The Crypto Conversation

Vasja Veber is the co-founder of music tech company Viberate. Vibrate has been building blockchain solutions for the music industry since 2017 and are positioning as market leaders in the music data sector. They have just entered the NFT space. Techno DJ UMEK is also a co-founder and is about to execute a live event NFT. Guest: Vasja Veber Why you should listen: On April 29 Viberate co-founder and Techno producer UMEK will mint the first-ever live performance and live stream NFT. If the release is successful, Viberate plans to enable their half a million verified artists database to mint gig NFTs, secure future bookings, and create a new revenue stream. Key takeaway: With this drop, UMEK aims to disrupt the live event industry, minting the first-ever live gig NFT and the first-ever livestream NFT, as well as minting three unique remixes of his track Lanicor. During the pandemic, UMEK, like all touring artists, has resorted to live streams and online fan interaction. Still searching for new ways of expression and exploring the digital space, he wants to push the boundaries of NFTs and create something unique. With the live gig NFT, he aims to disrupt the booking industry and offer promoters and artists a safety net until events are up and running again. Live streams have proven they're here to stay. NFTs have the power to create a brand new market for them, offering musicians a new revenue stream and enabling fans to support and book their favorites. Supporting links: Vibrate UMEK NFT Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Robbie Ferguson is the co-founder of Immutable, best known for launching the Gods Unchained blockchain game, one of the most successful blockchain games in the wild. Robbie is now focused on Immutable X, a decentralized gas-free layer-2 protocol for Ethereum NFTs. Guest: Robbie Ferguson Why you should listen: Immutable X is the first Layer 2 scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. It seeks to solve the key challenges facing the Ethereum NFT ecosystem such as scaling, UX, fees, and environmental impact. Immutable X has instant trade confirmation, massive scalability (9,000 TPS+), and zero gas fees - without compromising user custody. The largest NFT marketplace OpenSea is one of many NFT projects working with or supporting Immutable X including: SuperfarmDAO (defi NFT farm), Epics.GG (collectibles), Illuvium (auto battler RPG), Lucid Sight (MLB Champions Baseball, Crypto Space Commander), War Riders (post-apocalyptic MMO), Gods Unchained (TCG), Guild of Guardians (mobile RPG), and Mintable (NFT marketplace). Key takeaway: Robbie is a passionate supporter of the Ethereum community. He says it best represents the philosophy of trustless, decentralized asset ownership. It has prioritized decentralization and network health over short-term scalability upgrades. Immutable X lets projects stay on Ethereum while massively boosting their scalability and liquidity. Supporting links: Immutable The Three-Body Problem The Culture Series Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Chainlink has released a new whitepaper called Chainlink 2.0: Next Steps in the Evolution of Decentralized Oracle Networks. The new whitepaper outlines an ambitious vision for the future of smart contracts. We talk with Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov who explains the implications for the next generation of blockchain ecosystems. Guest: Sergey Nazarov Why you should listen: Chainlink's new whitepaper outlines a long-term, multi-year vision for the future of oracle-enabled smart contracts. The paper states that "Decentralized Oracle Networks will create a decentralized meta-layer that enhances smart contracts with highly scalable, confidential, and secure forms of off-chain computation, in addition to the external data feeds that Chainlink powers today." Key takeaway: The Chainlink 2.0 Whitepaper is over 100 pages long and represents a year of work by the Chainlink team. It was written by a team of academic researchers from computer science fields such as security, cryptography, distributed systems, game theory, and mathematics. The paper outlines a new architecture for building hybrid smart contracts where Decentralized Oracle Networks offer all of the capabilities that blockchains cannot, serving as an off-chain computation layer that is anchored to blockchains for security while operating with the feature-richness and scalability of off-chain systems. The new layer enables a product suite of Chainlink Decentralized Services that power a variety of secure, smart contract applications capable of supporting a wider set of use cases than is currently available today. Supporting links: Chainlink Chainlink 2.0 whitepaper Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Jaime Rogozinski was the original founder of the r/wallstreetbets subreddit. WSB is notorious for its community of young traders who executed risky trading strategies. WSB played a key role in the GameStop short squeeze that caused losses on short positions in U.S. firms topping US$70 billion in early 2021. VIX is the CEO of the new WSB Dapp, a decentralized Dapp that is launching a token. Token funds will be used by a WSB DAO to buy token portfolios (ETPs) voted on by the community. Guest: Jaime Rogozinski and VIXX Why you should listen: The Wall Street Bets subreddit is described as "Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal." Known for its aggressive trading strategies, members are generally young retail traders prepared to take on high amounts of risk. The community is fond of meme stocks that capture the zeitgeist. The subreddit is also known for its memes, with traders self-identifying as degenerate apes who trade stonks for tendies (profits). Key takeaway: The WSB movement for financial democracy began on Reddit and has become a global phenomenon. The WSB Dapp was created to give this decentralized community a tool to voice their opinions as retail investors so that anyone, anywhere can YOLO together as one. The WSB Dapp allows for index-fund type instruments to exist on the blockchain. $WSB governance token holders vote to decide on the rebalancing and exposure of each community-controlled instrument. The ETPs are wholly collateralized, instantly redeemable, and self-custodial. Supporting links: WSB Dapp Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Michael Anderson is a co-founder and partner at Framework Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on building the value of blockchain networks through strategic investment and infrastructural support. Before founding Framework, Michael built and sold Hashletes the first and only NFLPA-licensed digital collectibles, with co-founder Vance Spencer. Michael's prior experience bridges investment banking and consumer tech, with experience from Snap, Inc., Dropbox, and Barclays Capital. Guest: Michael Anderson Why you should listen: Framework