Proof of Coverage

Jules Urbach (CEO) and Trevor Harries-Jones (Director) discuss the Render Network's decentralized GPU rendering platform and its impact on artists. They explore use cases, advantages over other GPU networks, integration with AI, and the future of immersive entertainment.

Connor, Sami, and Mahesh are joined by Ariel Seidman,  CEO / Co-Founder of Hivemapper. Hivemapper is building the world’s freshest map with AI and a network of drivers using dashcams. Ariel talks about why Hivemapper uses purpose-built hardware, the problems with centralized mapping today, how they designed the HONEY token design to dynamically match Hivemapper’s progress towards its long-term goals, and the weirdest things the team has seen on driver images. 0:00 - Cold Open - A TradWi Conspiracy Afoot? 0:42 - Hello Ariel! 3:00 Privacy is one of Hivemapper biggest concerns 5:38 How Ariel explains DePIN 7:30 How Ariel’s background at Yahoo and Gigwalk informed the early Hivemapper days 11:47 The emerging use cases that only a fresh, high-quality map can serve 18:31 How has centralized mapping reacted to Hivemapper’s emergence? 20:24 What the Hivemapper protocol is designed to incentivize 25:05 How the HONEY token emissions are engineered to keep the network sustainable 30:16 Hivemapper’s first customers 34:05 Why Hivemapper uses dedicated hardware 41:52 How the Hivemapper Map AI acts as the brains of the network 47:31 Hivemapper’s product suite 50:50 Ariel’s advice for DePIN founders Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Connor and Mahesh sit down with Adam Jackson, Co-Founder and CEO of Braintrust. Braintrust is the first user-owned talent network, matching enterprise employers to vetted knowledge workers. Today, Braintrust boasts over 3,000 employers hiring from a pool of 500,000 freelancers who have collectively earned over $150M on the Braintrust network. Adam discusses Braintrust’s origins from a DePIN-focused hedge fund, what DePIN means to him, the reality of the US crypto regulatory environment, and what levers Braintrust can pull to drive growth. 0:00 - 0:20 Hello Adam! 0:20 - 5:10 Why Remote Works Makes Sense 5:10 - 10:44 Adam’s Background and How Braintrust Came to Be 10:45 - 12:38 What does DePIN mean to Adam? 13:14 - 18:24 Braintrust’s Enterprise-Grade User Experience 18:24  - 21:53 The Upside and Downside of Decentralization 21:53 - 23:07 The Vetting Process for Knowledge Workers 23:07 - 28:15 Braintrust Revenue and Governance Model 28:15 - 32:48 Braintrust’s Growth Levers  32:48 - 34:57 How Braintrust Can Pull Levers to Balance Marketplace Demand and Supply  34:57 - 37:40 Braintrust’s Clients Don’t Care about the Token 37:40 - 39:02 Crypto’s Regulatory Environment 39:02 - 44:40 Has Technology Really Improved Productivity?  44:40 - 48:30 Is Talent Happier Using Braintrust? Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Sami and Mahesh are joined by Sam Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Arweave. Arweave is a permanent and decentralized storage network, designed for the preservation of humanity’s most important data.  Sam discussed what inspired him to work on permanent storage, why he doesn’t view Filecoin as a major competitor, how Arweave is designed to store the highest-value data, and some of the exciting projects currently using Arweave. 0:00 - 0:59 DePIN Date Night 1:00 - 7:44 How recent global events inspired Arweave 7:45 - 12:09 Why Sam doesn't view Filecoin as a behemoth 12:10 - 15:04Arweave's competition 15:05 - 19:13 Bitcoin as a storage layer 19:14 - 25:09 Arweave's PMF 25:10 - 29:27 Applications currently using Arweave 29:28 - 34:52 How Sam thinks the industry can drive user behavior 34:53 - 38:30 What Sam's most excited about in the next few years Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Sami, Connor, and Mahesh are joined by Jake Steeves, Founder of Opentensor / Bittensor. Bittensor is a decentralized protocol for the aggregation and coordination of machine intelligence, which can be applied to many use cases such as AI training and decentralized storage and compute.  Jake explains why open ownership models mark the death of the YC business model, his views on AI regulation, the most interesting use cases he’s seen for Bittensor machine intelligence so far, and why he thinks we’re entering a golden era of technological innovation and human progress. 00:00 The cold open that almost wasn’t 1:33 $TAO community as the NBA Youngboy fans of crypto  7:15 The techno-optimists/effective accelerationists vs. the decels/regulators and how Bittensor strikes a balance 8:51 Bitcoin is apolitical 9:12 The meaning behind Jake’s screen name “Const_reborn” 10:25 Why the YC business model is dead 15:25 Should AI be regulated? 18:43 How the Bittensor community regulates itself 21:01 Bittensor’s vision and purpose, inspiration from Bitcoin 23:14 Bittensor subnets / use cases 25:32 Will regulation of centralized AI development be a boon for decentralized AI? 27:20 Can open-source AI compete with closed-source? 34:30 How Bittensor uses incentives and monetization to compete with closed-source AI 35:13 Bittensor Revolution upgrade and its subnet architecture  40:40 Example Bittensor subnets  44:30 Bittensor is a DePIN 49:07 What’s your most non-consensus take? 50:52 Outro Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Connor and Mahesh are joined by John Dogru, Founder of 3DOS, the world’s largest decentralized peer-to-peer manufacturing network. John walks us through the current state of the 3D printing industry, how 3DOS’ brings a new meaning to just-in-time manufacturing, dramatically improves rates of materials waste, and empowers a new generation of creators. 00:00 Intro 1:10 Are we aliens? 3:10 3DOS founding story 4:30 Where’s the 3D printing industry at today? 8:20 Not drop-shipping, but drop-manufacturing? 13:05 End-to-end use case  17:35 How starting with higher ed strengthened 3DOS from the ground up 20:00 How 3DOS fulfils the last mile 23:00 How 3DOS helps load balance capacity across devices 26:20 Impact of democratizing manufacturing 29:40 The long-term vision for 3DOS 32:30 How 3DOS is using crypto principles to drive network activity and empower creators 27:05 How 3DOS is optimizing its incentive structure for quality Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

