In this episode, we chat with Omer Goldberg, founder of Chaos Labs, a company that builds economic security and risk management tooling for protocols. Omer has been in the trenches contributing to various DeFi protocols for the past few years, and shares some stories about that journey. We also chat about how Chaos has grown since inception, and wh…

In this episode, we chat with Kubi, co-founder of Gattaca, most well known for its Ethereum block builder Titan. We discuss Gattaca’s journey as a trading firm and how that led them to infrastructure development across the Ethereum MEV supply chain. We then explore their strategic approach to launching Titan Builder in an already competitive builde…

In this episode, we chat with Josh Lee, founder of Keplr. We reminisce about the early days of Keplr, and what building a Korean Crypto company is like. We also touch on the origin story behind Osmosis, and what Josh has learned from being a co-founder of both Keplr and Osmosis. Josh also shares lessons from building an infrastructure company in Cr…

In this episode, we chat with Anand Gomes, founder of Paradigm and Paradex, two different crypto derivatives products. We begin with Anand’s journey as a derivatives trader, which led him to build Paradigm, an institutional block trading platform for crypto options. After the FTX crash, Anand was inspired to create a new decentralized exchange – Pa…

In this episode, we chat with Cem Ozer, founder of Sovereign Labs. We begin with Cem’s personal journey in crypto, and how this experience led him to build Sovereign Labs. We then discuss how developers evaluate the many permutations of rollups and blockchain frameworks available today, and where Sovereign Labs fits into this landscape. We dive int…

In this episode, we chat with Jacob Arluck, head of strategy at Celestia Labs, and Andrew Huang, founder of Conduit. We cover a number of topics in the modular blockchain space, starting with the impact of DA solutions on the rollup landscape and the budding partnership between Conduit and Celestia, the leading RaaS and DA solutions in the market r…

In this episode, we chat with Emily and Alvin Hsia, co-founders of Shadow. We begin with their journey working on DeFi, MEV, an early idea to unify on-chain data, and their journey to building Shadow. They walk us through the challenges with events, their solution for developers, users, and data consumers, and other details on the product such as p…

In this episode, we chat with Ido Ben-Natan and Raz Niv, co-founders of Blockaid, a crypto security firm. They share their journey from the Israeli Defence Force cybersecurity unit to launching Blockaid, discussing their product and the importance of protecting web3 customers. Later, we dig into Blockaid's approach to a stealth launch, fostering a …

In this episode, we chat with Michael Shaulov, co-founder of Fireblocks. Michael revisits with us the early days of building Fireblocks and finding product market fit by solving customer pain points. We chat through both strategic and tactical approaches to building a B2B product in crypto, exploring lessons learned on early customer relationships …

In this episode, we chat with Henri Stern, the co-founder and CEO of Privy. We begin with Henri’s personal journey in Crypto, how it led him to build Privy, and how his vision for Privy has changed over time. We then get into Privy’s product mindset, how the primitives it enables benefit both users and developers, and where the product goes from he…

In this episode, we chat with Neel Somani, the founder of Eclipse. We begin with an overview of Neel's personal journey in Crypto, from exploring Cosmos and appchains, to thinking about Rollups-as-a-service, to now building an L2. We then dig into Neel's dream customer, Eclipse's go-to-market strategy, and how they are building a differentiated eco…

In this episode, we chat with Yi Sun, founder of Axiom. We begin with an overview of what Axiom does and the core problems it's solving for Ethereum applications. Then, we dig into Axiom's go-to-market strategy, some of the use cases they're supporting, and some of the capabilities they're building for in the future. We also explore the broader zer…

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 b…

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 di…

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…

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 f…

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…

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 rese…

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 po…

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 f…

In this episode, we chat with Lakshman Sankar, contributor to Personae Labs, an R&D lab focused on applying zero-knowledge technology to advance digital identity. Lakshman has been a long-time Crypto researcher, and was previously at the Ethereum Foundation. In this episode, we chat about Personae's new private voting tool - HeyAnoun, and the first…

In this episode, we chat with Travis Scher, founder of North Island Ventures. Travis has been investing in crypto startups since 2015, and has a wealth of experience across many market cycles. We go into detail about what Travis looks for when evaluating early stage startups, his experience at Digital Currency Group, and the importance of ethics/in…

