Unlayered Sal Qadir and Dave Apsimon

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.
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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
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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
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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
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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
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Episode Resources
Follow Ray : https://Twitter.com/RaymondJacobson
Audius Website : https://Audius.co
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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!
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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?
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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