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The Delphi Podcast

The Delphi Podcasttwitter.com
Conversations with Crypto Gigabrains. Hosted by Tommy, Co-Founder and Founding Partner at Delphi Ventures
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Episodes

David Johnston: Morpheus's Fair Launch Attracts $400M in stETH to Build Network of AI Agents

David Johnston discusses the Morpheus project, which aims to build a free future by providing individuals with their own personal AI. The project attracted significant interest and support through a fair launch, where users could stake their ETH and contribute to the project in exchange for tokens. The Morpheus network acts as a coordination platform between personalized AIs and a global network of services. The network uses a smart agent rank algorithm to recommend the best smart agents for spe...

May 02, 202451 min

Michael, Ming and Jason of 0G Labs: Building A Modular Chain Specifically for AI

0G Labs is building the world's first modular AI chain that enables on-chain storage of training data, models, and the entire stack for crypto AI. Their DA layer provides high throughput and scalability, with a performance difference of 50,000 times better and 100 times cheaper than existing solutions. They aim to achieve Web2 parity on-chain for AI and promote transparency, traceability, and democratization of AI. 0G Labs is focused on making AI a public good and ensuring verifiability and alig...

Apr 29, 202456 min

Andrej Radonjic: Grass's Two Million Data Scraping Users Enabling Crypto x AI on Solana

GRASS (GetGrass.io) is a viral crypto AI project built on Solana that aims to scrape and validate internet data for AI training. The name 'GRASS' was chosen for its memeability and metaphors. The project addresses the scarcity of quality data and the control of web data by a few companies. It also tackles the unfairness of companies scraping data from residential networks without compensating users. GRASS is a network of 2 million devices that scrape and clean web data in real-time. The data col...

Apr 22, 202457 min

Decentralization Unleashed: The Astria Approach to Rollup Sequencing

Josh, the co-founder of Astria, discusses the journey from data availability layers to building a shared sequencer network. He explains the concept of shared sequencing and its advantages, such as amortizing the cost of engineering and providing a competitive experience for rollup developers. He also addresses the trade-offs and constraints of using a shared sequencer, including the block time and potential lock-in. Josh highlights the target market for shared sequencers and the potential value ...

Apr 18, 202457 min

Gui Laliberte and Avichal Garg: Integral's Accounting Suite Driving Backoffice to Zero

Integral is a financial operations and accounting platform for companies with Web3 assets. It simplifies financial workflows and provides real-time access to financial information. The platform saves businesses time and frustration by automating tasks such as bookkeeping, payroll, and payments. Integral enables companies to manage their crypto assets, track transactions, and generate financial statements easily. It also facilitates global operations, complex money flows, and multiple asset class...

Apr 16, 20241 hr 5 min

Tory Green: io.net’s 500,000 GPUs Powering Crypto x AI on Solana

io.net is a distributed training and inference project built on Solana. They aim to solve the problem of the GPU shortage in the AI industry by building a decentralized network that connects underutilized GPUs from multiple sources. Ionet uses clustering technology to combine GPUs from different geographic locations, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective AI compute. They are attracting both web2 and web3 customers, with a focus on inferencing, which makes up the majority of the market. ...

Apr 08, 202457 min

Degen Chain and L3s: What's Next

The conversation explores the concept of Layer 3 (L3) blockchains and their potential impact on the crypto industry. L3s offer unlimited customizations with near-zero gas fees, allowing for limitless creativity and experimentation. The discussion focuses on Degen, a community built on the L3 chain, and its journey from a tipping functionality on Forecaster to launching its own L3. The founders of Syndicate, the team behind Degen's L3, explain the need for L3s and the benefits they provide to dif...

Apr 03, 202459 min

Nous Research: Crypto x AI Masterclass, 30 Million Model Downloads, Bittensor Subnets and Launching a Matrix Style World Simulator

In this conversation, Jeff from Nous Research discusses their work on open source models and the BitTensor subnet. They address the challenges of ranking models on platforms like Hugging Face and the need for a more reliable and commercially viable model ranking system. Nous Research has developed Nous Hermes, an open source model that can be fine-tuned to follow specific instructions. They also created the BitTensor subnet, which allows developers to submit their models and rank them against sy...

