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

Captured live at Cosmoverse 2025, this episode brings host Sebastian in conversation with Michael (better known as Cryptocito, Cosmos investor via Cito Ventures) and Magnus (@0xMagmar, Co-CEO Cosmos Labs).

Against a backdrop of institutional gravitas, central banks mingling alongside Revolut executives, the conversation traces Cosmos' arc across five Cosmoverses, from Medellín's raw developer fervor to the polished, enterprise-oriented event unfolding here. It's a marker of the ecosystem's maturation, one that demands Cosmos "grow up" to weave itself into the fabric of global finance, governance, and economies beyond its insular origins.
Magnus lays out Cosmos Labs' forward path: Systematically acquiring and refining homegrown innovations, such as the EVM rebuild over six months into a core stack component and consolidating privacy primitives from projects like Secret Network and Penumbra into seamless, enterprise-grade tools.

These advancements, long championed by Cosmos builders, now stand ready for institutional adoption. On quantum threats, enterprises show little concern for now, but the panel underscores blockchains' unique vulnerabilities: Unlike centralized systems, they require broad coordination for upgrades, where Bitcoin's inertia pales against Cosmos' app-chain flexibility, allowing isolated chain overhauls without dragging down the broader network, a resilience Ethereum lacks.

Topics covered in this episode:

• 0:00 Introduction & Cosmoverse Vibe Check
• 2:30 Reflections on Five Cosmoverses
• 6:45 Ecosystem Maturation: Grassroots to Institutional Focus
• 11:20 Cosmos Labs' Roadmap: Unifying Privacy & EVM Innovations
• 16:50 Building Cohesive Stack Features for Enterprises
• 22:15 Privacy Tools: Secret Network, Penumbra, and Nym
• 27:40 Quantum Computing Threats & Blockchain Vulnerabilities
• 33:10 Coordination Challenges: Hard Forks vs. App-Chain Modularity
• 38:25 Sovereign Day Argentina: CBDC & Gov Sovereignty Summit
• 43:50 Leadership Adaptation & Community Inclusion
• 49:20 Future Vision: Cosmos as Global Finance Enabler
• 54:00 Closing Thoughts & Event Shoutouts
  

Episode links:
- Michael (@Cryptocito) (https://x.com/Cryptocito )
- Magnus (@0xMagmar) (https://x.com/0xMagmar)
- Gnosis (https://gnosis.io/)
- Epicenter - All Episodes (https://epicenter.tv/)
- Cosmoverse 2025 (https://cosmoverse.org/)

Sponsors:
- Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.

Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/

Brian Fabian Crain and Michael Egorov, Curve Finance founder, discuss Curve's origins: solving inefficient DAI/USDC swaps after MakerDAO borrows by creating a DeFi AMM for stablecoins and LSTs.

It hit 1M TVL with a bonding curve concentrating liquidity at 1:1, more effective for pegged assets than Uniswap. Features grew to include BTC wrappers, stETH pairs, and crvUSD (a CDP stablecoin with reversible liquidations & a peg-keeper).

Governance uses veCRV: Locking CRV grants voting power proportional to lock duration, a mechanism now refined in Yield Basis.

Yield Basis solves impermanent loss in volatile pools (e.g., BTC/crvUSD). Users deposit BTC; the protocol borrows crvUSD, pairs it at 2x leverage (50% debt/equity), and uses LP tokens as collateral. This gives 1:1 asset tracking, while fees accrue from auto-rebalancing arbitrage.

Simulations show 20%+ APY (may decline as BTC volatility drops) under a $50B TVL cap. It complements Curve by directing veCRV incentives to crvUSD pools, enhancing liquidity, fees, and DAO revenues. Key considerations: manual migrations, deterring forks, and dev support to scale.

