Bell Curve

Latest Episodes:

Into the Next Cycle: Jito Airdrop, BTC NFTs, and The Return of VCs | Roundup Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(2:25) Jito Token Airdrop

(17:28) The Bitcoin NFT Hot Take

(20:51) DAS London Ad

(22:00) Is Retail Back?

(27:26) Indicators of Market Cycle Shift

(32:47) Synthetix Burn Mechanism & Generating Revenue

(39:13) Crypto: Generational Wealth Transfer?

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.tt and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

How Appchains Align DEX Incentives | Season 6 Episode 7 Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

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. They also cover designs enabled by app chains, dYdX's "social slashing" approach to mitigating MEV, off-chain components, and perpetual swaps adoption. We hope you enjoy!

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Maverick Protocol is a DeFi infrastructure provider focused on increasing industry efficiency, powered by Maverick AMM. Maverick helps token projects, DAO treasuries, liquidity providers or anyone in DeFi shape their liquidity with efficiency and flexibility. In other words, Maverick makes your liquidity smarter.

Shape liquidity for your token today on Maverick at https://app.mav.xyz/bellcurve

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(2:36) Interview Start: Antonio

(5:11) Balancing MEV Stakeholders

(17:09) Batch Auction Solution

(30:16) DAS London Ad

(31:26) L2 vs App Chain

(40:31) Going from dApp to L2 or App Chain

(45:49) Maverick Ad

(47:04) Decentralization and Offchain Components

(53:32) Spot vs Perps vs Options in DEX Space

(1:00:42) Outro

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Resources

PEPC by Barnabe

https://ethresear.ch/t/unbundling-pbs-towards-protocol-enforced-proposer-commitments-pepc/13879?u=barnabe

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Why the Cosmos Hub is Forking and BLAST L2 Will Probably Work | Roundup Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

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 against advertisers. Enjoy!

Follow Sam: https://twitter.com/hxrts

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

(00:53) Turkey Season Review

(02:20) CZ Steps Down & Binance Pleads Guilty

(13:26) The Institutional Rally

(21:28) Redeeming USDT for Cash

(28:38) DAS 2024

(29:48) Blast L2 Controversy

(48:50) Blur Market Share Dominance

(59:21) Contentious Atom Prop & Atom Fork

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Crypto’s Next Cycle: Solana’s Comeback vs Ethereum’s Head Start | Qiao Wang Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

Qiao Wang from Alliance DAO (a web3 accelerator) joins us to discuss the applications and protocols that are primed to dominate crypto's next cycle. Qiao reviews thousands of crypto startups every year, has an uncanny ability to predict future narratives and is one of my favorite thinkers in the space! In this episode, we discuss why RWAs and payments are crypto's massive opportunity, how speculation is crypto's killer feature, Solana's comeback vs Ethereum's headstart, Coinbase's giant opportunity, where the developers are building and more!

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use LIGHTSPEED20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:45 Two Massive Opportunities: RWAs + Payments

18:40 Why DePIN Works

21:01 Speculation is Utility

24:28 DAS LDN Plug

25:26 Where Are Developers Building?

28:57 Why Price Leads Everything

32:13 DeFi Apps and Horizontal Integration

34:53 The SuperApp Thesis

39:32 Coinbase and Onchain Identity

46:56 Cosmos’ Problem

49:46 L2 Competition and Fragmentation

57:29 What it Takes to Be a Great Crypto Founder

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Follow Qiao: https://twitter.com/QwQiao

Follow Mert: https://twitter.com/0xMert_

Follow Garrett: https://twitter.com/GarrettHarper_

Follow Lightspeed: https://twitter.com/Lightspeedpodhq

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Resources

Good Game podcast

https://spoti.fi/3MKMLRQ

Alliance DAO

https://alliance.xyz/

https://twitter.com/alliancedao

What does it take to be a good crypto founder?

https://medium.com/alliancedao/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-good-crypto-founder-6c2600a99770

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Disclaimers:

Lightspeed was kickstarted by a grant from the Solana Foundation.

Nothing said on Lightspeed is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mert, Garrett and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Liquid Restaking is Coming Sooner Than You Think Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, Mike and Myles dive deep into the emerging world of liquid restaking. They take a deep look into the inner workings of depositing staked ETH into protocols like Eigenlayer to earn additional yield. They discuss competitive dynamics between these protocols, whether this is positive or dangerous for Ethereum, and implications for ETH becoming "crypto native treasuries" that export security and create collateral for DeFi. We hope you enjoy!

Follow Myles: https://twitter.com/MylesOneil

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024 and we’ve got a killer deal for Black Friday...or as we call it BlackRock Friday.

For a limited time we’re running a 20% promo on our 4 pack of DAS tickets. For just 399 GBP per ticket you can share the room with the world's top executives and hear from some of the largest institutions in crypto.

Grab 3 friends or 3 colleagues and use code BLACKROCK for 20% off on 4 pack tickets. Only valid until Nov 27th.

Use code "BLACKROCKBELL" at: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(5:11) Balance Sheets of Liquid Staking Protocols

(10:14) Eigen Layer Operating Model

(26:53) DAS London Ad

(28:02) Competitive Landscape of Liquid Staking

(36:53) End Game of Eth Security

(43:44) Blackrock Promo

(44:42) Institutional vs Retail Services

(52:05) Go to Market for Liquid Restaking Protocols

(57:40) Is Liquid Restaking ETH Dangerous?

(1:09:13) Check the Code is a Meme (For Now)

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Crosschain DEXs: The Next Frontier | Season 6 Episode 6 Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

Today we are diving deep into the world of interoperability and intents. Hart Lambur, co-founder at Risk Labs and UMA, joins us to analyze the trade-offs between different bridge architectures like atomic swaps, canonical bridges, and optimistic bridges. They discuss how intent-based protocols like Uniswap X and Across Protocol are reimagining bridges by introducing third parties to enable faster, cheaper transfers. To close out the team explores UX challenges in bridging assets across chains and whether retail traders can realistically serve as cross-chain market makers. For all this and more stay tuned!

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Shape liquidity for your token today on Maverick at https://app.mav.xyz/bellcurve

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(3:03) State of Interoperability

(7:25) Interop Messaging

(26:08) Maverick Ad

(27:23) UniswapX Multichain Design

(32:58) Intent Based Design & Trade Offs

(42:16) DAS London Ad

(43:25) Searcher Market Structure

(53:24) Timeframe of Abstracting Crosschain UX

(57:11) Intent & Crosschain Payments

(1:02:05) End Game Crosschain Vision

(1:08:34) Outro

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Follow Dan: https://twitter.com/danrobinson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Hart Lambur: https://twitter.com/hal2001

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Resources:

Across Protocol

https://twitter.com/AcrossProtocol

https://across.to/

UniswapX White Paper

https://uniswap.org/whitepaper-uniswapx.pdf

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The Chainlink End Game: CCIP, Link Restaking, and Competition | Roundup Nov 17, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode of Bell Curve we are joined by Link Marine legend Chainlinkgod.eth. Mike, Michael, and Vance dive into the past, present, and future of Chainlink. They kick off with Chainlink's community origins in 4chan. They move on to introduce how Chainlink aims to be a decentralized oracle network that securely connects blockchains to external data sources and APIs. They discuss key elements like its variety of services like price feeds, CCIP for cross-chain messaging, real world asset tokenization, and the LINK token's role. We hope you enjoy!

Follow ChainLinkGod: https://twitter.com/ChainLinkGod

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Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3pQTfmD

Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXH

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(1:39) The Link Marines Origin

(10:21) What is Chainlink and Oracle Networks?

(17:34) Are Institutions Good for Crypto?

