We present to you the fourth episode of The Wise Ones Podcast. Hosted by @Wisemenmentors For this episode, we're sitting down with @PopPunkOnChain, the Ethereum legend who walked away from institutional money to launch what looked like a gaming token on Pumpdotfun, which later developed into building infrastructure to reimagine every streaming platform on the internet. Pop spent years optimizing smart contracts for the biggest protocols in DeFi LayerZero, SushiSwap, Radiant Capital. His code runs in the systems you use every single day. He had the venture backing, the institutional salary, the credibility that opens every door in crypto. Then he quietly launched a token with zero announcements, and gave the community the chance to buy supply, knowing exactly what was coming next. But what most people don't know is why he made that decision - and what he's actually building. This isn't your typical founder interview. PopPunk reveals the full story of leaving his high-paying job with a three-month-old son at home, the decision to give the community first access instead of stacking bags himself, and how $70K in creator fees with zero team is funding a business that could change how every live stream works. If you hold $PUMPCADE, build on @pumpdotfun, or want to understand what separates legitimate ICM projects from pump-and-dump schemes, this conversation is essential. In this conversation, we explore: - The walk-away moment: Why he left institutional money and venture-backed startups to build on http://Pump.fun and what convinced him to go all-in with a newborn at home. - The stealth launch strategy: How he intentionally didn't buy supply before V2 dropped, even knowing it would 100x, because he wanted the community to become early investors. - The evolution from V1 to V3: How arcade games became embedded wallets, then prediction markets, and why each version unlocked the next level of scale. - "Trenchifying" prediction markets: Why fast-paced betting (minutes vs 24+ hours) is what Solana actually wants and how it's fundamentally different from Polymarket's approach. - The streamer token problem: Why 99% of stream tokens die after day one and how embedded betting utility solves it by giving creators sustainable revenue. - Creator fee economics: How $70K with no team is funding a real ICM business and why this revenue model scales when others fail. - The Pumpfun relationship: Getting into group chats with the team, why they support real builders, and what's coming with tournament sponsors. - The ICM antithesis: Why $PUMPCADE is the reverse of every failed launchpad that raises $20M then disappoints, and why building in reverse actually works. - The vision beyond gaming: Where this goes when you're building infrastructure for all live media - Twitch, Kick, YouTube, live sports, anywhere there's a chat box. No hype. No promises. Just building in public and letting the work speak. We hope you enjoy. @PopPunkOnChain @pumpcade @pumpfun @a1lon9 @pumpspotlight About The Wise Ones: The Wise Ones Podcast sits down with the builders and strategists shaping crypto's future before the mainstream catches on.
