In today's interview Sam and Brick are joined by Vance, Mark, and Hasu. Together they dive into MakerDAO's endgame. They discuss the current state of MakerDAO, including the DAI stablecoin and RWA adoption. The conversation then shifts to the bull case for Maker, with a focus on the new subDAO structure and how it aims to drive demand for the Maker token through a flywheel effect involving token farming incentives. The guests also debate the challenges MakerDAO faces in igniting organic demand f...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In this week's roundup the Bell Curve crew is joined by Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, joins us to discuss the evolution of Chainlink from a focus on price feeds to a platform for data, compute, and cross-chain services. Sergey explains how Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) enables the secure transfer of both data and value across chains, with built-in risk management and programmable token transfers. He describes his vision for an Internet of Contracts that seamlessly conne...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Season 7 | Episode 5 In today's episode Mike and Hart are joined by Uma Roy to dive deep into the world of zero-knowledge proofs and their transformative potential for blockchain interoperability. The conversation explores the fundamentals of ZKPs, the current ZKP landscape, and the economics of generating and verifying proofs. Uma shares insights on how ZKPs can enhance capital efficiency, security, and scalability across various blockchain architectures, including rollups and crosschain commun...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 19 min
In this week's round up the Mike and Michael kick things off with their takes on ETHDenver and the excitement around restaking and AI applications in crypto. Shifting gears they analyze the recent crypto market performance and debate whether crypto's regulatory outlook is positive in an election year. Regarding institutional interest, Vance describes skepticism at a pension fund conference while Michael predicts FOMO from investors who missed previous crypto funds. Thanks for tuning in! - - Worm...
Mar 01, 2024•51 min
Season 7 | Episode 4 In today's episode Mike and Hart are joined by Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder of LayerZero, to debate the the end state of the multi-chain future. They debate technical specifics like message passing protocols, bridging frameworks, censorship resistance, and security tradeoffs, as well as philosophies around infrastructure layers versus service providers, decentralization compromises, and application interoperability needs. The conversation explores modular versus monolithic a...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 35 min
In this week's round up the crew kicks things off with discussing recent commentary and analysis around Bitcoin ETF dynamics and the case for a potential Ethereum ETF approval. A debate then ensues on conceptual frameworks for valuating crypto tokens using market capitalization versus fully diluted valuation metrics and draw interesting parrelels of start-up equity vs token distributions. To close out they dig into Dencun, a controversial proposal to cap max percentage of ETH staked, and Gauntle...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr 11 min
In this week's interview Sam and Ren from 0xResearch are joined by Brendan Farmer, the Co-Founder of Polygon. Brendan unpacks why no single blockchain can scale like the internet due to heterogeneous requirements across chains. He then introduces Polygon's solution - an Aggregation Layer that enables low-latency, trustless interoperability between ZK rollups to scale access to shared liquidity and state. They dig into interoperability and liveness, updates on ZK proof innovation, how the Polygon...
Feb 20, 2024•53 min
In this week's roundup the team checks in on booming Bitcoin ETF inflows versus declining gold ETF interest. Debating the likelihood and demand dynamics of an Ethereum spot ETF launch, they analyze whether restaking poses leverage risks and how to value Eigenlayer's opportunity. They then shift gears and discuss Starkware’s critiqued token distribution. Stick around for all of this and much more! - - Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability platform powering multi-chain applications and brid...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Season 7 | Episode 3 In today's episode Mike and Hart are joined by Sam Hart of Skip Protocol and Illia Polosukhin to dive into the world of chain abstraction. They discuss the consensus around the need for intent-based interoperability solutions, the incentives (or lack thereof) for ecosystems to be interoperable, and predictions around rollup consolidation and abstraction. Other topics covered include how user funds could be escrowed and verified in cross-chain architectures, the role of zero-...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 54 min
