Uncommon Core 2.0

Ethereum’s Staking Endgame Mar 22, 2024

Hasu and Jon bring on Ansgar and Caspar from the Ethereum Foundation to discuss the ETH staking endgame.

Ansgar and Caspar recently published two controversial research posts which included a proposal to change Ethereum’s issuance curve. They are concerned that the current ETH staking economics could lead to nearly 100% of ETH being staked, with much of that in LSTs. They propose reducing issuance and targeting a lower stake rate.

We go deep in this episode on PoS economics, liquid staking, restaking, economic security, centralization concerns, and much more.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:25) Possible Changes to ETH Staking?

(00:49) Overview of Current ETH Staking

(16:32) LSTs & Staking Rate Increasing

(21:36) Nominal vs Real Yield

(23:22) Tax Implications of Staking

(27:57) Staking Demand & External Revenue

(35:33) Stake Ratio Targeting

(36:21) Is 100% Staking Bad?

(40:05) Can ETH LSTs be Money?

(55:24) Would Any Changes Make a Difference?

(01:04:05) Stake Targeting

(01:10:20) Will Targeting Centralize Validators?

(01:22:53) Fiat Money Parallels

(01:25:16) MEV & Restaking Revenue

(01:30:52) Electra Proposal to Change Issuance

(01:46:01) Security Budget & Economic Security

(01:53:40) Validator Set Quality

(01:55:10) Incentives to Maximize Validator Decentralization

(02:19:00) PoS vs PoW Political Complexity

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Twitter:

Hasu - https://twitter.com/hasufl

Jon Charbonneau - https://twitter.com/jon_charb

Uncommon Core 2.0 - https://twitter.com/UCC2_xyz

Ansgar - https://twitter.com/adietrichs

Caspar - https://twitter.com/casparschwa

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Referenced Materials:

Endgame Staking Economics: A Case for Targeting - https://ethresear.ch/t/endgame-staking-economics-a-case-for-targeting/18751

Electra: Issuance Curve Adjustment Proposal - https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/electra-issuance-curve-adjustment-proposal/18825

Properties of issuance level: consensus incentives and variability across potential reward curves - https://ethresear.ch/t/properties-of-issuance-level-consensus-incentives-and-variability-across-potential-reward-curves/18448

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Disclaimer: The material and information presented in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speakers and are not the views of any entity or other person with whom the speaker is affiliated, including, without limitation, DBA Crypto, LLC. The “DBA Crypto” name and all forms thereof are the sole property of its owner, and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

SVM vs EVM Dec 07, 2023

Hasu and Jon catchup on what’s new in the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) worlds.

For the EVM, Ethereum has pushed vertical scaling efforts to other chains. This includes Monad, who is building a new EVM L1 with fundamental optimizations to improve scalability.

For the SVM, the Solana ecosystem continues to gain momentum across the board. Meanwhile, Eclipse is gearing up to launch their SVM Ethereum L2.

DBA is an investor in Eclipse Laboratories, Inc. and SOL. Jon has material personal investments in SOL, JitoSOL, ETH, stETH, and TIA. Hasu has material personal investments in ETH and Monad.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:25) Catch up

(00:56) VM Performance Improvements

(02:32) Solana & Eclipse

(04:26) DA vs Execution Bottlenecks

(05:53) Rollups & Parallel Execution

(07:10) Breakpoint

(08:29) Solana & Eclipse – Competitive or Complementary?

(12:48) Ethereum & Solana Funds

(13:33) DBA Research Club

(15:01) What is a VM?

(16:33) Optimistic Parallel Execution vs. Access Lists

(23:45) Solana Resource Pricing

(25:03) Local Fee Markets

(30:48) Liveness Failures

(31:58) A Bottleneck vs. *The* Bottleneck

(35:39) State Growth

(41:29) Weak Statelessness

(45:33) State Expiry & State Rent

(51:10) Solana Un-merklizes State

(51:55) Client Level Optimizations

(53:45) Optimizations for New vs. Old Chains

(57:17) Will Everyone Converge?

(01:00:36) Outro

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Hasu - https://twitter.com/hasufl

Jon Charbonneau - https://twitter.com/jon_charb

Uncommon Core 2.0 - https://twitter.com/UCC2_xyz

Ethereum - https://twitter.com/ethereum

Solana - https://twitter.com/solana

Eclipse - https://twitter.com/EclipseFND

Monad - https://twitter.com/monad_xyz

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Disclaimer: The material and information presented in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speakers and are not the views of any entity or other person with whom the speaker is affiliated, including, without limitation, DBA Crypto, LLC. The “DBA Crypto” name and all forms thereof are the sole property of its owner, and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

An Incomplete Guide to PBS - with Mike Neuder and Chris Hager Sep 02, 2023

Hasu and Jon bring on Mike Neuder (Ethereum Foundation) and Chris Hager (Flashbots) to discuss the design philosophy of proposer-builder separation (PBS). They first dive into the past and present implementations of PBS, including MEV-Geth and MEV-Boost on Ethereum. Then they discuss the future of PBS - whether PBS should be enshrined, protocol-enforced proposer commitments (PEPC), PBS on L2s, how to prevent censorship, and more.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:12) What is PBS?

(05:37) The History of PBS

(08:43) MEV-Boost

(10:18) Block Production in Proof-of-Work

(11:31) Benefits of PBS

(14:17) PBS Makes Based Rollups Viable

(16:21) PEPC & Proposer Complexity

(17:46) Other Builder Services

(19:49) PBS & Regulation

(22:48) Regulation & Encrypted Mempools

(24:38) Division of Labor is Inevitable

(26:15) Risks of PBS

(29:03) Development of COre Protocol Software

(33:31) PEPC, POB, & Alternatives to PBS

(41:53) Decentralization vs. Usefulness Tradeoff

(46:30) State of PBS in MEV-Boost

(50:51) Optimistic Relays

(52:09) Enshrined PBS (ePBS)

(55:55) PBS on L2

(58:47) PEPC

(01:05:25) Proposer Commitments & User Intents

(01:09:03) Concluding Remarks

(01:11:05) Recap

(01:12:06) PEPC, PEPC-Boost, & MEV-Boost+

(01:18:44) PBS From First Principles

(01:21:41) PBS is a Philosophy, Not an Implementation

(01:25:44) To Enshrine, Or Not to Enshrine?

(01:35:12) In-protocol vs. Out-of-protocol Development & Funding

(01:50:16) Censorship & Proposer Agency

(01:58:15) Outro & Disclaimer

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Hasu - https://twitter.com/hasufl

Jon Charbonneau - https://twitter.com/jon_charb

Uncommon Core 2.0 - https://twitter.com/UCC2_xyz

Mike Neuder - https://twitter.com/mikeneuder

Chris Hager - https://twitter.com/metachris

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Relays in a post-ePBS world - https://ethresear.ch/t/relays-in-a-post-epbs-world/16278

No free lunch – a new inclusion list design - https://ethresear.ch/t/no-free-lunch-a-new-inclusion-list-design/16389

Payload-timeliness committee (PTC) – an ePBS design - https://ethresear.ch/t/payload-timeliness-committee-ptc-an-epbs-design/16054

Notes on Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) - https://barnabe.substack.com/p/pbs

PEPC FAQ - https://efdn.notion.site/PEPC-FAQ-0787ba2f77e14efba771ff2d903d67e4#41230925420345af84f31b50d806b8ed

PEPC Open Problems - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12kpwAXbZqUA0fu2HnZKSesVwO31ICbgIiacHd0EQ_fk/edit#slide=id.g2401d3821ec_1_0

PBS Guild Proposal [v3 WIP] - https://collective.flashbots.net/t/pbs-guild-proposal-v3-wip/2223

MEV-Boost+/++ - https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/censorship-resistance-with-restaking/

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Disclaimer: The material and information presented in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speakers and are not the views of any entity or other person with whom the speaker is affiliated, including, without limitation, DBA Crypto, LLC. The “DBA Crypto” name and all forms thereof are the sole property of its owner, and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

How will Rollups Decentralize? Proof-of-Governance and more Jul 14, 2023

In this episode, we explore Jon’s journey into crypto and our mutual passion for research and the writing process. We then give an overview over the key areas of crypto infrastructure today. Finally, we zoom into rollup decentralization roadmaps, and Jon shares a controversial new thesis about sequencer decentralization.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:42) Interview start

(03:44) Jon's work week

(08:04) ChatGPT & writing

(10:57) Jon's start in crypto

(14:45) How to pick things to work on

(17:08) Outsider's perspective on crypto

(19:05) Jon's research process

(22:00) Jon's proudest moment in crypto

(23:06) Crypto Infrastructure overview

(29:58) Why crypto infrastructure is interesting

(35:57) Rollup decentralization overview

(42:44) Challenges decentralizing the sequencer

(47:46) Ethereum vs Cosmos approach to governance & decentralization

(53:35) User ability to opt out

(56:37) Staking vs. governance deciding sequencers

(01:08:31) L3s

(01:13:34) Superchain

(01:16:38) Summary of rollup decentralization

(01:21:08) Outro

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Hasu - https://twitter.com/hasufl

Jon Charbonneau - https://twitter.com/jon_charb

UCC2 - https://twitter.com/UCC2_xyz

Website - https://ucc2.xyz

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Disclaimer: The material and information presented in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speakers and are not the views of any entity or other person with whom the speaker is affiliated, including, without limitation, DBA Crypto, LLC. The “DBA Crypto” name and all forms thereof are the sole property of its owner, and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.

