This week Sal, Dave and Zen get together for another Bullpen roundup to give their thoughts on current events in crypto. They discuss the attempted assassination of Trump, appointment of his crypto friendly VP and the pump in crypto markets that has entailed. They also go into the fall from grace that Friendtech has suffered since launch, whether there is any point in developers building net new apps given the poor run of attempts over the past few years - and finally we compare Monad, MegaEth and Berachain and ask the question whether the Ethereum community has capitulated on their values. - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Impact Of Trump Assassination Attempt (3:22) - Memecoins As A New Decentralized Trending List (7:10) - Trump’s VP Pick (11:52) - Have We Run Out Of App Ideas (18:04) - FriendTech vs PumpFun (22:14) - Will NFTs Ever Make A Comeback (30:07) - Upcoming Hyped EVM Chains (32:51) - Maxing Out Centralization at L2 Level (41:15) - Eth Capitulation On It’s Values?

This week, Sal and Dave asr joined by Ryan Connor of Blockworks Research to discuss his recent controversial report on the soaring $Ton ecosystem, highlighting the bear case and why Ryan believes $Ton is currently overvalued. We also leverage Ryan's former career as a macro expert to discuss the state of the market, moneyness claims around Bitcoin and Eth, before getting into the memecoin mania and why Ryan doesn't believe it will ever go away. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - State Of The Market (3:09) - Death Of Altcoins? (10:14) - Ton’s Bear Case (19:39) - Ton’s Metoeric Adoption Rates (23:15) - Does Tap-To-Earn Have Any Future? (24:56) - The Difficulty With Sybilling Telegram MiniApps (26:43) - Trying To Fair Value Ton (29:44) - Telegram’s Attempt At Becoming A Super App (32:06) - Why Researchers Don’t Publish Many Bear Cases (33:53) - Ton’s Other Unique Offerings (39:19) - Issues With L2 Value Accrual (45:25) - Pushing Back Against Eth’s Moneyness Claims (55:25) - Reasons For US Dollar Strength Since Credit Crisis (57:55) - What Everyone Misses About Memecoins (1:06:53) - Memecoins To Create Decentralized Trending Lists (1:09:18) - Pump Fun As The TikTok For Memecoins (1:11:13) - Pump Fun vs Other SocialFi Apps (1:15:50) - Advice To Becoming A Crypto Analyst - - Episode Resources Follow Ryan : https://Twitter.com/_RyanConnor SOLETH relative value trade : https://x.com/_ryanrconnor/status/1807878422950998476 Blockwork's TON Research Summary : https://x.com/blockworksres/status/1806380764369670367 - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod

This week, Sal catches up with Greg Gotsis from Tiplink to discuss the simplest wallet onboarding experience that we have seen to date. Whilst Tiplink's wallet creation process is made incredibly fast and intuitive via a Google Login workflow, it is Tiplink's ability to share and send ownership of their wallets via links over the internet which could truly help to unlock mass market user behaviours. Links form the bedrock of the internet, and so Tiplink can utilize all existing web infrastructure and social media applications to increase adoption of its wallet, without needing to reinvent the wheel. Greg talks about the project's journey so far, how a combination of Tiplink and the recently unveiled Solana Blinks could further help to transform user behaviours, and how he imagines the wallet landscape improving over the next 10 years. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Tiplink Overview (3:59) - How Wallet Works In Back-End (7:12) - Growth and Marketing Strategy (10:16) - Predicting Wallet Landscape In 10 Years (12:44) - Next Steps For The Team (15:09) - Pinpointing Tiplink’s Wedge (17:42) - Dealing With On/Off Ramps (19:50) - The Unlock Of Solana’s Blinks (22:53) - Building For Mobile Users (29:50) - Tiplink’s Non-Linear Route To Today (32:56) - Future Products - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Greg : https://Twitter.com/GreggMachine Tiplink Website : https://Tiplink.io

This week, Sal and Dave catch up with Hardhat Chat to discuss one of the most talked about and exciting launches in recent crypto history - Ore Supply. Ore is a POW coin which is being mined on Solana in an attempt to fulfill Satoshi's original vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Ore's unique insight is in decoupling consensus from the POW token's distribution to miners (leaving it instead up to Solana's consensus engine) - thus allowing for a completely new design space for a new-age Bitcoin, and potentially heralding a new wave of POW mining tokens on highly scalable modern blockchains. At Unlayered, we seek out upcoming narratives and market metas before they become consensus - and Ore might just be the project to lead the next stage of this cycle. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Why Bring POW to Solana? (5:03) - Use cases for $Ore (7:12) - Advantages From Removing Consensus From A POW Coin (12:36) - Designing Crypto Mining With The Little Guy In Mind (19:36) - How The v1 Launch ‘Broke’ Solana (27:03) - How Chains Should Deal With Spam In The Future (30:40) - Why Build On Solana (35:42) - Designing Ore’s Supply Schedule (37:14) - The Problem With Halvenings (40:38) - Scaling Up The Operational Side (47:33) - Introducing Native Staking To POW (49:54) - Importance Of Mining Via Mobile (54:55) - Ore To Lead Crypto’s Next Meta? - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Hardhat Chad : https://Twitter.com/HardhatChad Mine Ore : https://ore.supply

This week, Sale, Dave and Zen Llama get together for a Bullpen roundtable episode to discuss the recent run up in celebrity backed memecoins and whether they are a net positive for the space. We then discuss the rise of Ton and the potential future threat of high distribution blockchains, who won the Toly vs Justin Drake debate, and how Monad is starting to bootstrap its developer community. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - The Argument For Celeb Memecoins (14:17) - Where Are The Apps This Cycle? (16:15) - L1 vs L2 culture (22:35) - Will Eth Lose First Mover Advantage? (19:18) - Future of Stablecoins on Eth (23:25) - The Rise Of Ton and High Distribution Blockchains (35:58) - BNB Outperformance (38:57) - Sol vs Eth Value Accrual (42:56) - Is Economic Security a Meme? (49:12) - How Monad is bootstrapping it’s developer community - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod

This week we are joined by Emmanuel Awosika, a prominent member of the Ethereum R&D community, to explore the ways in which Ethereum needs to improve to become more competitive with newer, high throughput blockchains. We discuss the current issues with Ethereum, including the challenges of interoperability between rollups and the ossification of Eth's "OG" culture, before exploring the solutions to help make Eth great again. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Current Issues with Eth (5:22) - Why Build On EVM Stack vs SVM (9:23) - Why Would L2s Give Away Sequencer Fees? (14:01) - Toly v Justin Drake Thoughts (19:18) - Future of Stablecoins on Eth (23:06) - Can You Tokenize The World on Eth L1? (25:14) - Upcoming EIPs That Will Transform UX (36:10) - Eth’s Need To Start Focusing on Apps (41:22) - What Could Eth Learn From Solana (51:50) - Timelines For Eth L2 Throughout To Be Competitive With Solana (59:57) - How To Prioiritze What Eth Needs To Focus On - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Emmanuel : https://Twitter.com/eawosikaaEmmanuel's Writings : https://emmanuelawosika.bio.link/

In this conversation, Sal is joined by Justin Gary to discuss the design and creation of Solforge Fusion, a hybrid deck game from the creators of Magic the Gathering. They delve into the gaming industry, the evolution of trading card games, and the impact of digital technology on game design. They also explore the concept of Web3 gaming and the unique mechanics of Solforge Fusion as it looks to straddle the physical and web 3 card game world and usher in the next phase of Web3 gaming. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Justin's Career to Date (2:43) - The Evolution of Trading Card Games (13:09) - Solfate Ad (13:36) - How Solforge is Utilising Crypto Primitives (21:27) - Card Creation Mechanism (27:47) - Understanding Good Game Design (38:40) - Future State of Solforge (44:41) - Combining Physical Games With Web3 (46:36) - State of Crypto Gaming (56:24) - Closing Thoughts - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Justin : https://Twitter.com/justin_gary Follow Solforge : https://Twitter.com/SolForgeGame

We are joined this week by Bread (@0xbreadguy) to discuss the rise of SocialFi and the apps which have taken the crypto space by storm, namely FriendTech and Fantasy Top. Bread is a Crypto Twitter personality who has been in the trenches of SocialFi since the very beginning, helping to popularize the 3,3 Friendtech meta and providing a trove of useful information for those looking to get started. We also talk about the future and relative positionings of Btc, Eth and Sol - before breaking news about the SEC's reversal on a potential Eth ETF approval and providing live reactions to this potentially seismic new shift in political tone - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Intro to FriendTech (4:21) - Bonding curve as the unique insight (7:27) - Do FT keys hold any real utility? (12:52) - Risk of doxxing users’ wallets (16:35) - FT starting a new 100% airdrop meta? (22:07) - FriendTech V2 and Clubs (27:17) - Intro to Fantasy.Top (35:01) - Reducing friction for content creators (37:43) - Solfate Ad (38:07) - L1 landscape and looking to the future (48:50) - NFT inscriptions on Eth (57:24) - Btc and progress vs ossification (1:08:27) - ETF approvals, politics and the rise of $BODEN - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Bread : https://Twitter.com/0xbreadguy

Ray Jacobson, CTO at Audius, joins Unlayered to discuss the decentralized music marketplace and how Audius aims to bring fans and artists closer together. The platform allows for economically incentivized music experiences and leverages blockchain technology to create an open and transparent platform. Spotify’s business model simply doesn’t work for the long tail of artists, and so Audius aims to reduce the distance between artists and fans while allowing a far larger segment of the music industry to make money doing what they love. Audius is an ambitious project which has been in the crypto space for many years, and perhaps now is the time that this project can finally break into the mainstream. - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Ray’s journey into crypto (2:35) - Which problem is Audius solving? (10:05) - Future of AI generated music (13:11) - Fixing music royalties with smart contracts (22:11) - UX is king (24:25) - Obtaining music rights (27:56) - How web 3 improves creator revenues (36:08) - Have music NFTs been a failure? (44:54) - Solfate Podcast Ad (45:22) - Getting Audius streams onto other websites (47:40) - How Audius can compete with Spotify (50:40) - Nurturing Audius-native artists (55:59) - Favourite artists - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod - - Episode Resources Follow Ray : https://Twitter.com/RaymondJacobson Audius Website : https://Audius.co - - Sponsor Resources Follow Solfate : https://Twitter.com/SolfatePod Solfate Podcast : https://solfate.com/podcast

The Bullpen is the start of a new regular series where we have informal discussions around the recent news and events from the cryptosphere, and give our take on what this might mean going forwards. This week, we delve into Solana's scaling issues, memecoin mania, Eth narratives bleeding over into Solana and the potential rise of apps (finally!) in crypto. Let us know on Twitter which topics you'd like us to discuss next time! - - Time Stamps (0:00) - Solana scaling issues (8:34) - Comparison to Monad (15:15) - Will MEV be the only material revenue stream for L1s? (19:41) - Eth narratives bleeding into Solana (21:03) - The Rise of the Apps? (29:32) - Telegram as Crypto’s distribution layer (32:30) - Will crypto gaming and metaverse skip this cycle? (38:10) - Which verticals to focus on during this downturn (41:23) - Memecoin thesis (49:54) - Ore Mining as a new meta? - - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Zen : https://twitter.com/ZenLlama Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod