Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss the success of Goblintown (https://goblintown.wtf) and speculate what it is.

Sam is a white hat hacker that has rescued hundreds of millions of dollars in the crypto ecosystem by responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities and publishing educational resources. In one of our previous podcast episodes with Dan Robinson - Dan called Sam the Batman of Crypto. Whenever there are large sums of money at stake in the crypto ecosystem, a bat signal is thrown up, and Sam comes in to help save the day.

Sam is currently a Research Partner and the Head of Security at Paradigm - one the most high profile and active crypto native venture firms.

Learn more about samczsun:

• samczsun’s Twitter: @samczsun
• samczsun’s Website: https://samczsun.com

In this episode we discuss:

• What is a white hat hacker?
• Why Sam chose to be a white hat hacker.
• The emotional journey of finding and resolving a vulnerability with millions at stake.
• Differences between white hat hacking in web3 vs. traditional web2
• Why Sam decided to join Paradigm
• Types of bugs in smart contracts:
  • Only exploitable via the owner of the protocol
  • Only exploitable if a hacker has a huge amount of capital
  • Worst bugs: No special permissions or capital
• The story of how Sam saved $9.6m for Lien Finance
  • Recruiting an Ocean's 11 team to escape the MEV Dark Forest
• How Sam found the SushiSwap vulnerability and saved $350MM
• Reverse engineering the $325MM Wormhole Hack
• Designing the hardest hacking competition in crypto: CTF (Capture the Flag)
  • How Sam put together a CTF that blew every crypto hacker’s minds
  • Exploiting an etherscan bug to announce CTF 2022

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Continuing our series of exploration of Crypto Coven’s extraordinary community, we bring on two core contributors of Coven Cats: Adrianne and Mensa the Literate.

Coven Cats is a collection of hand-drawn, meticulously generated CATS. A community-driven extension - born out of love and appreciation for Crypto Coven. In this episode, Adrianne and Mensa the Literate shares the process behind creating a community NFT project.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Adrianne and Mensa the Literate were introduced into Crypto Coven
• The inspiration behind Coven Cats
• The relationship between a witch and their cat
• The team behind Coven Cats and the work it took to create the project
• Where to mint a Coven Cat: https://www.covencats.xyz

Learn more about Adrianne, Mensa, and CryptoCoven:

• Adrianne’s Twitter: @dradriannestone
• Mensa the Literate’s Twitter: @mensaisliterate
• Coven Cats Twitter: @coven_cats
• Coven Cats Website: https://www.covencats.xyz

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

After listening to one of our episodes on Punk6259's Open Metaverse, Phil Huang (DeFiCon) sent us a crazy diagram of Fluf World's decentralized metaverse ecosystem. We couldn't make sense of it, so we asked Phil to come on the podcast to explain it to us.

NFT Layer

• Fluf World - https://www.fluf.world
• Party bears - https://partybear.xyz
• AIFA football - https://aifa.football
• Altered state machine - AI Brains  - https://www.alteredstatemachine.xyz

Metaverse Layer

• Universe - Universe.xyz
• Sylo - https://www.sylo.io/wallet
• EnterDAO - https://enterdao.xyz
  • Landworks - https://landworks.xyz
  • MetaPortal - https://metaportal.gg
• Consortium9 - https://consortium9.co
  • NOR - https://consortium9.co/disrupting-the-play-model

Ethereum L2 Blockchain Layer

• Cennznet - https://cennz.net

L1 Blockchain Layer

• Plugnet - https://plugdefi.io
• Immersve - https://immersve.com
• OTTO Blockchain - https://www.ottoblockchain.com

Summary

• Games to draw people into communities built around different assets
• Each community is built around assets that do different things
• There are now communications between each community - to bring in and plug in different assets
• At the base: linking in real world payments & requirements

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss the de-pegging of UST, fall of Luna, and Zagabond's abandoned projects prior to Azuki.

Links

• @jonwu.eth: The $UST Depeg Thread
• @4484: $luna $ust attack was coordinated & executed
• UST’s Do Kwon Was Behind Earlier Failed Stablecoin
• Terra blockchain is halted after token crash increases threat of governance attacks
• UST de-pegging is very parallel to Soro’s Breaking the Bank of England
• Zagabond: A Builder's Journey
• Criticisms on how Zagabond's rug pulls
• Zagabond's Apology
• Zagabond's plan to fix mistakes with abandoned projects

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

As the show’s listenership has grown, WLD has begun getting inbound interest to be guests on the pod - John is the first guest we have decided to bring on.