Topics Discussed

• 00:00 Introduction to Curve Finance and YieldBases
• 02:24 Understanding Curve's Unique Mechanisms
• 07:58 The Concept of veTokenomics
• 15:27 Lessons Learned from Building Curve
• 22:20 Exploring YieldBasis and Its Innovations
• 29:47 Understanding Yield Basis and Collateralization
• 32:25 Navigating Market Volatility and Liquidation Events
• 35:32 Metrics and Performance Insights of Yield Basis
• 38:35 Scaling Yield Basis: Future Directions
• 40:33 Yield Expectations and Market Dynamics
• 43:12 Potential Growth and Liquidity Challenges
• 46:18 Expanding to Other Chains and Governance Tokens
• 49:35 The Symbiotic Relationship with Curve
• 54:31 Upcoming Milestones and Future Developments

Links Mentioned

• Michael Egorov on X
• Curve Finance
• Yield Basis
• Gnosis
• Epicenter - All Episodes

Sponsors

Gnosis: Building decentralized infrastructure since 2015. With Gnosis Pay, the first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power at gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.

Sci-fi titan Neal Stephenson, whose Snow Crash coined the term 'metaverse' and Cryptonomicon, which foreshadowed crypto in 1999, joins Friederike to discuss his "hard sci-fi" method: building immersive, consistent worlds, not prophecy. He's now co-founder of Lamina1, aiming to restore Web1's ethos and give creators IP sovereignty with direct micropayments, breaking free from Web2's "walled gardens."

Neal unpacks Web3's promise like "intent-casting" flipping ad models while citing its critical traps: abysmal UX, criminal stigma, and the "soul-crushing" risk of just upgrading incumbent systems.

Spotlighting Lamina 1's game "Artifact," he argues Web3's true success will be measured when the technology becomes invisible and safe, proving its value by restoring sovereignty to its users and creators, rather than through speculative hype.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• (00:00) Introduction to Decentralization and Blockchain
• (01:20) The Role of Storytelling in Technology Prediction
• (03:48) The Balance of Optimism and Pessimism in Fiction
• (06:27) Web3: Promises and Pitfalls
• (08:36) The Evolution of the Web: From Decentralization to Centralization
• (13:37) Metrics for a Decentralized Web
• (15:55) Lamina One: A New Vision for the Metaverse
• (23:44) Creating a Financial Layer for the Creator Economy
• (25:08) Legal Implications of Smart Contracts
• (27:38) The Strength of Smart Contracts
• (31:04) Decentralization vs. Centralization in the Creator Economy
• (36:21) The Decline of Centralized Platforms
• (41:23) Financialization and the Creative Economy
• (45:47) The Future of Web3 and User Experience
• (51:17) Potential Failure Modes of Web3

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Neal Stephenson, Co-founder Lamina1: https://x.com/nealstephenson
• Lamina 1: https://lamina1.com/home

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

As blockchain tech gets co-opted by legacy players for efficiency gains, has the revolution lost its edge? Crypto philosopher Paul Dylan-Ennis and Jito's Head of Governance, Dr. Nick Almond, join Friederike to probe this shift from 2017's visionary DAOs to today's Telegram-negotiated votes and whale capture.

Rooted in philosophy and complex systems, they unpack mind-hacking risks via data micro-targeting, the polycentric bulwarks (full nodes, prediction markets) shielding against cultural flips, and why epistemic tools could fortify crypto against real-world censorship.

Their call: Reclaim the ethos through event evangelism and normie outreach for grassroots empowerment.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• 0:00 - Introduction
• 1:32 - Nick's journey: Physics to DAOs
• 3:59 - Paul's path: Philosophy to crypto counterculture
• 5:54 - Crypto's shift from niche to incumbent tool
• 7:37 - Governance as crypto's "soul"
• 10:54 - Early DAOs vs. today's backroom reality
• 11:45 - Diluted ideas & human workarounds
• 1:03:44 - Elevating better leaders & social consensus tools
• 1:05:05 - Hacking minds: Post-ideological vs. cypherpunk
• 1:07:21 - Polycentric defenses & full node bedrock
• 1:10:50 - Advice: Evangelize at events & outreach to normies

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Nick Almond, Head of Governance at Jito
• Paul Dylan-Ennis, Crypto Philosopher

Sponsors: - Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

Brave has spent a decade building a privacy-first browser that empowers users with tools like ad-blocking and fingerprinting protection, now serving 100 million monthly active users.

Security engineer Kyle Den Hartog joins Friederike to unpack the centralization traps in digital identity from email's spam-driven dominance to one-size-fits-all DeFi lending rates and how Brave counters them with BAT's user-rewarding ad model, zero-knowledge personalization, and wallets that act as privacy guardians.