The Merge (Part 2) - with Stephane Gosselin, Danny Ryan, Tim Beiko, and Hasu May 25, 2022

Listen to conversations between two veterans of the crypto industry: Su Zhu, CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, Strategy lead at Flashbots. Exploring the big ideas in crypto from first principles.

In this episode, Hasu continues the conversation with Danny Ryan and Tim Beiko, two researchers from the Ethereum Foundation. The three are joined by Stephane Gosselin, co-founder of Flashbots, who makes his podcast debut and stands in as Hasu's co-host.

Together, they discuss:

MEV before and after the Merge
mev-boost and proposer-builder-separation (PBS)
The rise of liquid staking pools
Whether Lido should cap its own growth
How the Ethereum Foundation sees its role in interacting with very "protocol-adjacent" projects like Flashbots + Lido

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Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

The Merge (Part 1) - with Danny Ryan, Tim Beiko, and Hasu May 12, 2022

Listen to conversations between two veterans of the crypto industry: Su Zhu, CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, Strategy lead at Flashbots. Exploring the big ideas in crypto from first principles.

In this episode, Hasu sits down with two Ethereum Foundation researchers, Danny Ryan and Tim Beiko, to explore Ethereum's upcoming transition to PoS. Topics discussed include:

Why do blockchains need consensus?
How does PoW consensus work today, and how will it change after PoS?
What happens between the last block of PoW and the first block of PoS?
The role of client modularity and diversity
How to test for such an important upgrade

00:00 Intro and guests 03:02 Proof of Stake since 2017 08:18 PoS - Idea to production 12:24 Why do Blockchains need consensus? PoW & PoS Basics 22:21 Why switch to PoS? 37:03 The Merge - How does it happen? 45:14 The Merge - Unbundling of the Consensus & Execution layer 1:01:45 How do you test for such an important upgrade? 1:09:55 End

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Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

The Sovereign Individual - with Su Zhu and Hasu Apr 01, 2022

Listen to conversations between two veterans of the crypto industry: Su Zhu, CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, Strategy lead at Flashbots. Exploring the big ideas in crypto from first principles.

In this episode:

The state of our macroeconomy
Destruction of the nation-state
The rise of the Sovereign Individual
How crypto fits into all of this

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Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu
Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

Hasu gets STARK-pilled - with Eli Ben-Sasson (StarkWare) Dec 16, 2021

In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Eli Ben-Sasson of Starkware. If you listened to my last episode with Su where we talked about the scaling approaches of different L1s blockchains compared to Ethereum, I argued that L1 blockchains do not scale and that the only way to create true scalability is to perform all of the computation off-chain and only post the results of that computation on-chain. STARKs are a technology that allows huge amounts of computation to be compressed into succinct proofs that anyone can easily verify.

Our goal for this episode was to create the most approachable and comprehensive audio resource on how STARKs work and how they will scale blockchains in the future. We start by explaining inclusive accountability and the true meaning of scalability. Then we dive into STARKs, how proof systems work in general, and where they fit into the context of unbundling blockchains. Next, we use DYDX as a comprehensive case study to learn about the StarkEx system, before diving into StarkNet and its tradeoffs to StarkEx. Finally, we talk about StarkWare’s programming language Cairo and how the different costs of proving, verifying, and storage are going to scale into the future. If you’re a developer, you should also gain a very good idea of the tradeoffs between building on a regular L1 blockchain, the general-purpose StarkNet blockchain, and a StarkEx application-specific chain.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
2:03 Eli’s backstory
5:27 What is computational integrity?
14:22 What are STARKs and how do they work?
29:03 How can validity proofs scale blockchains?
34:13 Looking at DYDX + StarkEx as a case study
56:20 What are the differences between StarkNet and StarkEx?
1:02:46 Cairo
1:13:52 What are the different costs for the end-user?
Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast

FOLLOW your hosts

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu
Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

FOLLOW the guest

Eli Ben-Sasson https://twitter.com/EliBenSasson
Learn about StarkNet: https://starknet.io/
Learn about Cairo programming language: https://www.cairo-lang.org/
Learn about ZK-STARK math: https://starkware.co/stark/
StarkNet Discord https://discord.gg/uJ9HZTUk2Y

Ethereum vs. Alt L1s - with Su Zhu and Hasu Dec 13, 2021

In this episode

What the “Crypto Villain of the Year” thinks about his image
The arguments for Ethereum’s scaling roadmap
The arguments for Alt L1s to out-scale Ethereum
What parallels to BTC maximalism Su sees in the ETH community

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

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Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

How to value Cryptoassets? - With Su Zhu and Hasu Nov 10, 2021

With BTC and ETH making new ATHs, new and old investors are asking themselves the same question: How do you value cryptoassets?

