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

1inch Exchange is a DEX aggregator routing cryptocurrency purchases through different DEXs to reduce slippage and get a better conversion rate for the user compared with just using a single DEX. The platform launched its governance token, 1INCH, in December 2020.

We were joined by Co-founder of 1inch Sergej Kunz to chat about how 1inch works, how the 1INCH token provides liquidity to their liquidity platform, its integration with platforms such as Uniswap, and the roadmap from here.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Sergej's background and how he got into blockchain
• How slippage is used in the 1inch protocol
• The liquidity protocol used
• The integration between Uniswap and 1inch network and the new restrictions with Uniswap v3
• Their AMM protocol, Mooniswap
• The aggregation that 1inch has focused on and its defensibility
• The function of the 1inch token and where it is headed in terms of governance
• How 1inch plan to implement DAO
• How 1inch deal with the regulatory impacts of DEXes
• 1inch's stance on Ethereum gas costs

Episode links:

• 1inch website
• 1inch blog
• 1inch on Twitter
• Sergej on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/386

Zubin Koticha, CEO & Co-founder of Opyn, joined us again on the show to give us an update on Opyn v2.

Opyn v1 was focused on insurance. It's successor, Opyn v2, offers a more traditional options infrastructure. We discuss the problems of building trustless options infrastructure: choice of collateral, partial collateralization and efficient trading mechanisms for options.

Topics covered in this episode:

• An overview of Opyn v1 and the different options created by DeFi users
• How options in DeFi work
• What is new in Opyn v2
• How the oracle specification works
• Capital efficiency - nesting options for collateralization
• Fungibility of different options
• What makes Opyn different to other option platforms?
• Options and the AMM design

Episode links:

• Opyn
• Epicenter Episode 344 - Opyn
• A beginner's guide to options: Opyn v2
• YieldSpace
• Opyn GitHub
• Opyn on Twitter
• Zubin on Twitter

Sponsors:

• ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io/epicenter. 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. *Terms and conditions apply. 

This episode is hosted by Sunny Aggarwal & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/385

Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol that allows you to draw interest-free loans against Ether used as collateral. In addition to the collateral, the loans are secured by a Stability Pool containing LUSD and by fellow borrowers collectively acting as guarantors of last resort. Liquity as a protocol is non-custodial, immutable, and governance-free.

We were joined by Robert Lauko, CEO & Co-founder, and Kolten Bergeron, Head of Growth, of Liquity. We chatted about how the protocol is built and the mechanisms used, how to borrow, and the stability pool and liquidations.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Robert and Kolten's backgrounds and how they got into crypto
• What led Robert to create Liquity
• What Liquity is and the liquidation mechanism used
• The function of the stability pool
• The process of existing troves taking on the debt of undercollateralized troves
• Liquity vs Compound & MakerDAO
• LUSD redemptions
• How the Recovery mode works
• The purpose of the LQTY token
• How the algorithmic monetary policy works

Episode links:

• Liquity
• Liquity docs
• Liquity on Medium
• Liquity on GitHub
• Robert on Twitter
• Kolten on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Sunny Aggarwal & Zubin Koticha. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/384

KeeperDao 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 crypto
• An overview of VolleyFire
• What KeeperDAO does and its mission
• How KeeperDAO users pool funds to to profit from on-chain arbitrage and liquidation opportunities
• The grim trigger and hiding game strategies
• KeeperDAO integrations and gas costs
• The KeeperDAO governance roadmap
• The ROOK token
• Can keepers carry out malicious attacks?

Episode links:

• KeeperDAO
• KeeperDAO on Medium
• The KeeperDAO whitepaper
• KeeperDAO on Twitter
• Joey Zacherl

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/383

NFTs are a new paradigm that opens possibilities for new types of interactions. In digital art, it has caught on like wildfire and is transforming how people think of ownership.

Alex Salnikov has been immersed in the crypto world for many years and recognized the potential of NFTs. He created Rarible, an NFT marketplace that has seen rapid growth. But the vision of Rarible is to be more an open transaction protocol for NFTs and serve many different markets.

He joined us to discuss the different NFT use cases and how NFTs can scale and function in a multi-chain world. It's a great conversation at the unfolding of a new paradigm.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Alex's background and how he got into crypto
• How Rarible was created and why they decided to focus on NFTs
• What are NFTs and how are they different to other cryptocurrencies
• What’s driving the massive growth of NFTs right now?
• The link between owning an NFT and legal ownership
• How does Alex see NFTs and Rarible evolving in the future
• How NFTs work on a technical level, storing metadata securely, and the costs of minting NFTs
• The roadmap of Rarible as a marketplace and the challenges associated with it

Episode links:

• Rarible
• Rarible on Medium
• Rarible on OpenSea
• Rarible on Twitter
• Alex on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/382

Julien Bouteloup is a serial entrepreneur, Ethereum developer and addict of crazy innovative ideas. He started his entrepreneurial career building websites and selling hardware technologies at age 14. Today he is involved with many projects including Stake Capital, Rekt, Curve Finance, and he advises several crypto companies.

Julien strives to bring to light the dark side of crypto. As DeFi grows, so do the number of questionable projects and ethical concerns around certain practices. Julien joins us to talk about the excesses in the DeFi space and how the ecosystem should cope with them.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Julien's background, how he found crypto, and the various projects Julien is working on today
• The Stake DAO - its purpose and vision
• Julien's views on the state of DeFi today
• Price arbitrage attacks in the ecosystem - Flashloans
• Julien's involvement in Curve Finance and how this platform is pushing towards more resilient DeFi protocols
• Julien's thoughts on NFT and Decentralized Monopoly
• Curve's reaction to the launch of Saddle
• The role of validators in the space

Episode links:

• Stake Capital
• Rekt News
• Rekt Capital on Twitter
• Decentralised Monopoly
• Julien on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Stacker Ventures: A community-run protocol for initiating and managing pooled capital on the Ethereum blockchain. Structured as a DAO, it initiates decentralized funds, accelerates portfolio investments through an involved community, and provides checks and balances to fund management - https://epicenter.rocks/stacker

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/381

Namebase is a top-level domain (TLD) name registrar that operates on the Handshake blockchain. It creates an ecosystem of TLDs that may be bought and sold using an on-chain auction mechanism. It takes a different approach to other decentralized domain name systems as Namebase is compatible with the ICANN namespace, the organization governs domain names globally. Users may register TLDs that don't yet exist in the ICANN namespace, like .epicenter or .ethereum, for example, creating the opportunity for new niche domain registrars to emerge.

Tieshun Roquerre, CEO of Namebase, joins us to discuss his vision for Namebase and his ambitious goal to decentralize ICANN.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Tieshun's background and how he got into crypto
• Why and how Namebase was created and its relationship to Handshake
• Domain name systems on blockchain
• The history of ICANN and how it functions
• Domain name censorship and security issues surrounding certificate authorities
• How are they preparing for the inevitable fork between ICANN and Handshake
• Namebase and Handshake improve on DNS and certificate authorities
• Namebase's business model and roadmap

Episode links:

• Namebase
• Handshake
• Namebase on Twitter
• Tieshun on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/380

Stacks is an open-source network of decentralized apps and smart contracts. It is a Layer-1 blockchain that connects to Bitcoin. Stacks uses a Proof of Transfer mining mechanism with bidding and staking capabilities. Clarity is the programming language used, a Turing-incomplete language which aims to give developers a safe way to build complex smart contracts where the code itself clearly shows what the program will do when run.

Muneeb Ali is the CEO and Co-founder of Hiro Systems, one of the companies creating Stacks. He joined us to chat about why he felt there was a need for Stacks, why he chose to build on top of Bitcoin, and the types of apps that are currently being run on Stacks 2.0.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Muneeb's background and how he got into crypto
• Why Stacks was created
• How this works being built on Bitcoin
• Mining and bidding on blocks
• Smart contracting on Stacks - Clarity programming language
• Stacks vs “Bitcoin on Ethereum”
• Stacks vs Rootstack
• The apps that currently run on Stacks 2.0

Episode links:

• Stacks website
• Stacks whitepaper
• Stacking
• Proof of Transfer
• Hiro
• Stacks on Twitter
• Muneeb on Twitter

Sponsors:

• 1inch: Discover the best rates and most efficient swapping routes across leading DEXes. Optimize on gas cost and execute DeFi trades faster with 1inch V2 - https://epicenter.rocks/1inch

This episode is hosted by Sunny Aggarwal & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/379

Radicle is a decentralized platform for code collaboration. It's built on Git and is an open-source decentralized alternative to platforms like GitHub. Tools like Radicle are an essential component of the decentralized technology stack and will enable DAOs to commit code through governance. 

Co-founders Alexis Sellier & Eleftherios Diakomichalis joined us to chat about why they felt it was important to create Radicle and how it fits into the DAO ecosystem with a more accessible governance system of code.

Topics covered in this episode:

- What Radicle is and the vision they are pursuing
- After both working on Soundcloud, the lessons that were carried over to this project
- The Cathedral vs Bazaar model
- Git usage with the tool
- The technical architecture of Radicle
- The other differences between Radicle and GitHub
- Storage and replicating solutions between peers
- How Radicle promotes open source sustainability
- Ethereum integration with the tool

Episode links: 

- [Radicle website](https://radicle.xyz/)
- [Radicle docs](https://docs.radicle.xyz/docs/what-is-radicle.html)
- [Radicle on Twitter](https://twitter.com/radicle)
- [Alexis on Twitter](https://twitter.com/cloudhead)
- [Eleftherios on Twitter](https://twitter.com/lftherios)

Sponsors: 
- 1inch: Discover the best rates and most efficient swapping routes across leading DEXes. Optimize on gas cost and execute DeFi trades faster with 1inch V2 - https://epicenter.rocks/1inch

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: [epicenter.tv/378](https://epicenter.tv/378)

Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) emerged from the Indian startup scene in 2020. It's a decentralized notification protocol that enables DApps to send push notifications to Ethereum wallet users. EPNS also provides incentives to users that opt-in for push notifications, creating the possibility for an ecosystem communities around topic-centric channels.

We are joined by Harsh Rajat, Project Lead and Co-founder of EPNS. We chatted about why and how the protocol was built, its technical structure, the purpose of incentivizing users to receive notifications, and how they tackle spam.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Harsh's background and how he got involved in crypto
• The beginning of Ethereum Push Notification Service
• The design patterns considered when building EPNS
• What is a decentralized push notification service?
• Unique use cases that could benefit from DeFi push notifications
• The structure of the protocol and how it actually works
• The purpose of incentivizing users to receive notifications
• The Spam Score - how EPNS filter spam
• How EPNS plan to onboard and incentivize wallets to integrate

Episode links:

• EPNS website
• EPNS app
• Whitepaper
• EPNS on Twitter
• Harsh on Twitter

Sponsors:

• 1inch: Discover the best rates and most efficient swapping routes across leading DEXes. Optimize on gas cost and execute DeFi trades faster with 1inch V2 - https://epicenter.rocks/1inch

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/377