Philipp Weiling from Botanix shares how the 2013 Cyprus banking crisis - where the EU seized 47% of deposits over €100K - sparked his journey from traditional finance to Bitcoin DeFi. After building enterprise partnerships at Polygon, Philipp joined Botanix to solve Bitcoin's scaling trilemma.
Botanix launches as the first Bitcoin L2 offering "real Bitcoin yield" - not yield paid in other tokens, but actual Bitcoin returns. Their innovative approach uses Bitcoin's hashrate as a random number generator to create forward security, where past funds remain protected even if future validators are compromised.
What makes Botanix unique:
Real Bitcoin Yield: 50% of all transaction fees distributed to stBTC holders in actual
Bitcoin Forward Security: Bitcoin hashrate randomly selects different multisigs for each block, protecting historical funds
EVM Equivalence: Full smart contract capability with Bitcoin-denominated gas fees
No Native Token: Sustainable economics without inflationary rewards
Enterprise Validators: 16 validators, including Galaxy Digital, Fireblocks, and other major players
Philipp explains how proof-of-stake runs on top of Bitcoin's proof-of-work, why major DeFi protocols like GMX and Dolomite launched day one, and the vision for a complete financial ecosystem running on Bitcoin. Plus insights on transitioning from traditional finance, the psychology of sovereignty, and building sustainable tokenomics. Key
Topics: Bitcoin L2, Real Bitcoin Yield, Forward Security, EVM on Bitcoin, Cyprus Banking Crisis, Sustainable Tokenomics, DeFi Infrastructure
Guest: Philipp Weiling (@philippbeiling),Global Head of BD at Botanix Labs
Host: Feroz Lakhani, Brand Director at Ankr (@ankr)
Find Botanix: botanixlabs.com | Twitter @BotanixLabs
Find Ankr: ankr.com | Twitter @ankr
