Shows
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesDavid Minarsch: Autonolas – Autonomous AI AgentsThe Autonolas stack aims to address the ‘A’ in DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation), through its Open Autonomy framework, which enables the creation of autonomous, off-chain services for crypto applications. A key component for ensuring the proper operation of these off-chain autonomous economic agents, is the consensus mechanism. The protocol is overseen by the Governatooorr, the world’s first autonomous, AI-powered governor.We were joined by David Minarsch, co-founder of Valory, to discuss the ever-changing landscape of AI agents and how they can be used to automate crypto applications.Topics covered in this episode:David’s backgr...2024-01-271h 06
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesEpicenter - 10-Year Anniversary Livestream10 years ago, Adam B Levine, the host of ‘Let’s Talk Bitcoin!’, decided that it was time to encourage other voices to step onto the crypto podcast scene. Among many applicants, Sebastien and Brian were the only 2 Europeans, so Adam suggested that they teamed up in order to record the pilot episode. On December 20th 2013, Sebastien and Brian released ‘Regulation and the Future of Bitcoin’, which marked the beginning of a 10-year (and counting) long journey. The rest is history.On this anniversary episode, our hosts were joined by special guests and friends of Epicenter, to share their favo...2023-12-232h 25
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesStani Kulechov: Lens Protocol – Decentralised Social Media PrimitiveSocial media revolves around content creation, and while the content itself could be tokenised through NFTs, SocialFi aims to take it a step further. The recently released friend.tech app went to show that users might be interested in something more than just content - creator shares. This implicitly links back to handles and profiles, and we can slowly start to unveil the primitives of social media. Lens Protocol predates the friend.tech venture, in both timeline, as well as scope. While social media became synonymous with monopolistic central entities, Lens Protocol aims to build the decentralised bedrock for...2023-09-0951 min
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesEpicenter – Looking Back on 10 Years of Crypto. AI Doom & Gloom? SPECIALAs Epicenter hits the 500 episode milestone, our hosts look back on almost 10 years of crypto developments, analysing the good, the bad and the ugly. What projects & narratives have surprised our hosts? Has Bitcoin failed in becoming a reliable store of value? Will ZK proofs provide the much needed solution to AI’s alignment problem? Last but not least, are we still early? Get ready for a fascinating discussion, albeit gloomy for this special occasion.Thank you for being part of this amazing journey! We wouldn’t have made it so far without your continuous support! Looking forward to t...2023-06-161h 21
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesRyan Zurrer: Dialectic AG - A Decade of Crypto Ventures: From BTC mining to P2E gamingConsidering the abundance of cryto projects launching constantly, making sound investment decisions requires both ample experience in the space, as well as a reliable network. Predicting future trends in such a volatile industry is a skill very few possess, especially since narratives evolve at a rapid pace. Ryan Zurrer is one of the OG participants and investors in the blockchain industry, with an experience of more than 10 years and an impressive portfolio of investments. From BTC mining to ICOs, DeFi and more recently NFTs & play-to-earn gaming (P2E), Ryan has witnessed all the major cycles in crypto....2023-04-071h 22
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesLaurence Ion & Vincent Weisser: Vita DAO – From DeSci to Longevity ResearchScientific research & publishing are gruelling tasks that extend outside the scope of science itself. Centralised publications abound in archaic practices that span from submitting a paper to getting it peer-reviewed and finally published, process which may take even up to years. In addition, research requires funding from very early stages of pursuing an idea, all the way to its finality (i.e. clinical trial or real-life applications). In TradSci (traditional science), funding is usually obtained once progress has already been achieved or when a startup has been formed.DeSci (decentralised science) sets out to change this paradigm by...2023-03-241h 14
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesDavid Schwartz & Jordi Baylina: Polygon zkEVM – From Mainnet to Mass Adoption - Part 2While Part 1 (#486) focused on the technological advancements that allowed proofs to be generated in a practical manner, lowering both the time and the hardware requirements, in this episode, we take a closer look at the use cases of different types of zk rollups and how they could promote blockchain mass adoption. Polygon's zk EVM equivalence, coupled with low transaction fees, promise a frictionless user experience. As with all L2 rollups, sequencer decentralisation remains a pressing issue that needs to be solved.We were joined by Jordi Baylina (tech lead) & David Schwartz (CTO) from Polygon's zkEVM, to discuss...2023-03-1755 min
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesDavid Schwartz & Jordi Baylina: Polygon zkEVM – From Circuits to Mainnet - Part 1With the upcoming launch of Polygon's zkEVM mainnet, L2s are undoubtedly a huge narrative that is unfolding in 2023. It is time to take a step back and recognise the incredible amount of effort that has gone into researching and building L2 scaling solutions in general and zk rollups in particular. Tech-wise, we barely scratched the surface of general purpose processors that can handle zk circuits, so there is still tremendous room to grow. As layer 2s become more efficient, so will the applications that are dependent on blockchain throughput.We were joined by Jordi Baylina (tech...2023-03-1057 min
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesJoel Thorstensson: Ceramic – Building the DataverseThe Metaverse has taken the world by storm in 2021 and even though many have and are still opposing it, the fact that we are spending the majority of our lives online is an undeniable truth. The boundaries between physical and digital worlds are slowly eroding away. Our digital presence generates a data footprint that is currently being stored in big tech’s centralized silos. As a whole, these user-generated data breadcrumbs represent our digital identity. Web3 has, so far, mainly focused on financial aspects, disregarding user specific data even though the latter actually represents the vast majority (>90%) of all ge...2023-02-0957 min
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesSebastian Bürgel: HOPR – The Peer to Peer Network Changing Data PrivacyHOPR is a decentralized and incentivized peer-to-peer mixnet open to anyone who wants to join and run a node. The network allows people, companies, and devices to exchange information online with its metadata stripped. People who communicate and transact using HOPR — or apps and services which run on top of the platform — can be sure that no-one can find out what data is being shared, who is sending or receiving it, or even how much data is being sent. HOPR gets its name from the fact that it provides metadata privacy by sending data packets through multiple nodes - or “...2022-09-281h 14
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesEpicenter Hosts – Is the Ethereum Roadmap the Right Path for Eth Holders?An interesting question that has sparked debate in the Twittersphere and amongst our hosts. Hear as Meher, Friederike and Brian discuss scaling visions currently in the ecosystem, with particular focus on Ethereum Layer 2s and whether or not this is a good path forward for holders of Eth.Topics covered in this episode:Introduction to the hostsMeher's opinions and recent twitter thread on EthereumHow Layer 1s and Layer 2s work togetherSmart contract shardingBitcoin vs EthereumSolanaThe Ethereum roadmap from hereEpisode links: Meher's twitter threadEpicenter - About UsBrian on TwitterFriederike on TwitterSponsors: ...2022-07-291h 10
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesPaul Kohlhaas & Tyler Golato: VitaDAO – The Collective Funding Longevity ResearchVitaDAO is a decentralized collective funding early stage longevity research. Their mission is to extend human lifespan by researching, financing, and commercializing longevity therapeutics in an open and democratic manner.We were joined by Tyler Golato and Paul Kohlhaas, co-founders of Molecule and initiators of VitaDAO to talk about how drug discovery and approval currently works, what the status of longevity research is, what role IP plays -- and how all of this could change in the future with DAOs like VitaDAO.Topics covered in this episode:Paul and Tyler's backgrounds and how they...2021-08-041h 27
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesJoey Zacherl: KeeperDAO – The On-Chain Liquidity UnderwriterKeeperDao is an on-chain liquidity underwriter for DeFi that combines yield farming and profits single-block arbitrage. The mining pool for Keepers incentivizes a game theory optimal strategy for cooperation among arbitrageurs. Their goal is to capture profit opportunities and distribute them to the various participants involved. We were joined by Joey Zacherl, Co-founder of KeeperDAO, to chat about what the protocol does and its mission, the grim triggering strategy, the ongoing hiding game, and the roadmap for the future.Topics covered in this episode:Joey's background and how he got into cryptoAn overview of...2021-03-191h 13
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesThe Great Epicenter Host Extravaganza 2021The new year has brought with it a new bull run. This is great news for crypto holders, but at what cost? Will this bring with it a number of negative implications such as regulatory push back and privacy battles? Listen as the five hosts of Epicenter come together for an in-depth chat to share their predictions for the crypto space in 2021.Topics covered in this episode:Each of our hosts share how 2020 went for themIn-depth individual predictions on where things are headed with the current bull marketPublic backlash to the crypto systemRegulatory and tax related...2021-01-121h 08
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesRichard Craib: Numerai – The Crowdsourced Predictive Model Hedge FundNumerai, the "hardest data science tournament on the planet". It's a hedge fund with its own distributed research platform designed specifically for AIs. It's the first of its kind and takes a radically different approach to making market predictions. It's completely crowd-sourced and data scientists around the world compete to create the best predictions and get paid with cryptocurrencies. Users are completely blind to the data and Numerai is blind to the code, and the predictive models users generate. The result is a hedge fund which is market neutral, currency neutral, and geography neutral. It makes all decisions solely...2020-07-141h 19
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesIgor Barinov: POA Network – Enabling Scaling Through Trust in Public NotariesWe're joined by Igor Barinov, the tech lead of the POA Network. The POA Network achieves a reduction in transaction costs by many orders of magnitude by having a set of trusted validators. All validators must be US public notaries, so their identities are known and legal recourse against them can be taken in the offchain world. We also talk about the xDai network, which enables Dai transactions on a POA chain: Dai are transferred into a smart contract on the mainnet and then become available to be transferred at much lower cost on the POA Network. Similarly, they...2019-08-061h 08
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesRobert Leshner: Compound – An Automated Money Market for Ethereum TokensIn this episode, we caught up with Robert Leshner, founder of the Compound protocol. Compound is a fascinating smart contract protocol, running atop Ethereum, that allows users to lend and borrow specific ERC-20 tokens with a duration-free interest model. The protocol acts as a central borrower and lender of user tokens and algorithmically prices the interest charged to borrowers and lenders. Compound is one of the first examples of a well-functioning lending market built using smart contracts.
Topics covered in this episode:
Robert's background and how he came to found Compound
The workings of the compound...2019-07-091h 04
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed TechnologiesAleksandr Bulkin & Jake Brukhman: CoinFund – Crypto-Investing by Community BuildingCoinFund is one of the earliest crypto-funds to have taken shape, forming in early 2016. The fund is well known for running an active Community Slack, conducting great podcast interviews with cryptocurrency projects and an emphasis on building network nodes / services.
We are joined by Jake Brukhman, CEO, and Alexander Bulkin, Chief Alchemist, to discuss their latest thoughts on investing in the cryptocurrency space. We cover a wide variety of themes such as their opinions on the “fat protocol hypothesis,” thesis on value capture in the cryptocurrency space, their efforts to build network nodes; and their effort to buil...2018-10-111h 21