Ventures is a team of technologists, researchers, and investors who participate in open crypto networks to build open-source finance. Framework is a technology company, building products and services to support the open blockchain networks that they invest in. The firm has backed many key companies in the decentralized finance space, including Synthetix, Chainlink, Aave, and The Graph. Key takeaway: Framework Ventures believes a new age of venture capital is here. They call this thesis Network Capital. Rather than just hold onto an asset, this type of investing aims to be more hands-on. In the new era of open-source decentralized finance, the best investing requires a new hybrid model where stakeholders are investing, market-making, staking, validating, and participating across all aspects of the ecosystem. Supporting links: Framework Ventures Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Jonathan is the lead developer and ceo of Aleph - Aleph is a cloud computing platform that makes it easy for DeFi and Web3 dapps to securely access trusted off-chain data or computation. One of their current projects is working to solve the problem of NFT security standards and ownership. Guest: Jonathan Why you should listen: Many NFTs point to a URL on the internet or an IPFS hash. In many circumstances, this references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from. the URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file. The problem with that is that if the marketplace goes bust… so does your NFT. Key takeaway: Aleph has a solution - just like an Internet wayback machine backs up website versions over time, Aleph creates snapshots of NFTs at a certain point in time. Using decentralized storage capacities, the Aleph NFT Backup dApp allows any holder to save their NFT content on the Aleph network that is secured currently by nodes which all are incentivized to store the data and pin it on IPFS. The Interplanetary File System, or IPFS, is used by most NFT minting platforms to store their NFTs. Supporting links: Aleph The problem with NFTs Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Li Jun is the founder of Ontology, a decentralized system that protects data integrity and security. After launching its mainnet in June 2018, Ontology has continued to press forward, building a key partnership with Daimler. Guest: Li Jun Why you should listen: Ever since the early days of the internet, questions have swirled about the nature of our online selves. We all have large digital footprints that represent your digital identity, fragmented, unrecognizable, and trackable. We have provided social networks and service providers with our most valuable asset — our information — and we've done so free of charge. Ontology wants to change this. Blockchain's ability to store information on either a public or private network enables key parties to access critical information, and then only what the individual allows. This way, the power is placed back into the hands of the individual, where they can choose who they share their data with, and to what extent. Key takeaway: The solution is a concept called Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), which places control of personal information with the user, enabling them to log in to all of their online services using just one ID. No more forgotten passwords or having to hand over all your personal information; this is a concept that could dramatically change how we use the internet. Supporting links: Ontology Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Tim Frost is the CEO of YIELD App. The YIELD mission is to provide anyone with access to the best investment opportunities, regardless of their financial or technical knowledge. The YIELD platform is a bridge between FinTech and DeFi. Guest: Tim Frost Why you should listen: YIELD is a FinTech company that enables anyone to invest in decentralized finance with the touch of a button. This allows users around the world to earn returns from DeFi products without having to go through a complex learning process. Key takeaway: App users can deposit and withdraw stablecoins USDT and USDC, as well as the native YLD token. The team is now working on YIELD 2.0 which will bring new improvements and updates. Supporting links: YIELD Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

The Binance Smart Chain is a fork of Ethereum. However, BSC transactions are much faster and cheaper than Ethereum. As a result, it is onboarding millions of users at an eye-watering pace. Brave New Coin's Aditya Das joins Andy to answer the question - Is Binance Smart Chain an Ethereum killer? Why you should listen: The Binance Smart Chain is cheaper and faster than Ethereum by an order of magnitude. However, this speed comes at the cost of decentralization. Binance CEO CZ calls this 'CeDeFi' or Centralized DeFi, DeFi with training wheels. Key takeaway: As the Binance Smart Chain is a fork of Ethereum, it uses popular tools like MetaMask that any user who has experimented with Ethereum is likely to be familiar with. In addition, the BEP20 smart contract standard for issuing new tokens on BSC is similar to the ERC20 smart contract standard that was originally developed for Ethereum. As a fork of Ethereum, the BSC can also run the same smart contracts that Ethereum can. This has helped the network bootstrap quickly by forking popular existing Ethereum DeFi protocols. For example, Uniswap becomes PancakeSwap, Compound becomes Venus and Zapper becomes Yield Watch. Supporting links: Is BSC the Ethereum Killer? Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Marouane Hajji is the protocol lead at Unslashed Finance, a decentralized insurance protocol built on Ethereum. Insurance is a part of the decentralized finance stack that has received less attention. However, crypto is no different from any other industry - there are many risks. Smart contract hacks, exploits, oracle manipulation, data breaches, theft, and so on. Creating an insurance protocol requires both technical skills and a deep understanding of risk modeling. Why you should listen: Unslashed clients include decentralized exchange aggregator ParaSwap, infrastructure provider Lido Finance, decentralized on-chain asset management platform Enzyme, and several crypto hedge funds such as Techemy Capital who leverage insurance to hedge a certain number of risks. Individual traders can also use Unslashed to hedge their risk profiles. Key takeaway: Unslashed uses a quantitative approach to model the risks and build out a decentralized insurance protocol that enables almost instant liquidity to insurance buyers and risk underwriters, ensures constant collateralization, and guarantees transparency. In the Crypto Conversation hot take round Marouane reveals that he is a mega-fan of Battlestar Galactica. Supporting links: Unslashed Finance Unslashed on Medium Leverj Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.