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

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Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Anish https://twitter.com/_anishagnihotri
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

From Skin Trader to NFT Expert - with Anish Agnihotri and Hasu Oct 28, 2021

Today, I’m sitting down with Anish Agnihotri, who is a research associate and colleague of mine at Paradigm. Anish has a fascinating backstory from becoming an entrepreneur at a really young age to later going deep into skin trading. We discuss how that skill transfers to NFT trading and how we see the market structure of both primary and secondary markets for NFTs. Finally, Anish shares some actionable advice on how he learns and how to build projects in crypto. This was a deep and fascinating conversation and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast

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Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Anish https://twitter.com/_anishagnihotri
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

The Game Theory of Crypto - with Jordi Alexander, Su Zhu, and Hasu Aug 25, 2021

Today, we welcome Jordi Alexander, a former professional poker player turned macro trader turned crypto trader.

Jordi competes in the Mind Sports Olympiad and is an expert in games and game theory in general.

Together we discuss

How to pick up new games and improve
How you can apply game theory to the crypto markets
What Jordi and Su think about the market, especially the role of Bitcoin & Ethereum
Why Su is Doge-pilled and whether he can convince us of his thesis

Enjoy!

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast

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Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

Interview with a Searcher - with MEV Senpai and Hasu Jul 19, 2021

For our latest episode, I sat down with MEV Senpai, one of the top searchers in Ethereum. He gave us the unique inside perspective of someone who finds and captures MEV himself. The result was a long & intense convo, one of the best I've had in a while.

We discussed:

The structure and actors of the MEV game
What is searching, how can you learn it, what edges exist
Intro to private relays and transaction bundles
The role of Flashbots in DEX trading
and, of course, the hot topic of the day: short-term reorgs in Ethereum

Enjoy!

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast

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Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

State of the Market - with Su Zhu and Hasu Jun 17, 2021

After a tumultuous month in crypto, Su and I discuss the state of the market and what we see on the horizon. Enjoy!

Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast

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Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu
Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/
Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

Intro to Solana - with Kyle Samani, Su Zhu, and Hasu Jun 07, 2021

In this episode, Su Zhu and Hasu invited Kyle Samani from Multicoin Capital, one of the most successful venture funds this cycle. Kyle is a day-one supporter of Solana, a smart-contract platform optimized for high throughput. They talked about: Multicoin's approach to investing How will the winning blockchain scale? What is enough decentralization? Win conditions for Solana What is Serum Enjoy! Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services. SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncommon-core/id1517659188?uo=4 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3vuV292Him90EjQ5YL4XIw Youtube https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yNTc4ZDVhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Other https://anchor.fm/uncommoncore FOLLOW on Twitter Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/ Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

The most innovative DEX? - with Hasu and Felix Leupold May 29, 2021

Earlier this week, I did a deep dive on a new DEX trading protocol called CowSwap, which combines many good features into what is possibly the most complete trading experience in Defi. First, you no longer publish a fee-paying transaction to the public mempool. Instead, you sign a transaction and submit it off-chain to the CowSwap relayer, which handles all the execution. For you, this means you can safely set a very low slippage tolerance because you only ever pay a fee if your trade succeeds. Second, and this gets us to real innovation, CowSwap looks for so-called “coincidents of wants” or CoWs before sending your order to the regular on-chain exchanges. For example, if one trader wants to buy ETH at a certain price and another wants to sell it, these two can be matched without paying any LP fees. Off-chain solvers can look at this orderbook and submit optimal matchings that among others, guarantee that all trades in a certain batch have to settle at the same uniform price. Because there’s no point in reordering trades that have the same price, this also eliminates MEV as well. Only after all coincidents have been exhausted, CowSwap sends the rest of the order to the on-chain exchanges via smart routers like 1Inch If you didn’t get all of that immediately, don’t worry - neither did I, and that’s why I invited Felix Leupold from CowSwap and Gnosis to answer my remaining questions. Please enjoy my conversation on CowSwap with Felix Leupold. GUEST https://cowswap.exchange/#/swap Felix Leupold https://twitter.com/fleupold_ Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services. SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncommon-core/id1517659188?uo=4 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3vuV292Him90EjQ5YL4XIw Youtube https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yNTc4ZDVhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Other https://anchor.fm/uncommoncore FOLLOW on Twitter Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/ Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

