Stay ConnectedThe crypto native’s podcast for DeFi, NFTs, and Web 3. .
Jason Choi (@mrjasonchoi), full-time crypto investor since 2018, goes deep into the technology and economics behind crypto projects to dissect trends and themes in a global context.
Nothing on this show is financial advice. Blockcrunch and its personnel may hold positions in assets discussed on the show.
In today's Roundtable Jason and Sanat discuss Social Apps! They kick things off with a review of friend.tech's Airdrop, before defining 'Web3 Social' and 'SocialFi'. The two then take a look at Farcaster's DAU growth, 'Stealcam', and the value-transfer in Social Apps. The two then discuss fantasy.top, Social Apps monetization, the explosion of pump.fun, and what the total-addressable-market of Social Apps might be. Plus, a whole bunch more—enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:20) friend.tech airdrop
(06:27) What is 'Web3 Social' & 'SocialFi'
(09:15) Farcaster user growth
(10:19) Stealcam
(13:25) Value transfer in SocialFi
(16:23) fantasy.top
(20:19) Early monetization in SocialFi
(26:17) pump.fun
(33:38) SocialFi TAM
(36:34) Analysing SocialFi protocols
(40:00) a16z 'How do you define a Social App?'
(43:19) Define SocialFi users
(49:00) Outro
Partner Message: Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a web3 guild protocol that enables players and gaming guilds to find their community, discover games and level up together. Its mission is to become the leading community-based user acquisition platform in web3 gaming through fun quests that help players build their onchain reputation
Find out more at https://investors.yieldguild.io/
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Sanat Kapur's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kapursanat
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
In today's episode Jason and Sanat take stock of token fundamentals. The two conduct a deep dive on C/DEX listing strategy, airdrop/liquidity campaigns, liquidity vs token volume, and much more. As well as looking at examples of winners and losers and also commentary on the recent StarkWare controversy, as well as Ethena's success—enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(03:02) "YGG Ad"
(04:16) Token/product relationship
(06:36) What makes a good token?
(15:03) How to get a C/DEX listing
(18:17) Exchanges as a price discovery tool
(20:18) When/how to engage with CEXs
(23:39) Points/aidrops liquidity campaigns
(30:16) Liquidity vs volume
(36:01) StarkWare controversy
(40:19) Ethena review
(44:33) Token holders
(47:24) Outro
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Sanat Kapur's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kapursanat
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
Today Jason is joined by Drift Co-Founder Cindy Leow & Developer Chris Healey. In today's episode the three discuss the founding story of Drift, why there was a gap in the market for Drift, why the Solana ecosystem made sense, and whether it would if Drift launched today. Cindy and Chris then share their bear market learnings, what they took away from the Luna saga, and Drift's 2024 roadmap—enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:48) Motivation to found Drift
(05:56) Why Drift chose Solana
(08:16) Ecosystem tradeoffs
(11:07) Drift's growth
(14:29) Bear market start-up learnings
(15:53) Would Drift choose Solana in 2024?