Mar 30, 20241 hr 16 min

ETH Denver Crypto x AI Panel: Casey Caruso, Colin Gagich and Vassilis Tziokas

Recorded Live at ETH Denver 2024, this conversation explores the intersection of crypto and AI, discussing the need for decentralized AI models and the challenges of achieving this. The participants highlight the importance of keeping AI open and driven by people, rather than organizations. They discuss the potential of blockchain and Web3 technology to enable new business models and address the limitations of centralized AI companies. The conversation also touches on the role of incentives and ...

Mar 13, 202446 min

Ethan Sun and Santiago Santos: Bringing Crypto x AI Experiences to Millions with MyShell.AI

In this episode, Tommy and Santiago interview Ethan Sun, the co-founder of MyShell, a decentralized platform for creating and staking AI native applications. They discuss the evolution of AI over the past decade, the importance of consumer-facing applications, and the potential for AI to enhance daily life. Ethan explains how MyShell empowers creators to easily build AI experiences and the role of incentives in the platform's ecosystem. They also explore the future of MyShell, its competition, a...

Mar 08, 20241 hr 14 min

Orkun Kilic: Technical Dive Into Citrea, Bitcoin's First Zk-Rollup

In this podcast, we dive deep into the world of Bitcoin scalability solutions with Orkun Kilic, the co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, the company behind Citrea - Bitcoin's first zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup. Orkun provides a detailed background on the journey that led to the creation of Citrea, explaining how recent upgrades to Bitcoin's protocol like SegWit, Taproot, and the Ordinals protocol paved the way for new possibilities by enabling arbitrary data storage on the blockchain. This opened ...

Mar 01, 202441 min

Keith Singery: A Conversation with an Extremely Knowledgeable Bittensor Validator

In this episode, Keith Singery, a prominent validator and thought leader in the Bittensor ecosystem sits down with Tommy and Michael to share his unique perspective on the project's mission to democratize AI and create a decentralized alternative to the centralized models dominating the field. They delve into the intricate dynamics of Bittensor, including the incentive mechanisms that fuel the network's miners and validators, the potential for a "Cambrian explosion" of specialized AI models, and...

Feb 20, 20241 hr 22 min

Keone Hon of Monad: 10,000 TPS & Full EVM Equivalence - A New Era for Ethereum Apps

In this episode, Keone Hon dives deep on Monad, a high-performance Ethereum-compatible layer 1 blockchain focused on delivering high performance and drastically lower transaction costs. We discuss Monad's key technical innovations like MonadBFT consensus, parallel execution, and a custom database enabling 10,000+ TPS. Keone explains how these breakthroughs allow complex 100K gas transactions costing just a fraction of a cent, 100x cheaper than even leading Layer 2s. We also explore how Monad ach...

Feb 13, 202454 min

Simon Harman: Chainflip's Cross-Chain Swaps Enable Crypto's On-Chain Future

Simon Harman, founder of decentralized cross-chain swap protocol Chainflip, joins us for an in-depth discussion on the future of trading in crypto. We cover the motivation behind building a decentralized exchange focused on major layer 1 assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the technical challenges with supporting Bitcoin, and how ChainFlip achieves fast, no-slippage swaps. Simon explains ChainFlip's advanced liquidity architecture including the JIT AMM, which allows liquidity providers to bid on t...

Feb 02, 20241 hr 19 min

Logan Jastremski: Solana vs Celestia's Endgame and The High Throughput Blockchain Thesis (In Person Episode)

Logan Jastremski, Co-founder of Frictionless Capital, sits down for an in-person podcast with Tommy to discuss scaling solutions for high throughput blockchains. They dive into integrated chains like Solana versus modular approaches like Celestia, balancing decentralization and performance, Layer 2 rollups, the differences between downtime and reorgs, and more. Logan breaks down his views from a first principles perspective and where he thinks the infrastructure is heading long-term. Join them a...