In this episode, John describes his crypto journey from being a self-described OG game forum lurker way back in the early 2010’s, to how he lead blockchain initiatives both internally and externally at Google, to how his obsession with pokemon kickstarted his foray into play to earn NFTs and laid the foundation for SZNs.

Learn more about John Lee and SZNs:

• John’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/@jl2fa
• SZNS’ Website: https://szns.io
• SZNS’ Twitter: @sznsnft
• SZNS’ Discord: http://discord.gg/szns
• SZNS’ Litepaper
• Article John wrote back in 2015 on Ethereum

Episode notes and links:

• How John initially got into crypto through Team Liquid’s gaming forum
• Why John’s formative years crafted his Libertarian leanings at a young age
  • Growing up poor, distrusting of centralized institutional power
• Johns journey into tech and crypto
  • Learned programming in college, joined Oracle as sales engineer
  • First exposed to Ethereum in 2015 through a crypto meetup, wrote an article on ETH mining on Bitcoinist (link below)
  • How do we build trustless systems
  • DApps and verifying truth through code
• Joining Google in 2017 and working on crypto initiatives
  • Hosting and growing internal blockchain events
  • How John facilitated engagement with Block.one and eventually leading to a partnership where Google joined as a EOS block producer
• John’s investment history in crypto
  • How John initially pooled money from friends and family, began as a private investment club that achieved 70x returns
  • Starting Novak Capital in 2017
    • Looking to deploy majority in venture, some in liquid markets
• How John got started in collecting and investing in NFTs
  • Always loved collectibles, started from collecting pokemon figures from the late 90’s
  • Being ranked 130 on Blur leaderboard
  • Why John is bullish on the Azuki project
    • Buying a special Azuki for 2 ETH, and getting offers for over 200 ETH
• What is John’s strategy and approach in investing in NFTs?
  • Sweeping the floor and unloading at the right time
  • Price action similarities to ICOs back in the day
  • Real investing vs riding wave of crypto in general
• How did John start SZNS?
  • Working with friends from Google that wanted to do something together
  • Creating a platform for Axie trading - borrow for free, earnings profit sharing
  • Pivoting and joining AllianceDAO when Axie created Ronin chain
• What is SZNS? Why launch your DAO on SZNS?
  • Piloting a trustless way to manage your NFTs and protection against malicious proposals
  • How is SZNS different from Syndicate.io or other platforms?
    • How SZNS streamlined their voting mechanism
    • Allowing for arbitration periods where ppl can contest by bonding and staking their ETH via Reality.ETH module
    • How SZNS will initially monitor and oversee malicious proposals, eventually will transition to DAO governance
  • Private beta right now, public launch June 30th
  • What is the vision of the platform?
    • Not being bullish on fractionalization
    • Believing that the methodology of collections/albums with a token mechanism is a better way to decentralize ownership
    • Not being a platform for NFT flipping - quick buy/sell still an issue
• What happened in Beanstalk hack?
  • Flash loan to buy majority of governance tokens, edited smarted contract to steal assets
  • John sold some pods the same night as the hack exploit!
• Benevolent dictatorship vs fully decentralized checks and balances
  • Oliver Wendall Holmes - "If my fellow citizens want to go to Hell I will help them. It's my job."
• John’s book recommendation - “The ascent of Money”
  • The right of sovereignty and ownership of your own assets that have monetary value
• SZNS’ year end goal is to be number one Google search above SZNS KPOP group!

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss the Bored Ape Otherside minting mess, a16z's centralized metaverse, Will’s NFT blue chip scorecard, and building an NFT house of cards.

Links

• Cobie: Apecoin new blockchain suggestion
• Yuga Labs response on minting mess
• CPG Grey: Rules for Rulers Youtube Video
• Bored Ape Yacht Club Owner Yuga Labs Raises $450M Led by A16z
• Music, sports, and entertainment VIPs invest $87 million in MoonPay
• OpenSea: Why Andreessen Horowitz is betting big on NFTs
• Improbable raises $150m from Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank
• Bored Ape Yacht Club Creators Yuga Labs Sign Representation Deal With Madonna, U2 Manager Guy Oseary
• Will's Blue Chip NFT Scorecard
• Rehito Hatoyama (Sanrio, Bathing Ape, Line Friends) new Azuki advisor
• Billboard President Julian Holguin new Doodle CEO
• Dead Brands Attempt Resurrection With Crypto

Correction: a16z did not invest in Moonpay. Only Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures did.

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Continuing our series of exploration of Crypto Coven’s extraordinary community, we bring on Kagami, Crypto Coven Head Librarian.

