Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

Aztec Protocol enables private transactions on Ethereum. It uses a zero-knowledge proof system, allowing users to effectively create shielded representations of tokens, which can then be sent and redeemed for the underlying token. They recently launched Aztec 2.0 and their rollup service for Ethereum, zk.money. This allows users to submit Ether to the Aztec rollup contract with the options to shield, send privately, unshield and emergency ushield (escape hatch). The latest version also allows DeFi users to save gas and participate anonymously in DeFi transactions.

We were joined by Zac Williamson, Co-founder and CTO, and Joe Andrews, Head of Product, from Aztec, to give us an in-depth look into the Layer 2 project and explain how version 2 of the protocol in a game-changer in terms of privacy and scalability.

Topics covered in this episode:

• What has happened in the last year since Aztec were last on the show
• High-level overview of Aztec
• How the Aztec rollup works in DeFi applications
• The challenges privacy introduces for DeFi
• SNARK, the core technology that powers Aztec
• Noir (zkSNARK DSL)

Episode links:

• Episode 335 - Aztec Protocol – Bringing Zero-Knowledge Transactions to Ethereum
• zk.money
• Discord
• Aztec on Twitter
• Joe on Twitter
• Zac on Twitter

Sponsors:

• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter - paraswap.io/epicenter
• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Dev Ojha. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/405

Badger is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with a single purpose: To build the products and infrastructure necessary to accelerate Bitcoin as collateral across other blockchains. BadgerDAO is extremely community focused and has succeeded in creating a seamlessly operating DAO out of a group of random people with a shared set of values and a mission.

BadgerDAO's founder, Chris Spadafora, joined us to talk about how he built this decentralized community, why Bitcoin & DeFi, and the products they have created including Sett and Digg.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Chris' background and how BadgerDAO came about
• How they successfully built a strong community
• Why Bitcoin and DeFi?
• Who is the target audience for Badger?
• The Sett vaults - strategies
• Digg - the rebase system
• Chris' thoughts on “DeFi on Bitcoin”

Episode links:

• Badger website
• BadgerDAO Wiki
• Discord
• Badger on Twitter
• Chris on Twitter

Sponsors:

• CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity offering the best prices on all trades and provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswap

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/404

VitaDAO 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 came to work on VitaDAO
• Longevity - thinking of aging as a disease
• Where is the research at today?
• How longevity research currently takes place in the pharmaceutical industry
• How VitaDAO is alleviating patency issues
• The first funded project with the Knudsen lab in Copenhagen - Molecule
• How DAOs make the decisions

Episode links:

• The Molecule blog
• VitaDAO
• Goldman asks: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'
• VitaDAO Discord
• VitaDAO on Twitter
• Molecule on Twitter
• Paul on Twitter
• Tyler on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/403

Vitalik Buterin joins us for an in-depth conversation at EthCC 4 in Paris. During his keynote presentation, he expressed his hope for Ethereum to go beyond DeFi as he wishes to see more non-financial applications built on the platform. From better social media platforms to novel approaches for funding public goods, from his perspective, Ethereum has the potential to change the world for the better, beyond financial applications.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How has the past year been for Vitalik and Ethereum
• The state of crypto today
• What interesting experiments are in crypto now defining membership
• Has Ethereum gone too far into financial applications
• Vitalik's views on using rollups on non-DeFi applications
• What are the biggest problems of the world today?
• NFTs and social media
• The concept of retroactive public goods funding
• The future of DAOs

Episode links:

• Episode 171 - DAO Lessons, Casper and Blockchain Interoperability
• Vitalik's talk at EthCC 4
• Vitalik on Twitter

Sponsors:

• CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity offering the best prices on all trades and provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswap

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/402

EthCC is back and stronger than ever! Despite the pandemic, ongoing travel restrictions and sanitary passes, the Ethereum France team hosted the fourth edition of the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris. Over 1,000 people attended the week-long affair, which saw an impressive number of side events and, as always, legendary parties. For many attendees, it was their first conference since last year's edition, and the first time they were able to embrace their fellow Etherians since the beginning of the pandemic.

For this EthCC recap panel, we're joined by Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran, Ethereum France President Jerome de Tychey, and ParaSwap Founder Mounir Benchemled. We discussed the conference, how the ecosystem has evolved this past year, the rapid growth of DeFi and NFTs, and what to look forward to as the community continues to grow.

Episode links:

• Kaiko
• ParaSwap
• Ethereum France

Sponsors:

• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter
• Chorus One: Start earning rewards and contribute to network security by staking with Chorus One, a staking provider securing over $1bn in assets on over 25 decentralized networks. Head over now to chorus.one to start your staking journey. 

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/401

Recently launched Osmosis is a Cosmos based and IBC enabled AMM protocol that allows for a high level of customization by liquidity providers. As the main dex on the Cosmos network, Osmosis provides liquidity for IBC-enabled Cosmos assets like AKT and ATOM for the first time.

Head of the Osmosis development team, Sunny Aggarwal, joined us for a chat about why the protocol was built and the problem it solves, the wider Cosmos ecosystem, and the roadmap for the protocol.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why the Osmosis project was built
• How Osmosis works on Cosmos
• What is IBC?
• What the ecosystem looks like
• What the AMM landscape looks like on Cosmos
• What the roadmap of Osmosis looks like
• The Gravity Bridge
• How was the chain bootstrapped?
• What is the ION?
• The Osmosis community

Episode links:

• Osmosis
• Cosmos
• Osmosis on Medium
• Osmosis on Twitter
• Sunny on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Zubin Koticha. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/400

Originally started with a focus on prediction markets, Gnosis has done innovative work around automated market makers (AMMs) and decentralized exchanges for years. The latest protocol launched by the Gnosis team is CowSwap. CowSwap introduces various innovations that could improve user experience, reduce gas costs, reduce the effects of MEV and result in better outcomes for retail traders.

We were joined by Felix Leupold, software developer at Gnosis to discuss CowSwap and the future of decentralized exchanges.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Felix's background and how he started working on CowSwap with Gnosis
• Why did Gnosis make the  shift away from prediction markets, and why the return to focus on AMMs
• The relationship between Gnosis Protocol and CowSwap
• How CowSwap works from a user perspective
• How are solvers chosen and what are the incentives around providing solutions
• What MEV is and why it’s a problem
• The upcoming integration with Balancer V2
• How fees in CowSwap work and the effect on LPs
• Where is CowSwap today and what is its roadmap
• Felix's views on the future of order-book based exchanges

Episode links:

• CowSwap
• Gnosis
• CowSwap on Twitter
• Felix on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter
• Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/399

Centrifuge is an open and permissionless protocol built on Polkadot and Ethereum that unlocks collateral for DeFi. Centrifuge allows for the tokenization of real world assets such as invoices, real estate, or goods, and puts them on the blockchain. This allows users to borrow against these assets from investors. Investors lend dai in exchange for an interest rate that depends on the borrower and the asset used as collateral.

We were joined by Lucas Vogelsang, CEO & Centrifuge Co-founder, and Cassidy Daly, Token Design & Research at Centrifuge. They explained why they built the protocol and how it works, the first application built on top, Tinlake, its integration with other DeFi platforms such as Maker, and their vision for the future.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How did Centrifuge come about and what is its vision
• What challenges do they face using real world assets as collateral
• How users are protected against spam and fraud
• The underwriter token model
• What are the value limits on what can be borrowed?
• Some use cases of where Centrifuge can make the biggest impact
• Who are the lenders involved in the protocol?
• How the protocol works on a technical level
• The Centrifuge token - CFG
• Altair - the Kusama parachain on Polkadot
• What the integration of Tinlake assets in DeFi looks like

Episode links:

• Centrifuge website
• Tinlake
• Understanding Tinlake
• Centrifuge on Twitter
• Lucas on Twitter
• Cassidy on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter
• Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/398

Ethereum 2.0 is an upgrade to the Ethereum network that aims to improve the network's security and scalability. Recently, we chatted to Danny Ryan about the Merge and switch to Proof of Stake. As a follow up to that episode, we were joined by Dankrad Feist, who heads the sharding and statelessness research at the Ethereum Foundation.

We dove deep into the technical infrastructure of how Eth2 addresses scaling through sharding, the pros and cons of data shards vs. execution shards, and how this links up with ZK-rollups. We also talked about the Ethereum state and how the state can be altered for protocol improvements.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Dankrad's background and how he came to work on Ethereum
• An overview of potential protocol updates and where they’re at right now
• Data availability shards and the overall concept of sharding in the protocol
• How shards are maintained with validators and Proof of Stake
• How Rollups work and the vision for their future
• The role of execution shards and what they provide that data availability shards don't
• Composability across data shards
• Statelessness; what the Ethereum state is and how it is used
• What is state rent?
• EVM and parallelization
• Dankrad's views on the future of Ethereum and what it will bring to the blockchain space

Episode links:

• Episode 393 with Danny Ryan
• Eth Research
• Ethereum Blog
• Ethereum Community
• Eth R&D Discord
• Ethereum on GitHub
• EF on Twitter
• Dankrad on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/397

zkSync is a trustless protocol for scalable low-cost transactions on Ethereum. It's also the only zkRollup protocol which supports EVM smart contracts.

Alex Gluchowski is co-founder of Matter Labs, and co-creator of zkSync. We spoke with Alex in depth about how the protocol works and the potential for a highly scalable transaction and application layer on Ethereum.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Alex's background and how he got into the crypto space
• An overview of existing Ethereum scaling solutions
• Difference between Optimistic Rollup and zkRollup
• Transferring funds to the zkSync Layer 2 and gas fees involved
• How the zkSync transaction sequencer works
• Withdrawing funds to Layer 1 and timescales involved
• How the procol deals with reorgs
• How block formation works on zkSync
• The function of the zkSync token

Episode links:

• zkSync
• For Developers
• zkSync on Twitter
• Alex on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter
• Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter 

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/396