(19:35) Drift's USP
(24:21) Cross-collateralization
(28:45) Market research findings
(31:16) Luna leveraged short learnings
(36:05) Drift's roadmap
(38:28) Outro
Partner Message: Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a web3 guild protocol that enables players and gaming guilds to find their community, discover games and level up together. Its mission is to become the leading community-based user acquisition platform in web3 gaming through fun quests that help players build their onchain reputation
Find out more at https://investors.yieldguild.io/
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Blockcrunch Twitter:
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Cindy's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cindyleowtt
Chris' Twitter:
https://twitter.com/crispheaney
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
Today Jason is joined by Arweave Co-Founder & CEO Sam Williams. In this episode the two discuss the founding story of Arweave, solving infinite scalability, smart contract transferability, as well as breaking down actor oriented computing. Sam also explains the possibility of on-chain AI training with AO, AO's ostensibility, what the ecosystem allows for developers. Plus; the two explore the blockchain trilemma and AO's roadmap—enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(04:02) The history of AO
(09:51) Infinite scalability
(14:57) Smart contract transferability
(18:04) ELI5: Actor Oriented computing
(19:41) Composability trade-offs
(27:32) Removing on-chain AI training restraints with AO
(28:58) Security trade-offs
(32:31) The blockchain trilemma
(36:34) AO's extensibility
(42:22) AO ecosystem builders
(45:09) The AO roadmap
(49:59) Outro
Partner Message:
Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a web3 guild protocol that enables players and gaming guilds to find their community, discover games and level up together. Its mission is to become the leading community-based user acquisition platform in web3 gaming through fun quests that help players build their onchain reputation
Find out more at https://investors.yieldguild.io/
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Blockcrunch Twitter:
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Sam Williams' Twitter:
https://twitter.com/samecwilliams
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
Today Jason is joined by 9GAG CEO Ray Chan, the Godfather of meme's. In this episode Ray breaks down how to successfully transition from Web2 to Web3, why the 'midcurve strategy' might be best, the best Web3 GTM execution, as well as exploring a framework for Memeland, meme coin fundamentals, and an analysis of the modern day attention economy. For those of you deep in the meme cycle, obsessively on Blast, or otherwise interested in how and why we find ourselves in this memetic cycle, this one's for you—enjoy.
Note: 9GAG is an online platform and social media website based in Hong Kong, which allows its users to upload and share user-generated content or other content from external social media websites, check it out here: https://www.memeland.com/
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(03:09) "Yield Guild Games"
(04:09) Executing on Web2 to Web3
(11:24) Memeland explained
(16:48) The midcurve strategy
(19:24) Founder focuses & GTM strategy
(22:00) The attention economy
(26:43) Product features in relation to DAU
(31:21) A framework for Memeland
(39:28) Meme coin comparisons
(41:32) Commonalities of successful meme coins
(48:28) Differentiating from other meme coins
(53:20) Outro
Partner Message: Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a web3 guild protocol that enables players and gaming guilds to find their community, discover games and level up together. Its mission is to become the leading community-based user acquisition platform in web3 gaming through fun quests that help players build their onchain reputation
Find out more at https://investors.yieldguild.io/
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Blockcrunch Twitter:
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Ray Chan's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/9gagceo?lang=en
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
Today Jason is joined by Mahesh Ramakrishnan, Seed Investor at Escape Velocity (EV3). Today Mahesh joins us to discuss all things DePIN. The conversation begins with an overview on the DePIN category and why EV3 has chosen to focus it's attention here. The two then go on to review how the labour market may change as a result of DePIN developments, DePIN's unit economics, bandwidth vs compute providers, as well as EV3's North Star, and 2024's leading DePIN projects. This is not one to miss as we breakdown the past, present, and future of decentralized physical infrastructure—enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:19) Why EV3 focuses on DePIN
(05:34) DePIN's developments
(11:22) The future of UBI & DePIN node operators
(13:38) DePIN categories
(20:22) DePIN network unit economics
(30:15) Bandwidth vs compute providers
(33:25) EV3's DePIN market research approach
(36:37) EV3's North Star
(40:40) 2024's leading DePIN projects
(44:29) DePIN's marketshare
(48:20) Outro
Twitter accounts:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Mahesh Ramakrishnan's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/moneromahesh
Episode content links:
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
In today's Roundtable, Jason and Sanat take a moment to assess what has happened in Q1 2024. They kick things off by discussing new BTC ATH's and what this means for liquidity flows and meme coins. As a result, the two turn to venture opportunities this cycle, given the meme activity in recent months. Jason and Sanat then go on to discuss the Jupiter Airdrop, the future of L1s, EigenLayer's $100M raise from a16z, as well as a review on Ethena as the most dominant rev-gen application in crypto right now, and much more — enjoy!