Interview with Paradigm - with Charlie Noyes, Georgios Konstantopoulos, and Hasu May 18, 2021

Su is sitting out today, and I instead welcome Charlie Noyes and Georgios Konstantopoulos of Paradigm, one of the largest investment funds in crypto. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, including: How Paradigm can so consistently identify and back the category-defining protocols and companies in crypto MEV and how it can be mitigated, including some actionable advice on how you can avoid getting sandwich-attacked today The new features and remaining challenges of Uniswap v3 Paradigm’s thesis for Cosmos and why each blockchain should adopt the IBC protocol Whether Bitcoin's value proposition is still intact at a time where Bitcoin dominance is at an all-time low Our personal “wishlists” for Bitcoin improvement proposals, and whether Bitcoin will ever go to PoS Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services. SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncommon-core/id1517659188?uo=4 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3vuV292Him90EjQ5YL4XIw Youtube https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yNTc4ZDVhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Other https://anchor.fm/uncommoncore FOLLOW on Twitter Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/ Transcripts, if available https://uncommoncore.co/blog/

Ethereum Bull Case - with Cobie, Su Zhu, and Hasu Apr 27, 2021

For this episode, Su and I invited the legendary trader Cobie, who goes under @CryptoCobain on Twitter. Together, we talked about

The bull case for Ethereum and its upcoming catalysts
Whether ETH can flippen BTC
What advice has helped Cobie to survive several market cycles

Enjoy!
Listen to conversations between Su Zhu, the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, and Hasu, an experienced crypto researcher and writer. Together with occasional guests, we explore the transformative nature of trust-minimized currency and financial services.

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Where do the Yields come from in Crypto? - with Su Zhu and Hasu Apr 05, 2021

Crypto commands unusually high yields relative to the traditional financial system, allowing investors to earn 20% on fiat and stablecoins and even more on other assets. In this episode, Su and I unpack a very simple question: Where are these yields coming from?

Topics discussed:

Unpacking the three major sources of yield in crypto
How sustainable are they?
What are the risks?
How the GBTC premium or discount affects the market

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

The Case for Defi - with Richard Galvin, Su Zhu, and Hasu Mar 05, 2021

We are super hyped to bring you our conversation with Richard Galvin, one of the best performing VCs of the last years and frontrunner to the DeFi opportunity. In this episode, Richard and Su make the most condensed case for Defi that I've heard to date.

In this episode, we covered

Richard’s history on Wall Street
Why crypto is in a megatrend
How he goes from thesis to investment
Why society needs finance
How Defi improves on traditional finance; and
the best investment opportunities inside Defi

Richard Galvin https://twitter.com/richwgalvin

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Interview with Zee Prime Capital, Part 2 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Feb 21, 2021

This is part two of our conversation with Matti and Fiskantes of Zee Prime Capital. While the first half was more philosophical in nature, this time we talked exclusively about different blockchain projects and how they might connect to each other in the future. I believe that with gas fees in Ethereum being as high as they, the advent of sharding and layer two solutions, and the first credible Ethereum competitors like Polkadot, Cosmos, and Solana coming to mainnet, this topic has never been more relevant.

In this episode, we covered

Why Zee Prime invests in Polkadot and its ecosystem
Different approaches to interoperability
Binance Smart Chain
What role Bitcoin and Ethereum will play in a multi-chain future

Part 1 of 2 https://anchor.fm/uncommoncore/episodes/20-Matti-and-Fiskantes-of-Zee-Prime-Capital---Part-1-eqfb0m

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Interview with Zee Prime Capital, Part 1 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Feb 16, 2021

Today, Su and I are sitting down with Matti and Fiskantes of Zee Prime Capital. These two have consistently been among my favorite people to follow on Crypto Twitter, so I’m very glad that they agreed to have this conversation with us.

In fact, we ended up talking for so long that we have to release the episode in two parts. In this first half, we covered

The value of Crypto Twitter in finding and spreading ideas
Zee Prime’s unique investment thesis and how it is to be an outsider in the VC space
How mimetics and reflexity shape crypto markets
Whether the current crypto cycle will be the last

Hope you enjoy this conversation, I know I did.

