Chain Reaction

Latest Episodes:

Bonus Episode: Worldcoin is going on a race to billions of users “as fast” as it can (w/ Alex Blania) Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

This is a bonus episode, where Jacquelyn interviewed Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, in a fireside chat at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco.

The startup was co-founded by Alex, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Max Novendstern. To date, it has raised about $250 million from investors like a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and others. It is also the entity that created a crypto-focused project called Worldcoin.

The startup is well-known across the venture capital, AI and crypto spaces for its futuristic-looking Orb device, which scans peoples’ irises then assigns them a “World ID” that lets users access Worldcoin’s application and a digital passport. The verification process aims to prove individuals’ identities and stop anyone from making multiple accounts.

They discussed how Alex got involved in Tools for Humanity over four years ago, how World ID could help improve digital verification during the rise of AI and more.

Jacquelyn and Alex also talked about:

Worldcoin’s plans to generate revenue
How World ID could help with elections
A new “more friendly” Orb model
AI’s effect on society
When Worldcoin will have a “ChatGPT moment”

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Solana Mobile is just getting started (w/ Anatoly Yakovenko) Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, the technology company that aims to help grow the ecosystem for the layer-1 blockchain Solana.

The conversation focused on Solana Mobile and its flagship web3 Android smartphone, Saga, which sold out in mid-December, as well as its new phone, Chapter 2 – which was announced last week.

Within its first 30 hours Chapter 2 had over 30,000 preorders – signaling a lot of demand for the next generation Android-based phone. At the time of recording, Anatoly shared there were over 40,000 preorders.

Anatoly and Jacquelyn discussed the long road to selling out Saga, how important rewards and developers are and the nitty gritty details for Chapter 2. They also dove into the company’s strategy and long-term mission of going up against Google and Apple app stores and how long it may take for Solana Mobile to breakeven.

If you need a refresher on Solana Mobile’s Saga phone, we’ve got you covered:

(0:00) Solana mobile background information

(1:51) Launching Solana Mobile

(6:17) Benefits of building on the DApp sotre

(8:14) Saga phone and developer revenue

(12:46) Reward models for adoption

(15:07) Launching Chapter 2

(23:28) Solana's Mobile Strategy

(24:35) Crypto and digital self custody

25:52) What's next for Solana Mobile

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Ripple president talks XRP Ledger, SEC suits, and 2024 plans (w/ Monica Long) Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Monica Long, the president of Ripple, a blockchain-based digital payment network and protocol.

Monica has spent the last 10 years at Ripple, working her way up from the director of communications to now, president. Ripple has been around since 2012 and is one of the oldest crypto entities. In recent years, it was in a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from December 2020 until summer of 2023, over whether or not its token, XRP, should be registered as a security.

Then, this past July, Ripple scored a victory against the SEC after a US federal judge ruled that secondary XRP sales, or sales to retail investors, aren’t investment contracts or securities. But when it comes to sales with institutional clients, it could be treated as one.

In the meantime, Ripple had been doubling down on global transactions and payments, among other elements.

We talked about Monica’s career growth, cross-border payments, traditional finance and the need for regulatory clarity.

We also dove into:

Ripple’s suit with the SEC
The XRP Ledger
Its focus for 2024
Advice for the community

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Bitcoin spot ETFs has been approved in the U.S. (w/ Michael Sonnenshein) Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

For this week’s bonus episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Michael Sonnenshein, the CEO at Grayscale Investments.

Grayscale is a digital asset investment firm that aims to provide products and services to institutional and individual investors, it is well known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and now, its new bitcoin spot ETF product. The company was founded in 2014 and is one of the world’s largest digital asset currency managers. The GBTC fund holds over 3% of the outstanding bitcoin supply, worth tens of billions of dollars.

The firm and its executives have made headlines in the past for their tenacious efforts to get their bitcoin spot ETF approved after it was originally denied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2022 and later the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of it. And now, Grayscale’s bitcoin spot ETF was approved.

We dive into what a spot bitcoin ETF approval means for GBTC and market demand. We also discussed competition between issuers, fee structures and why regulated bitcoin exposure matters as well as what a spot bitcoin ETF could mean for the crypto space.

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

All roads seem to be leading to a U.S. spot bitcoin ETF approval soon (w/ Fred Thiel) Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

For this week’s news episode, Jacquelyn dove back into the latest developments on spot bitcoin ETF applications in the U.S. as anticipation builds.

Fred Thiel, the CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings, a digital asset technology company and largest publicly traded bitcoin mining firm, joined to help break down the latest developments on spot bitcoin ETFs.

As it stands, there’s 14 asset management firms including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and VanEck, hoping to individually win approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for their spot bitcoin ETFs. And some reports are now saying it might happen soon given the frequent meetings and updated filings in recent weeks.

We also discussed what a spot bitcoin ETF could mean for investors, institutions and miners, as well as bitcoin’s price.

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

You should join a crypto social club w/ Boys Club co-founders (re-release) Dec 28, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to a re-released episode of of Chain Reaction, a podcast that unpacks and dives deep into the latest trends, drama and news in crypto with some of the biggest names in the industry to break things down block by block for the crypto curious.

For this week’s episode, we're remixing an episode from earlier this year. Jacquelyn interviewed Deana Burke and Natasha Hoskins, the co-founders of Boys Club.

Boys Club is a social decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for the “crypto curious,” originally designed to get women and non-binary people into the web3 world, it now aims to be an open space for anyone looking to get into the space.

Although it’s a social DAO, Boys Club has a handful of other ventures like their newsletter and podcast, which I was a guest on, as well as events like crypto conference parties and trivia nights.

Before Boys Club, Deana and Natasha were co-founders of a recently acquired travel platform Allcall. Deana was also a communications partner for the blockchain-based Celo Foundation and Natasha previously worked at Fora Travel as a general manager.

We discussed the origin story for Boys Club, what trends Deana and Natasha are following and how they’ve seen the industry evolve since launching their group.

We also talked about:

EthCC 2023 vibe check
Inclusivity in web3
Diversifying the industry
Advice for the crypto newbies

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Algorand foundation CEO sees tokenization as key sector to scale crypto (w/ Staci Warden) Dec 21, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Staci Warden, the CEO of the Algorand Foundation, the organization behind the layer-1 blockchain Algorand.

Previously, Warden worked at the Milken Institute and oversaw initiatives relating to capital market development, FinTech financial inclusion, cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

Before that she was at JPMorgan, where she was an executive director leading public sector coverage. She also worked at Nasdaq and the U.S. Treasury. Warden sits on the advisory boards for the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the European Parliament's Science and Technology Options Assessment, and the U.S. Financial Technology Association.

As for Algorand, it's a Singapore-based blockchain that aims to be fast, secure, decentralized and “the greenest” with its carbon-negative network. It had about 615,000 active addresses at the time of recording.

We discussed Algorand’s ecosystem, decentralization and real use cases being built during the bear market.

We also talked about:

Tokenization of assets
Foundations behind blockchains
Challenges of expanding in the U.S.
Algorand’s plans for 2024

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Robinhood’s still on a quest to make crypto mainstream (w/ Johann Kerbrat) Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of crypto at Robinhood.

Johann is leading the application's effort to expand its crypto exchange business and make digital assets more accessible to retail investors.

Before joining Robinhood, Johann was an engineer at Airbnb and was the head of engineering at Uber and VP of engineering at Iron Fish, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency startup.

We discussed Robinhood’s expansion outside of the U.S., how the platform restricted holding and trading of certain crypto assets in June and where it stands today.

We also talked about:

Appealing to mainstream audiences
Growing crypto on its platform
Regulatory concerns
Robinhood’s 2024 objectives

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Crypto VC space may be on the cusp of recovery (w/ David Pakman) Dec 07, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund.

Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was a part of Apple’s system software product marketing group

We discussed the state of the crypto VC environment, areas he’s focusing on for investments and what he thinks investors are missing.

We also talked about:

AI compared to crypto
Future of NFTs
Regulatory impact on investors
2024 outlook
Advice for startups

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.
Connect with us:

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Optimism is optimistic for the future of Ethereum (w/ Jing Wang and Ryan Wyatt) Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Optimism’s CEO and co-founder Jing Wang and chief growth officer Ryan Wyatt.

Optimism is an Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain that focuses on scaling and speed, while also lowering costs for users. It helps users interact with Ethereum for about 10x cheaper through its blockchain and provides developers the ability to build decentralized applications (dApps) in a faster, scalable way.

Before taking on this new role at Optimism, Ryan had a little bit of a break but was the president of Polygon Labs (he came on the podcast at the beginning of the year to talk about it) and before that, he was Youtube’s Head of Gaming.

Jing co-founded Optimism in 2018 and before that she founded Plasma Group, a research firm focused on addressing challenges related to scaling Ethereum. She also previously managed blockchain projects at companies like Zcash and Nasdaq.

We discussed how layer-2 blockchains like Optimism are trying to solve scalability issues on Ethereum and where Jing and Ryan see growth opportunities right now.

We also talked about:

Base building with Optimism’s tech
Competition between Ethereum and other blockchains
Long term adoption
Web3 gaming

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected