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

Tally is a software platform designed to support tokenized organizations, particularly Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and crypto communities. It provides tools for launching tokens, governing protocols, and enabling staking to foster community participation and growth. Tally facilitates onchain governance, allowing transparent and decentralized decision-making for managing funds, grants, and protocol upgrades. It powers major blockchain ecosystems like Arbitrum, ZKsync, Uniswap DAO and Wormhole DAO by providing interfaces for proposal creation, voting, and staking. The Tally Protocol further enhances this by offering a liquidity layer for governance tokens, that allow token holders to earn staking rewards while retaining voting rights and participating in DeFi.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Dennison’s background
• Has crypto won?
• Does privacy still matter?
• The vision behind Tally
• The evolution of DAOs
• Are grassroots DAOs viable?
• Corporate vs. DAO PMF
• How developer activity & contributors evolved
• Tally’s roadmap
• ICO vs. IPO

Episode links:

• Dennison Bertram on X
• Tally 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 Friederike Ernst.

Namechain is an L2 developed by ENS Labs, to enhance the scalability and efficiency of managing decentralized identities on Ethereum. It is designed to work in tandem with ENS V2, which introduced a hierarchical registry system for more efficient subdomain management and custom resolvers. A key vision for Namechain is to unify multi-chain user identities, creating a "digital identity chain" that simplifies how users interact with the broader blockchain ecosystem. This is achieved through features like L2-to-L2 bridging, which allows users to initiate ENS-related activities from various Ethereum Layer 2 networks, not just Namechain itself.

Topics covered in this episode:

• High level overview of ENS
• Crosschain functionality through CCIP Read
• Domain squatting
• Onboarding ENS users via Paypal and Venmo
• Google & GoDaddy integrations
• ENS V2 upgrade & Namechain
• Transferring tokens from Namechain to L1
• Sequencer security assumptions
• Scalability
• New features & use cases
• ENS roadmap & metrics
• Ethereum ecosystem status

Episode links:

• Nick Johnson on X
• ENS 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 Friederike Ernst.

Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake created a unique set of conditions (i.e. lack of protocol-level delegation, 32 ETH requirement, long exit queues, etc.) that led to Lido’s liquid staking model to gain huge traction, significantly eclipsing other LSD providers on native PoS chains. stETH added on-demand liquidity, bypassing withdrawal windows, while also increasing DeFi utilization and increasing yields. Moreover, by allowing users to stake any amount of ETH in pools, it removed the requirement for 32 ETH increments, ultimately improving decentralisation through long tail distribution of individual stakers. Lido V3 introduces modular stVaults which enable staking customization. This allows professional actors, such as institutional stakers, to have granular control over validators, MEV and other parameters, diversifying their investment strategies.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Hasu’s background
• Discovering Lido
• Liquid staking and the early days of Lido
• Why liquid staking gained traction on Ethereum
• The evolution of Lido
• Initial decentralisation concerns and the importance of dual governance
• Restaking
• Lido V3 and vaults
• Institutional staking & ETFs
• Ethereum’s ‘crisis’ and its values

Episode links:

• Hasu on X
• Lido 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.

While DeFi’s ultimate goal is to provide an alternative for TradFi, blockchain gaming caters to retail masses, onboarding millions of users to crypto through incentives and fun gameplay. The greatest success story in Web3 gaming thus far has been, without a doubt, Axie Infinity. Apart from creating an engaged community whose early adopters also experienced rags-to-riches stories, it kickstarted an entire movement around play-to-earn gaming. Many have tried copying it, yet most of them failed. Axie Infinity managed to design a sustainable economy that combined NFTs and fungible tokens. The result was the first gamified crypto mining event, at scale. In order to accommodate such a massive demand, in a time when L2 rollups were still in R&D, Sky Mavis founded Ronin, a gaming-oriented Ethereum sidechain. The community that formed around Axie Infinity created a tremendous network effect, solidifying Ronin’s PMF as a gaming powerhouse. Before long, many up-and-coming titles migrated to Ronin, and the growth effects in all their key metrics (i.e. DAUs, transactions, revenue, etc.) further fuelled the flywheel.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Jeff’s background
• Cryptokitties
• Joining Axie Infinity and how it evolved
• Monetizing Axie’s economy
• The recipe for successful blockchain games
• Building Ronin, the gaming L1
• On-chain vs. off-chain game elements
• Community building
• Ronin’s economy & composability
• Most suitable gaming genre for Web3
• AI x gaming
• Crypto gaming investments
• Ronin’s current state and future roadmap
• Axie’s upcoming MMO

Episode links:

• Jeff Zirlin on X
• Axie Infinity on X
• Ronin on X
• Sky Mavis 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.

Solana needs no introduction. Ever since its inception, it pushed throughput scaling on a single chain, without the need of sharding or rollups. Despite its ups and downs that culminated at the bottom of the bear market after the FTX crash, it managed to not only survive, but build a vibrant community around crypto's (arguably) most prominent PMF (thus far).