Kyle warns of on-chain transparency's risks to consumer behavior, advocates for intent-based "vendor relationship management" advertising, and draws historical lessons on censorship's chilling effects amid rising regulations like EU chat controls.

He shares Brave's vision for seamless private payments and user-controlled algorithms to reclaim the open web from Big Tech monopolies.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Introduction
• Kyle's background in security and identity
• Why identity and privacy matter
• The history and centralization of digital identity
• Email as a cautionary tale for decentralization
• Brave's privacy-first vision and 100M users
• BAT: Rewarding users for attention
• Challenges and evolutions in Brave's ad model
• Zero-knowledge for intent-based ads
• Brave Wallet: Privacy by default
• On-chain privacy pitfalls and wallet solutions
• Browser wallets vs. built-in security
• Censorship, regulations, and history's lessons
• Fixing social media algorithms
• Brave's 5-year vision

Links mentioned in the episode:

Kyle Den Hartog, Security Engineer at Brave: https://x.com/PryvitKyle

Brave Browser: https://brave.com/

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at ⁠⁠gnosis.io ⁠⁠

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

In this episode, Sebastien is joined by Jelena Djuric, co-founder of Noble, a generic asset issuance chain built for the Cosmos ecosystem. Jelena shares her journey into crypto, which began with an interest in political science, leading her to discover Bitcoin's potential. She describes the origins of Noble, created to solve a critical need within Cosmos: a native, fungible source of liquidity like USDC.

Before Noble, assets were often bridged in fragmented ways, creating poor user experiences. Noble was designed as a simple, secure, and neutral "asset issuance hub," a purpose-built chain for natively issuing assets and distributing them throughout the Cosmos network via IBC.

Jelena emphasizes that Noble is intentionally "boring," with a minimal feature set to reduce the attack surface. It operates with a proof-of-authority consensus model to meet the compliance needs of asset issuers like Circle. Jelena also discusses the importance of CCTP for moving USDC between Cosmos and other ecosystems, with Noble as the routing hub. Looking ahead, Jelena sees a future where Noble supports a diverse range of assets beyond stablecoins, including RWAs.

• Introduction
• Jelena's background and entry into crypto
• Why fragmented liquidity is holding crypto back
• Noble's vision for unifying liquidity
• Why a "boring" chain is a more secure chain
• Noble's proof-of-authority model for issuer trust
• Bringing a single source of truth for USDC to the Interchain
• Using CCTP to connect liquidity across ecosystems
• Noble's business model
• The future of solving liquidity for RWAs

• Jelena Djuric, Co-Founder, Noble: https://x.com/jelena_noble
• Noble: https://x.com/noble_xyz

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io



This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.

In this episode, Sebastien Couture is joined by Benjamin, the founder of CAP, a stablecoin protocol designed to provide insured yield. The protocol features two main products: CUSD, a digital dollar, and stCUSD, its staked, yield-bearing version. Yield is generated through an "allocation engine" where third-party operators borrow from the protocol's reserve to execute yield strategies. To ensure user deposits, these operators must be vouched for by restakers on protocols like Symbiotic. If an operator defaults, the restakers who vouched for them are slashed, protecting the stablecoin holders' funds. This model shifts risk from the end-user to the restakers, who have a bilateral relationship with the operators they underwrite, often backed by legal agreements.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Benjamin's background and perspective on China
• Journey into crypto and stablecoins
• Hot Take: Stablecoins are not as safe as you think
• The evolution of stablecoin models
• Has DeFi forgotten about decentralization?
• CAP's design: CUSD and stCUSD
• How CAP generates yield with operators and restakers
• The role of restakers and legal agreements
• Integrating with Symbiotic and views on EigenLayer
• The best use cases for shared security
• Navigating the Genius Act and global regulations
• Rebuilding trust in the DeFi ecosystem
• Why the stablecoin space is not too crowded

Episode links:

• Benjamin on X
• Cap Money

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/618

TradFi FX markets are slow, expensive and often lack liquidity for direct swaps between different world currencies, having to route through USD pairs. While crypto could technically solve pairing through AMM pools, those needed to be arbitraged in order to reflect TradFi rates. With 15 fully-backed stablecoins, Mento is building the largest FX infrastructure, bringing world currencies onchain through its robust multi-currency stablecoin platform. In order to provide traders with accurate real-word FX rates, Mento employs FPMM (fixed-price market makers) which gather offchain data from multiple oracles. Instant settlement, cross-border, at a fraction of a cost of conventional remittance providers, while also avoiding traditional banking limitations.

