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#438: Austin Federa, Co-Founder of DoubleZero, on The Next Internet, The Future of Solana, and Validators May 12, 2025

Show notes

Austin Federa is the Co-Founder of DoubleZero, a dedicated high-performance network for modern distributed systems, and President of the DoubleZero Foundation.

Prior to co-founding DoubleZero in 2024, Austin served as Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation where he was responsible for setting the direction of the Foundation and working with projects and developers building across the Solana ecosystem. Previously, Austin worked on marketing and product at Bison Trails, and was Director of Marketing at Republic and Republic Crypto, a private investing platform.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- The future of Solana
- Token 2049 & Dubai
- Solana’s emergency patch
- We are living in the best time, and we’re on a good track
- How AI will impact our lives
- The founding story of Double Zero
- Increase bandwidth and reduce latency
- Testnet transactions are always quicker than mainnet
- Manufacturing
- Scaling to 500,000 TPS
- Why validators are so important
- Data routing is a huge problem for high-performance networks

DoubleZero
Website: doublezero.xyz
X: @doublezero
Discord: discord.gg/doublezero

Austin Federa
X: @Austin_Federa
LinkedIn: Austin Federa

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#437: Joe Burnett, Director of Market Research at Unchained, on Bitcoin Treasury Companies, Storing Bitcoin, and Financial Services for Bitcoin Holders May 08, 2025

Show notes

Joe Burnett is the Director of Market Research at Unchained, a leading bitcoin financial services company founded in 2016.

At Unchained, Joe drives research and market analysis efforts, delivering insights into bitcoin movement indicators, market trends, and the evolving needs of Unchained’s client base — from individual holders to large institutions. As the host of The Bitcoin Frontier Podcast, he leads expert discussions surrounding bridging the gap between bitcoin adoption and financial markets to audiences worldwide.

Before joining Unchained, Joe served as Product Manager and Head Analyst at Blockware Solutions, where he shaped market research and product strategy focused on bitcoin mining. An influential voice in the bitcoin community, Joe’s commentary regularly appears across major media outlets, and his independent publication, The Mustard Seed, offers unique perspectives on the future of bitcoin, technology, and civilization.

Joe holds a Master’s degree in Business Analytics and a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and Computer Science from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- HODL waves = tracking the movement of bitcoins on-chain
- Saylor’s billion $ BTC buys not moving the market?
- Bitcoin as a strategic reserve
- Collaborative custody model
- Financial services for Bitcoin holders
- Bitcoin market trends and analysis
- Publicly traded companies holding bitcoin
- nMAV for bitcoin treasury companies
- Have we decoupled?
- Bitcoin reaching gold parity

Unchained
Website: www.unchained.com
X: @unchained
LinkedIn: Unchained

Joe Burnett
X: @IIICapital
LinkedIn: Joe Burnett, MSBA
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This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.
PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance.

#436: Raullen Chai, CEO of IoTeX, on The Current DePIN Landscape, Autonomous Infrastructure, and How Physical AI Changes The Game May 05, 2025

Show notes

Raullen Chai is the Co-Founder and CEO of IoTeX, a modular Web3 infrastructure platform connecting smart devices and real-world data to blockchains. Chai is an expert cryptographer, privacy and data security expert who previously held positions at Google, Uber and Oracle. At Google, he led security initiatives for the company’s technical infrastructure and was the founding engineer of Google Cloud Load Balancer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, where his research focused on designing and analyzing lightweight ciphers and IoT authentication protocols.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Raullen’s journey from working at Google, Uber, Oracle >>> founding IoTEX
- Waterloo grads moving to USA instead of staying in Canada
- Why Physical AI changes the game
- The DePIN + AI strategic reserve
- Current DePIN landscape
- Smart cities & infrastructure for the people
- Decentralized robotics
- Autonomous infrastructure
- Unlocking real-time, real-world AI inputs
- Enabling sentient AI agents and self-learning infrastructure
- An Uber-like system for robots

IoTex
Website: iotex.io
X: @iotex_io
LinkedIn: IoTex

Raullen Chai
X: @Raullen
LinkedIn: Raullen Chai

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This episode is brought to you by Treehouse.
Treehouse features two powerful innovations: tAssets, a new class of liquid staking primitives, designed to generate enhanced yields through interest rate arbitrage, and DOR, short for Decentralized Offered Rates, a transparent and reliable consensus-driven benchmark rate for digital assets.

