The Gwart Show | Bitcoin Tech & Culture

Explore the ambitious potential of a Trustless Orderflow Operations Layer that promises to enhance Ethereum's transaction speeds and security without major protocol changes. Delve into the role of Validators in optimizing network performance and the significance of collaboration between Wintermute and Flashbots in developing arbitrage strategies. The conversation also highlights the controversies surrounding Trusted Execution Environments versus Zero-Knowledge proofs and examines the ongoing challenges and innovations within the Ethereum community.

Rebecca Rettig, Chief Legal Officer at Polygon Labs, joins The Gwart show to discuss crypto regulation, the future of DeFi, stablecoins, and the impact of upcoming elections on crypto policy. Deep insights into regulatory challenges and opportunities in the evolving crypto landscape. Note this show was recorded before the election occurred!Follow our guest on Twitter: @RebeccaRettig1Timestamps:00:00 Start00:50 Rebecca's bio01:38 Appearing in Congress05:06 Language matters07:17 What the "people" want09:28 Talking to representatives10:32 What has been the biggest failure?12:44 What regulation would be good?16:21 The role of tokens20:27 KYC & tokens22:17 Stablecoins24:04 Using stablecoins26:16 Stablecoin in US future?28:13 What have we done wrong?29:58 Do you actually NEED a token?33:22 Vampire attack on fiat34:41 What's Gensler's deal?36:00 Uniswap fees38:44 Validators & OFAC40:04 Politics45:49 Memecoins49:19 Line in the sand50:39 Privacy52:37 Predictions53:45 Banks gonna crush👋The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spirits on the blockchain? We’re joined by a digital marketplace for Whiskey, BAXUS, to get a better understanding of RWAs. Follow our guest on Twitter: @BAXUSco @web4oTimestamps:00:00 Start01:27 Baxus background03:20 Whisky quality level07:19 Creating Baxus11:28 How does Baxus work?12:54 KYC17:48 Low end whisky market22:23 Whisky fandom23:53 The oracle problem26:52 Why does this need a blockchain?32:05 Brick and mortar locations33:27 UI & blockchain34:10 Crypto users vs normies38:34 Web 3 future?40:25 Blockchain as trusted ledger44:55 Trend toward high value assets47:00 User arbitraging the assets48:41 Wouldn't makers just go to Baxus not stores?49:21 Distributors & regulations51:37 Opting out of legacy systems54:58 Investing in bottles59:17 Whisky as store of value1:04:42 Subject theory of value👋The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elijah, protocol designer at DeFi exchange Neutron, joins The Gwart Show! We get pretty deep into some tech topics on Ethereum like decentralizing oracles and AMM designs so be sure to bring a notepad.Follow our guest on Twitter: @PossibltyResultTimestamps:00:00 Start00:42 Elijah background01:25 Multiple concurrent proposers05:03 App integration09:31 Hyperliguid12:10 Opinionated blockspace17:27 MCP risks21:27 ETH's goals?29:56 Is DeFi just FinTech 2.0?35:33 Future of AMMs40:56 Long tail assets47:07 How dumb is restaking?58:52 ETH vs BTC1:03:41 The ETH vision👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! Today we are joined by James Prestwich, a OG Ethereum engineer and leader of @init4tech, an Ethereum research group. On the show, we dive back into Ethereum’s plight, beginning with the fundamentals. We start with a review of Ethereum’s origins, James’ mental model for ETH, why PBS is broken (and was from the start), if Rollups work and how we skipped sharding, Vitalik and more Vitalik, and what Solana really means for Ethereum.Follow our guest on Twitter: @_prestwichTimestamps:00:00 Start00:50 Jame's bio02:30 ETH's evolution06:08 Mental models for ETH08:40 How's ETH doing these days?13:05 Current Roll Up sequencers14:42 Other sequencer models20:48 Fixing PBS24:38 Not addressing known problems28:54 Current roll up landscape31:54 Macro & crypto32:48 Future of roll ups35:01 Real world impact40:22 Goals for ETH42:37 Consensus for ETH46:32 Vitalik 's bad decisions48:48 Vitalik from a tech perspective51:47 Hard & soft power in ETH ecosystem54:16 SOL vs ETH56:28 If SOL is better rails, what should ETH do?58:35 What are you optimistic about?👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! Today we are joined by Alex Watts, CEO and co-founder of Fastlane Labs. They discuss MEV, Ethereum's challenges, and UX. He explores the tensions between DeFi and traditional finance, the potential risks of stablecoins, and the need for crypto to focus on real-world outcomes beyond just decentralization.Follow our guest on Twitter: @ThogardPvPTimestamps:00:00 Start00:57 Alex's background01:35 Becoming a Seeker03:13 MEV opportunities04:56 Fastlane06:36 Polygon sidecar?09:36 MEV extraction12:01 Composability17:15 App Specific Sequencing on Solana22:41 End of the PBS experiment27:28 Fixing PBS29:50 Multiple concurrent proposers33:56 Effects of MPC39:59 ETH l1 fees43:37 Future of ETH L145:30 ETH as money50:21 Are l2s parasitic?52:33 ETH & hard truths56:31 Valuing blockchains based on MEV1:04:05 Validators: more than construct blocks1:05:34 Institutionalization of validators1:09:28 Future of blockchain activity👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re rejoined by Mike Neuder, Ethereum researcher and general student of all things crypto-economics, to discuss the future of his bags, AKA Ethereum. We pick up on the conversation a lot of Twitter is having regarding Ethereum’s fraught future. Is it worth the marketcap? Can Solana flippen it? Is the FUD legit? We discuss on this week’s Gwart Show!Follow our guest on Twitter: @mikeneuderCHAPTERS00:00 Start01:01 ETH vibe check05:43 Vibes at ETH Foundation09:56 Make the L1 great again!12:57 Are roll-ups parasitic?17:58 Is Solana eating ETh's lunch?21:20 ETh as money vs utility token27:12 Is "store of value" important?34:21 Is staked ETH money?37:40 Is ETH's blockcpace "Premium"?49:13 ETH security budget decline1:05:25 ETH's monopoly on smart contract blockspace is slipping1:12:28 Unichain, what's that?1:16:45 Vitalik "Unichain makes no sense"1:21:34 Is Unichain good or bad for ETH?1:27:04 MEV1:32:34 Relay vs EPBS system1:35:35 Private order flow1:39:39 Collusion to sidestep PBS1:41:54 What's wrong w/ builders & validators colluding?1:46:30 The advantage of unstaked ETH👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital–a fund well known for its Solana bags and focus on DePIN–joins The Gwart Show! Today, we discuss Solana's potential to overtake Ethereum, the future of DeFi, token economics, and the emerging DePIN sector. We have some hot takes on Ethereum as a failed project, ultrasound money, etc. Also we talk about moats for dapps, wallets and infra (always infra…)Follow our guest on Twitter: @KyleSamani @multicoincap00:00 Start00:53 Breakpoint & Token impressions08:27 Bitcoin is nonsense10:12 Debt vs commodity money12:55 SOL / ETH flippening19:47 Arguments for ETH27:06 Valuing base on MEV33:50 NASDAQ on-chain34:38 Tokenized equities38:34 Future of ETH42:28 Ultrasound money meme48:17 Deflow, wallets & order flow52:56 Order flow and centralization1:02:57 SVM building L2s1:07:50 DePINs - Decentralized physical infrastructure networks1:13:50 Target prices of SOL/ETH flip1:21:56 Are there any moats for apps?👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to The Gwart Show!In today’s episode we are joined by the Alpen Labs team, a group of ZK dreamers working on SNARK-based verification of a second layer on top of Bitcoin. We hit all the big topics, like the current state of BitVM bridging, thoughts on sequencers, building a moat, Coinbase launching cBTC and EVM compatibility!Follow our guest on Twitter: @david_seroy @simanta_gautam00:00 Start00:31 Intro01:20 Current projects02:13 Applications on Bitcoin04:16 Bictoin L2 landscape10:36 Current state of BitVM bridges14:35 Learnings from EVM19:12 Bitcoin sequencers23:54 Unilateral exit31:31 Data availability35:41 Walled garden L2's41:28 Aplen's edge in the market?46:16 Privacy49:51 The wider L2 landscape58:25 Roll-up tokens1:01:11 Sequencer fees1:03:13 Coinbase launching wrapped BTC1:08:27 EVM compatibility👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Cochran–a familiar profil pic to anyone on crypto twitter-joins The Gwart Show! They tackle Ethereum's roadmap, DeFi’s PMF, TradFi boys joining the party and regulatory & political challenges. At the end, we get a nice pitch on why we should take Ethereum seriously (or not).Follow our guest on Twitter: @adamscochran00:00 Start01:18 Who's Adam Cochran?04:40 Don't get butt hurt06:09 Adam history09:23 Working on now?10:42 Unique investment profile12:47 ETH roadmap15:34 L1 vs L218:40 BASE roll-ups21:17 Non-financial Ethereum?24:11 All the ETH maxis please stand up25:51 Value in the L128:11 ETH's monetary premium31:21 Solana.... discuss....34:09 Solana apps35:35 Why Degen hate, bro?37:32 The failure of DeFi summer41:26 Bullish of what projects?44:12 Who Wins?45:49 Goldman will "follow fast" you dummies!48:22 Regulations51:19 Politics55:44 Shill me beneath the willow tree57:23 ETH/BTC chart1:00:43 Pitch me Ethereum1:02:10 ETH monetary properties1:04:33 Value ETH on earnings?1:08:22 Wrap up👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities.Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices