Unchained

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Crypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura Shin, an independent journalist covering all things crypto, talks with industry pioneers about how crypto assets and blockchains will change the way we earn, spend and invest our money. Tune in to find out how Web 3.0, the decentralized web, will revolutionize our world.

  1. 4 HR AGO

    Can Solana Edge Out Ethereum to Win the AI Agent & RWA Race?

    Tushar Jain and Mike Ippolito make the bull case for Solana as competition heats up. Thank you to our sponsors! Fuse: The Energy Network – Shift your energy use and earn rewards. MultiChain Advisors – The Growth & Capital Markets Partner You Need Crypto Tax Girl – Save $100 on your crypto taxes. With Ethereum refocusing on L1 and Hyperliquid adoption growing, Solana is arguably facing stronger competition than ever. Can it thrive still? Multicoin co-founder Tushar Jain and Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito share several reasons to be excited about Solana, including Alpenglow and anticipated market microstructure design flexibility. Find out why Tushar and Mike say Firedancer has not been a flop despite seemingly low adoption, why they don't see block building issues stopping Solana from challenging Hyperliquid, and why they say the network doesn't have to do anything to specifically attract AI agents. Plus, why they both believe that the RWA race is too early to call despite Ethereum's dominance. Meanwhile, with Alpenglow still months away, Mike says the wait doesn’t matter — for the next 12 to 18 months BD and marketing matter more than tech for adoption. Guest: Tushar Jain, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital Previous appearances on Unchained: Solana Rejected Inflation Reduction-Here's Why CoinFund's Jake Brukhman and Multicoin's Tushar Jain on Generalized Mining  Binance Hack: Should the Threat of Reorgs Be Used to Deter Hackers? Multicoin on the 1 Thing Crypto Teams Miss in Their Quests for Success Mike Ippolito, Co-Founder at Blockworks Links: Unchained: Ethereum Lets Go of the Rollup Story. Here Are the 6 Tokens That Benefit Jump Crypto’s Firedancer Goes Live on Solana Mainnet BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why. When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like? Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain Pump.fun Cashed Out $436M Since Mid-October: Lookonchain Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 24m
  2. 8 HR AGO

    DEX in the City: Why Everyone Is Overreacting About the Terra v. Jane Street Lawsuit

    Robinhood's Coy Garrison and Seong Seog Lee join the crew to unpack the Robinhood Chain launch strategy. Thank you to our sponsors!  ⁠MultiChain Advisors Robinhood's proposed chain for the trading of tokenized assets is live in testnet. In this DEX in the City episode, Coy Garrison, Robinhood's deputy general counsel on crypto, and Robinhood Crypto Head of Product Seong Seog Lee walk hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Jessi Brooks through the thinking behind the blockchain's testnet launch and why it is important that it supports tokenized equities out of the gate. Beyond the Robinhood Chain testnet launch, KK and Jessi discuss OpenAI and Paradigm's EVMbench tool and why it highlights the need for a safety-first approach. “AI and crypto are in the same room now, but the room's sort of on fire,” Jessi says. Don't miss how a man accidentally gained remote access to 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 countries with AI-written code. KK and Jessi also dig into the Terraform Labs estate's lawsuit against Jane Street. Is there any real credibility behind the lawsuit? Listen to find out! Save $100 with Crypto Tax Girl! Hosts: ⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital ⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare Guests: ⁠⁠⁠Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel, Crypto at Robinhood ⁠⁠Seong Seog Lee, Head of Product at Robinhood Crypto Links: Unchained: Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Layer 2 Testnet Launch Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’ OpenAI and Paradigm Launch EVMbench to Stress Test AI on Smart Contract Security Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like? Terraform Estate Targets Jane Street in Explosive Terra Collapse Lawsuit DeFi Platforms Could Get ‘Innovation Exemption,’ SEC Chair Says SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    58 min
  3. 8 HR AGO

    The Chopping Block: AI's Role in Crypto, Agentic Coding, & Citrini Financial Crisis

    Explore how AI could reshape crypto and finance, redefining traditional systems and introducing new threats. As AI-powered agents promise efficiency, Haseeb, Tom, Tarun, and guest Illia Polosukhin critique Citrini's controversial predictions on a global financial crisis and consider whether AI might just save or further complicate crypto's role in the economy. Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. Joining us is Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and contributing author to the original transformers paper that’s revolutionized AI. Buckle up as we delve into AI’s burgeoning role in the crypto world, dissect the sensational claims from Citrini’s article predicting an AI-triggered financial crisis, and explore the potential of agentic coding in reshaping traditional systems. Let’s get into it! Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly  Guest⭐️ Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol Disclosures Links: THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS by Citrini and Alap Shah Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:06 AI Agents Meet Crypto 08:06 Dark Forest Threat Model 15:31 How Close Are We 18:41 AI Coding Risks in Crypto 27:27 Citrini 2028 Crisis Explained 35:01 Demand Shock Missing Money 37:55 Automation Limits and Human Value 44:13 AI Zero Days and Botnets 51:40 Escrow Courts and Enforcement 56:05 Illia on Vibe Coding Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 1m
  4. 1 DAY AGO

    Are Crypto Markets Bottoming, or Is There More Pain Ahead?

    DATs may be collapsing, AI agents may be overhyped, but Omid Malekan thinks the strongest case for crypto has nothing to do with either. Thank you to our sponsors: ⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network⁠ Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts.  Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish.  Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens.  The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs. Hosts: ⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida ⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting ⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund Guest: ⁠Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School Links: Unchained: Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Fear Deepens Bitcoin Dips Below $65,000 as Tariff Uncertainty Weighs on Risk White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins SCOTUS: Supreme Court strikes down tariffs Citrini: ⁠THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 8m
  5. 20 FEB

    Uneasy Money: Why Peter Steinberger and Non-Crypto People Hate the Crypto Mob

    LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino joins to unpack Base's decision to leave the OP Stack, Zora's migration to Solana and more. Thank you to our sponsors! ⁠Fuse: The Energy Network – Shift your energy use and earn rewards. ⁠MultiChain Advisors -⁠ The Growth & Capital Markets Partner You Need Coinbase's Base is making a shock move away from Optimism's OP Stack. In this Uneasy Money episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino joins hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack whether this is the right move for Base and what it could mean for Optimism. Beyond Base's big move, the trio also discuss Zora's Solana migration, whether Coinbase was wrong to initially pursue a super app strategy with Base App, Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, the launch of Zero blockchain and OpenAI's EVMbench. Will OpenAI's acqui-hiring of Peter prove to be a “generational fumble” for Anthropic? And can crypto fix its brand problem? Also, learn why the rise of AI agents have Kain and Tay confident that open source will win in the end. Hosts: ⁠Kain Warwick⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix ⁠Taylor Monahan⁠, Security Expert Guest: Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs Links: Unchained: Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot ⁠⁠BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why. ⁠⁠LayerZero Launches ‘Zero’ Layer 1 as Citadel, ARK Buy ZRO ⁠⁠How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2 Million TPS and Is Still Decentralized ⁠⁠Uneasy Money: Are Institutions Creating a New Crypto Meta? ⁠⁠Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used OnchainVitalik Rethinks Ethereum’s L2 Playbook, Calls for Shift Toward Native Rollups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 24m
  6. 20 FEB

    Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Labs Is Putting Itself at the Mercy of the DAO

    Stani Kulechov unpacks Aave Labs’ “Aave Will Win” proposal, explaining why the company wants the DAO to have power over its finances. Thank you to our sponsors! Adaptive Security Aave Labs has proposed a “Aave Will Win” framework that will direct all revenue to the DAO to bring the protocol under “a token-centric model.” In this episode, Aave founder Stani Kulechov explains why Aave Labs is putting its funding at the mercy of the DAO and how the framework could drive DeFi innovation. Plus wen Aave v4? And is Aave Labs’ requested budget too much? Guest: Stani Kulechov, Founder of Aave Labs Previous appearances on Unchained: Why Aave's Founder Is 'More Bullish on Ethereum Than Anything Else’ Why the Founders of Aave and Sky Are Still Bullish on Ethereum DeFi Satoshi, Shorter Blocks, & Secret Plot - The Chopping Block Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Is So Successful - Ep.212 Links: Unchained: Aave Revenue Overhaul Sparks Governance Clash Aave Labs Proposes Off-Protocol Revenue Sharing With Token Holders The Chopping Block: Aave Civil War + Flow Hack + Coinbase Super-App Aave’s Rushed Governance Vote Draws Backlash How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money Uneasy Money: Why Token Holders Have No Rights & Why Every DAO ‘Has Failed’ ‘Poison Pill’ Proposal Calls for Aave DAO to Take Over Aave Labs AAVE Holders Question if DAO Quietly Redirected Revenue Away From Treasury Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    58 min

Trailer

About

Crypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura Shin, an independent journalist covering all things crypto, talks with industry pioneers about how crypto assets and blockchains will change the way we earn, spend and invest our money. Tune in to find out how Web 3.0, the decentralized web, will revolutionize our world.

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