Backed by strong on- & off-ramp integrations, Mento also caters towards day-to-day use cases, empowering locals and businesses to diversify their FX exposure without the hurdles of TradFi. Mento enables smooth cross-currency transactions without traditional banking limitations, unlocking DeFi yield for a wide variety of currencies.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Markus’ background, from TradFi to DeFi
• Unbanking the banked
• Starting a stablecoin protocol on Celo
• The role of stablecoins
• FX markets & Mento’s design
• FPMM vs. AMM
• Mento’s target audience
• Centralised vs. decentralised stablecoins
• Mento governance
• M0’s approach
• Integrating with banking systems

Episode links:

• ⁠Markus Franke on X
• Mento on X
• Celo on X

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - ⁠⁠gnosis.io⁠⁠

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.

Without a doubt, the introduction of stablecoins has vastly increased overall crypto liquidity, adoption and real-world use cases as they offered a safe haven against the industry’s volatility, especially during bearmarkets. However, despite being extremely efficient, the main stablecoin actors (i.e. Circle & Tether) are centralised entities. Many attempts have been made to create a reliable decentralised stablecoin, but regulations and the resounding collapse of Terra’s UST have only pushed towards more established, yet centralised, variants.

f(x) is a new generation CDP (collateralised debt position) protocol that offers on-chain perpetual trading for BTC & ETH with near-0 funding rates and a novel liquidation mechanism which protects users against hard liquidations. The leverage component is powered by emitting fxUSD, the protocol’s decentralised stablecoin, which boasts robust peg-keeping mechanisms, the main one being fxSAVE’s stability pool. The fxSAVE strategy bestows nearly 10% APY to the yield-bearing fxUSD-USDC pair.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Cyrille’s background
• AladdinDAO
• Decentralised stablecoins
• f(x) perps and sharing liquidation risks
• The efficiency of progressive liquidations
• Removing funding rates
• fxSAVE’s stability pool yields
• fxUSD’s organic adoption
• The importance of decentralised stablecoins
• Winning in the perp arena
• Opportunities in the stablecoin adoption race

Episode links:

• Cyrille Brière on X
• f(x) Protocol on X
• AladdinDAO on X

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - ⁠gnosis.io⁠

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.

Euler is a DeFi lending protocol built around the idea of permissionless modularity, enabling users to lend and borrow almost any crypto asset with flexible, permissionless pools, tailored to individual risk profiles. Moreover, Euler Vault Kit (EVK) and Ethereum Vault Connector (EVC) enable the creation of custom lending vaults which, in turn, can be used as collateral for other vaults. Earlier this year Euler also announced EulerSwap, a new DEX with a built-in AMM powered by Euler’s lending infrastructure and integrated with Uniswap v4’s hook architecture. EulerSwap integrates directly with Euler’s lending vaults, allowing assets to be used across multiple pools. This turns the lending protocol into a shared liquidity layer, improving capital efficiency across the ecosystem via swaps, lending yield or collateral for borrowing other assets.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Michael’s background
• The history & vision behind Euler
• The Euler hack
• Euler V2
• Euler vs. other lending protocols
• Diversifying offerings
• Variable vs. fixed rates
• How Pendle works
• Euler’s future
• RWAs
• Privacy in DeFi
• Euler roadmap
• The impact of AI in DeFi

Episode links:

• ⁠⁠Michael Bentley on X⁠⁠
• Euler on X⁠⁠

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - ⁠gnosis.io⁠
• Chorus One: one of the largest node operators worldwide, trusted by 175,000+ accounts across more than 60 networks, Chorus One combines institutional-grade security with the highest yields at - ⁠chorus.one⁠

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.