Unlayered

Unlayered

By Sal Qadir and Dave ApsimonTechnology
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Unlayered episodes

  • Karim's Hot Takes on the State of Crypto

    In this informal chat, Sal catches up with his good friend and former colleague, Karim Helmy (@karimhelpme). A departure from our typical interview format, this chat covers a wider basket of topics from the perspective of someone who's expertise spans Bitcoin mining, MEV, on-chain data science, and markets infra. Topics of discussion include current market conditions, DeFi vs CeFi, Bitcoin, the rise of Friend.tech, his view on high-performance L1s, and bear market phenomena (among others).


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    Podcast Resources


    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/Sal_The_Bull


    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum


    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod


    Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/


    Clips on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod



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    Episode Resources


    Follow Karim Helmy : https://twitter.com/karimhelpme

    50 min
  • Why Aren't Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) Popular on Solana? (Marinade)

    In this episode, we chat with Brandon Tucker, head of comms at Marinade Finance, to dive into the world of liquid staking tokens on Solana. In theory, the value prop of LSTs is clear. In practice, only a tiny fraction of staked Solana uses LSTs. Throughout this conversation, we unpack why that is the case and what Marinade is doing to lean into this predominant user behavior on Solana that is much less common on chains like Ethereum.


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    Time Stamps




    1:43 - The rise of LSTs 


    5:59 - Why LST adoption on Sol is so low


    12:20 - Should epoch times be longer


    15:18 - Marinade governance


    20:23 - Marinade business model


    16:44 - How to ensure accurate data gathering


    25:47 - Centralisation vectors


    33:28 - How to get more LST adoption into Sol dapps


    39:04 - Competitive landscape from other providers


    44:09 - Will Lido exit Sol ecosystem


    47:44 - Competiton from centralised players


    49:15 - How to bring liquidity back to Sol defi


    53:07 - Future of LSTs


    58:27 - Marinade roadmap


    1:02:20 - What’s the next big thing in crypto




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    Podcast Resources




    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/Sal_The_Bull


    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum


    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod


    Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/


    Clips on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod




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    Episode Resources



    Marinade Native Staking Referral Code : https://marinade.finance/app?ref=s7iob5by


    Follow Brandon Tucker : https://twitter.com/BrandonTucker


    Follow Marinade Finance :  https://twitter.com/MarinadeFinance


    Marinade Website : https://Marinade.Finance

    1 hr 7 min
  • The Parcl Paradigm: Trevor's Big Bet on Bricks and Bytes

    In this episode, we explore the intersection of crypto and real estate. Throughout our conversation with Trevor, Founder and CEO of Parcl Protocol, we learn why bringing DeFi primitives to the $3.69T real estate market is an inevitability and what new behaviors this potent combination enables for end-users. Trevor's wealth of knowledge from his buy side experience on Wall St helps anchor a comprehensive view into where Parcl plans on taking it's unique product-suite next.


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    Time Stamps


    0:00 - Sal and Dave opening thoughts 

    4:24 - Why crypto and real estate

    7:54 - Parcl Vs REITs

    9:31 - Who would use the product?

    11:31 - Why haven’t we seen RE shorting mechanisms before

    16:44 - How to ensure accurate data gathering

    19:17 - Was Solana the correct choice to deploy

    25:03 - How does the DEX operate

    28:33 - Surprising findings

    30:02 - How to attract liquidity 

    35:22 - Is this the perfect macro conditions to launch

    40:25 - Lack of yield an issue?

    43:17 - Hedging benefits

    45:25 - Real estate macro view

    50:16 - Future of RWA in crypto

    53:20 - What’s holding apps back in crypto

    56:45 - Future features of Parcl


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    Podcast Resources


    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/Sal_The_Bull

    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum

    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod

    Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/

    Clips on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod


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    Episode Resources


    Follow Trevor Bacon : https://twitter.com/TrevorJBacon

    Follow Parcl :  https://twitter.com/Parcl

    Parcl Website : https://app.Parcl.co

    59 min
  • Solarplex Spotlight: Viksit's Vision to Bond Communities Through Crypto

    Solarplex (fka Dispatch Protocol) has been one of Solana's most successful projects at the intersection of crypto and social. In spite of still being in an invite-only beta, Solarplex's userbase has been on a tear, generating tens of thousands of unique posts each week. During our chat with Viksit, the Founder of Solarplex, we learn about his views on crypto social, Solarplex's unique value proposition to communities, the role of cNFTs in creating novel experiences, and where he sees Solarplex going long-term.