In this episode of Bell Curve, Robbie Ferguson of Immutable joins to discuss the state of blockchain gaming. They cover the core thesis behind web3 games - giving gamers real ownership of in-game assets to capture the $150B yearly market. Robbie explains Immutable's focus on providing the best platform for developers through solutions like ZK rollups, aggregated liquidity via the Global Order Book, frictionless wallets, and more. The group discusses strategies to create sustainable game economie...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Season 7 | Episode 2 In today's episode Mike and Hart are joined by Christopher Goes, Founder of Anoma. Chris unpacks flawed assumptions baked into current blockchain design and explains his vision for an intent-centric topology. Chris critiques the limitations of existing virtual machines modeled on outdated centralized mainframes, arguing they cannot keep pace with user needs. The discussion then explores the two key phases of intents - counterparty discovery and settlement. Chris then elabora...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 47 min
Today's episode explores the intersection of liquid staking and the modular money ecosystem. Mike is joined by Stride Labs co-founder Aiden Salzman and John Charbonneau general partner of DBA. The trio dives deep into the architecture of the Stride protocol, including stTIA and the liquid staking module (LSM). The discussion touches on incentive alignment between protocols, demand drivers for liquid staking adoption, using liquid staking tokens as modular money across rollups, managing validator...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 58 min
In this week's roundup Mike and Vance dive into the latest developments across crypto including the state of Bitcoin ETFs, return of ETH as money, and the growth of prediction markets. They discuss the recent impressive growth of Polymarket, a prediction betting platform now generating substantial interest and volume without any incentive programs. Shifting gears, they cover the launches of liquid staking tokens enabling easy yield capture for holders and the emergence of "modular money" concept...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 17 min
In today's Season 7 premiere Mike is joined by our season co-host Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA Protocol. Join them as they explore the emerging multichain endgame. First, they discuss different models for interoperability between chains and how protocols may connect in the future. This ties into the rise of an intent-centric blockchain paradigm, rethinking how users specify outcomes. Next the touch on modularity as blockchain components become unbundled from entire protocol...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 41 min
In this week's roundup Mike and Myles dive deep into the dichotomy emerging between Ethereum the protocol and Ethereum the Asset. As Ethereum pushes activity to rollups and prioritizes exporting ETH's value, tough questions arise around stake rates, liquid staking derivatives, and monetary policy. Should Ethereum target a lower stake rate to favor liquid ETH? What are the risks of validator centralization? How should app tokens accrue value in a multi-chain future? Hear all of this and much more...
Jan 26, 2024•1 hr 7 min
In today's episode of Bell Curve we are joined by both the UMA and Flashbots to dive into their latest collaboration, Oval. Oval unlocks a new MEV capture mechanism for protocols to monetize the value that they create. We unpack Oracle Extractable Value (OEV), a type of MEV that has historically been uncaptured by protocols. Stay tuned for all this and much more! - - Follow Hart: https://twitter.com/hal2001 Follow Quintus: https://twitter.com/0xquintus Follow Tarun: https://twitter.com/tarunchit...
Jan 23, 2024•55 min
In this week's roundup Mike is joined by Michael and Vance of Framework Ventures. The trio kick things off by discussing macro sentiment and if a "soft landing" is truly on the horizon. The conversation then explores signs of excess in private market deals. The team also analyze the BTC ETF flows data so far, evaluating the implications of over $11 billion in trading volume. They then shift onto how overturning the Chevron doctrine could reshape the SEC's interpretation powers and authority. The...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Eugene Chen joins us to discuss why Solana's local fee markets aren't real. Well, they are real, but they don't yet work as advertised. Eugene is the co-founder of Ellipses Labs, Phoenix Protocol, and Umbra Research and he is one of the sharpest builders in Solana! In this episode, we discuss how Solana transactions work, how to improve Solana's fee markets, MEV on Solana, how apps can accrue their own MEV, Solana's DeFi risk, Phoenix's limit order book and more! - - Timestamps 00:00 Introductio...
Jan 16, 2024•1 hr 6 min
In this week's roundup Mike is joined by Blockworks Research Analysts Westie and Brick to dive into Maker Protocol's evolution into a cash flow machine. They analyze Maker's financials, revenue streams, and balance sheet metrics to showcase its impressive fundamentals. The discuss Maker's ambitious decentralized governance plans, including the introduction of subDAOs and a token redenomination. They also discuss Maker's moves into real-world assets, associated risks and revenue opportunities. Th...
Jan 12, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Today Michael and Myles are joined by Zaki of Sommelier Finance and Sreeram of Eigenlayer for a deep discussion on the converging visions of Ethereum and Cosmos. They analyze how restaking could serve as a bridge between the two ecosystems, providing security to Cosmos chains while opening up new services for Ethereum. Zaki explains how the evolutionary "marketplaces of ideas" tend to succeed over centralized visions, while Eigenlayer offers flexible shared security and permissionless innovation...
