sun - Axiom, Coprocessors, and Commercializing Zero-Knowledge Tech

Yi Sun, founder of Axiom, discusses Axiom's solutions for Ethereum applications and their go-to-market strategy. They explore the zero-knowledge landscape and building commercial products. Topics include: historic data access, Merkle proofs, team dynamics, DYDX transition, educating the community about DK, rise of roll ups, advancements and challenges in zero-knowledge proofs.
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Aug 3, 2023 • 1h 10min

Andrew Huang and Brandon Curtis - Conduit, RaaS, and the Rollup Value Chain

In this episode, we chat with Andrew Huang, founder of Conduit and Brandon Curtis, a long-time infrastructure builder and investor. We begin with a brief overview of Andrew’s background and what led him to build a Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) business. We then speak to the value proposition of RaaS businesses, compare them to previous iterations of blockchain-as-a-service, and hear why Andrew believes that this is the “cloud moment” for crypto. We also explore Conduit’s strategic positioning and future roadmap – as well as value accrual across stakeholders in the rollup stack. Stick around until the end to hear Andrew’s thoughts on who his dream customer would be!
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Jul 10, 2023 • 1h 42min

Scott Sunarto - Crypto Gaming, Argus Labs, and the Infrastructure vs. Application Debate

In this episode, we chat with Scott Sunarto, the founder of Argus Labs and former co-creator of Dark Forest. We begin with an overview of the current landscape of Crypto Gaming and the crypto gaming primitives Scott is excited about. We also talk about what most crypto gaming investors are getting wrong and the narratives within crypto gaming he disagrees with. We also discuss Argus Labs and why Argus is a gaming company first, not a picks and shovels infrastructure company. We also discuss Scott's mental model for the rollup stack, where the World Engine fits in, and discuss some unspoken truths about rollups, sequencers, and rollup value capture.
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Jun 18, 2023 • 51min

Aidan Salzmann and Vishal Talasani - Stride, Liquid Staking, and Cosmos

In this episode, we chat with Aidan Salzmann and Vishal Talasani, the co-founders of Stride, the leading liquid staking protocol in Cosmos. Our conversation is a deep dive into Stride's long-term strategy, their execution-focused culture, and the lessons from building appchains. We also explore why Aidan and Vishal chose to build in Cosmos, lessons they've gained from other DeFi protocols, and how Stride thinks about building long-term moats and network effects.
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7 snips
May 24, 2023 • 1h 8min

Rune Christensen - The MakerDAO Endgame Plan

In this episode, we chat with Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO. We dive into his ambitious Endgame plan, the long-term roadmap for MakerDAO, and the motivation behind these decisions. In particular, we talk about his new stablecoin and governance token, new subDAOs, and his role spearheading these initiatives. This episode offers clarity for anyone interested in the future of crypto's leading decentralized stablecoin
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May 16, 2023 • 1h 15min

Diogo Monica and Nathan McCauley - The Story Behind Anchorage Digital

In this episode, we chat with Diogo Monica and Nathan McCauley, the co-founders of Anchorage Digital. We discuss numerous topics, starting with their unique partnership and what they learned from working together at Square and Docker. We then dive into the founding story behind Anchorage Digital, the story of the initial seed round, and scaling the company to hundreds of people. Diogo and Nathan also share their thoughts on the value chain of crypto financial services, lessons from working with various protocols, and how they think about the "Build vs. Buy" tradeoff internally. We also discuss how fundraising differs for later stage rounds, what crypto VCs can help founders with, and general lessons from building one of the largest companies in crypto.
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16 snips
May 2, 2023 • 51min

Christopher Goes - Anoma, Namada, and the State of Privacy in Crypto

In this episodes, we chat with Christopher Goes, the co-founder of Anoma and Namada. Christopher has a wealth of knowledge about privacy in crypto, and has previously contributed to the Zcash and Cosmos ecosystems. We discuss the different "eras" of privacy dating back to 2017, and how Anoma and Namada builds upon the existing state of privacy research. We also discuss what a successful privacy protocol looks like, public goods funding, and the Cosmos ecosystem.
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Mar 30, 2023 • 1h 2min

Matteo Leibowitz - The Strategy Behind Crypto's Leading Decentralized Marketplace

In this episode, Larry and I chat with Matteo Leibowitz, Ventures Lead and former Strategy Lead at Uniswap. We discuss Matteo's research into DeFi at The Block, and how that led to his move to Uniswap to 2020. We also dive into what the day-to-day of a Strategy Lead at a major DeFi protocol looks like, and how Uniswap developed a dominant market position. We also dive into Uniswap's historical positioning and future roadmap. Other topics discussed also include the importance of narratives in Crypto, the MEV value chain, NFT market infrastructure, and more.
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Mar 16, 2023 • 1h 22min

Dev Ohja and Barry Plunkett - Osmosis MEV Landscape

In this episode, we chat about the MEV landscape in Osmosis with Dev Ohja, founder of Osmosis, and Barry Plunkett, founder of Skip. Osmosis has had a very unique, first-principles approach to dealing with MEV, attempting to mitigate "bad" forms while allowing the protocol to internalize" good" forms. We discuss how MEV has been an important theme for Osmosis since inception, and how Dev feels about existing MEV approaches on Ethereum. We also discuss how Skip's products help Osmosis with internalizing MEV, and the long-term implications of these design decisions. Lastly, we touch-on how MEV in Osmosis will change once changes like threshold encryption and mesh security are implemented. 

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