Jan 23, 20241 hr 45 min

Ethena Labs: Fully Collateralized Stable Coin That Can Deliver Double Digit Organic Crypto Native Yield

Guy Young joins Delphi Ventures' Yan Liberman to discuss Ethena’s novel approach to creating a stablecoin that is censorship-resistant, scalable, and yield-generating. We explore how Ethena achieves these goals through a crypto-native stablecoin called USDE that generates yield by collateralizing staked ETH and shorting ETH futures. The conversation provides unique insight into the mechanics and incentives underlying USDE's design. We also discuss second-order implications of the product capturi...

Jan 18, 202443 min

Nick Emmons: Crypto x AI Will Change The Fabric of Society and DeFi Powered AI Is the First Step

AI innovation is accelerating rapidly, but centralized control threatens equitable access and distribution. Can decentralized coordination unlock AI's full potential? We explore this question with Upshot CEO Nick Emmons on his mission to decentralize AI models and architect mechanisms for specialized models to work together. We dive into Upshot's network architecture, machine learning pricing models for NFT valuations and DeFi, reimagining incentives and IP protections, challenges facing decentr...

Jan 15, 202453 min

Ala Shaabana: Beyond the OpenAI Silicon Valley Echo Chamber: Decentralizing AI with Bittensor

Ala Shaabana joins us to discuss the compelling vision behind Bittensor - a decentralized network aiming to democratize access to AI models and development. He provides an inside look at the technical architecture and incentives powering this novel system. We delve into recent events highlighting flaws in centralized AI governance, using OpenAI's board drama as a case study. Ala contrasts this with Bittensor's community-driven approach to align AI progress with shared human values. Beyond techni...

Nov 21, 20231 hr 3 min

Robert Leshner: Superstate's Strategy of Integrating Trillions in Real-World Assets into DeFi

Robert Leshner has been at the forefront of DeFi since founding Compound in 2017. Now he's on a mission to bridge traditional finance and crypto with his new venture, SuperState. In this episode, Robert provides an inside look at SuperState's plans to tokenize real-world assets like US Treasuries, allowing crypto protocols to access their yields. He explains why asset tokenization has been slower than expected, citing lack of demand for esoteric assets targeted in early experiments. They discuss...

Nov 13, 202352 min

Chris Burniske: The Solana Thesis, Wisdom From Building Placeholder and The Psychology of Investing

How do experienced crypto investors analyze and adapt their strategies over time? Get insights from Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder VC, on the firm's journey investing in crypto networks. From Bitcoin's early days to Ethereum's rise and now Solana, Chris explains their evolving philosophy. He shares thoughtful perspectives on building founder relationships, managing liquidity, evaluating growth vs. value, and more. For investors interested in understanding crypto networks, this episode pr...

Nov 06, 20231 hr 15 min

Steven Goldfeder & Ed Felten: A 2014 Classroom Idea to The $10B Scaling Technology Arbitrum, ZK Technology Flaws and Interactive Fraud Proofs

Co-founders of Offchain Labs, Ed Felten and Steven Goldfeder take us back to 2014, when a classroom idea sparked their vision for scaling before Ethereum even launched. Learn why they believe interactive fraud proofs provide unparalleled security guarantees compared to ZK-rollups, and dive into how these fraud proofs technically work. Gain valuable perspective from Felten and Goldfeder on the flaws plaguing zero knowledge proofs and the overly optimistic claims made about their capabilities. Whe...

Oct 31, 20231 hr 13 min

Eli Ben-Sasson: Starkware as End-Game ZK Technology, The Pros and Cons of Launching ZK on Ethereum and Optimistic Rollup Concerns

Eli Ben-Sasson, Co-founder and President of StarkWare, joins this podcast episode to discuss scaling blockchains like Ethereum with ZK proofs and validity rollups. He provides an in-depth look at how StarkWare is using its Cairo language and ZK-VM to enable scalability, privacy, and computational integrity on Ethereum. Topics covered include: The role of Ethereum and validity rollups in the future ZK landscape Surprises and innovations in ZK proof research Pros and cons of ZK-EVMs vs ZK-VMs for ...