Together, they tackle some of DeFi’s biggest problems: fragmented interest rates and the lack of unified benchmarks.

So whether you’re after stable yields or helping shape the future of on-chain finance, Treehouse has the infrastructure to power your journey.

They’re also running their GoNuts rewards program, simply hold tAssets to earn Nuts, and stand to be rewarded at the end of the campaign.

Head over to their website at treehouse.finance to explore more, and follow them on X @TreehouseFi to stay updated.

The future of decentralized fixed income is being built, and it's being built by Treehouse.

#435: Michael Mo, CEO of KULR Technology Group, on Acquiring 668 BTC, The Future of Robotics, and Thermal Management Tech May 01, 2025

Show notes

Michael Mo is the CEO and Co-founder of KULR Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: KULR), a leader in energy management solutions accelerating the global transition to a sustainable electrification economy. Under his leadership, KULR has developed cutting-edge thermal management and battery safety technologies that power innovations in aerospace, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage systems.

A seasoned technology entrepreneur and investor, Michael brings over 20 years of experience in go-to-market strategy, product development, and business growth within hardware, semiconductor, and energy sectors. Before founding KULR, he was Senior Director of Product Marketing at Amlogic Inc., where he drove strategic product initiatives, and an early-stage investor in more than 20 technology companies, including Spreadtrum Communications, CadMos, and AllBusiness.com.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Getting orange-pilled by Michael Saylor
- KULR’s strategic BTC treasury acquiring 668 BTC
- Digital capital and digital energy
- Adopting the corporate bitcoin reserve strategy
- Volatility = vitality
- Why don’t more public companies adopt BTC?
- KULR’s recent partnership with German Bionic for exoskeletons
- Robotics will 100% be a multi-trillion dollar industry
- Thermal management tech
- Future Developments in Energy Management
- The importance of energy in AI

KULR Technology
Website: kulr.ai
X: @KULRTech
Instagram: @kulrtech

Michael Mo
X: @michaelmokulr
LinkedIn: Michael Mo

#434: Daniel ‌Marin, Founder of Nexus, on Enabling the Verifiable Internet, Aggregating Unused Compute Power, ZK Tech, and Verifiable AI Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

Daniel ‌Marin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nexus. Daniel founded Nexus in 2022 while he was at Stanford with the mission to enable the Verifiable Internet, which will redefine digital trust and create a more transparent, secure, and efficient world. To achieve this mission, Nexus is building a globally distributed Layer-1 blockchain powered by a zkVM engine.

Daniel earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University. He was named to Forbes’ ’30 Under 30’ list in 2025, and earned Bronze medals at the International Physics Olympiad in 2018 and 2019.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Are we back?
- Enabling the Verifiable Internet
- Parallels between AI and ZK
- Aggregating unused compute power
- Verifiable AI
- Solving critical issues around privacy, trust, and security
- 2.1 million users and 3.6 million nodes already connected to the network
- With Nexus, more nodes = faster blockchain
- Verifiable computation will impact many markets, blockchain is just one example
- The power of zkEVM
- The future of AI & Blockchain

Nexus
Website: nexus.xyz
X: @NexusLabs
Discord: discord.gg/nexus-xyz

Daniel Marin
X: @danielmarinq
LinkedIn: Daniel Marin

#433: Leah Wald, CEO of SOL Strategies, on Becoming More Than the MicroStrategy of Solana, TradFi Crypto Investments, and Solana ETFs Apr 24, 2025