Join us for a fascinating discussion and learn about Anatoly's take on controversial topics such as MEV, concurrent block leaders (the equivalent of Ethereum's PBS proposal), L2 rollups, Solana economics, how to tackle potential exploits and more.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How the original Solana vision turned out
• What makes blockchains valuable
• MEV & program writable accounts
• Concurrent block proposers
• Current bottlenecks for scaling Solana
• Mainnet vs. L2 rollups
• Firedancer upgrade
• Halting the network vs. rollbacks
• Solana’s scaling roadmap
• DoubleZero
• Worst hacks on Solana
• UI exploits, Bybit hack and smart contract security
• Solana economics and the SIMD-0228 proposal
• Future improvements
• Use cases for blockchains
• Solana mobile

Episode links:

• Anatoly Yakovenko on X
• Solana on X
• Solana Mobile 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 & Martin Köppelmann.

Bitcoin’s security and reliability as a store of value are undeniable. However, its liquidity remained untapped for too long due to a lack of trustless bridges and native smart contract capabilities. As BTC is only native to Bitcoin’s L1, any attempt to include it in DeFi relies on the trust assumptions of third party custodians that wrap it. Build On Bitcoin (BOB) aims to expand Bitcoin’s functionality by integrating it with Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities. BOB operates as an OP Stack L2 with a hybrid design incorporating ZKPs, Bitcoin staking, and Ethereum for data availability. By functioning as a rollup, BOB processes transactions off-chain and batches them for settlement on Bitcoin and Ethereum, significantly improving transaction speed and reducing costs compared to Bitcoin’s base layer.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Alexei’s background
• Setbacks for Bitcoin DeFi
• Bitcoin bridges
• BitVM
• BOB operators and trust assumptions
• BOB architecture & Bitcoin staking
• Bitcoin LSTs
• The future of Bitcoin DeFi

Episode links:

• Alexei Zamyatin on X
• Build on Bitcoin 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.

In the digital networked age, people’s attention often overlooks local problems in favour of global ones, which don’t necessarily impact them in their daily lives, or over which they don’t have a say due to the skewed Pareto distribution of power in modern day societies. Puja Ohlhaver, in her recent research paper ‘Community currencies’, proposes a dual-currency model that prices attention and influence in each community, with the ultimate goal of creating a Gaussian distribution of power, either locally, or globally through the dynamic interaction of multiple local communities. This model allows community members to stake their currency to earn non-transferable governance rights, creating a substrate for decentralised societal coordination that favours social innovation.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Puja’s background
• Web3 research
• ‘Community currencies’
• Pareto vs. Gaussian distributions
• Global vs. local power distributions
• The community currencies model
• Meritocracy vs. influence
• Quadratic funding
• Governance, bribery and the crisis of legitimacy
• Experimenting with community currencies

Episode links:

• Puja Ohlhaver on X
• 'Community Currencies' Research Paper
• 'Decentralized Society' Research Paper

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 Friederike Ernst.

Even though current LLM providers usually charge flat rates regardless if the subscriber is a ‘power user’ or not, as AI agents become the workhorses of the online economy, a dynamic AI-to-AI payments infrastructure would prove crucial for proper remuneration. Nevermined proposes a blockchain-agnostic, AI-agnostic credit system, that each builder can use to implement custom pricing strategies for their users. As the next trillion transactions will be mostly performed by AI agents, a universal payment system would help streamline integrations and economic interactions.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Don’s background
• Integrating payment systems in the agentic economy
• Marketplaces vs. payment systems
• AI agentic economy
• Fixed vs. variable pricing strategies
• License tokenization
• Settlement and payment for AI agents
• Estimating price and avoiding overcharges
• Nevermined’s tech stack and integrations
• Value prop
• Nevermined metrics

Episode links:

• Don Gossen on X
• Nevermined 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 Friederike Ernst.

As more and more protocols compete for marketshare, user acquisition represents one of the most important elements of the GTM strategy. Web3 projects, through their governance tokens, can incentivise users directly to participate in meaningful activities for each protocol, subsidising their revenue generation through vested upside in the project. Turtle Club built the first distribution protocol of Web3, helping its users maximise their rewards they get for meaningful on-chain activities that help bootstrap projects.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Esfandiar’s background
• The evolution of DeFi
• Yield sustainability in DeFi
• DeFi vs. TradFi
• Quantifying risk
• Main blockers for DeFi adoption
• On-chain transparency or privacy?
• What is missing in DeFi?
• Genesis story of Turtle Club
• How Turtle Club users accrue rewards

Episode links:

• Esfandiar Lagevardi on LinkedIn
• Turtle Club 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: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain.

As online content becomes predominantly AI-driven, intellectual property (IP) rights should not be neglected as (human) creators will heavily rely on them. While the main use cases for blockchains revolve around financial applications, one could argue that our everyday lives constantly intersect IPs in different forms. Although the legal framework is abundant, proper recording, monetization and disputes are often a burden for independent creators. Story Protocol aims to create a decentralised framework for IP management, tokenizing it both through NFTs and fungible tokens, allowing creators to register fully programmable IP, that is also recognized and enforced through the traditional judiciary system. Using smart contracts and programmable metadata, Story Protocol ensures proper monetization for creators whenever their IP is used.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Jason’s background
• Current IP pain points
• Tokenizing IP
• Story Protocol blockchain
• Preventing IP infringement
• Story Protocol validators
• Interoperability
• Onboarding traditional IP to Story Protocol
• Story Protocol’s legal framework
• Enforcing IP rights on Story Protocol
• Hiding or demonetizing on-chain IP
• Governance & disputes
• Roadmap

Episode links:

• Jason Zhao on X
• Story Protocol 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: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.