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    Time Stamps


    1:05 - Viksit’s background

    6:16 - Decision to build Solarplex

    11:12 - Why build decentralised social media

    16:00 - Business case for opening up social graphs

    24:51 - How to attract users from web 2

    30:12 - Using digital assets in social media

    34:06 - Monetisation from gaining access

    35:15 - Roll-out strategy 

    37:39 - Dealing with bots

    40:08 - Decentralised moderation

    45:51 - Data storage on-chain

    48:36 - Where Solarplex sits within existing social media

    53:51 - Future features to be rolled out

    58:34 - What has been a surprise


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    Podcast Resources


    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/Sal_The_Bull

    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum

    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod

    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI

    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2

    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476


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    Episode Resources


    Follow Viksit : https://twitter.com/viksit

    Viksit’s blog : https://Viksit.com/

    Follow Solarplex :  https://twitter.com/solarplex_xyz

    Solarplex Website : https://Solarplex.xyz

    1 hr 2 min
  • Richard Wu (Tensor) on the Financialization of NFTs (and if we accidentally killed them)
    We chat with Richard Wu, Co-Founder of Tensor, to understand how Tensor's 2-man team successfully took on Goliath (Magic Eden) and chipped away at Magic Eden's 95%+ market share last year. We learn about how Tensor's intense focus on power-traders gave them a beachhead market that demonstrated the viability of heavily financialized, terminal-esque trading interfaces for NFTs. We also ask Richard if Blur/Tensor killed NFTs and what he's most excited about for future NFT adoption. It's a very insightful conversation with one of the best builders in all of crypto and Solana.
    (0:00) - Finding the right co-founder
    (9:25) - Selecting the correct market to disrupt
    (12:03) - Building early PMF
    (14:59) - Has Blur ruined NFTs?
    (20:17) - Thinking about product design
    (23:59) - Building web 3 applications
    (33:17) - Tensorians NFTs
    (42:39) - Moving beyond Solana?
    (46:33) - Future of Eth NFT ecosystem
    (49:38) - Drivers for NFT adoption
    (55:01) - What’s exciting outside NFTs
    (58:00) - Next steps for Tensor
    (1:03:53) - Thoughts on the last year
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/Sal_The_Bull
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
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    Episode Resources
    Follow Richard : https://twitter.com/0xrwu
    Follow Ilya :  https://twitter.com/_ilmoi
    Follow Tensor Trade :  https://twitter.com/Tensor_hq
    Tensor Trade Website : https://Tensor.trade
    1 hr 7 min
  • The Monad Movement: Keone's Journey from HFT Systems to EVM Scalability
    We chat with Keone, Co-Founder & CEO of Monad.xyz, about his background in building high-performance systems for Jump Trading’s high-frequency trading and crypto divisions. We unpack how Keone is leveraging his expertise to scale the EVM. Traditionally, most approaches to scaling blockchains, such as Solana, Sui, Aptos, Sei, etc, choose to eschew the EVM in favor of maximizing performance. Keone believes that maintaining compatibility with existing EVM tooling and infra is key to long-term success. We talk about his vision for scaling the EVM to 10k TPS, the challenges of launching an L1 ecosystem, what consumer adoption looks like, and a litany of design considerations throughout this discussion.
    (0:52) - Monad’s vision
    (3:54) - Why not build out an L2?
    (9:56) - Parallelizing the EVM
    (17:19) - Hardware requirements
    (22:02) - Future of DEX trading
    (32:32) - Exciting areas of crypto
    (36:29) - Responding to criticism
    (40:13) - Where does Monad fit within Ethereum
    (42:21) - Horizontal scaling future for Monad
    (44:37) - Integration with Solana
    (45:44) - Benefits of single slot finality
    (49:00) - Go-To-Market strategy
    (52:36) - Privacy on blockchains
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/sal_coin
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
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    Episode Resources
    Follow Keone: https://twitter.com/KeoneHD
    Follow Monad: https://twitter.com/Monad_xyz
    Galaxy Website: https://Monad.xyz
    56 min
  • Alex Thorn (Galaxy Digital) on L1s, L2s, and Institutional Crypto
    Alex Thorn, Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital, shares his L1 thesis and how he thinks ETH + L2s will outcompete most alt L1 platforms over time. He also comments on potential tailwinds for both mainstream and institutional adoption of crypto and shares his views on certain areas of crypto that might be overhyped. This is an entertaining conversation with a Bitcoin OG who’s been through multiple boom/bust cycles in crypto with the scar tissue to prove it.
    (0:54) - Ready Layer One thesis
    (4:02) - Will Eth win new web3 categories
    (17:23) - How does adoption happen
    (24:05) - Regulation as crypto’s final boss
    (26:31) - Technological change on BTC
    (32:30) - Could BTC lose its no. 1 spot
    (41:08) - Crypto drivers for next bull market
    (45:56) - Sol Vs Eth L2 narratives
    (48:05) - Base as dominant L2
    (53:53) - How to avoid cynicism
    (58:46) - What will be top of funnel for new entrants
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/sal_coin
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
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    Episode Resources
