🎙️ METACAST: Top Crypto Podcasts of April 2024

Paradigm

Published in

Paradigm

18 min readMay 7, 2024

Greetings, everyone!

Take a swift glimpse at the highlights of what we’ve been tuning into last month.

TL;DR

Unchained discusses Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, Consensys’s lawsuit against the SEC, and the SEC’s actions against Uniswap.
Bankless delves into stablecoins, tech acceleration vs. deceleration, Bitcoin portfolios, the Ethereum ETF, and debates around Ethereum’s monetary policy.
Epicenter features talks on Tether’s safety, securing crypto assets, and Facebook’s MOVE as well as Saga’s approach to blockchain scalability through chainlets, Movement Labs’ efforts to bring billions of users to crypto through modern VMs.
The Defiant covers Aave, Lens, Avara, explores the next internet revolution, and Pendle Finance’s tokenization of future yield on Ethereum assets.
Thinking Crypto Podcast addresses Fetch.AI, stablecoin bills, the SEC’s stance on Ethereum, IRS tax secrets, and memecoins.
Zero Knowledge podcast dives into the STIR system for Reed–Solomon Proximity Testing, the workings of shared sequencing marketplaces like Espresso, the evolution of Layer 2 solutions with a focus on zkEVMs, and discussions on Threshold Signature Schemes and FROST with experts in the field.
The DeSci Podcast focuses on ResearchHub and the reformation of academic incentives for open science.
Discussions on the Bitcoin halving, Runes Protocol, Polygon’s AggLayer and Ethena’s USDe growth are explored.
And more!

Unchained

Bitcoin Layer 2s Aim to Attract Ethereum-Like Dapps. Will They Succeed?: In this episode of Unchained, host Laura interviews Alexei Zamyatin, co-founder of Build on Bitcoin, Willem Schroé, founder of Botanix Labs, and Orkun Kılıç, co-founder of Chainway Labs. They discuss their respective projects, all of which are focused on developing Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin. Zamyatin’s Build on Bitcoin is a hybrid Layer 2 that connects to both Bitcoin and Ethereum, aiming to bring innovation back to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Schroé’s Botanix Labs is developing a decentralized Layer 2 solution using the ‘Spiderchain,’ which uses a series of multi-signature wallets to secure the chain. Kılıç’s Chainway Labs is building Citrea, a zk-rollup on Bitcoin that aims to create a Bitcoin-backed economy. All three projects are in various stages of development and testing, with BOB’s mainnet launch expected shortly.

Consensys’s Lawsuit Against The SEC: Will It End Gensler’s ‘Unlawful Power Grab’?: Consensys sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a Texas federal court, seeking to prevent an impending SEC action against its MetaMask wallet and to clarify that ether is not a security. The complaint calls out the agency for what Consensys describes as “regulatory overreach,” challenges its notion that ETH is a security, and says the SEC has violated the Constitutional requirement of fair notice under the due process clause. It notes that for years, the SEC and its sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, took the position that ETH is not a security. The lawsuit also challenges the SEC’s recent focus on Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake in 2022 as a basis for increased scrutiny, a stance Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin deemed “preposterous.” Laura Brookover, Senior Counsel & Head of Litigation and Investigations at ConsenSys, joined Unchained to unpack the lawsuit and what it means for the future of Ethereum and overall crypto in the US.

