People by WTF

Nikhil Kamath
  • 3.8 (12)
  • Entrepreneurship

People by WTF is a series where Nikhil Kamath has a conversation with personalities who stand out in their industries around the world.

  1. 6d ago

    The Crypto Skeptic vs The Coinbase CEO | Brian Armstrong x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF

    I've said it before I'm a crypto critic. I've never bought a Bitcoin, never held a stable coin, never traded a perp. So I sat down with Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, the company that stores more crypto than anyone else on the planet and asked him to explain the whole thing from scratch, like I was an idiot. What followed was the most patient walkthrough of this industry I've ever been given: what a blockchain actually is, why proof of stake replaced proof of work, how stable coin issuers make money, and why he believes fractional reserve banking the foundation of every bank you've ever used shouldn't be the foundation of anything. I pushed him on where the yield really comes from, why an intermediary deserves my treasury returns, and whether crypto has quietly become the opposite of everything Satoshi wrote in that white paper. I'm still not buying a Bitcoin. But for the first time, I understand why so many people do. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 05:12 Income inequality and making everyone a capitalist 11:15 Inequality's magnitude and AI's concentration problem 17:54 Why AI agents will pay in stablecoins 24:28 The risk and yield economics of stablecoins 31:21 Remittances, a digital rupee and tokenized gold 38:09 Bitcoin and blockchain from first principles 45:25 Mining economics and the Michael Saylor playbook 51:09 How proof of stake secures a network 56:52 Smart contracts and DeFi lending explained 1:01:42 Creating entrepreneurs and India's fear of failure 1:08:16 India's crypto adoption and the leverage wipeout 1:15:56 Banks, stablecoins and the fractional reserve debate 1:22:13 The everything exchange and money as energy 1:27:50 The AI bubble question and open source models 1:34:43 Going to Washington and suing the SEC 1:40:01 The rise of perpetual futures trading 1:45:32 Bitcoin's psychology and fair market data 1:51:35 Base and building the new financial system 1:57:25 Whether Brian would run for president 2:02:14 Sleep, health and advice for obsessive traders 2:08:50 Bitcoin versus gold and remittance opportunities 2:13:34 Agentic commerce, moats and capital formation #nikhilkamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Brian Armstrong – CEO of Coinbase LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barmstrong/X: https://x.com/brian_armstrongInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian_armstrong/?hl=en Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  2. Jul 14

    Brian Armstrong x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. 24 Trailer | People by WTF

    #nikhilkamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Brian Armstrong- CEO of Coinbase LinkedIN- https://www.linkedin.com/in/barmstrong/X- https://x.com/brian_armstrongInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/brian_armstrong/?hl=en Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  3. Jul 2

    The President of Cyprus on Whether Democracy Still Works | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF

    I sat down with Nikos Christodoulides, the President of Cyprus — and the rare leader who came to politics as a historian first. Cyprus is a country of a million and a half people sitting on the bridge between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which makes it one of the most strategically placed nations on earth right now. We got into why he believes the world is sliding back into raw power politics, why the institutions built after World War II no longer reflect reality, why India has to be at the centre of whatever replaces them, and why he thinks war is the easiest mistake a country can make and the hardest to undo. We also talked about democracy under pressure, why he moved from the left to the centre-right over a lifetime, what AI might do to work and governance, and what it actually feels like to wake up every day and carry the weight of a country. He told me it's a very lonely role — and that the only thing that matters is whether history, not tomorrow's headlines, judges you well. 00:00 Introduction 03:07 Being a historian first, a politician second 08:02 Why power politics is returning to the world 12:03 The case for India on the UN Security Council 17:01 How postwar institutions favoured the incumbents 22:23 Whether democracy still delivers economic progress 27:02 Designing a new regional order from India to Europe 34:39 Why interests, not values, reshape alliances 40:53 The only real way to avoid war 42:35 Where he stands on left versus right 46:02 Moving from academia into political reality 47:11 What AI could do to work and democracy 52:08 Thinking about the next generation, not the next election 56:22 What it feels like to hold power 1:03:09 What diplomacy taught him about negotiation 1:07:57 A closing argument for India's leading role #NikhilKamath – Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter/X: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Nikos Christodoulides – President of the Republic of Cyprus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikos-christodoulides-660b02139/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikoschristodoulides/?hl=enX: https://x.com/Christodulides Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  4. Jul 1

    The Historian Who Became President of a Country | Ep. Trailer | People by WTF

    Most politicians know history. My next guest is a historian who became a president. He runs Cyprus — a million-and-a-half people sitting on the bridge between Europe and the Middle East — and he thinks the world is sliding back into the kind of power politics he spent his academic life studying. We got into why starting a war is easy and finishing one is almost impossible, why he believes India has to lead the next world order, and what it actually feels like to hold power. Full episode drops soon. #NikhilKamath – Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter/X: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Nikos Christodoulides – President of the Republic of Cyprus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikos-christodoulides-660b02139/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikoschristodoulides/?hl=enX: https://x.com/Christodulides Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  5. May 29

    Martin Escobari: Trauma, Chaos & Three Industries Worth $100B | Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF

    Martin Escobari is the co-president of General Atlantic, one of the largest growth equity funds in the world, and he says entrepreneurs and gangsters have more in common than we admit — so few make it, so many die early, and the ones that survive are almost always wounded in some specific way. He grew up in Bolivia in the 80s through 35,000% inflation, eleven presidents in ten years, and three coups; his family lost everything in a revolution; and he now believes America is converging towards the volatility he escaped, not the other way around. I brought in Arian, a 21-year-old founder who cold emailed Sam Altman from India, and asked Martin to allocate $100 billion across three industries with a blank slate today — AI, healthcare, energy transition, and the rise of the new consumer in the global south. We got into why India hasn't produced a truly global company, why four out of seven frauds in General Atlantic's entire history happened here, why the next generation of Indian founders has to build without shortcuts, and why fiction makes better investors than non-fiction. The most interesting two hours I've spent at a dinner table this year. Timestamp: 00:00 Introduction 05:14 Engineering a happy life 08:22 Surviving Bolivia's hyperinflation 12:19 Trauma as the engine behind every entrepreneur 20:17 Built-for-turbulence companies and spear fishing the storm 25:31 Is America still worth the journey, and what is wealth for 31:00 Capitalism, communism, and learning to think critically 37:19 Submarino, the IPO crash, and the India that almost was 43:02 Aryan's story: cold-emailing Sam Altman from Mumbai 51:18 The four mega-trends and where to put 100 billion 1:01:53 Why India has never built a global company 1:10:25 How General Atlantic is built: perpetual capital and pooled bets 1:16:14 Manifestation, the 8-second rule, and the checklist for great companies 1:24:23 Failure, dead ends, and the courage to change your mind 1:28:36 The venture-to-IPO value chain, monopolies, and young revolutionaries #nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: x.com/nikhilkamathcioInstagram: instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcioFacebook: facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio #MartinEscobari — Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General Atlantic LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martin-escobariTwitter: x.com/MartinEscobari Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify Spotify Link Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify Spotify Link Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify Spotify Link #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  6. May 28

    Martin Escobari: "America Is Freaking Out About 5%, We Had 35,000%" | Ep. 22 Trailer | People by WTF

    Martin Escobari is the co-president of General Atlantic — one of the largest growth equity funds in the world, with over $5 billion deployed into India. He grew up in Bolivia in the 80s with 35,000% inflation, eleven presidents in ten years, three coups, and a family that lost everything in a revolution. I sat him down with a few Columbia Business School students and a 21-year-old AI founder named Arian and asked him the questions a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old would each ask differently. Full episode drops soon. #nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: x.com/nikhilkamathcioInstagram: instagram.com/nikhilkamathcioLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcioFacebook: facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio #MartinEscobari — Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General Atlantic LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martin-escobariTwitter: x.com/MartinEscobari Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify Spotify Link Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify Spotify Link Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify Spotify Link #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  7. Apr 21

    The $120 Billion Man: Poverty, Power & Why Jobs Fix Everything | Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | People by WTF

    Ajay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion in a decade, was the frontrunner to run Citibank's quarter of a million people, quit to become CEO of a company with 4,000 — and today runs the World Bank Group, a $120 billion-a-year institution that was originally built to rebuild Europe and Japan after the Second World War and now exists to kill poverty by creating jobs. He says 600 million people in Africa have zero electricity and he doesn't mean inadequate electricity he means black none, that 1.2 billion young people in the developing world will turn 18 in the next 15 years with only 400 million jobs projected for them, that if you don't give them hope the demographic dividend stops being a light at the end of the tunnel and becomes a freight train, that the five sectors governments should obsess over are infrastructure and smallholder farming and primary healthcare and tourism and value-added manufacturing, that India gets fewer tourists a year than a country a fraction of its size and cultural weight, that the World Bank financed Japan's bullet trains and France's nuclear plants and helped create HDFC, that every dollar invested in tourism creates more jobs than a dollar in any other sector, that fossil fuels aren't going away but energy security is becoming a national security question, that small AI delivered on a phone to an illiterate farmer matters more to the developing world than large language models, that life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform and forget about it, and that the only way to put a nail in the coffin of poverty is to give somebody a job because earnings are not just subsistence — they are hope and optimism and the belief that tomorrow will be better than today 00:00 Introduction 02:26 AJ's career journey across industries 09:00 Consumption patterns and consumer insecurity 15:00 World Bank's five-part structure explained 22:00 Killing poverty through job creation 29:00 Primary healthcare and farmer empowerment 35:00 Wealth concentration versus societal prosperity spread 42:00 Demographic dividend becoming freight train 49:00 Five sectors driving future jobs 56:00 Decency quotient over IQ EQ 1:03:00 Energy security and nuclear opportunities 1:10:00 Forward thinking beats historical grievances 1:17:00 Luck flexibility and taking risks 1:23:00 Closing message on optimism Nikhil Kamath Entrepreneur & Investor Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-bank-group/ X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroup Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/ Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

  8. Apr 18

    Ajay Banga x Nikhil Kamath | Ep. Trailer | People by WTF

    Ajay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion, left when he was the frontrunner to run Citibank's 250,000 people, and now controls $120 billion a year as the President of the World Bank Group — the institution that was built after the Second World War to stop poverty from turning into war. He says life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform, that India gets under 20 million tourists a year which is insane for a country with beaches, mountains, culture, history, food and what he calls cool people, and that the world is about to have 1.2 billion young people turn 18 with only 400 million jobs waiting for them — and if you don't give them hope, the demographic dividend becomes a freight train. Full episode drops soon. Nikhil Kamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/ World Bank Group: X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroupInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/ Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59 Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th #WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

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Ratings & Reviews

3.8
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

People by WTF is a series where Nikhil Kamath has a conversation with personalities who stand out in their industries around the world.

Information

  • Creator
    Nikhil Kamath
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Nikhil Kamath
  • Show Website
    People by WTF

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