Jan 09, 2024•1 hr 13 min
In this week's roundup Mike and Myles dive deep into Ethereum, analyzing its roadmap, monetary qualities, demand drivers, and commodity-like attributes. They review Vitalik's updated roadmap, discussing rollups, scalability, centralization concerns, and criticism around complexity. The conversation explores whether Ethereum can be "money", comparing it to Bitcoin and analyzing the demand side - from gas fees to rollup settlement to restaking. They also explore rollup sovereignty, the economics o...
Jan 06, 2024•1 hr 15 min
In this week's interview Dan and Sam are joined by Alluvial co-founder and CEO, Mara Schmiedt. They explore Alluvial's role in Liquid Collective's innovative offerings in the staking market. They dive into the trends of staking in crypto markets and the overall growth of liquid staking. Mara provides insights on the introduction of service level agreements (SLAs) in liquid staking, contributing to superior staking performance. We touch upon the and much more in the world of decentralized finance...
Jan 02, 2024•57 min
Today's episode is from our friends over at the Lightspeed team joined by Meow, the co-founder of Jupiter, joins us to discuss how Jupiter is building crypto's leading aggregator. Jupiter is a DEX aggregator on Solana that routes over 80% of all DEX trades! It's an absolute killer app that has served as the entry to Solana's vast ecosystem. In this episode, we discuss how Jupiter found PMF, why Meow chose Solana, how Jupiter will onboard millions of users, Jupiter's airdrop, Solana's massive opp...
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Today's episode of Bell Curve explores the intricacies of blockchain fee markets, from their origins in Bitcoin to modern innovations like Ethereum's EIP-1559 and multidimensional fee markets. Mike is Joined by Pranav and Sam to dive deep into the challenges of balancing spam prevention and positive user experience by analyzing fee structures in major chains like Solana. They unpack the "fee market fallacy," fee burning debates, and using credits to shape desired user behaviors. This episode del...
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 26 min
In today's episode Vance, Michael, and Michael reflect on their 2023 predictions and dive into each major ecosystem's outlook for 2024. They share outlooks on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, gaming, and NFTs. They touch on crypto's evolution, its key players, the reshuffling of top investors, and conclude with each sharing their biggest winners and flops of 2023. Tune in for all of this and much more! - - Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_ Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_ma...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 17 min
In this bittersweet season finale of Bell Curve Mike and Dan recap key themes from this season. They dive into specific topics like the impact of blocktimes on MEV and innovations in fee market structures. They also hit on rethinking simplistic metrics like TVL for assessing capital efficiency, how execution models like frequent batch auctions can optimize swappers’ experience, and the viability of bringing meaningful on-chain price discovery to compete with centralized exchanges. This leads the...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min
In this episode of Bell Curve, the Myles and Mike dive into the Data Availability (DA) wars and explore potential strategies for DA solutions towards the enhancement of Ethereum Roll-ups. They analyze the trade-offs in choosing between different DA solutions and the influence of significant shifts in the blockchain ecosystem. The also touch on Solana fee markets and how successful applications may be economically enticed to eventually launch an app-chain. To close out they touch on the implicati...
Dec 15, 2023•1 hr 6 min
In this episode, the Bell Curve team returns to explore the recent launch of JTO token airdrop and discuss a Bitcoin NFT hot take. They dive into Jito's future, business model, and link to MEV and liquid staking. The conversation then shifts to Bitcoin NFTs and how they are rapidly gaining attention. Finally, they also talk about a wealth transfer effect in the upcoming years, the role of millennials, and how they are looking for more advantageous ways of creating wealth, including crypto. - - F...
Dec 08, 2023•47 min
In this episode of Bell Curve, Mike and Dan dive into the world of decentralized derivatives trading with Antonio Juliano, founder and CEO of dYdX. They explore how dYdX leverages the Cosmos SDK to build an app-specific blockchain that aligns incentives between validators, token holders, and traders. They unpack dYdX's journey from Ethereum to Layer 2 to finally their own custom blockchain, detailing how each transition aims to solve core issues around performance, fees, and decentralization. Th...
Dec 05, 2023•1 hr 26 min
This week's roundup the Michael, Vance, and Michael trio are joined by Sam Hart, the head of product and strategy at Skip Protocol, to cover the biggest news including Binance CEO CZ stepping down, the controversial launch of BLAST L2, and the forking of the Cosmos hub. They also touch on the odds of an institutional rally, Blur market share dominance, and USDT redemptions for fiat, silver, and gold. To close out the team covers the Bitcoin block size wars, Cosmos Prop 848, and Elon Musk's fight...
Dec 01, 2023•1 hr 18 min