The US vs. Crypto: Jake Chervinsky on Crypto’s Legal and Regulatory Status: Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer of Variant, discusses the current state of crypto regulation, touching on several ongoing legal and regulatory issues in the crypto space, including Uniswap’s Wells notice, the Coinbase case, the Tornado Cash case, the Ethereum Foundation investigation and more. Chervinsky argues that the government’s approach to these cases is often misguided, particularly in instances where they hold software developers liable for how third parties use their software. He also discusses the potential implications of the government’s case against Tornado Cash, suggesting that it could have far-reaching consequences for all open-source software developers. Chervinsky also delves into the SEC’s ongoing investigations into the Ethereum Foundation, as well as the recent IRS draft form that lists unhosted wallets as a type of broker. He expressed concern about the potential impact of these investigations on the crypto industry, but remained optimistic about the future of DeFi in the US.
After the Bitcoin Halving, Will the Runes Protocol Live Up to the Hype?: Not only will April 20 (or 19, depending on which part of the world you are) mark the fourth Bitcoin halving, but also the launch of a new primitive on Bitcoin called Runes Protocol. Charlie Spears, co-founder of Blockspace Media, joined Unchained to talk about all things Runes, which is a messaging protocol that allows for the creation of fungible tokens on Bitcoin. It is designed to fix some of the issues with the BRC-20 token standard, such as inefficiency and proliferation of unspent transaction outputs. Charlie believes that the launch of Runes will increase demand for Bitcoin’s blockspace and potentially lead to higher transaction fees. He also discusses the potential for Runes to interact with Bitcoin covenants and layer two solutions.

Arthur Hayes and Will Clemente on How This Bitcoin Halving Is Different: The Bitcoin took place on April 19 or April 20. Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, and Will Clemente, co-founder of Reflexivity Research discuss the rise in Bitcoin prices ahead of the halving, the impact of the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, and the potential effects of the halving on the price trajectory post-halving. They also discuss the potential impact of a new class of investors on Bitcoin’s price, volatility, and decentralization.
Gary Gensler’s Case Against Uniswap: Does the SEC Even Stand a Chance?: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Uniswap Labs, the team behind the prominent decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap, signaling a forthcoming enforcement action. Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at the DeFi Education Fund, joined Unchained to unpack what the case could mean for Uniswap and the overall decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. Amanda also talks about the DeFi Education Fund’s recent lawsuit against the SEC over its airdrop policies and the industry’s need for a proactive counteroffensive approach in dealing with the SEC.
Polygon’s AggLayer Wants to Be a Hub for Ethereum Layer 2s. Can It Succeed?: Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and co-founder Brendan Farmer discussed everything about the AggLayer, a decentralized protocol built by Polygon that enables fast, secure cross-chain interactions and allows different chains to use the same native bridge. This allows users to seamlessly move assets across chains in the AggLayer ecosystem. The AggLayer aims to unify blockspace so that it feels like a single chain, improving user experience. Boiron and Farmer also discussed the potential for Layer 2 solutions to scale Ethereum, the benefits of zero-knowledge technology, and the future of Polygon’s proof-of-stake chain. Learn more: What Are Zero-Knowledge Proofs?
Ethena’s USDe Grew to $2 Billion in 7 Weeks. Is It Safe?: Ethena was in the spotlight after the airdrop of ENA, its new governance token. Ethena’s flagship product, the “synthetic dollar” USDe has amassed a $2 billion market cap in less than two months. Meanwhile, ENA’s market capitalization sits around $1.4 billion, with a fully diluted valuation of $15.5 billion. In this episode, Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, discusses the risks associated with Ethena, including custodial risks and counterparty risks to exchanges. Young also talks about the use cases of Ethena’s governance token, and discusses the potential for Ethena to be integrated with DeFi and CeFi.

The Real Reason Why the SEC Might Be Going After Ethereum: On March 20, Fortune reported that the SEC was investigating the Ethereum Foundation and was looking for legal ways to label ETH as a security. Sam Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and Greg Strong, partner at DLx Law joined Laura to discuss everything about the investigation and its implications. The guests speculate about the hidden motivations behind the SEC’s investigation and discuss the likelihood of the approval of spot Ether ETFs. They also discuss the recent ruling in the SEC vs Coinbase case, where the judge dismissed claims that Coinbase’s wallet was acting as an unregistered brokerage, but allowed the rest of the suit to proceed. Lastly, they touch on the devastating impact on the crypto industry if the SEC were to win a case alleging ETH is a security and what they are looking out for in the next couple of weeks and months.