Show notes

Leah Wald is CEO of SOL Strategies (CSE: HODL), a publicly traded Canadian company actively investing in, supporting, and providing infrastructure for the Solana blockchain ecosystem. Prior to Sol Strategies, Leah co-founded and was the CEO of Valkyrie Investments, leading the firm to over $1.3 billion in AUM through cryptocurrency trusts, hedge funds, and ETFs. Valkyrie’s advisory business was acquired by CoinShares, and its private trust division by Abra Capital in 2024. Previously, Leah worked at the World Bank Group in the sub-Saharan African region and served as a Partner at Lucid Investment Strategies, one of the first RIAs to allocate GBTC for their clients. Ms. Wald is a contributing writer for Forbes and co-authored the book Hyperwave Theory: The Rogue Waves of Financial Markets.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Becoming more than the MicroStrategy of Solana
- Acquiring OrangeFin Ventures + Laine Validators (Stakewiz)
- The difference between SOL Strategies and SOL ETFs
- Investing in ETFs vs companies
- Why investment advisors don’t push public crypto companies + ETFs
- Partnership with Pudgy Penguins
- The future of the Solana ecosystem
- Pudgy penguins securing a SOL validator
- Investing in crypto via publicly traded companies
- Launching a Solana staking mobile app
- Bridging consumer brands with institutional blockchain infrastructure:
- Branded validators

SOL Strategies
Website: solstrategies.io
X: @solstrategies_
LinkedIn: SOL Strategies Inc.

Leah Wald
X: @LeahWald
LinkedIn: Leah Wald

#432: John Lilic, CEO of Telos, on Quantum Money and Quantum Computing’s Threat (and Opportunity) to Crypto Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

John Lilic, CEO of Telos, is a technology entrepreneur and investor focused on blockchain, cryptography, and quantum infrastructure. A leading angel VC, he has taken the Q pill and believes the quantum threat and opportunity are arriving much sooner and more profoundly than most in the blockchain ecosystem realize.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- The quantum pill
- Quantum vs Blockchain Security
- Quantum money
- Post-Quantum money vision
- PQC
- Concepts for quantum-native financial infrastructure
- Crypto has serious competition coming with quantum on the rise
- Why blockchain is an important step but not the final destination
- Why the quantum threat is arriving sooner and with greater impact than most expect
- The disconnect between popular discourse and real quantum progress
- How to get involved in quantum computing today?

Telos
Website: www.telos.net
X: @HelloTelos
Telegram: t.me/HelloTelos

John Lilic
X: @LilicJohn
LinkedIn: John Lilic

Together, they tackle some of DeFi’s biggest problems: fragmented interest rates and the lack of unified benchmarks.

So whether you’re after stable yields or helping shape the future of on-chain finance, Treehouse has the infrastructure to power your journey.

They’re also running their GoNuts rewards program, simply hold tAssets to earn Nuts, and stand to be rewarded at the end of the campaign.

Head over to their website at treehouse.finance to explore more, and follow them on X @TreehouseFi to stay updated.

The future of decentralized fixed income is being built, and it's being built by Treehouse.

#431: Jag Sidhu, Core Developer at Syscoin, on Scaling Bitcoin's Utility and Creating AI-Ready Infrastructure for Crypto Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

Jagdeep (Jag) Sidhu is the core developer at Syscoin and part of the management team at SYS Labs, Building Bitcoin’s only modular network. Jag has a strong background in software engineering and is a pioneer in the crypto industry. As a core developer, Jagdeep has marshalled the world’s fifth-oldest surviving cryptocurrency into its second decade, creating tools, technologies, and services that enhance the functionality and usability of the Syscoin platform.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Trump’s tariffs tantrums and it’s market implications
- Will crypto decouple from trad-fi?
- Building on Bitcoin
- The founding story and history of Syscoin
- AI-Ready infrastructure for crypto
- Human observation in the development of AGI
- Supporting AI-driven decentralized applications
- Scaling Bitcoin’s utility
- Launching mainnet for zkSYS
- Merge-Mining with Bitcoin
- Proof-of-Data Availability (PoDA)

Syscoin
Website: syscoin.org
X: @syscoin
Telegram: t.me/Syscoin_Official

Jag Sidhu
X: @realSidhuJag
LinkedIn: Jagdeep Sidhu

Together, they tackle some of DeFi’s biggest problems: fragmented interest rates and the lack of unified benchmarks.