In this episode, Kagami dishes on how Crypo Coven’s exceptional creative lore and unique community kickstarted his journey into Web3. We learn how Kagami initiated and volunteered to craft Crypto Coven’s open source informational library, how he sees the library evolving as an intellectual hub, and how he would choose between bread, rice, and noodles.

Learn more about Kagami and CryptoCoven:

• Kagami’s Twitter: @kagami_nft
• Crypto Coven Twitter: @crypto_coven
• Crypto Coven Website: https://www.cryptocoven.xyz
• CovenCats Twitter: @coven_cats
• Coven Librarians Twitter: @covenlibrarians
• Find the Librarians in Crypto Coven Discord: https://discord.com/invite/cryptocoven
• Crypto Coven Library

Episode notes and links:

• How Kagami initially got involved with CryptoCoven
• What is the Library? What is the role and responsibility of the Head Librarian?
  • What does a day in the life of the Head Librarian look like?
  • How Kagami’s own pain points in web3 onboarding inspired him to help create and build out the Library
  • How Kagami’s experience in content creation helped him in crafting the Library
• The most common question that is asked - “Where is the library??”
• What are things that people can learn?
  • Web3, NFT’s, Wallet security, Discord security
• What differentiates good onboarding?
  • Accessibility for all levels of knowledge of experience
  • Classification via tagging
  • “Choosing your own adventure”
• How did they recruit over 50 Librarians?
• Weekly summarizing tweets that recap everything that has happened each week
• New projects that have since spawned from the Library/Librarians
  • Librarian Talks - how the Libarians built out an amazing series of fireside chats
  • Engaging chats hosted on Discord with Nyx, Penguin Wizard, and more
  • Web3 job postings and opportunity sharing
• What advice Kagami would give someone looking to set up a library
  • Setting the right foundation by defining initial principles and values up front
  • How to facilitate genuine conversations within the community and create the confidence to start building - organic creation conversations since web3 folks are already creators
  • Staying true to community values, and attracting new members that buy into the ethos
• What is a chaos circle? When is the next chaos circle?
  • When a conversation becomes chaotic..
  • Kagami answers “If you have to give up one thing for the rest of your life, would it be rice, bread, or noodles?
• Does Kagami identify more with being a Mage or an Occultist?
  • Head librarian during the day
  • Occultist at night
• How CovenCats became a ecosystem inspired project
• CryptoCoven as a talent and idea incubator and accelerator
  • The diversity of talent and expertise within the Crypto Coven community
• Kagami’s thoughts around non-invasive anonymity and pseudonymity online
  • Respecting people’s privacy vs credibility and accountability
• What is the future of the Library as an intellectual hub?
  • Helping and supporting new ideas and initiatives that the community are interested in
  • How strong community culture and rules and regulation become self-perpetuating
• The characteristics of the broader Web3 community that make it so unique
• What resources Kagami utilize to learn about and engage with Web3
  • Podcasts such as Bankless and WLD Show!
  • Twitter, Discord and following interesting projects

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss how Bored Ape Otherside mint will work, Moonbirds COO Ryan Carson stepping down, Azuki Beans reveal disappointment, and Balaji's article on Elondrop.

Links

• Cobie: ApeCoin & the death of staking
• Otherside: Dutch auctions are actually bullshit
• Moonbird COO Ryan Carson on leaving Moonbird
• What Happened to Treehouse? CEO Ryan Carson's track record  as a leader.
• Avidya.eth on Azuki BEANZ as an Asian market play
• Balaji: The Elon Drop

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Jason Yeh and Brian Cho are the cofounders and general partners of Patron. Patron is an early-stage venture firm investing in the convergence of games, consumer, and Web3. Patron calls it the Spectrum of Play.

Jason began his VC career in 2007 as a founding investor at FirstMark, where he led due diligence for the Series A of Riot Games - the company behind League of Legends.

Brian Cho has been investing in gaming and consumer startups since 2012, where he was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and worked on investments including Oculus, Lyft, and Slack. Since 2014, he built and led the investment arm at Riot Games.

Learn more about Jason, Brian, and Patron:

• Jason Yeh Twitter: @jasonoliver
• Brian Cho Twitter: @brianjcho
• Patron Website: https://patron.xyz

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Jason and Brian saw in Riot Games
• How and why League of Legends changed gaming
• Why Jason and Brian left and started Patron
• Patron’s Spectrum of Play investment thesis
• Why Web3 introduces gaming mechanics to everything
• What does Patron typically look for in an investment
• Why are portfolio companies choosing Patron to lead their rounds?
• Why are gamers currently against Web3?
• What Web3 games are Jason and Brian currently into?

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!