The Chopping Block:

Bankless

$3 Trillion in Stablecoins by 2030 | Jeremy Allaire, USDC Founder: The man behind the largest US-based stablecoin, Jeremy Allaire, the Founder of USDC Circle. A year ago USDC depegged in the face of major banks like SVB and Silvergate collapsing. How did Jeremy deal with that? What year is crypto in internet years? Why don’t we have a venmo for crypto yet? Fast forward to 2030, what’s the total value of stablecoins?
Tech Acceleration vs Deceleration: e/acc vs. d/acc debate | Erik Torenberg & Haseeb Qureshi: Erik Torenburg and Haseeb Quereshi join the debate. Should we accelerate or decelerate our tech progress? How about when it comes to something as powerful as AI? This is not just a debate in tech circles — this is a political debate that is poised to define the next decade. Leaders from both sides of the debate on the podcast — episodes with Elizer Yudkowski and Beff Jezos. You’ve heard what they think. Today’s episode is a discussion and at times a debate on these opinions to help you think through where you stand on this issue — Haseeb Quereshi tends toward the EA side which favors more caution and regulatory intervention around AI while Erik Torenburg tends toward the e/acc side of the issue which favors faster progress and a lighter touch.

Anthony Pompliano: Bitcoin, Portfolio for 2024, Institutional Adoption & Crypto Tribalism: Pomp is an investor and media personality, best known to the crypto community for his relentless bitcoin evangelism. Expect to learn about the Bitcoin Halving, the state of BTC EwTFs, the consequential institutional adoption, and crypto tribalism.

Runes: Tokens on Bitcoin | Casey Rodamor: This episode is about exploring the frontier of tokens on Bitcoin with guest Casey Rodarmor. Casey is the creator of the Ordinals Protocol, a harmless protocol that simply allowed for arbitrary data to be inscribed into individual Bitcoin UTXOs, creating what are called Bitcoin NFTs. He is now also the creators of Runes, a second protocol, working to bring fungible tokens to Bitcoin. Bitcoin is changing and Casey appears to be one of the main reasons for the change. Soon he’ll be unveiling a protocol standard for Bitcoin — called Runes, which wants to be a bitcoin-native version of fungible tokens, on the Bitcoin L1.
$EIGEN Token Announcement With Sreeram Kannan and Robert Drost: Eigenlayer token details are here. This is a Stakedrop — because that’s the only thing you can do with your EIGEN tokens out of the gate. 15% of the total Supply of Eigen is distributed over multiple Seasons, Season 1 starts with 5% of the supply, and one of the most sophisticated set of smart contracts on Mainnet. EIGEN is not your typical ERC20 token. It’s got this feature called “Intersubjective Forking” that increases the scope of what Eigenlayer can provide security for. In addition to the token details getting released, we’re also getting the Eigen Foundation, with a new director Robert Drost — who joins Sreeram to walk us through everything you need to know.
The Unified Architecture of Ethereum | DH + RSA: On the show they walk through David’s recent article on the unified architecture theory for Ethereum. Where does Ethereum stand in a world of many chains? How does Ethereum compare to Bitcoin, Solana, Celestia, and many others fighting for users in the space? The comparisons and top competitors might surprise you.
Is $TIA Modular Money? | Nick White: In this episode, David delves into the interesting dynamics between Ethereum and Celestia. While Ethereum and Solana are often seen as the main rivals, Celestia shares similar design philosophies and goals but with notable differences. Is it Ethereum’s true competitor? Joining to help answer that question and much more is Nick White, COO of Celestia Labs.
Your Guide to the Bull Run | Raoul Pal: Expect to understand debasement, how to navigate the different crypto seasons, and Raoul’s secular thesis. Besides his key learnings, Raoul also gives a peak into his portfolio and shares some hot takes on the current state of AI.
“We Plan to Win” — Hayden Adams on Uniswap vs. the SEC: Crypto’s OG darling exchange, Uniswap is under attack after it received an enforcement notice on April 10th, 2024 from none other than Gensler’s anti-crypto SEC. Uniswap’s CEO Hayden Adams joins the podcast to share what happened, how they plan to fight, and what the industry can do to support.