Zee Prime's Investment Thesis https://twitter.com/mattigags/status/1353668468776824840?s=20

Matti's article "On Reflexivity & Imitation" https://insights.deribit.com/market-research/on-reflexivity-and-imitation/

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Financial Populism - with Su Zhu and Hasu Feb 02, 2021

Today, Su and I discuss the rise of WallStreetBets and financial populism in general. As one of the most experienced market participants I know, Su has a unique perspective on the story behind the GameStop short squeeze. We explore why he thinks it is going to end in tears for small investors, which invisible rules of the traditional financial system have been laid bare for everyone to see, and how all of this massively validates crypto and Defi going forward.
Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Defi Top 20 with Arthur0x, Su Zhu and Hasu - Part 2 Jan 07, 2021

This is Part Two of our conversation with Arthur0x on the Top 20 Defi (Decentralized Finance) coins by market cap. Arthur0x went from being one of the earliest users and investors at Synthetix, Aave, and Kyber, to running the largest Defi-focused fund in all of Asia.
Arthur0x https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x
Defiance Capital https://twitter.com/DeFianceCapital
Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu
Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Defi Top 20 with Arthur0x, Su Zhu and Hasu - Part 1 Jan 02, 2021

After our episode on the top 20 crypto coins by market cap, we got a lot of requests to do one for Defi as well. For that discussion, we brought in one of the foremost experts on Defi. Arthur0x went from being one of the earliest users and investors at Synthetix, Aave, and Kyber, to running the largest Defi-focused fund in all of Asia. Arthur0x https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x Defiance Capital https://twitter.com/DeFianceCapital Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Trading Options 101 - with Josh from Orthogonal, Su Zhu, and Hasu Dec 23, 2020

Today, I’m sitting down with Su Zhu, my friend and co-host, and Josh, of Orthogonal Trading. Josh is one of the biggest and most experienced options traders in crypto and joined us for a very interesting and wide-ranging conversation. Together, we touched on topics like how options work differences between options and futures Different strategies for using them in crypto as well as what Josh thinks about options trading platforms in Defi Resources: https://www.optiontradingtips.com/options101/payoff-diagrams.html https://www.payoffcharts.com/ https://www.investopedia.com/trading/getting-to-know-the-greeks/ Orthogonal Trading https://twitter.com/OrthoTrading Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Discusssing the Coingecko Top 20 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Dec 11, 2020

When our scheduled guest had microphone issues, Su and I decided to record an improvised episode for you guys instead. In this one, we go through all the coins in Coingecko's Top 20 by market cap and discuss our thoughts and predictions for them going forward.
Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu
Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl
Our homepage and mailing list https://uncommoncore.co/podcast/

Interview with DegenSpartan - with Hasu Nov 13, 2020

Today, I’m not only joined by a very special guest, but the format of this episode is highly unusual as well! I interviewed the man who goes by the name @DegenSpartan on Twitter and who is one of the biggest and most enigmatic Defi investors there is. I have wanted to have him on for a long time, but there was one problem: DegenSpartan, or DS in short, is fully pseudonymous and did not even want to have his voice known. So we looked for a solution and ended up doing a text interview instead. Then I got Patrick McCorry (@paddypisa on Twitter) to speak the part of DS in the final recording, while I spoke my own part. At this point, I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who reached out to us on Twitter and offered their help to make this episode a reality. I get that this isn’t your average podcast, and you can go and read the text interview instead if you want, but I think Paddy did a fantastic job and the final product came out great. Please enjoy! Discussed in this interview: DS: Degenerate or prudent investor? How he managed to recognize (and sell) the top in Defi His approach to investing Becoming Synthetix' patient zero Why he dislikes Maker, YFI, and governance tokens in general and more! Links: Subscribe to our mailing list for transcripts and other bonus content: https://uncommoncore.co/ DegenSpartan https://twitter.com/DegenSpartan Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl Patrick McCorry (as DS): https://twitter.com/paddypisa

Art of Trading - with Light, Su Zhu, and Hasu Oct 23, 2020

Today, I sat down with Su Zhu, who is the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital, as well as LightCrypto.

Light is a real crypto OG and one of the largest and most successful prop traders in this space.

We’ve known each other for two years now and I have tremendous respect for his skill and clarity of thought. He’s usually very secretive, so we are thankful that he has recorded his first-ever interview with us. In this conversation, we go very deep into the process and mindset of trading, as well as Su and Light’s current views on the market and how they are positioned going forward.

My name is Hasu, and I’m a researcher, investor, and writer.

Light https://twitter.com/lightcrypto

Su https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncommon-core/

State of the Market - with Su Zhu and Hasu Oct 08, 2020

Today, I’m sitting down with Su Zhu, my co-host and friend, to talk about the state of the crypto market and what he’s seeing on the horizon.

Su is the CEO as well as Chief Investment Officer at Three Arrows Capital, one of the largest trading firms in crypto.

Just one thing before we dive in, we make no money from this podcast we do want to grow our audience. so please take the time to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps a lot with discovery. Thank you.

