Archebyte

On this episode of Archebyte, we are joined by Collin Meyers, Founder of Obol Labs. The Obol Network is an ecosystem for trust minimized staking that enables people to create, test, run and coordinate distributed validators. 

Collin kicks off the episode by laying some groundwork and explaining the history of staking infrastructure and how it has led us to where we are today, post Ethereum Merge. We briefly discuss withdrawals and how they affect staking dynamics before diving deep into DVT - Distributed Validator Technology. Collin breaks down what DVT is, how it works, and what it can enable for validators as well as the crypto ecosystem at large. We discuss the challenges that at home validators face and Collin shares his advice for becoming an at home validator and overcoming these challenges. 

We close out our conversation as Collin looks to the future and shares what he’s excited to see develop in the crypto infrastructure space in the coming years as we acknowledge that blockchain tech is at its core one incredible use case of applied cryptography. 

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Archebyte: https://twitter.com/archebyte

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Archetype: https://twitter.com/archetypevc

Collin: https://twitter.com/StakeETH

Obol Labs: https://twitter.com/obolnetwork

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:56 Welcome Collin

1:28 History of staking infrastructure

6:05 How withdrawals will affect staking dynamics 

10:23 DVT: Distributed Validator Technology

11:49 How DVT works

13:45 What DVT unlocks for validators

23:07 How to become an at home validator 

25:28 The future of crypto infrastructure innovation

28:12 Outro

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

On this episode of Archebyte, we are joined by TuongVy Le to discuss crypto regulation. Vy is currently a Partner at Bain Capital Crypto, Head of Regulatory & Policy at BCC, and previously worked in the enforcement division at the SEC.

Vy starts off the conversation by giving listeners an overview of crypto regulation and policy as it stands today - an enforcement only approach with lack of guidance that leaves both founders and customers vulnerable. She explains how the events of the past year have led regulators to become hostile towards the crypto industry as a whole, without fully understanding the diverse range of use cases for blockchain technology. 

We discuss the dangers of innovation outpacing regulation, and we acknowledge that if U.S. policy fails to keep up with the inevitable advancement in technology, the next Google or Apple of crypto could be founded overseas. This devastating prospect is a direct implication of regulators’ failure to provide guidance. 

Katherine and Vy leave listeners with advice on how to navigate the current regulation landscape, and share what you can do to help the cause. After all, it’s not too late for the U.S. to be a world leader in crypto regulation and take advantage of all blockchain technology has to offer. 

Archebyte is presented by Archetype, an early-stage crypto venture firm accelerating the decentralized future. Learn more about Archetype at https://www.archetype.fund/

🔗 FOLLOW US

Archebyte: https://twitter.com/archebyte

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Archetype: https://twitter.com/archetypevc

TuongVy Le: https://twitter.com/TuongvyLe12

Bain Capital: https://twitter.com/baincapcrypto

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:38 Welcome Vy!

1:53 Vy’s background

5:07 The value of different perspectives

10:04 The state of crypto regulation today

17:50 Why is regulation so difficult?

20:18 Speed of innovation vs. speed of regulation

25:26 The unnecessary hostility of crypto regulation

26:57 Should U.S. based crypto founders relocate? 

30:53 It’s not too late for the U.S. 

31:19 The Coinbase Wells Notice

32:14 Lack of regulation 

36:12 What you can do to help aid crypto regulation

41:12 Outro

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

For the final episode of season 2, I’m changing things up a bit! To close out a year that has been very eventful, and a bit chaotic, I went to some of my favorite crypto founders for their words of wisdom.

I asked everyone three questions and compiled all of their answers here to help everyone decompress from the craziness of 2022 and start getting on track for 2023:

1. Give me one or two reasons to stay in crypto and remain optimistic on the future!
2. What are some big themes you’re interested in/ following now and in the next year? Any predictions?
3. Do you have any advice to founders who are raising or building in this bear market?

Thank you again to all of the founders who gave their time and thoughts for this episode, as well as all of the viewers who have joined me throughout season 2 of Cross-Chain Examination. See you in the new year!

🔗 FOLLOW US

Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Ash Egan: https://twitter.com/AshAEgan

Lauren Stephanian: https://twitter.com/lstephanian 

Jason Choi: https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi 

Min Teo: https://twitter.com/_MinTeo 

Eleni Steinman: https://twitter.com/EleniThinks 

Alexis Gauba: https://twitter.com/AlexisGauba

Dan Elizter: https://twitter.com/delitzer 

Kevin Britz: https://twitter.com/kbrizzle_

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:02 Intro

2:51 Reasons to remain optimistic

7:57 2023 predictions

11:28 Advice for founders in the bear market

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

We kickoff the episode by broadly discussing how Pooja thinks about the future of work and she shares how the future of work could look different in web2 and web3 settings. We analyze these topics from the perspectives of both workers and organizations, and examine how web3 offers each of them new and exciting possibilities.

Pooja predicts that the future of work will be small teams tackling big problems in a more dynamic way than we’ve ever seen before. She sees web3 as more of a means to an end and a set of ideologies to build by - privacy, transparency, and autonomy to name a few. 

As Pooja gives us the inside scoop on Tephra Labs and Radius, we touch on the possibilities for things like coordination, decision making, and leadership in a web3 future.

🔗 FOLLOW US

Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Pooja: https://twitter.com/pooja_eth

Tephra Labs: https://twitter.com/tephralabs

Radius: https://twitter.com/joinradius

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:02 Intro

2:02 The future of work 

5:48 The future of work in web2 vs. web3 

10:31 Openness of work in web3

12:29 The future of companies and organizations

15:29 Leadership and decision making

19:07 Coordination within crypto

24:08 Tephra Labs and Radius

26:28 Radius Fellowship 

29:11 Follow Pooja and Radius!

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

On this episode of Cross-Chain Examination, we’re joined by Devin Walsh, Executive Director of the Uniswap Foundation. UF was founded this year with the goal of supporting the decentralized growth and sustainability of the Uniswap protocol and its ecosystem. 

Devin and Ken Ng submitted the initial proposal to found the Uniswap Foundation during the summer of 2022. Uniswap token holders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal with an impressive 95% yes vote - a feat that took Devin months of hard work, collaboration, and implementation of feedback. To lay some groundwork, she begins the episode by sharing her process for creating the proposal and bringing the Uniswap Foundation to fruition.

We then get into the importance of foundation structures for crypto protocols, and specifically for Uniswap Protocol. We also dive into the benefits of having a non-profit label for the foundation. Devin shares the three pillars of the Uniswap Foundation (growth and innovation, governance, and advocacy and stewardship) and we discuss how UF is measuring their success and progress in these fields. 

We close out our conversation with an overview of all the work UF has done so far as well as what is in the works for their short and long term future. Devin leaves us with some advice for starting a foundation and tells you where to go if you’d like to follow along the UF journey!

-  Article Mentioned: https://gov.uniswap.org/t/alastor-fee-switch-report/18020/2

🔗 FOLLOW US

Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Devin: https://twitter.com/devinawalsh

Uniswap Foundation: https://twitter.com/UniswapFnd

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:02 Intro

2:46 Uniswap Foundation

10:27 The importance of foundations

13:42 Non-profit foundations

14:52 The 3 pillars of Uniswap Foundation

17:52 Quarterly goals of Uniswap Foundation

21:37 Work that Uniswap Foundation is currently doing

24:54 Controversial Uniswap thesis

25:57 Advice for setting up a foundation

29:36 Follow Devin and UF!

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

On this episode of Cross-Chain Examination, we’re joined by our good friends and supporters, Anton and Ethan from Talos! Talos is an institutional trading platform for digital assets that was built to support the entire trade lifecycle. 

With backgrounds in the institutional finance space, and a very robust crypto platform under their belts, Anton and Ethan are the perfect guests to help us sort out all of the craziness going on right now in the wake of the FTX collapse. We kick off our discussion with a breakdown of crypto as an asset class and the importance of institutional adoption. We then dive into Vitalik’s tweet where he suggested crypto is rushing into institutional and mainstream adoption too quickly. 

Turning to mainstream adoption more broadly, we discuss the reliance on centralized businesses to more easily onboard new users. Anton touches on the friction between cefi and defi tools and, instead of picking a side, explains that there is a time and place for both. He then reflects on the inception of Talos, from digital asset fund to a fully integrated crypto platform made from scratch. 

Later in our talk we get into the details of crypto as a unique asset class, the advantages of building financial systems on blockchains, the evolution of Talos, and effects of the FTX collapse. 

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Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Anton: https://twitter.com/KatzAnton

Ethan: https://twitter.com/ethanf

Talos: https://twitter.com/talostrading

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:02 Intro

2:20 Institutional adoption

6:57 Centralization and mainstream adoption

9:40 Talos origin story

14:42 Crypto - a unique asset class 

17:00 Talos’ evolution

22:48 FTX collapse effects

28:17 Risk management and due diligence

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

This week on Cross-Chain Examination, we’re taking a break from our usual deep-dives and turning our attention to current events in the industry with Ash and Danny from the Archetype team. Over the course of the past week, we have watched FTX collapse, sending the entire crypto market into freefall. 

At the time of this recording (11/11/22), much of the situation is still unfolding. We do our best to lay out the facts around FTX, Alameda, SBF and co, and the misappropriation of user funds. We recap everything we know so far and discuss the unfortunately long list of potential repercussions before touching on some silver linings.

In light of the current market conditions, we turn the conversation to Archetype’s thesis around Ethereum. We measure the ongoing risks and call out what we’re keeping an eye on as the space moves forward. We also discuss Ethereum's role not just as a financial ledger, but a global, social computer. At the end of the day, we’re still bullish. 

🔗 FOLLOW US

Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Ash: https://twitter.com/AshAEgan

Danny: https://twitter.com/DannySursock

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:03 Intro

2:20 FTX fallout

5:03 Industry repercussions

6:51 Silver linings

12:45 The difficulty in modeling the price of Ethereum

16:20 How the Archetype team evaluates Ethereum

26:35 Risks and considerations

29:58 Why Archetype is bullish on Ethereum

👀 LINKS

- Bankless: The Case for $15K ETH- https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/the-case-for-15000-eth

- NY Times: Is FTX Crypto’s Lehman Moment?- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/technology/cryptocurrency-binance-ftx.html

- Block Crunch: How FTX Collapsed- https://open.spotify.com/episode/6hpRIYyh988JE36Qno22Zx?si=5CKZ-CPfSue23NnlGp94Ew

- Trung Phan’s FTX Tweet Thread- https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1591477764640878593?s=20&t=rIsKHpbHKs8JWc5Iaxc78w

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

Sreeram Kannan is the founder of EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking collective leveraging trust, hyperscaling blockchains, and unleashing open innovation. 

In this highly technical episode, we dive deep into proof of work vs. proof of stake, staking, restaking, Ethereum throughput, and permissionless innovation.  

Sreeram kicks off the episode by introducing and explaining fragmented trust networks. One of the amazing value propositions for blockchain technology is that it allows permissionless and trustless innovation - any developer can join the ecosystem and start creating. But this trustless technology is only valuable if the core infrastructure innovators around the world decide to actually utilize it. To help them do so, Sreeram created Eigen Layer with the intention of lowering their barrier to entry into the Ethereum ecosystem.

We discuss the ways in which Eigen Layer enables restaking and Sreeram walks us through the actual process of native staking. He explains how he foresees the Eigen ecosystem growing and shares a few of the possibilities Eigen enables. We discuss the importance of increasing Ethereum’s bandwidth and Sreeram shares how Eigen Layer can help this initiative. 

We also explore risk mitigation and all of the ways in which the folks over at Eigen are tackling the issue of security, with decentralization not only being a core value of the Eigen team, but its main value proposition. To close out the episode, Kathrine and Ash recap the discussion and break down some of the more intellectually challenging topics discussed. 

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Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Sreeram: https://twitter.com/sreeramkannan

EigenLayer: https://twitter.com/eigenlayer

Ash: https://twitter.com/AshAEgan

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Sponsors

1:02 Intro

2:15 Trustlessness in blockchain technology

3:12 Sreeram’s background

3:26 Innovation at the core infrastructure level

6:05 Proof of work vs. Proof of stake

9:13 Restaking

9:40 Native restaking

13:19 Building out the Eigen ecosystem

15:14 Increasing Ethereum’s bandwidth

18:10 Eigen - Cloud analogy

20:21 EigenLayer reducing systemic risk

24:49 Ethereum security

26:17 Preventing false slashing

29:05 Keeping Eigen decentralized

31:45 Follow Sreeram!

32:53 Recap

37:07 Outro

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

Eleni Steinman is the Co-Founder of Loop, a tool enabling autopay in crypto. In this episode we dive into how Loop came to be, how Loop works, and what to expect from Loop in the future. 

Loop was designed with all users in mind - not only does it have the ability to integrate with complex crypto protocols but it's also simple and easy enough for crypto novices to understand. With its B2B2C business model, Loop is a flexible tool that allows for not only crypto subscriptions but fiat subscriptions as well, and even integrates seamlessly with Stripe. 

We discuss how Loop works on the backend, giving listeners some insight into the mechanics of how it uses smart contracts to allow recurring payments while still giving the user full control and ownership over their assets. Users are provided with a convenient dashboard-like interface to clearly see what they are subscribing to and make changes to those subscriptions with just a few clicks. They even have the ability to cut off recurring payments and revoke companies’ access to their funds.

Eleni shares some of the possibilities being explored in the crypto payment arenas and she shouts out some cool projects working on a “buy now pay later” function. We also discuss crypto donations and how a recurring payment option for donations would enhance contributions to charity. We close out our conversation touching on the issue of privacy for on-chain transactions and Eleni shares what she’s most excited about at Loop in the coming months. 

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Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Eleni: https://twitter.com/EleniThinks

Loop: https://www.loopcrypto.xyz/

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:00 Welcome, Eleni!

3:03 Eleni’s journey to founding Loop

7:32 Autopay in crypto

9:19 What is Loop?

11:38 B2B2C

12:36 What sets Loop apart from big tech companies

13:58 Recurring payments in crypto

16:23 Subscriptions

17:06 “Buy now pay later” for crypto

18:38 Crypto donations

20:08 Privacy & on-chain transactions

21:42 Get a Loop demo!

22:53 Loop integrations

24:41 Outro

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

Jon is the Co-Founder of VectorDAO - a collective of designers, artists & developers contributing to web3.

After working as a designer at Coinbase for several years, Jon decided to take a leap of faith, quit his job, and he began working for himself as a freelance designer. After realizing that the work he was doing was highly integral to the success of his clients, Jon began to feel that taking an hourly wage for his work was a bit old school. So, to better participate in the upside of his work and more closely align his incentives with those of his clients, he began taking a portion of his earnings in their native tokens.

After connecting with a friend who was also a great freelance designer in the space, the duo decided to pool together the tokens they were earning, invite other designers to do the same, and socialize their gains and losses. Thus, Vector DAO was born. 

By aligning incentives, socializing risk, and giving independent freelancers a community to thrive in, Vector DAO became a perfect storm for success. The collective worked with over 40 organizations in their first year and grew to a point where they could no longer accept applications. 

Drilling down into the details, Vector DAO actually considers itself an internet community as opposed to a DAO. Yes - there is a decentralized component to how they make decisions about their treasury, but ultimately, Vector DAO is not fully decentralized or autonomous, and that’s okay! By keeping the team relatively small (about 90 people) and creating a shallow hierarchy, Vector is extremely efficient and doesn’t face many of the coordination issues that “true” DAOs face. 

In this episode we discuss the differences between a “true” DAO and an internet community, and we dive into the ins and outs of Vector DAO, how it works, and how they have attracted some of the best talent in the industry. We address the importance of great design in the crypto space, and Jon leaves listeners with some advice if you’re thinking of starting a DAO. 

🔗 FOLLOW US

Cross Chain Examination: https://twitter.com/crosschainpod

Katherine: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu

Jon: https://twitter.com/jonjyan

Vector DAO: https://twitter.com/VectorDAO

⌛ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

3:05 What is Vector DAO?

3:32 How Vector DAO started

8:58 How Vector works

10:56 Attracting talent

12:57 Internet communities

14:59 Not everything needs to be a DAO

16:49 Unexpected challenges along the Vector DAO journey

18:09 Web3 income sources

18:55 Vector DAO governance and hierarchy 

21:56 Crypto UI/UX

25:53 Advice for starting a DAO

28:36 True DAO vs. Internet community

29:50 Follow Jon!

30:06 Outro

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.