In this episode of the Proof of Coverage podcast, Sal interviews Maria Lima, the founder of Weaver Labs and the Adeno network. Maria shares the origin story of Weaver Labs and discusses their work in powering lab deployments across Europe. They delve into the innovative technology behind Weaver Labs, including their full-stack modular software platform for scaling wireless networks. Listeners will gain insights into the exciting advancements being made in the field of telecommunications. Follow Maria:  ⁠@MariaMariuru [00:02:05] Demo or die approach. [00:04:41] Decentralizing telecommunications infrastructure. [00:08:30] Innovation in the telecom ecosystem. [00:09:41] UK's investment in telecoms. [00:14:50] Building a 5G private network. [00:16:20] Using street furniture for network deployment. [00:19:58] Neutron host model explained. [00:23:34] Fixed wireless access trial. [00:26:14] Residential connectivity cost analysis. [00:30:16] Telecom sector funding scarcity. Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Join Mahesh and Connor for a thought-provoking conversation with Greg Osuri, the founder of Akash Network. They discuss the importance of Akash and its implications as the first-ever super cloud for computing. Akash operates in a decentralized manner, utilizing crypto incentives to source compute power and providing it to those who need it through an innovative leasing framework. The conversation also touches on recent events, such as Mexico's Congress unboxing aliens, prompting reactions and thoughts on the existence of non-human life in the universe. [01:02] Aliens and extraterrestrial life [04:33] The cloud's influence on innovation [07:23] Decentralized marketplace for cloud [10:07] Aggregating latent compute resources [12:59] Fragmenting the AI chip market [16:17] Akash vs. competitors [20:12] AI developers and user friction [22:07] Network effects in crypto [26:08] Crypto and AI convergence [28:19] Incentivizing equitable AI [31:43] Akash Network and community Disclaimer: The hosts and the firms they represent may hold stakes in the companies mentioned in this podcast. None of this is financial advice.

Meet David Minarsch, Founder and CEO of Olas Network, as he discusses creating autonomous AI services for on-chain governance and index funds. The Olas protocol offers easy service creation and scalability, with topics on decentralized autonomous agents, governance products, fund management in DeFi, and community use cases.

Join Mahesh as he discusses the world of lucid dreaming with Eric Wollberg, Founder of Prophetic AI, and Evan Fisher, Founder of Portal Ventures. Prophetic AI has created the first hardware device capable of stabilizing lucid dream states among casual participants. An operating system to explore consciousness, Prophetic aims to create a platform to allow us to explore the inner workings of our brains, which may present over time as immersive, VR-like experiences. We discuss the process of lucid dreaming, the value of contextualized sleep data, and the implications of using such a novel mechanism to explore consciousness. Show Notes 01:19 What is lucid dreaming and why is it important?  03:45 Eric and Evan discuss their experiences with lucid dreaming 06:15 Eric’s background and origin on Prophetic 10:45 Key unlocks of the last 10 years 12:40 Business model and the value of dream data 18:50 Evan’s thoughts on sleep data 22:12 Regulatory and public backlash 27:25 Evan’s view on the brain and technology Note: Mahesh and Evan are both angel investors in PropheticAI