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncommon-core/id1517659188

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

The Sushiswap Story - with Hasu, Anna Rose, and Tarun Chitra Sep 24, 2020

Today, we bring you a special episode. This is actually Part II of an interview I did with Anna Rose of the Zero Knowledge Podcast, and Tarun Chitra of Gauntlet. We explore the rise of governance tokens by looking at Sushiswap as our case study.

Part I has been released on the ZK podcast and you can find the link to it in the show notes. It's not necessary for you to follow along, but it was a great and very lively discussion and I still recommend you listen to it first.

Finally, we recorded this episode the day before Uniswap launched its own token. So keep that in mind when you hear as speculate about its future.

Enjoy!

Listen to Part I https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/148

(RSS: https://feeds.fireside.fm/zeroknowledge/rss)

Anna Rose https://twitter.com/AnnaRRose

Tarun Chitra https://twitter.com/tarunchitra

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Defi Food Token Mania - with Will and Trent from YAM, Su Zhu, and Hasu Sep 22, 2020

Today, Su and I talk to Will Price and Trent Elmore of YAM.finance.

YAM launched last month as a mix between Yearn’s fair launch, Ampleforth's supply elasticity, and Compound’s on-chain governance. And while its launch was short-lived (it had to shut down from a bug only two days later), it inspired a whole wave of food coins that tried to replicate its initial success. In this episode, we explore what made YAM so successful and what might be in store for the future.

Will Price https://twitter.com/will__price

Trent Elmore https://twitter.com/trentelme

Su Zhu https://twitter.com/zhusu

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Understanding MEV - with Georgios Konstantopoulos, Dan Robinson, and Hasu Sep 20, 2020

Today, I brought on Dan Robinson and Georgios Konstantopoulos, who are both research partners at Paradigm. Together, we explore the topic of MEV, or “Miner Extractable Value”.

Blockchains like Ethereum have this dirty little secret that, while in most regards they are very decentralized, the ordering of transactions within a single block is actually completely in the hands of a single miner. They can insert their own transactions, rearrange those of users, or even censor them completely.

MEV describes how much value a miner can extract from users and other miners by using these powers to their advantage.

If you’ve never looked into MEV before, I think you’ll be both shocked and fascinated by the complexity and sophistication of the war that’s raging inside Ethereum’s memory pool. Enjoy
Dan Robinson https://twitter.com/danrobinson

Georgios Konstantopoulos https://twitter.com/gakonst

Hasu https://twitter.com/hasufl

Flash Boys 2.0 (Daian et al) https://pdaian.com/flashboys2.pdf

Perpetual Swaps 101 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Aug 27, 2020

For today’s episode, I sat down with Su Zhu to learn all about perpetual swaps. There’s probably not a person in crypto who has more authority on this topic than him. The first half of the episode serves as a general introduction to perpetual swaps, while in the second half, we explore how perpetual swaps are coming to DeFi and why they are the single biggest primitive that is still missing from the DeFi puzzle. While the episode can get pretty technical at times, we tried to follow a logical buildup, so no prior knowledge should be required. Please note that I put some links to definitions and followup reading into the show notes. Enjoy the episode. In this episode: What is a perpetual swap and how does it work The history of perp swaps and their usage outside of cryptocurrency How the oracle problem is misunderstood AMM and central limit order book: mapping the two approaches to perpetual swaps in DeFi Tradeoffs between perps in CeFi and DeFi Perpetual swaps as money legos How DeFi perp swaps will enable a new form of stablecoin The role of insurance funds and auto liquidation Hasu Twitter https://twitter.com/hasufl Su Zhu Twitter https://twitter.com/zhusu Episode transcript https://uncommoncore.co/uncommon-core-podcast-episode-8-transcript/ Definitions and further reading: TWAP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-weighted_average_price LIBOR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor CFD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference Tom next swaps: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tomorrownext.asp Rolling a futures contract https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rollforward.asp yTokens and yVaults: https://anchor.fm/uncommoncore/episodes/6-Andre-Cronje-and-the-Philosophy-of-Yearn-Finance-ei4vds Synthetix tokens and inverse tokens: https://docs.synthetix.io/tokens/ Article on crypto banking https://insights.deribit.com/market-research/the-great-race-to-crypto-banking/ Design space for auto liquidation mechanisms https://insights.deribit.com/market-research/crypto-derivatives-exchanges-liquidation-pioneers/