Crypto vs. The World | Jake Chervinsky & Amanda Tuminelli: While there is always a lot of activity on Crypto Legal Front, this particular moment in time feels especially active. Jake Chervinsky and Amanda Tuminelli, two of crypto’s most impressive lawyers. Every single court case, of which there are 5 different ones discussed in this episode, brings new precedent and new clarity to the crypto space.
The Debate Over ETH’s Monetary Policy | DH + RSA: The Ethereum community is currently in debate, are we going to change the monetary policy of ETH? Why should we? Who gets to decide? What should it be? This episode of Bankless Takes is a masterclass on monetary policy for Ethereum and beyond.
AI Power Wars | Emad Mostaque with the founder of Stability AI, Emad Mostaque. Emad recently left his company citing “You can’t beat centralized AI with more centralized AI” and decided to venture into the frontier of decentralized AI. They touch on the economic consequences of AI, why it needs to be open-source and distributed, and the role of Crypto in decentralizing AI.
The Summer of Protocols Episode: Summer of Protocols is an ongoing research and evangelism effort that aims to catalyze broad interest in the study of protocols as a first-class concept for thinking about the world. To explain a little more about what Summer of Protocols is all about, the hosts brought Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation and Venkat Rao of the Ribbonfarm blog on the podcast. Additionally, this episode contains three short interviews with three of the 35 total Summer of Protocols researchers.

BUIDL: Blackrock’s $10T Bet on Ethereum | Carlos Domingo: Last month the largest asset manager in the world released its first tokenized fund on Ethereum called the BlackRock BUIDL fund. Tokenized treasuries on chain Tokenized securities on chain. The largest institutions in the world are here and they’re tokenizing their assets.
When Ethereum ETF? | Matt Hougan & Ryan Rasmussen of Bitwise: The Bitcoin ETF was a huge win for Crypto. What’s next? Will an Ethereum ETF be approved? Matt Hougan & Ryan Rasmussen of Bitwise explore exactly that. They go through what made the BTC ETF so successful, what we need to replicate the process for Ethereum, and what comes after the ETH ETF.

Rollups:

Zero Knowledge

Episode 321: STIR with Gal Arnon & Giacomo Fenzi: Anna and Kobi chat with Gal Arnon, Ph.D student from the Weizmann Institute of Science & Giacomo Fenzi, Ph.D. student in the COMPSEC Lab at EPFL. Gal and Giacomo are amongst the co-authors of ‘STIR: Reed–Solomon Proximity Testing with Fewer Queries’ and in this conversation, they discuss how their research led them to work on these topics and where the thesis for this particular work sparked from. They set the stage by exploring the history of FRI and discussing some hidden nuances in how FRI works. And then they introduce STIR, a system that can be used in place of FRI, which incorporates various optimisations to improve the performance.
Episode 320: A Deep Dive into Shared Sequencers with Espresso’s Ben Fisch: Anna and Brendan Farmer catch up with Ben Fisch, CEO of Espresso Systems. They explore the inner workings of the current L2 sequencing landscape and then discuss how a shared sequencing marketplace like Espresso works. They touch on how MEV plays a part in the new system, how the role of the sequencer can be separated into subroles, how all these parts will work together in such a system and much more.
Episode 319: The Past & Present of the L2 Landscape with Jordi Baylina: In this episode, Anna catches up with Jordi Baylina, OG Ethereum contributor and Polygon zkEVM Technical Lead. They cover what Jordi has been working on since he was last on the show in 2021. Back then, zkEVMs were still just an idea. Now that many of these systems have launched, they have a chance to look at how these fit into the general L2 landscape. They cover Jordi’s view on engineering decentralized systems and how these are rolled out, and the recent research from Polygon, including their AggLayer proposal. They wrap up on what inspires him to keep contributing in the space.
Episode 318: Threshold Signature Schemes & FROST with Chelsea Komlo: In this episode, Anna and Nico chat with Chelsea Komlo, Chief Scientist for the Zcash Foundation and member of the Cryptography, Security, and Privacy lab at the University of Waterloo. They discuss what sparked Chelsea’s interest in cryptography research, starting with her work contributing to Tor, to her move to Zcash and her PhD work on Threshold Signature Schemes. They define some important terms around different signature schemes and discuss possible optimizations that can be used to make these more performant. They then dive into her work on the FROST Threshold Signature Scheme plus some new upcoming work.