In this episode, we chat with Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave. We cover the history of Aave, from the transition of ETHLend to Aave, to its current positioning as the leading lending project in DeFi. Aave has had a unique journey, and this episode goes into the nitty-gritty details behind the scenes. We also cover Stani's thoughts on Aave Gover…

In this episode, we chat with Mike Ippolito and Jason Yanowitz, the founders of Blockworks. Since 2018, they've built Blockworks up into one of crypto's largest and most prominent media companies. We dive into the early history, various product lines today, and where they see Blockworks in the future. They also share valuable feedback on how crypto…

In this episode, we chat with Sam Hart, longtime contributor to the Cosmos hub and author of the ATOM 2.0 whitepaper. We talk about the history of Cosmos and how its governance has evolved since inception. We also discus how protocol narratives evolve over time, and how Cosmos' story compares to that of Ethereum and Bitcoin. Lastly, we talk about t…

In this episode, we chat with Joe Lallouz, the head of Coinbase Cloud and founder of Bison Trails. We cover the history of Bison Trails from early inception to acquisition by Coinbase, as well as broader thoughts on the crypto infrastructure landscape. We also discuss the staking industry's evolution over time, and how Bison Trails' value propositi…

In this episode, we chat with Esteban Castaño, co-founder of TRM Labs. TRM is a crypto compliance company working with some of the leading exchanges and protocols in Crypto including FTX, Binance, Uniswap and more. We chat about TRM's early history, how they settled on building a B2B risk and compliance product, and tips for other B2B crypto founde…

In this episode, we chat with Hasu and Sam Kozin (Lido) about Lido governance and the LDO <> stETH Dual Governance proposal. Due to Lido's key role in Ethereum, a major goal is to make the protocol more resilient from both a technical and governance perspective. We go through some of these governance initiatives, and discuss the LDO + stETH dual go…

In this episode, we chat with Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO. We cover the original history behind MakerDAO, Rune's transition out of MakerDAO and his year-long hiatus. We also go into why he felt compelled to return, and his new Endgame plan he hopes to implement for MakerDAO's long-term survival. This episode is a dense one, and goes d…

In this episode, we chat with Fredrik Haga, founder and CEO of Dune Analytics. We cover the complete history behind Dune, their community and brand-building strategy, and the journey to finding product-market fit. Other topics covered include the future of the crypto data and analytics market and Dune's long-term plan. Lastly, Fredrik shares pieces…

In this episode, we chat with Tarun Chitra, founder and CEO of Gauntlet. Tarun shares the inspiration behind starting Gauntlet, how it has evolved over time, and their future plans. He condenses his years of experience building products for DAOs into tangible lessons for new founders. We also cover the history behind Robert Ventures, the venture fu…

In this episode, we catch up with punk4156, Noun40, and Noun22 about all things Nouns. We go over why NounsDAO is a thriving DAO with a consistent stream of quality governance proposals. We also cover key Nouns Primitives, such as the daily continuous auction mechanism, Prop house, and derivative projects. We also cover what are some open challenge…

In this episode, we catch up with MonetSupply about MakerDAO. As one of the first DeFi protocols, MakerDAO is a great case study on progressive decentralization, the working group model, and DAO governance broadly. We cover Maker's core unit model, its focus on real world assets, Rune's recent return and proposal, Hasu's proposal, as well as recent…

In this episode, we catch up with Hasu about the current challenges of DAO governance and how it can be improved. Hasu is a prolific researcher, and is active in many protocols including MakerDAO, Lido, and Flashbots. We conduct a bird's eye retrospective of DAO governance, and discuss his takeaways as a leading delegate and participant. Specific t…

In this episode, we chat with Trent Van Epps and Tim Beiko, long-time contributors to Ethereum. We chat about different ways of funding L1 development, Ethereum's strategy, and the Ethereum Foundation's past, present, and future role. We also talk extensively about their new initiative - the Protocol Guild, a new program to fund core development an…

In this episode, we chat with Evgeny Gaevoy, the co-founder and CEO of Wintermute. They're one of the largest market-makers in crypto, and are active across many different markets, chains, and products. Evgeny does not mince any words here, and we go into many topics including the origins of Wintermute, the current state of DeFi, and which protocol…