Interview with Andre Cronje, Part 2 - with Hasu and Tarun Chitra Aug 21, 2020

We return for the second half of our interview with Andre Cronje, a long-time DeFi developer, and creator of Yearn Finance. You can think of Yearn as a smart bank account that automatically allocates your assets to different low-risk investment strategies that execute on the Ethereum blockchain. My co-host is Tarun Chitra, the CEO and founder of Gauntlet, a company that helps stress test the incentive structures and economics of cryptocurrency protocols, especially of DeFi protocols. In this episode, we explore governance in Yearn in particular and how governance in DeFi should work in general. What roles exist, and how can we align their incentives? Is governance a feature to be tokenized and sold off, or an attack vector to be closed? How does the price of a governance token affect the security of its parent protocol? And why does Andre eventually want to retreat from being the lead developer of Yearn Finance? Yearn Finance Gauntlet Hasu's article "Is Yearn.finance safe to use?" Episode Transcript

Interview with Andre Cronje, Part 1 - with Hasu and Tarun Chitra Aug 14, 2020

This week, I - Hasu - talk to Andre Cronje, a long-time DeFi developer, and creator of Yearn Finance. You can think of Yearn as a smart bank account that automatically allocates your assets to different low-risk investment strategies that execute on the Ethereum blockchain. My co-host is Tarun Chitra, the CEO and founder of Gauntlet, a company that helps stress test the incentive structures and economics of cryptocurrency protocols, especially of DeFi protocols. We're releasing this interview in two parts. The first gives you an introduction to Yearn Finance, it's future, and Andre's design and investment philosophy in building it. Part II explores the design space for governance systems in DeFi - one of the hottest topics in crypto right now. Yearn Finance Gauntlet Hasu's article "Is Yearn.finance safe to use?" New: Episode Transcript

Interview with CMT Digital - with Su Zhu and Hasu Aug 10, 2020

In this episode, Su and Hasu talk to Matt Castro and Brad Koeppen of CMT Digital, one of the longest-standing trading firms in crypto. Topics covered - What their firm does in crypto - What CMT thinks about DeFi - The rise of AMMs and their future - Why CMT co-founded the Chigaco DeFi Alliance - Why community-funded coins have performed better than VC-funded ones, and whether this trend will continue Su Zhu is the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital. Hasu is a cryptocurrency researcher and writer. Together, they publish on Deribit Insights and uncommoncore.co.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Layer Twos - with James Prestwich, Su Zhu, and Hasu Jul 08, 2020

In this episode, Su and Hasu are joined by James Prestwich, one of the leading technical experts and thinkers in this space. Topics covered: - What is Blockstream Liquid - The bug James found - Disclosure and aftermath - Sidechains, channels, plasma, and rollups - How Bitcoin isolates itself from innovation happening on other chains (recommended reading) - Bitcoin in DeFi Su Zhu is the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital. Hasu is a cryptocurrency researcher and writer. Together, they publish on Deribit Insights and uncommoncore.co.

Defi 101 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Jun 24, 2020

In this episode, Su and Hasu talk about decentralized finance (DeFi). Topics covered: - What DeFi means to Su - Why use DeFi over CeFi? - Is the current demand organic or subsidized by VC money? - Where users will allocate on the trust spectrum - The delicate dance between regulatory arbitrage & attracting talent and capital - The path to decentralization - Most important DeFi use cases today and in the future - How AMMs work and can be improved - The core building blocks of DeFi - Incentive mechanisms - Tokenized balances - Atomic transactions - Will a boom in DeFi translate to ether? Su Zhu is the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital. Hasu is a cryptocurrency researcher and writer. Together, they publish on Deribit Insights and uncommoncore.co.

EIP-1559 - with Su Zhu and Hasu Jun 16, 2020

In this episode, Su and Hasu talk about blockspace market mechanisms and EIP-1559. Read Hasu's analysis of EIP-1559 (w/ Georgios Konstantopoulos) Topics covered: - what EIP-1559 is and the problems it solves - negative-sum vs zero-sum vs positive-sum proposals - reasons against EIP-1559 - what, if anything, can Bitcoin learn from EIP-1559 - impact on long-term security - how realistic perpetual issuance is in Bitcoin - elastic blocksize proposals in Bitcoin - lessons from the scaling debate - how parasitic L2s can threaten baselayer security - how dApps benefit from EIP-1559 - building dApps on appchains vs Ethereum - why every chain incl. Ethereum specializes over time - first-price auction vs fixed-price sale - EIP-1559 as an oracle for on-chain congestion - moving the Overton window for changes to Bitcoin Su Zhu is the CEO and CIO of Three Arrows Capital. Hasu is a cryptocurrency researcher and writer. Together, they publish on Deribit Insights and uncommoncore.co.

Evolution of Crypto Custody - with Su Zhu and Hasu Jun 08, 2020

Welcome to the first episode of the Uncommon Core podcast. Su and Hasu talk about the future of custody in crypto. Follow Su on Twitter Follow Hasu on Twitter

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