Sep 28, 202359 min

dYdX's Antonio Juliano: The Largest Perpetuals Exchange with $1 Trillion In Cumulative Volume Transitions To A Cosmos Appchain

On this episode of the Delphi Podcast, Tommy and Jose spoke with Antonio Juliano, founder of dYdX, about their goal to build the largest crypto exchange through a focus on decentralization and derivatives trading. They discussed dYdX's ambitious vision and the risks they are taking to achieve it, including building their own Cosmos-based blockchain called dYdX Chain. Antonio explained how this custom blockchain will allow them to optimize performance and features specifically for trading perpetu...

Sep 25, 20231 hr 14 min

Anoma's Christopher Goes: Intents Are Real

Christopher Goes, co-founder of Anoma and Nomad, joins Tommy and Can to discuss how he envisions intents becoming the primary interface for blockchain applications. They explore how Anoma is building an architecture focused on user intents, rather than transactions, and how this enables greater composability, privacy, and flexibility. Chris provides his unique insight on the evolution of privacy, comparing privacy as an asset, service, and eventually default. They also discuss mechanics of inten...

Sep 18, 20231 hr 4 min

Travis Kling: Binance Deep Dive From FTX Survivor

In this episode Tommy is joined by Travis Kling, founder of Ikigai Asset Management, he discusses his investigation into Binance. Travis breaks down the timeline of events at Binance over the past year, including large BTC transfers, executives leaving, and getting banned in multiple countries. He also explains why he believes there could be a liability mismatch and "hole" in Binance's balance sheet, similar to what happened with FTX, and how this could impact the chances of a Bitcoin spot ETF a...

Sep 07, 202358 min

Friend(.tech) or Foe: Coinbase's Base Chain's Uptake, EVM's market share and Catalysts for the Market

Jose, Yan, Duncan and Ceteris discuss the craze of friend.tech, what it is, how it works and what it might bring to the table, as well as talk about Coinbase's new L2 and their views on ETFs, liquidity and the markets. Subscribe to the Hivemind podcast here Disclosures: Nothing said on The Hivemind is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. The podcast is strictly for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial a...

Sep 04, 20231 hr 15 min

Kyle Samani and Nick White: Are Modular or Monolithic Blockchains The End Game Design?

In this spirited debate podcast episode, Tommy is joined by Kyle Samani, Co-Founder of Multicoin Capital, and Nick White, COO of Celestia Labs, to discuss the future of blockchain infrastructure. Kyle lays out the case for integrated blockchain platforms like Solana and Aptos that optimize for scalability, while Nick argues for the flexibility of modular networks like Celestia. They dive deep into the core philosophies underpinning modular versus monolithic designs when it comes to topics like s...

Sep 01, 20231 hr 26 min

James Seyffart, Scott Johnson and Hal Press: Are Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs are Inevitable?

In this episode, Tommy speaks with James Seyffart , Scott Johnsson , and Hal Press about the latest developments in the long-running saga to get Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved by the SEC. They discuss the current filings from major players like Grayscale, BlackRock, and ARK Invest, provide analysis on Grayscale's lawsuit against the SEC, and debate the timeline and likelihood of approval. The experts also examine the potential market impact and discuss how an ETH futu...

Aug 23, 20231 hr 22 min

Andrew Kilbride and Matthew Lewis: TestMachine's AI Is Attacking Crypto Code To Surface and Fix Vulnerabilities

In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of blockchain security and the intersection of artificial intelligence with the crypto space. Join us for an insightful conversation with the co-founders of Test Machine, a company dedicated to making smart contracts safer by utilizing advanced AI technology for vulnerability detection. Matt and Andrew share their experiences, insights, and expertise in the realm of smart contract security. They discuss the challenges of identifying vulnerabil...

Aug 10, 202355 min

Stephen Wolfram: Unraveling the Mysteries of Large Language Models, Intelligence and Autonomous Crypto Agents

In this thought-provoking podcast episode, we discuss the mysteries surrounding Large Language Models (LLMs) and their implications for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) with Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, Wolfram | Alpha & Wolfram Language. We dive into the fascinating world of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their surprising capabilities. He also discusses the underlying scientific principles behind LLMs, including the concept of computational irreducibility, and how th...

Jul 27, 20231 hr 27 min
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