Mission: DeFi

Mission: DeFi

By Brad NickelTechnology
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Mission: DeFi episodes

  • DeFi Lunch - October 1, 2021

    Joe Cawley and Brad Nickel cover the DeFi news of the day, new opportunities in the space including liquidity pools, yield farming, staking, and much more. 

    Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY78Ew8VACM&list=PLvgBVawBlHoSodkjzEO1WLGzhvgxxT7OC

    DFYN

    Doki Doki

    OlympusDAO - $OHM

    Crystl Finance


    36 min
  • EP 18 - Making DeFi on bitcoin a full scale reality with Edan Yago of Sovryn

    For a lot of us DeFi on bitcoin isn't something we've taken seriously. Edan Yago and the rest of the team at Sovryn are ready to change those perceptions with what I see as a very serious play in the DeFi space. Their model for decentralization, stablecoins, the products they've built, the partners that are integrating, and the products being built on Sovryn OS means it should be taken very seriously. Amazing discussion that includes:

    Yago's experience smuggling gold coins as a child to fight apartheid

    How he built a payment system for crypto 

    How he built early AMM and liquidity models and shut it down before launch, because he was concerned about user security.

    As a man from a family of activists, it is obvious that he is driven to make bitcoin and financial freedom a reality. 

    I am very excited for the potential. 

    Name of Guest: Edan Yago

    Name of Project: Sovryn
    Twitter URL of Guest: https://twitter.com/EdanYago
    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/SovrynBTC
    Project URL: https://sovryn.app

    58 min
  • EP 17 - Andrew Parker's POWNFT solves the NFT minting problem on ethereum mainnet in a brilliant way
    Guest Info

    Name of Guest: Andrew Parker

    Name of Project: POWNFT
    Project Twitter URL: https://pownft.com
    Project URL: https://twitter.com/pownft
    Project/Guest Description: Proof of work NFT mining in the browser.

    Show Notes

    Andrew Parker has created a brilliant solution to the NFT minting problem currently congesting Ethereum Mainnet and causing increases in fees. Now collectors can acquire NFTs by mining them using their browser.

    It is a brilliant and novel solution to a problem, but the system goes far beyond that, because it has a generative NFT engine that generates audio and animations along with unique NFTs and all minted NFTs also get the minting fees from future NFTs.

    58 min
  • DeFi Lunch - 9/29/2021

    A review of DeFi news, market opportunities, and ramblings by Brad Nickel and Joe Cawley served hot, fresh, and live daily on Twitter(https://twitter.com/b05crypto), LinkedIn(https://linkedin.com/in/bradnickel), and YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCllRhrCFGEF5Wi2kQ2T7ikw). 

    44 min
  • Ep 16 - Count your magic beans Jack - Beanstalk is taking on the giants of stablecoins
    Guest Info

    Name of Guest: Publius

    Name of Project: Beanstalk
    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/BeanstalkFarms
    Project URL: https://bean.money/

    Project/Guest Description: Beanstalk is a unique new algorithmic stablecoin based conceptually on ESD, but built from scratch to avoid the problems they had. Mission driven to build the primary stablecoin for DeFi, the team is fighting to deliver a powerful protocol that is permissionless, decentralized, and censorship resistant.

    Show Notes

    ESD influenced

    Wanted to build something
    Scalability
    2nd biggest opportunity decentralized algo stablecoin
    ESD design fixes
    Game theoretic design flaws
    Became all encompassing
    9 months of dev
    50 days ago deployed
    ESD price too high increase supply
    Ground up reimagining

    Collateralized Models

    USDT and USDC
    $100 billion in collateralized
    Reliance on centralized party to administer the system

    Oracle is eth / usdc and bean/usdc

    DAI

    Basically add value
    Collateral not decentralized
    Still an element of centralization with DAI
    Mint DAI against the CDP
    More assets backing the DAI
    Capital inefficient
    Locking up Ethereum isn't a great solution
    High borrowing costs to use DAI
    Cost prohibitive
    20% borrowing costs changes math on betting markets

    No premine

    Works from launch
    Initial 100 minted

    How beanstalk works

    Every hour - season
    Price oracle is queried
    If price too high increase supply
    If price too low, then soil debt
    Pods are debt bearing asset of the system
    When price is below to encourage debt
    Supply of soil

    Behavioral econ theory built into it.