(27:09) DAS London Ad

(28:19) Endgame for Blockchain Maturity

(32:02) Overlooked Blockchain Use cases

(39:01) CCIP Mechanics

(47:02) The Competitors of CCIP

(50:56) Solving the Cold Start Problem

(59:23) What's Next for Link

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A Deep Dive into Batch Auctions | Season 6 Episode 5 Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

Season 6 | Episode 5

In this episode of Bell Curve we dive into the world of batch auctions with special guests Anna, co-founder of CowSwap, and Ludwig, Founder of Sorella Labs. The team digs into how Cowswap's innovative batch auctions function and how Sorella Labs' Angstrom project tackles LVR for sustainable liquidity. They unpack how app layer innovation and MEV-conscious design can mitigate value extraction. To close out they discusses whether price discovery will ever move from centralized to decentralized exchanges and what prerequisites are necessary for that to happen. Enjoy!

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Shape liquidity for your token today on Maverick at https://app.mav.xyz/bellcurve

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Interview Start: Anna & Ludwig

(4:47) What are Frequent Batch Auctions?

(10:50) MEV by Passive LPs

(15:42) Mechanism Design Avoiding MEV

(21:20) DAS London Ad

(22:29) Who are Solvers & their role in CoWSwap

(29:40) How Angstrom Solves DEX MEV

(33:06) CoW Hooks

(38:18) Maverick Ad

(39:33) Will Passive Liquidity Stay?

(46:38) Why is Angstrom a Uniswap Hook?

(52:07) Will Price Discovery Come Onchain?

(58:47) Outro

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Follow Dan: https://twitter.com/danrobinson

Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Anna: https://twitter.com/AnnaMSGeorge

Follow Ludwig: https://twitter.com/0xvanbeethoven

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Resources:

https://twitter.com/Sorellalabs

https://twitter.com/CoWSwap

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Institutionalizing Crypto & The Return of the Bull Market | Roundup Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

In this week's roundup, the Michael power duo dives into the recent market rally and explore its implications in crypto including debt proceedings and VC appetite. They explore the Ethereum ETF approval potentially becoming a reality and the controversy surrounding Wintermute’s CEO Evgeny Gaevoy and the Near Foundation. To close out they discuss the future developments to look out for in the crypto, including the potential rise of alternative L1s and newer narratives.

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Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_

Follow Michael A: https://twitter.com/im_manderson

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks.

Use the link below to learn more, and use BELL20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there!

https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(2:01) Are We Back?

(8:28) Token Prices Impacting Bankruptcy Proceedings

(10:31) An FTX Restart?

(20:11) Cycle Change Indicators?

(24:42) Institutionalizing Crypto

(35:23) DAS London Ad

(36:32) Bitcoin Hashrate Lag

(42:30) Near Foundation & Aurora Accusations

(48:44) End Game of Blockchain Stacks

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Resources

Wintermute CEO Accuses Near

https://blockworks.co/news/wintermute-ceo-accused-near-foundation-of-failing-to-redeem-stablecoins

BlackRock ETF Proposal

https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-ishares-ether-etf

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Token Season Review: The Hidden Costs of Airdrops | Roundup Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

In this week's Bell Curve roundup Mike and Myles discuss the return of "token season" - with recent launches like DYDX, Celestia, and Jupiter on Solana. They debate distribution strategies like airdrops, and whether excessive costs are justified. They also discuss Solana's price explosion and admire Solana for its focus on the app developer experience. To close out the duo debate weather the next crypto cycle will see real mainstream adoption of dApps. Thanks for tuning in!

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Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction

(1:58) Token Season Back?

(6:15) Strategy for Token Season

(7:56) Solana Comeback

(14:36) DAS London Ad

(15:46) Eth as Money vs Solana App Focus

(25:10) Solana Breakpoint Excitement

(31:29) ROI on Airdrops

(47:15) Strategy for Celestia DA Adoption

(57:04) Will Crypto Achieve Mass Adoption?