

Base Layer
David Nage | BlockWorks Group
Base Layer will be providing insights from founders and investors in the base layer of cryptoassets. Simplifying complex projects and the technology being developed, from interoperability to relayers and more - who is building the future, why are they and how are they doing it.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 11, 2019 • 35min
Base Layer Episode 092 - Dave Balter (Flipside Crypto)
Dave, the CEO of Flipside Crypto, joins us on Base Layer to tell us all about what Flipside Crypto does. For those not familiar, Flipside provides analysis on project health (on protocols like Ethereum, Tezos, etc) and created a rating system called FCAS. We also discuss how behavioral analysis goes into something called Chainwalkers and much more. Dave has done 7 different start up's and has successfully sold some of them - amazing hearing such a successful founder talk about his entry into digital assets and build key infrastructure in it.

Dec 9, 2019 • 28min
Base Layer Episode 091 - Luis Cuende (Aragon)
Luis, the co-founder of Aragon, joins us on Base Layer to talk all about Governance. Aragon is a project that many in the digital asset ecosystem are starting to look at for their unique governance tools -- a subject area that has show itself to be very difficult for some protocols to see through successfully. We also discussed the ability to create your own organization in 5 minutes and 2020 being the year of the DAO (question mark there). So much good stuff in this chat - def check it out!

Dec 4, 2019 • 47min
Base Layer Episode 090 - Will Warren (0x)
Will joins us on Base Layer to give you great overview of 0x. When I began thinking about starting Base Layer over a year ago 0x was one of the projects that inspired me - helping build key infrastructure for blockchains to interoperate, exchange value and much more. We discuss the 4 product lines they've embarked on esp Governance which is a key feature we will be highlighting on Base Layer going into 2020. We also find interesting metaphors between traditional markets & the world we live in to explain how some of the functionality in 0x works. Must listen!!

Dec 2, 2019 • 29min
Base Layer Episode 089 - Roneil Rumburg Part II (Audius)
Roneil joins us again to bring us up to speed on the beta launch of Audius over the last two months and the numbers they are seeing are very exciting! Thousands of artists joining the platform like Deadmau5 and others; tens of thousands of users on the platform - real usage and adoption!! We talk about that all and also sprinkle in some chats about Taylor Swift and some of the recent narratives of artists and their labels.

Nov 27, 2019 • 25min
Base Layer Episode 088 - Guido Molinari (Prysm Group)
Guido joined us on Base Layer during San Francisco Blockchain Week to discuss the confluence of economics and differing models and blockchains. We discuss token economics and the differing socioeconomic theories associated with the adoption of different blockchains and protocols. Super interesting conversations with someone with such an amazing background in econ.

Nov 25, 2019 • 44min
Base Layer Episode 087 - Tomer Afek (Spacemesh)
Tomer from Spacemesh joins us today to give a great overview of the project. There are 3 problems Spacemesh is trying to solve:to be a fairly mined, permissionless and race free open source" programmable cryptocurrency that has a low barrier to entry. We also discuss what Proof of Space is and how is it different than what people are becoming more familiar with like Proof of Work or Proof of Stake? Additionally we also unpack this: "Spacemesh is designed to be run by home desktop PC owners from around the world. There are tens of millions of such people with sufficient system and internet connectivity who can join the platform, form a global decentralized computer and cryptocurrency and provide security for it." A great chat and one not to miss!

Nov 22, 2019 • 29min
Base Layer Episode 086 - Jake Yocom Piatt (Decred)
Jake, project lead for community directed digital asset Decred, joins us for a special Friday episode to discuss why the crypto ecosystem was afire this past week with privacy talk in the wake of the massive exposure on Grin’s Mimblewimble privacy implementation. According to an investor in the ecosystem who performed some testing, a group of users can be identified with a $60/wk spend on AWS, thus there’s no privacy guarantee. The crypto space needs a renewed approach to privacy to avoid this exposure of user addresses. We discuss this and how Decred is addressing the issue of privacy. Check out Jake's writing about privacy projects & there differences here

Nov 20, 2019 • 29min
Base Layer Episode 085 - Galen Danziger (Mousebelt)
Galen from Mousebelt joins us on Base Layer on a live recording during San Francisco Blockchain Week. MouseBelt is the world’s first full-service blockchain accelerator that goes beyond just seed capital, connections, and mentorship. The accelerator is uniquely equipped with more than 25 experienced blockchain developers, project managers, business developers, marketers, and lawyers. We had a great conversation about the world of early stage development and funding of projects and what themes they see prevalent in the space right now.

Nov 18, 2019 • 35min
Base Layer Episode 084 - Pascal Gauthier (CEO, Ledger)
The CEO of Ledger, Pascal Gauthier, joins us on Base Layer to discuss some breaking news and a general overview of the last 5 years of their existence. Pascal discusses the news that the Ledger Vault platform now has a customized crime insurance program insuring crypto assets for up to USD 150 million that was obtained with working with two financial institutions. We also discuss Ledger's 5 year anniversary, the evolution of wallets and how investors custody their assets. A great discussion for those aware of Ledger and not in addition to the big news they discuss.

Nov 15, 2019 • 37min
Base Layer Episode 083 - Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly Capital)
An honor to have Haseeb, recorded live from San Francisco Blockchain Week; Haseeb is a highly respected investor in digital assets - we hone in on his past as a professional poker player, how his ability to discern risk and reward from those experiences and the ability to find "tells"; how his experience as AirBnB furthered his interest in distributed and decentralized systems and much more. We delve into what Dragonfly is doing in the space as an investor and what the future looks like in the "protocol wars" and much more.