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:01) ETH Denver recap
(04:16) BTC ATH review
(11:47) Liquidity flows & meme coins
(18:36) 2024 cycle venture investing
(20:31) $JUP: Jupiter Airdrop
(26:21) The future of L1s
(30:52) EigenLayer: a16z $100M raise
(36:52) Ethena: the biggest rev-driving application in crypto
(39:35) Maker Endgame
(42:50) BTC L2s
(47:57) Uniswap fee switch update
(52:13) Outro
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Sanat Kapur's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kapursanat
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
In today's Roundtable, Jason and Sanat are joined by Catrina Wang of Portal Ventures. Catrina has written one of the most comprehensive breakdowns of the BTC/BRC thesis to-date. At the time of recording (02/22/24) Bitcoin just broke $50,000, however what's new this cycle is the BRC phenomenon. Today, BRC's are at a $3 billion market cap and now more than ever, there's a rekindled interest in BTC L2s.
In this episode Catrina discusses her thesis in detail, as it relates to BRC reactions, intended target market, adoption strategy, WBTC, BTC L2 vs BitVM, Layer 1 programmability, The Panda Renaissance and much more! Press play now.
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:31) Catrina's BTC Thesis
(07:29) Initial BRC reactions
(09:06) Ordinals & programmability demand
(12:24) BRC target market
(15:11) How to achieve BRC adoption
(21:30) How much of the BRC/BTC market is not addressed by WBTC
(23:54) BTC L2 vs BitVM
(33:15) Centralized L2 trust vs security conscious BRC users
(35:21) What is the additional catalyst for BRC scalability?
(40:00) Liquidity: building programmability on Layer 1
(41:00) The Panda Renaissance Thesis
(45:58) Outro
Twitter accounts:
Jason Choi's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
Sanat Kapur's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kapursanat
Catrina Wang's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/dotcuriouscat
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/p/a-bitcoin-thesis-the-panda-renaissance
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
Today Jason is joined by none other than EigenLayer Founder, Sreeram Kannan. Sreeram kicks things off by sharing the founding story of EigenLayer and how Sreeram and the team thought about EigenLayer's value proposition. Jason then digs into the details; what are EigenLayer's Actively Validates Services (AVS)? Are there security assumptions related to slashing? What are the centralisation considerations for EigenLayer? What are the commercial incentives for builders? And much, much more. Enjoy the conversation and please share and like — it goes a long way.
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:29) EigenLayor's backstory & Sreeram's early start
(11:05) EigenLayer's proposition
(14:54) EigenLayer's AVS: Actively Validated Services
(19:56) Slashing & security assumptions
(29:40) EigenLayer's centralisation considerations
(34:30) Commercial incentives
(42:37) Long term incentives: coprocessor & intelligent DeFi
(46:40) Best vs worst case for the future of EigenLayer
(57:30) Outro
Twitter accounts:
https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi
https://twitter.com/sreeramkannan
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
In today's Roundtable 006 episode Jason and Sanat discuss all things Airdrops. They start by reviewing the history of Airdrops, among the most successful releases, before diving deep on trying to objectively evaluate Airdrops and their utility; are they a good way for retail investors to make money, for founders to grow their projects and whether or not it's financially sound strategy and business decision. Jason and Sanat dive deep on the data, reviewing on-chain activity and historic examples — this is not one to miss, enjoy
Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(03:10) Historic tier-1 Airdrops
(11:45) Fiat raises vs Airdrops
(18:05) Airdrop customer-acquisition-cost analysis
(33:32) LayerZero Airdrop speculation
(41:50) Gamification of points vs Airdrops
(46:12) Whales Market points market
(48:48) Points as user retention mechanic critique
(52:40) Celestia Airdrop: crypto native user reward strategy
(53:40) Points program scrutiny continued
(57:30) Outro
Hosts:
Watch the episode on Youtube:
Blockcrunch VIP:
https://blockcrunch.substack.com/
Disclaimer:
The Blockcrunch Podcast ("Blockcrunch") is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch's guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch's podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.
Full disclaimer: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/about
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