Epicenter

‘Is Tether’s USDT Safe?’ — Paolo Ardoino: The hosts are joined by Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, to discuss how crypto evolved over the past 10 years, and what role Tether played in shaping both crypto, as well as emerging markets and developing economies.

Safe: Securing $100 Billion of Crypto Assets — Lukas Schor: The hosts are joined by Lukas Schor, co-founder of Safe, to discuss Gnosis’ role in building early Ethereum infrastructure and tooling, and how Safe branched out to help secure >$100Bn worth of assets.

Saga: ‘Ethereum and Solana CAN NOT Scale. Our Chainlets Fix This!’ — Rebecca Liao: The hosts are joined by Rebecca Liao, co-founder & CEO of Saga, to discuss blockchain scalability, its effects on dApp development and how Saga chainlets could provide ‘infinite’ horizontal scaling.
Movement Labs: ‘Facebook’s MOVE Will Bring Billions of Users to Crypto’ — Rushi Manche: The hosts are joined by Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, to discuss the rise of modern VMs and how Move-VM aims to offset Ethereum’s shortcomings through parallelisation.

The Defiant

Aave, Lens, and Avara: Stani Kulechov’s Journey Through DeFi and Web3 Social: Stani Kulechov is the founder of Aave, which has become the largest lending protocol in DeFi. Aave has evolved under a new umbrella called Avara, incorporating additional projects like Lens, a Web3 social media protocol, and a family and Web3 wallet. Stani has previously discussed these developments on our show in 2020 and 2022, and with each appearance, the Avara family has expanded significantly. In this podcast, they start with a refreshener on Stani and his journey, then dive into the specifics of the protocols he has developed.

How Blockchains and Tokens Are Powering the Next Internet Revolution: A special episode from a session moderated at SXSW this year. SXSW is a massive festival annually held in Austin, Texas, that merges music, film, and tech into an exciting blend of creativity and innovation, drawing artists, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts from around the globe. At SXSW, hosts had the opportunity of leading a session with Chris Dixon, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where they focused on his recent publication, “Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet.”
Memecoins, Web3 Social Media, and the Evolution of Token Models with Li Jin: Li Jin is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. She is the co-founder and managing partner at Variant Fund, a venture firm that invests in Web3 and the ownership economy. Before founding Variant, Li Jin worked at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, where she helped to shape the firm’s views on the emerging tech landscape, including the gig and passion economies. In this discussion, she delves into memecoins, Web3 social media, and the evolving landscape of token models, examining how these elements are shaping the future of digital economies and influencing user interaction in decentralized networks.

“Really Crazy Stuff Will Happen With AVSs”, ether.fi Founder Mike Silagadze: In this podcast Mike Silagadze, founder of ether.fi, an Ethereum restaking protocol, and Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder of Aethos, a decentralized policy engine being built on EigenLayer. Liquid restaking has recently emerged as a significant trend in the Ethereum ecosystem. They delve into the use cases that restaking unlocks via Active Validating Services (AVSs) through EigenLayer, shedding light on how this innovation is shaping the ecosystem.

Pendle Finance Deep Dive With Founder TN Lee: TN Lee is the founder of Pendle Finance — a DeFi platform that enables users to tokenize and trade future yield on Ethereum assets. Pendle has shown remarkable expansion since the beginning of the year, elevating its TVL from $250 million to over $3 billion in just a few months. In this podcast, they explore the fundamentals of Pendle Finance, providing a comprehensive understanding of one of DeFi’s most complex and innovative products.