    Follow Alex Thorn: https://twitter.com/IntangibleCoins
    Follow Galaxy: https://twitter.com/GalaxyHQ
    Follow Galaxy Research: https://twitter.com/GlxyResearch
    Galaxy Website: https://Galaxy.com
    1 hr 4 min
  • Solana Legend on Next Generation Blockchains
    Solana Legend (@solanalegend), managing partner of Frictionless and co-founder of monkeDAO. Spends most of his waking hours thinking about next generation blockchains. As one of Solana’s earliest and loudest supporters, Legend has a unique vantage point into how Solana and other high throughput blockchains are well-positioned to onboard the masses into crypto. This convo, is a fun mix about Solana’s early history, initial ties to FTX, its meteoric rise during the bull run of 2021, and some of Legend’s contrarian takes.
    (0:30) - How new L1s compete with incumbents
    (9:10) - What will bring new users onto L1s
    (15:14) - The aha moment of DePIN 
    (19:00) - Value prop of web3 gaming
    (24:05) - Integration of web2 social with web3 rails
    (32:40) - Signal vs noise of current on-chain meta
    (36:31) - View on recent DeGods saga
    (41:55) - Ethereum’s endgame
    (45:18) - Most under-appreciated narratives
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/sal_coin
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
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    Episode Resources
    Follow Solana Legend: https://twitter.com/SolanaLegend
    Follow Frictionless Capital: https://twitter.com/_Frictionless_
    Frictionless Website: https://frictionless.fund
    48 min
  • How Dynamic NFTs Will Replace Coffee Shop Punchcards (Underdog Protocol)
    Kevin and Nick from Underdog Protocol, grand-prize winners of Solana Grizzlython 2023, are on a mission to help business integrate dynamic NFTs into their products. Their vision for the future includes blockchains as a shared data layer for both consumers and businesses. While early experiments in bringing web3 to industry incumbents like Starbucks have shown limited success, Underdog’s unique approach combines the scalability of Solana with the developer-friendliness of integrating any standard API like Stripe. In a roundtable format, Sal, Dave, Kevin, and Nick talk at-length about this emerging use-case of NFTs with an intense focus on the long-term utility of NFTs and how they tangibly add value to current user journeys.
    (1:12) - What is Underdog
    (7:50) - Why brands will share data on-chain
    (14:46) - The real value prop of web3
    (21:44) - Issues of curation for decentralised social graphs
    (24:40) - Completely new marketing models
    (29:39) - How to build moats in an open data world
    (38:43) - On-chain cookies 
    (40:25) - Which blockchains will win
    (44:59) - How Underdog is architected
    (49:40) - Future use cases of NFTs
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/sal_coin
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
    -    -
    Episode Resources
    Follow Tony : https://twitter.com/TonyPlasencia3
    Follow Kevin : https://twitter.com/Kevarifin
    Follow Underdog Protocol : https://twitter.com/BackAnUnderdog
    Underdog Protocol Website : https://UnderdogProtocol.com
    54 min
  • Kyle Samani on Crypto’s Role in AI, Consumer Tech, & other Contrarian Views
    Kyle Samani (Multicoin) joins Unlayered to share his views on a litany of topics. Mainly, what role does crypto have to play in emerging technological primitives like artificial intelligence and spatial computing. The trio also discuss why so much attention has been focused on infra vs consumer apps and the historical debate on modular vs integrated software architecture. This episode is a great way to gain a 10,000ft view of the space from the perspective of one crypto’s best, and often contrarian, thought leaders.
    (1:03) - State of the market
    (8:29) - Crypto social apps vs web2
    (13:46) - Verticalisation of NFT marketplaces
    (18:47) - Will AI agents use crypto?
    (28:56) - Are AI bots a net good?
    (34:02) - Eth’s social scalability problems
    (39:15 - The merits of different blockchain designs
    (47:39) - Contrarian areas of interest in crypto
    (55:00) - Spatial computing
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    Podcast Resources
    Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/sal_coin
    Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum
    Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod
    Subscribe on Apple: http://apple.co/3VyBSWI
    Subscribe on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/42q03J2
    Subscribe on Google: https://tinyurl.com/5dwn2476
    -    -
    Episode Resources
    Follow Kyle: https://twitter.com/KyleSamani
    Follow Multicoin: https://twitter.com/multicoincap 
    Relevant Multicoin Blogposts:
    Verticalization of NFT marketplaces - https://multicoin.capital/2022/06/22/beyond-verticalization-of-nft-marketplaces
    AI and Crypto - https://multicoin.capital/2023/06/02/the-convergence-of-crypto-and-ai-four-key-intersections
    Social Scalability - https://multicoin.capital/2021/05/25/technical-scalability-creates-social-scalability
    Rendering the Metaverse - https://multicoin.capital/2021/12/21/rendering-the-metaverse
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    Disclosures
    Although our guest this week is the managing partner of a registered investment adviser, nothing in this podcast should be considered an offer of Multicoin’s investment advisory services or should otherwise be confused for investment, tax, legal or other financial advice.
    1 hr 2 min

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Think beyond Ethereum and dive deep into the world of next generation blockchains. Join us as we engage with founders, engineers, researchers, investors, and critics of high-throughput, low-fee,…