In this episode, we explore VectorDAO, a new group of artists, creators, and designers focused on the web3 ecosystem. VectorDAO consists of over 70+ contributors, and works for a variety of startups, protocols, and DAOs. This conversations features VectorDAO's creators, Jon Yan and Yitong Zhang, who have thought extensively about structuring this n…

In this episode, I chat with Stefan George, the Co-Founder and CTO of Gnosis, the quintessential DAO tool. We cover the history of Gnosis, from its inception as a prediction markets protocol to where it stands today. In particular, we discuss the Gnosis multi-sig product, which secures billions of dollar in assets and is considered as one of, if no…

In this episode, Larry and I talk with Tina He from Station, a new platform meant to transform the DAO contributor experience. Tina is one of the most thoughtful builders in the DAO tool landscape and has worked with her team to put together a very unique onboarding experience for contributors. We cover many areas in this podcast, including the vis…

This week Larry and I chat with Bored Ghost Development (BGD) Labs about their Aave development proposal. BGD is a development team composed of the former Aave Genesis core engineering team, and have been working on Aave for the past few years. With this new proposal, they are now working full-time for the DAO over the next 15 months. The $11m prop…

This week, we chat about Osmosis' unique approach to bridge selection. Unlike other projects which have used many bridges, Osmosis underwent a "canonical bridge selection" process to choose one provider, with the intention of providing a superior UX for end users. All of this was done through on-chain governance. Axelar emerged victorious, and is w…

In this episode Larry and I chat about M&A in Crypto, and how it compares to traditional markets. We discuss how they may be similar and more importantly different, in a world with open-source, composable protocols. We also discuss the most prominent merger to date, FEI <> Rari, and the dynamics that went into the merger. --- Follow us on Twitter: …

In this episode Larry and I chat with A16z's Jeff Amico about all things protocol governance. Jeff is the head of network operations at A16z, where he oversees A16z's on-chain participation, including governance, staking, and more. We discuss A16'z participation on the various networks, the delgation program, how DeFi governance will evolve over ti…

In this episode Larry and I chat with Getty Hill about Uniswap Protocol's fee switch. We go into detail about the pros/cons of turning the fee switch on, the process that goes into the decision, and how protocol fees could be used to grow Uniswap long-term. ---- Follow us on Twitter: @getty_hill |@lsukernik | @derek_hsue Resources: v2 fees, v3 fees…

In this week's episode, we discuss voting markets with the founder of Paladin, Romain Figuereo. We cover many topics, including the general use case of lending/borrowing votes, and the v-staking model and Curve Wars. Additionally, we cover some prominent examples of vote borrowing, and other kinds of use cases that Romain would like to see. ---- Fo…

This week, we chat with Simon Jones, the co-founder of Voltz Protocol. We discuss Voltz's recent governance proposal to allow them to use the UNI v3 license, in order to build their own interest-rate swaps AMM. In this episode, we discuss the proposal, tips for other teams going through governance, and the future of D2D interactions and partnership…

Today's guests are Charles St. Louis and Paul Vienhage from Element Finance. In this episode we go deep on Council, the Element Finance governance framework, which features a few key innovations: Voting Vaults, the Governance Steering Council, and Optimistic Rewards. We also go into the broader philosophy behind Element Finance Governance, and how …

In this episode of I Pledge Allegiance, Larry and I chat about the legal landscape in Crypto with Marc Boiron, General Counsel of dYdX, and Jake Chervinsky, Head of Policy at the Blockchain Association and formerly the General Counsel at Compound. This episode's focus is a practical approach for founders and DAO operators in navigating the crypto l…

In this episode of I Pledge Allegiance, we chat about MetaGovernance with Brian Flynn, the founder of Rabbithole, and mel.eth, long-time contributor at Index Co-Op. We cover numerous topics, including the core motivation behind metagovernance, how it effects everyday token-holders, and where it's headed in the future. ---- Rabbithole MetaGovernance…

In this episode of I Pledge Allegiance, hosts Derek Hsue and Larry Sukernik chat about Governance Frameworks with arr00, the creator of Compound Governor Bravo. We also speak bring on Alex Kroeger, who worked on governance for A16z and is a longtime governance participant in numerous protocols. We discuss existing governance frameworks such as Comp…