Thinking Crypto Podcast

-Humayun Sheikh Interview — Fetch.ai, Singularitynet and Ocean Protocol Merge to Artificial Superintelligence Alliance: Humayun Sheikh is the CEO & Founder of Fetch AI and the chairman of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance. He discusses:

Fetch AI and its mission
The merging of Fetch AI, Singularitynet & Ocean Protocol to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance
How the new ASI token will work
The combination of AI and Blockchain
AI’s impact on society
Crypto market outlook

-Cody Carbone Interview — New Stablecoin Bill From Senators Gillibrand and Lummis: Cody Carbone is Chief Policy officer at the The Chamber of Digital Commerce

New stablecoin bill from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis
Elizabeth Warren and Treasury crypto FUD
SEC trying to classify Ethereum as a security
When will Gary Gensler appear before Congress next
Patrick McHenry and Crypto bills in house

Bill Hughes Interview — The SEC’s Plan to Classify Ethereum as a Security & Block the ETH Spot ETF: Bill Hughes is the Senior Counsel & Director of Global Regulatory Matters at Consensys. He discusses:

– Consensys letter to the SEC regarding the Ethereum Spot ETF
– Reports of the SEC investigating the Ethereum Foundation
– Is the SEC trying to block the Ethereum ETF by classifying ETH as a security?
– Impact of SEC Ripple XRP case ruling
– BlackRock Tokenizing on Ethereum
– Stablecoin and Crypto Regulations

-Miles Fuller Interview — IRS Crypto Tax Secrets Revealed: Miles Fuller is the Director of Government Solutions at TaxBit. He discusses:

Miles 15 years at the IRS
TaxBit’s crypto tax solutions
How the IRS views crypto airdrops
Converting crypto profits to stablecoins
Crypto tax reporting requirements, proposed by Treasury
Bitcoin Spot ETF
Digital Identify, CBDCs, and Tax Reporting
Will IRS use AI and Blockchain?

-Dan Tapiero Interview — The Next Steps for Bitcoin & Crypto Revealed: Memecoins Culture on the Blockchain: Dan Tapiero is the Founder & CEO 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable. He discusses:

Bitcoin ETFs and price prediction
Memecoins and culture on the blockchain
Will we see an Ethereum ETF?
SEC and Crypto Regulations
Could crypto fix the growing debt problem?
His $1.2 Billion AUM crypto funds

-J.W. Verret Interview — The SEC’s Attack on Crypto & Losses in Court & Who Will be the Next SEC Chair?

SEC’s attack on Crypto and losses in court
Will Brian Brooks be the next SEC Chair?
Crypto’s impact on Politics
SEC vs Coinbase & Kraken
SEC’s loss of credibility due to unlawful activities
SEC looks to classify Ethereum as a security
Fed vs Custodia Bank
Bitcoin ETF performance

-David Schwed Interview — Exposing Security Issues With Cryptocurrencies: David Schwed is the COO at Halborn, a blockchain security solutions firm.

Halborn Security Services and $90 Million Series A Funding
Discovering vulnerabilities in Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Zcash
DeFi exploits and the future of DeFi
What investors should look for when investing in crypto
Bitcoin ETFs and will an Ethereum ETF be approved?
NFTs
CBDCs

MISC

How ResearchHub Makes Open Science Rewarding by Reinventing Academic Incentives: The DeSci Podcast hosts were joined by Jeffrey Koury, Director & Business Development Lead at ResearchHub, and Jonathan Heppner, Marketing & Social Media Lead. ResearchHub is a platform designed to accelerate the pace of scientific research by providing a modern mobile and web application where people can collaborate on scientific research more efficiently. It aims to make scientific research accessible, collaborative, and prioritized for everyone. In this episode, we delved into the shortcomings of the current scientific research model and the need to make science open to everyone. The dialogue centered on advocating for a shift from the traditional model towards a more inclusive and transparent system. Central to this shift is the necessity of building better incentive structures, which would drive collaboration among scientists and facilitate accelerated progress in scientific research.