Deeply Intents

Apriori

Deeply Intents is a podcast hosted by Apriori. The primary objective is to have high quality yet interesting conversations with credible builders in and around the crypto industry.

  1. Building with Agents and The Bull Case for Zcash

    MAR 19

    Building with Agents and The Bull Case for Zcash

    Zaki Manian In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Zaki Manian [Cosmos co-founder, Bootstrap board member, and Zcash contributor]. We start with Zaki's AI-native development workflow: he's running 7-8 projects simultaneously using Claude, Codex, and Gemini in parallel, burning through 500M tokens a day. He breaks down which model is best for what and why most developers he's hired in his career are now outperformed by Opus 4.6. From there, Zaki gives the first public podcast account of the Zcash governance crisis from a board member's perspective, how the team navigated it, what role AI played in the negotiations, and why Zcash is suddenly a credible store-of-value contender this cycle. We also get into what the privacy landscape looks like by end of year. We wrap up with the state of crypto startups post-Genius Act, why agentic finance is the only exciting build direction, and Zaki's new framework: two years of building is now two weekends, so why are founders still sending decks instead of TestFlights? Timestamps (00:00) - Cosmos, Zcash, enterprise blockchains origins (01:45) - Sanctuary technology (03:41) - Spicy AI takes (06:22) - Ideas are scarce and software is cheap (08:38) - Finding more ai forward teams to build with (12:41) - AI reasoning ability vs. regurgitating training set (15:37) - Specific use cases for each model (21:02) - AI as a strategy advisor (22:41) - From AI to Zcash, a story (26:19) - Non-profit organizations created (28:10) -From Zashi to ZODL (31:45) - Challenges with valuing revenue (33:09) - The era of super personal software (36:07) - Changes in whale behavior this cycle (37:27) - Zcash is the standard for the next era (39:11) - Encrypted Bitcoin (43:28) - The narrative is simple (47:17) - Credible fundamentals around quantum (53:24) - Privacy modalities of the future (56:21) - Intents replacing smart contracts (58:36) - How are you going to do growth? (1:00:46) - New ways to build startups (1:06:04) - No more pitch decks (1:10:59) - New generation of AI native builders (1:12:53) - We are going to have way more startups DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 14m
  2. Soundtracks for the Blind - Gwart

    MAR 13

    Soundtracks for the Blind - Gwart

    In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Gwart, host of The Gwart Show. We kick off with Gwart's knack for shitposting and the art of playing the anon game, then get into reflections on this cycle, including whether VC coins are actually dead or just suffering from massive token overhang. From there, we spend time on the craft of podcasting before pivoting to the big picture: the Ethereum roadmap, whether ETH works as a store of value, Bitcoin's quantum FUD, and what actually makes crypto useful in the long run. Timestamps (00:00) - pure shitposting and podcasting (01:38) - social slashing with a machete (03:21) - the anon game (06:32) - reflections on this cycle (10:22) - massive token overhang (13:24) - the trenches were cutthroat   (16:45) - the categorical imperative of tokens (19:11) - Avalanche is not worth $15B (20:43) - the demand might not come in the long run (23:51) - on podcasting (38:06) - skeptical on ETH as a store of value (49:41) - bitcoin quantum FUD/ conviction (56:32) - coordinating a post quantum upgrade (59:17) - on bitcoin l2s (1:03:52) - "anything useful will come to bitcoin" (1:05:52) - you couldn't do it in a decentralized way (1:12:58) - bitcoin is the cool thing (1:20:38) - defi summer wasn't gonna last forever (1:23:09) - this take time DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 26m
  3. Visions of Agents Trading Options - Nick Forster

    FEB 27

    Visions of Agents Trading Options - Nick Forster

    Why are crypto options still so underdeveloped? In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Nick Foster, Co-founder of Derive (fka Lyra). We start by unpacking why options are worth pursuing in crypto and what drove Variant's recent investment in Derive. From there, we dig into Derive's institutional focus, how they think about the competitive options landscape, and what "10/10" means for the protocol. We also speed through Derive's portfolio margin and liquidation systems, plus how their tech stack shapes product decisions. We wrap up with the story behind the rebrand from Lyra to Derive and Nick's learnings from building through multiple market cycles. Timestamps (00:00) - Options are the most programmable financial primitive (01:56) - Variant investment in Derive (04:14) - The institutional focus (09:10) - Having conversations with institutions (10:20) - All of these ingredients fall into place (12:53) - The competitive landscape (14:41) - 10/10 & ADLs (17:20) - How Portfolio Margin works (19:09) - Liquidation system innovation (21:57) - The Security Module (25:07) - Derive Chain (26:28) - Build a great product (36:16) - Rebrand from Lyra to Derive (40:55) - Synthetix's attempt to acquire derive (46:43) - Learnings whilst building (47:54) - Think carefully about incentives (50:08) - Having a proactive mindset (52:27) - Using AI to build (54:44) - Encouraging side projects (56:30) - Visions of agents trading options DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 1m
  4. Monadvillainy - ThogardPvP

    FEB 13

    Monadvillainy - ThogardPvP

    In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Alex Watts (ThogardPvP) from Fastlane. We begin the episode by discussing the concept of kingmaking in crypto ecosystems - why its important and the risks associated with king entrenching. Next we shift the conversation to the Monad central bank thesis as in the Monad Foundation using its treasury of MON to control yield via staking. Thereafter we shift the discussion towards risk curators and vaults exploring why they are popular. We finish the episode discussing enterprise adoption patterns and what is and what is not likely to work for institutions.  Timestamps  (00:00) - On Kingmakers  (03:07) - Annie are you okay?  (05:07) - VCs won't invest in 17 LSTs  (05:57) - Paradigm is the best Kingmaker in the business  (09:11) - Wealth creation event for native apps  (16:18) - The Kingmaker and application incentives  (21:29) - Preserve the ability for competition to disrupt incumbents  (27:13) - The Monad Central Bank thesis  (31:17) - This gonna sound really bad  (37:57) - Central banks are centralized  (45:02) - They're just professionals  (48:21) - Loop it and leave it  (52:24) - Programmatic interest rate policy  (54:40) - Whats up with vaults and risk curators  (57:07) - Glazing the curators  (1:02:13) - Institutional adoption  (1:03:11) - Prevailing view in crypto VC  (1:07:17) - What's important in the institutional game  (1:14:49) - Fast finality and short block times  (1:16:14) - RWAs have oracles, its nuanced  (1:22:53) - The island of misfit toys  (1:24:42) - Ethereum is the silver of crypto DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 28m
  5. Take Me To Your Leader - Alex Watts

    FEB 9

    Take Me To Your Leader - Alex Watts

    In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Alex Watts (ThogardPvP), Co-founder and CEO of Fastlane. We start by breaking down Fastlane's recent deal with Chainlink for their product Atlas—ThogardPvP walks through how it was structured and who actually got paid (spoiler: no one got rich). From there, we get into the emerging trend of acquihires and licensing deals in crypto and why they might be setting venture investing back. That leads us into a broader conversation about the two types of founders in tech: those who are genuinely mission-driven versus those treating "founder" as a career path for status and quick extraction. We also talk about why right now might be the best time for VCs to allocate to crypto, before closing out with a tour through Silicon Valley history—military-industrial spending, the case for a DARPA for crypto, and what it means to be a gardener in Ethereum's infinite garden. Timestamps (00:00) - Founder and CEO of Fastlane (01:27) - Chainlink acquires Atlas (06:32) - The way the deal was structured (12:12) - No one got rich off the deal (16:39) - Oppose the license and aquihire model (21:53) - This is what regulations are for (26:03) - Focused on Monad (27:50) - Founders make a choice (29:30) - A little bit of a tangent (31:10) - Things startup founders say (34:57) - Not all VCs are the same (39:15) - The sociopaths are scamming in AI right now (42:15) - Best time to allocate capital to crypto is now (45:18) - It's difficult to not be dumb (46:33) - Piero Scaruffi's "A History of Silicon Valley" (49:00) - Internet Capital Markets (51:31) - Garden Curator to King Maker DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    54 min
  6. Forbidden Controller Lore [Real] - Isaac Sheff & Christopher Goes

    JAN 30

    Forbidden Controller Lore [Real] - Isaac Sheff & Christopher Goes

    Is interop finally solved? In this episode of Deeply Intents I chat with Isaac Sheff (Senior Research Scientist) and Christopher Goes (o-founder) of Heliax about the Anoma protocol and explore how Anoma thinks about interop. In particular we discuss Isaac's research on Controllers [the authoritative state machine that orders transactions for a resource, preventing double-spends]. We begin the episode discussing Isaac's background as a consensus researcher and his prior work on Heterogeneous Paxos. We then dive into controllers and compare them to IBC, and discuss we you need different trust models for blockchains, databases, and computers. Thereafter the episode gets quite technical as we discuss the nuances of Anoma's resource model, controller tags, and next concepts called shared & causal resource history. Next we explore how controllers utilize ZK proofs for tag reduction and attestation. Finally we discuss the novel emergency override condition which one can think of as a generalization of Plasma (Ethereum), how controllers unlock private bridging, and the affordances they provide application builders who want to build distributed applications. Timestamps (00:00) - Consensus researchers (04:26) - What are controllers? (08:50) - Product perspective and revisiting IBC (12:52) - Why you need different trust models (19:24) - Unbundling ordering, execution & storage (24:30) - The Anoma state model is based on resources (29:03) - Controller Tags and double spends (34:34) - Shared and Causal Resource History (36:53) - Controllers are different than IBC (40:13) - You get interop for free (43:05) - Controllers love ZK (47:34) - Controllers and trust assumptions (50:45) - Emergency override condition (EOC) (56:10) - Generalization of Plasma (58:50) - Controller interop with existing EVM chains (1:03:09) - Intents in Ethereum (1:04:22) - Private bridging (1:06:33) - Affordances for application designers (1:10:17) - Blockchains can be useful for more than finance DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 12m
  7. Some Builder Musings - Dino

    JAN 16

    Some Builder Musings - Dino

    Why does crypto keep throwing money at attention instead of products? In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Dino, Co-founder of Fluent. We kick off with Dino's background and why he's learned never to bet against developer ingenuity, then get into the weeds on crypto fundraising strategies including what works, what doesn't, and where discipline matters. From there, we dissect crypto's obsession with attention and whether reputation systems can offer a real solution. We also explore Fluent's blended execution environment, touching on the history of WASM experiments and why product focus is valuable in the ecosystem. We wrap up with Dino's philosophy on building a company by exploring what an ideal idea meritocracy actually looks like and why he's chosen to build on Ethereum. Timestamps (00:00) - Don't bet against developer ingenuity (04:46) - Give people skin in the game (08:25) - Discipline in fundraising (16:27) - One way decisions (22:11) - Real recognizes real (25:46) - The industry's obsession with attention (28:19) - Reputation (33:12) - Reputation checks and balances (37:14) - Is reputation game-able? (44:44) - WASM experiments (46:23) - multi-VM products (52:14) - Product focus in the ecosystem (55:50) - Reflections on building a company (58:48) - Idea meritocracy (1:04:59) - Building on Ethereum DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 8m
  8. Master of Puppets - Dan Gray

    JAN 13

    Master of Puppets - Dan Gray

    In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Dan Gray from Credistick. We cover a ton of ground on what venture capital actually is, how it works, and where the space is headed. We kick off by breaking down the basics of VC and the ripple effects of the low interest rate environment after the financial crisis, then move into megafund strategies (sometimes called smart beta). From there, we dig into VC compensation, fund performance metrics and incentives, and how exits actually work. We also explore how secondary transactions are changing exit liquidity for investors and employees, plus equity crowdfunding as a way to let everyday people get in on seed-stage deals. Things get really interesting when Dan explains how memes influence capital flows and why megafund strategies work so well. We wrap up by talking about the challenges facing new emerging managers and some compelling AI-related investment theses. Timestamps (00:00) - Finding the missing puzzle piece (02:29) - VC is not competitive (05:09) - What is venture capital? (08:14) - Consequences of low interest rates (11:49) - Concentrated bets (16:29) - Megafund strategy - smart beta (19:04) - VC compensation (22:34) - Fund performance metrics and incentives (26:49) - Fragile proposition for founders (29:50) - One pivot is better than none (33:17) - VC exits (36:09) - Secondary transactions (42:00) - Retail exit liquidity (45:45) - Equity crowd funding (51:14) - Memes influence the flow of capital (55:16) - Megafund strategy is so good (1:00:11) - Government LPs can help smaller funds (1:02:05) - Emerging fund manager tactics (1:05:22) - Interesting theses connected to AI DisclaimerNothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

    1h 8m
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About

Deeply Intents is a podcast hosted by Apriori. The primary objective is to have high quality yet interesting conversations with credible builders in and around the crypto industry.

Information

  • Creator
    Apriori
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Deeply Intents

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