So whether you’re after stable yields or helping shape the future of on-chain finance, Treehouse has the infrastructure to power your journey.

They’re also running their GoNuts rewards program, simply hold tAssets to earn Nuts, and stand to be rewarded at the end of the campaign.

Head over to their website at treehouse.finance to explore more, and follow them on X @TreehouseFi to stay updated.

The future of decentralized fixed income is being built, and it's being built by Treehouse.

#430: Chris Chung, Co-Founder of Titan, on Solana DeFi, DEX Aggregators and Stablecoins Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

Chris Chung is the CEO & Co-Founder of Titan, Solana’s first Meta DEX Aggregator. In addition, Chris is very active in the Toronto Solana ecosystem as the local ambassador for MonkeDao in Toronto, as well as a Superteam Canada member. Chris previously served as the CTO of a cryptocurrency and US equity hedge fund building out low latency analytics, back office reporting, and trading systems.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Crypto in Canada
- Living in Toronto
- Talented Canadians moving to USA
- Solana DEX landscape and why it's ripe for disruption
- What exactly is a “Meta DEX Aggregator?
- Live-streaming price updates
- SOL vs. ETH
- Titan's role in the Solana DeFi stack
- One-Click Spot Swaps = bread and butter
- Amazing time to buy $SOL
- Next growth catalyst = payments & stablecoins

Titan
Website: titandex.io
X: @Titan_Exchange
Telegram: t.me/TitanDexSol

Chris Chung
X: @realRockyChung
LinkedIn: Chris Chung

Together, they tackle some of DeFi’s biggest problems: fragmented interest rates and the lack of unified benchmarks.

So whether you’re after stable yields or helping shape the future of on-chain finance, Treehouse has the infrastructure to power your journey.

They’re also running their GoNuts rewards program, simply hold tAssets to earn Nuts, and stand to be rewarded at the end of the campaign.

Head over to their website at treehouse.finance to explore more, and follow them on X @TreehouseFi to stay updated.

The future of decentralized fixed income is being built, and it's being built by Treehouse.

#429: Willem Shroé, CEO of Botanix Labs, on Building a Bitcoin EVM L2, The Future of Bitcoin, and Spiderchain Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

Willem Schroé is the CEO and Co-Founder of Botanix Labs, the team behind Spiderchain, the on-chain home of Bitcoin Finance. Willem is an engineer and lifelong entrepreneur from Belgium, where he researched authenticated encryption and macroeconomics, and was a national mathematics medalist. He formed the thesis of the Spiderchain whiteboarding in the halls of Spangler while doing his MBA at Harvard, and continues to be a menace to whiteboards across the world with his cryptographic scribbles.

In this conversation, we discuss:
- Bitcoin EVM outperforming BitVM
- ZKrollups don't work on Bitcoin
- Bitcoin isn't digital gold; it's digital money
- Using Bitcoin for day-to-day transactions
- Bitcoin finance adoption
- Fully programmable Bitcoin without compromising decentralization
- The importance of unlocking Bitcoin’s $1T+ market cap for on-chain finance
- How Spiderchain differs from other Bitcoin Layer 2s
- Earning yield from your bitcoin without selling
- The importance of decentralization
- The magic of whiteboards

Botanix Labs
Website: botanixlabs.xyz
X: @BotanixLabs
Discord: discord.gg/botanixlabs

Willem Schroé
X: @WillemSchroe
LinkedIn: Willem Schroé

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