Bell Curve

Season 3 | Episode 6

In this episode of Bell Curve, Myles and Mike dive deep into today’s most innovative blockspace scaling techniques. They begin by discussing Optimism's recent "Superchain" rebrand and the similarities between the OP Stack and Cosmos SDK.

We also discuss Coinbase's new L2, exploring its potential impact on general-purpose L2s and user demand. This leads to our ongoing thesis that the roadmaps for Cosmos and Ethereum are merging, an intriguing development that we unpack in detail.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:48) The Superchain 

(17:07) Cross-Chain Messaging and Shared Sequencers

(20:37) The Role of General-Purpose Chains

(24:24) The Cosmos SDK vs OP Stack

(32:12) Communication Hubs and Value Accrual

(39:05) SDK Network Effects

(46:04) What’s Left to Build

(51:19) How Ethereum has Influenced Cosmos

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Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

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Resources:

The Inevitability of UNIchain

https://medium.com/nascent-xyz/the-inevitability-of-unichain-bc600c92c5c4

Optimism's Superchain

https://stack.optimism.io/docs/understand/explainer/

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

This episode covers Coinbase's Base L2 announcement. We discuss why Base could be a game changer, how Coinbase will monetize Base, how Base impacts competing L2s and more! On-chain creativity for Coinbase and the ecosystem is at an all-time high - feeling bullish.

We also explore the liquid staking token narrative, how the SEC's qualified custodian proposal impacts institutional adoption, OpenSea's precarious future, why every project is launching a stablecoin and MakerDAO's end game

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

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Resources

Empire's Base (Coinbase) episode

https://spoti.fi/3ZkTshq

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Season 3 | Episode 5

In this episode of Bell Curve, Kalman Lajko and Preston Evans explain their thesis behind the optimal Rollapp stack. We start with the similarities and key differences between the Slush and Sovereign design thesis and how developers choose the optimal stack for their product. We then explore how Rollapp infrastructure projects can monetize, winner-take-all dynamics, the importance of BD and developer tooling and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro: Pre-Interview

(02:02) The Internet of Rollups

(04:26) Slush vs Sovereign

(28:06) Business models and monetization

(30:20) A winner-take-all market?

(34:45) Attracting developers

(36:51) Infrastructure and developer tooling

(39:09) Recap: Post-Interview

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Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Preston: https://twitter.com/prestonevans__

Follow Kalman: https://twitter.com/kalmanlajko

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Resources:

Sovereign

https://www.sovereign.xyz/

https://twitter.com/sovereign_labs

Slush

https://slush.dev/

https://twitter.com/SlushSDK

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

This episode of Bell Curve explores Blur's airdrop and attack on OpenSea's market share. We discuss Blur's business strategy, BLUR token incentives, OpenSea's precarious position and more!

We also cover the recent market rally, the SEC's qualified custodian proposal, tech's transition from growth to value and Flashbots' new MEV-Share product. Check out the Timestamps below for a full breakdown!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:34) Why are markets ripping?

(05:10) The SEC’s qualified custodian proposal

(12:16) Tech’s transition from growth to value

(23:08) Blur, OpenSea’s fall, royalties & ETH burn

(33:27) Scaling tech and new applications

(37:34) Flashbots MEV-Share, PFOF and best execution

(52:09) Max Pain

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

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Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXH

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Resources

Flasbots MEV-Share article

http://bit.ly/3S7g9TO

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In this episode of Bell Curve, we are joined by Nitesh Nath, Xave Meegan and Maghnus Mareneck to discuss the economic driver of blockchains: MEV. Miner Extractable Value (MEV) is often called the most exciting and complex industry within crypto. Listen to this episode, and you'll catch the fever! In this episode, we discuss how AppChains can optimize MEV, payment for order flow (PFOF), MEV value accrual, cross-chain MEV, the role of wallets and more! You won't want to miss this one.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro: Pre-Interview

(01:15) The MEV Value Chain

(08:35) How AppChains Can Optimize MEV

(16:24) MEV in Solana and General Purpose Chains

(25:18) Osmosis’ ProtoRev Module

(29:00) AppChains vs General Purpose Chains

(30:41) What Should Protocols Prioritize?

(37:15) Rollup MEV and Shared Sequencers

(46:30) The Value Prop for Users and Wallets

(48:06) Complexities of Cross-Chain MEV

(52:30) Wallets: The Role of Middleware

(56:44) Debating What is Good vs Bad MEV

(1:04:30) Recap: Post-Interview

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Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Nitesh: https://twitter.com/niteshnath

Follow Maghnus: https://twitter.com/0xMagmar

Follow Xave: https://twitter.com/0xave

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Resources:

Chorus One

https://chorus.one/

https://twitter.com/ChorusOne

DFlow

https://dflow.net/

https://twitter.com/DFlowProtocol

Skip Protocol

https://skip.money/

https://twitter.com/skipprotocol

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

This episode of Bell Curve explores the implications of the SEC shutting down Kraken's US staking operations. Is the SEC coming for Coinbase next? What will be the next domino to fall? How will this impact DeFi? We discuss it all here.

We also cover Genesis' bankruptcy agreement, Uniswap's governance drama, the rise of super apps, Google's $100B mistake and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:17) Operation Choke Point: Kraken's Staking Service Shutters

(26:01) Genesis Reaches Agreement With DCG and Key Creditors

(31:55) Uniswap Governance Whale Games

(46:02) Stargate ReIssues Their Token Supply

(52:57) Super Apps and What’s Never Coming Back

(1:08:34) Infinity Pools, Google’s $100B Mistake and AI Value Accrual

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Bell Curve: https://twitter.com/thebellcurvepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3pQTfmD

Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXH

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Resources:

Brian Armstrong's tweet on potential staking ban

https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1623459203150131201

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Season 3 | Episode 3

In this episode of Bell Curve, Nick White and Dev Ojha join us to debate the pros and cons of applications owning the full tech stack vs leveraging a modular architecture. Applications that own their full tech stack can fully customize their chain (how they process MEV, encryption, etc) but is the overhead and cost worth it? In contrast, the modular ideology supports outsourcing all non-core functions to other providers (similar to how websites outsource payments to Stripe). We cover this debate, Celestia, the role of sequencers, security tradeoffs, the idea of the "minimum viable stack" and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro: Pre-Interview

(02:25) Guest Backgrounds

(04:13) Application Design Philosophies

(10:01) Sequencers: Their Role and Security Tradeoffs

(27:00) Tradeoffs: Focus vs Control

(33:38) Mesh Security, ICS and Restaking

(45:51) SDK Network Effects & the “Minimum Viable Stack”

(55:13) Building Credibly Neutral Software

(1:00:41) How Applications Should Approach MEV

(1:04:02) The Path Ahead

(1:06:19) Recap: Post-Interview

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Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Nick: https://twitter.com/nickwh8te

Follow Dev: https://twitter.com/valardragon

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Resources:

Celestia

https://celestia.org/

Osmosis

https://osmosis.zone/

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

This episode of Bell Curve explores the crypto venture capital landscape. We discuss how VC funds are managed, what separates the best funds from the pack, why fund size is so important and more! This is your chance to see how the crypto VC business really works.

We then discuss Bitcoin's NFT drama, why Bitcoin mining sucks and a little bit of politics. You won't want to miss this one!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:38) Is the bull market back?

(12:27) The private fundraising landscape

(21:29) Behind the scenes look at VC funds

(43:09) Bitcoin NFT drama (Ordinals)

(50:43) Being a Bitcoin mining business ain’t easy

(55:13) Charlie Munger, Nikki Haley and election predictions

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Bell Curve: https://twitter.com/thebellcurvepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Resources:

Illegitimate bitcoin transactions (Ordinals)

https://read.pourteaux.xyz/p/illegitimate-bitcoin-transactions

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Season 3 | Episode 2

In this episode of Bell Curve, Zaki Manian and Sam Hart join us to discuss how Aggregation Theory applies to crypto protocols. We explore if applications can covert user relationships into sticky profits, crypto moats, blockspace as a commodity, the benefits of controlling the full tech stack and more!

PS: don't miss the "Smiling Curve" section of the episode - it's an under-discussed idea that will start appearing in crypto value-capture debates!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro: Pre-Interview

(02:29) The AppChain Thesis 

(09:31) Aggregation Theory

(25:31) Do Moats Exist?

(31:34) Is Blockspace a Commodity?

(38:25) The Smiling Curve

(47:04) Will dYdX Validate the AppChain Thesis?

(52:28) Controlling the Entire Stack

(1:01:22) Recap: Post-Interview

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Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Zaki: https://twitter.com/zmanian

Follow Sam: https://twitter.com/hxrts

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Resources:

Ben Thompson's Aggregation Theory

https://stratechery.com/aggregation-theory/

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

This episode of Bell Curve explores the complex money trail from crypto's warped credit market. We know the players - 3AC, DCG, Genesis, Alameda and FTX - but how were these parties tied together and what exposure did they all (carelessly) take?

We then discuss how ecosystem funds work, why we're bullish dYdX and Circle, the Blockworks Research degens, why we're pulling a boomer on social media, Doodles controversy and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:51) Crypto's [Dead] Credit Market

(17:18) How Ecosystem Funds Work

(24:30) dYdX Token Unlocks

(29:32) Circle’s CCTP = Bullish

(34:21) Canto, Blockworks Research and How to “Make It”

(48:44) Stargate Psyops?

(52:01) Doodles Controversy

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Bell Curve: https://twitter.com/thebellcurvepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3pQTfmD

Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXH

- -

Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.