    Participation

    Business Development

    1 hr 17 min
  • EP 15 - Is Zeus of Olympus DAO the god of protocol planning we didn't know we needed? ($OHM)

    ## Guest Info

    Name of Guest: Zeus

    Name of Project: Olympus DAO (OHM) 

    Twitter URL of Guest: https://twitter.com/ohmzeus

    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/OlympusDAO

    Project URL: https://www.olympusdao.finance/

    Project/Guest Description:

    Reserve currency protocol for DeFi

    ### Bitcoin Disappoints

    Disappointment in Bitcoin and it's community can lead to amazing innovations.

    Disenchanted because bitcoin kept shifting the narrative of what it was. It was no longer a currency and now was a "store of value". 

    Michael Saylor being a hero of Bitcoiners was a big factor. Felt like the community only cared about somebody pumping their bags. 

    ### Turned to create something better

    Ampleforth caught his eye. Found it to be super interesting 

    Tried to hold a $1 peg by changing holder balances to change the value

    He thought it was a big innovation.

    Really hard to control price in a market with all the volatility and lack of liquidity

    The important thing is value

    Function of price and supply

    Can't control price, but can influence price with supply. 

    Thought that this kind of thing is what would replace bitcoin.

    ### Control the supply

    Moderate functions of the system to influence and manifest desirable behavior of the currency. 

    Bond system that the system can use to influence economic behavior

     Liquidity is critical to the success and that is the entire model of the system.

     Bonds and how they function in Olympus DAO. 

     

    1 hr 23 min
  • EP 14 - DeFi Marketing With Dragon X - Callan Goldeneye is working to change how we buy ads & he's using DeFi
    Guest Info

    Name of Guest: Callan Goldeneye

    Name of Project: Dragon X
    Twitter URL of Guest: https://twitter.com/callangoldeneye
    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/dragonxapp
    Project URL: https://www.dragonx.app/
    Project/Guest Description: Callan is the founder of Dragon X a DeFi platform for marketing.
    Why they are a guest: I don't know of any platform like this in the market today and advertising is a critical component to success.

    Background:

    Freelance developer
    Helped build a crypto exchange
    That got him into crypto.

    Problem they solve: Most crypto projects are banned from advertising. How to give them an outlet so they could gain new users that is simple and easy to use and drives users to their platforms.

    Callan has always been an entrepreneur at heart and he previously started his own ad brokerage company which was the precursor to Dragon X.

    Dragon X is a new marketing platform and protocol that gives DAOs, DEXs, Dapps and blockchain entrepreneurs a platform to reach new customers.

    We discuss how he built the entire thing himself from scratch.

    We walk through how their system works.

    How projects can start generating users using the platform.
    The tokenomics of the system that burns tokens when they are used for ads.

    We also go deep into what it is like starting a project.

    We cover the things that projects must learn to handle.

    We also discuss how they will have to automatically adjust their algo price per click to adjust to the price of their token called DAX.

    50 min
  • Ep 13 - Felix Leupold of Gnosis on MEV, COWSwap, Origins of AMM, SAFE, and much more

    If you want to understand MEV and how it impacts you and how to avoid it, this is the episode for you. If you also wanted to understand the incredible value that Gnosis brings to DeFi, then this too is the episode for you. 

    Find out how COWSwap makes swapping safer and easier. 

    Did you know that you can do complete swaps at the best rates on COWSwap without having any ETH in your wallet? 

    This is a powerpacked episode, because Felix Leupold not only helps us understand MEV and why they built COWSwap, but also how critical Gnosis is to the DeFi ecosystem, how COWSwap came about because they saw the problems with MEV long ago and they decided to build a different swap capability that avoided the issue. 

    Name of Guest:  Felix Leupold

    Name of Project:  Gnosis / COWSwap
    Twitter URL of Guest: https://twitter.com/fleupold_
    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/MEVprotection
    Project URL: 

    https://cowswap.exchange/#/swap

    https://gnosis.io/

    58 min
  • EP 12 - Yunt Capital - Shitposting their way to the DeFi moon with a DAO investment & advisory group!

    Can you build an investment firm on the basis of shitposting. The folks at Yunt Capital have and they are having a great time doing it. 

    Name of Guest:  Sath / DeFi Berg

    Name of Project:  Yunt Capital
    Twitter URL of Guest:
    https://twitter.com/EdTweetsWords
    https://twitter.com/DeFiBerg
    Project Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/YuntCapital
    Project URL: https://yunt.capital

    Project/Guest Description: Shitposting  #DeFi  fund

    Background:

    Berg is a tech consultant in SaaS. Helps implement platforms for companies.
    Sath is an astrophysicist and applied mathematician. Did the 2017 run. Left the space through 2020. Missed most of the DeFi run up. Came back in.
    Is now leaving his job in academia to focus full time on DeFi investing.

    Shitposting is the theme
    Discord for Alchemix is the core of where they all met and formed.
    Berg is a tech consultant in SaaS. Helps implement platforms for companies.
    Sath is an astrophysicist and applied mathematician. Did the 2017 run. Left the space through 2020. Missed most of the DeFi run up.
    Came back in
    Is leaving his job in academia to focus full time on DeFi investing
    Was pigeonholed in his career and couldn't move out of it.
    Wants to solve problems, so this makes sense for him.

    18 people in Yunt Capital
    They want to be able to help projects and tell them how they can improve.

    How they structure deals.
    Each person decides individually whether they want in to a particular deal. Starts with one or more people presenting an opportunity and then they create a separate deal channel in their Discord to discuss further. Everyone deep dives in and then they get on calls to discuss further.

    Content is King for Yunt. It is driving extensive deal flow to them and is a powerful driver for them of all the deals they are doing. They are pretty amazed at what is coming to them.

    They work hard to teach others in order to help them learn themselves.

    We discussed the details of setting up their Wyoming DAO and they had one member - Tilt that really drove that forward.

    Why they chose a DAO over forming an offshore corporation.

    They setup accredited investor status as well.

    They are actually mostly anonymous as well.

    Why it is so important to set it up correctly.

    How they handle the investment funds going in together and out to a project.

    They do take equity in projects.  

    They get advisory tokens for some projects and those get divided evenly amongst the group. Great way to reward the other members driving content and deals in.

    What NFT project do they think will actually become a powerful IP.

    What chain they really like and some cool projects coming out of it.

    Who they think are the most important people to them in the space.

    Fitch from the NFT world
    Danny from popsicle and abracadabra


    51 min
  • EP 11 - Dennis Porter - How We Win: Taking the Crypto Fight To The Politicians

    A #bitcoinmaximalist & an anti-maximalist walk into a podcast...

    Dennis Porter is a podcaster and Bitcoin maximalist that is helping lead the way to fight for financial freedom in the political arena. His popular podcast Smart People Shit(SmartPeopleShit.com) covers everything Bitcoin, bitcoin politics, economics and much more. 

    Brad and Dennis discuss how the bitcoin and crypto world need to take the fight directly to the politicians and how our force of voters is the single most powerful single issue voting block in the history of politics. They discuss the actions different people are working on to organize the members of our ecosystem to fight for our rights and what you can do to help. 

    They discuss Aarika Rhodes that is running against our worst enemy in Congress Brad Sherman and how both of them support her. 

    The two also have a lengthy discussion about maximalism and their very different approaches to bitcoin and crypto came about and how they each feel about the other's point of view. 

    Dennis' website: SmartPeopleShit.com

    Dennis' Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dennis_Porter_

    Dennis' YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf0w2eKSyUuMRMBxBtvj5cQ

    The Bitcoiner US Political Discussion on Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/Pqk4HfJu2EYxMjI5

    1 hr 21 min

About Mission: DeFi

From the publisher's feed

Mission DeFi showcases innovation in the DeFi ecosystem. Our mission is to advance the cause of freedom that decentralized finance & cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin, and many others represent.