The Charlie Shrem Show

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Community and Web 3 Marketing Strategies with Amanda Cassatt Sep 01, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is Amanda Cassatt, Founder and CEO of Serotonin. Serotonin is the leading crypto marketing practice, with over 40 employees worldwide, supporting the top teams pushing the decentralization movement forward. With expertise spanning DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs, Serotonin supports premier projects like IPFS, major brands like Sotheby's, and everything in between. Serotonin is the leading web3 marketing firm specializing in companies both native and new to web3. Their services take products and brands to market with brand positioning, visual design, content, PR, community, growth, events, and more. In addition to marketing services, Serotonin has invested in creating an in-house product and engineering team that builds and spins out software companies. The first such spinout is Mojito, the NFT commerce suite that is the top choice by major brands and rights holders for engaging in d-commerce on web3. Amanda is an explorer of technology, economics, and culture. An early crypto entrepreneur, Amanda brought Ethereum to market as ConsenSys' Chief Marketing Officer from 2016 through 2019. During that time, Amanda also created Ethereal, the crypto cultural event series that hosted some of the first NFT galleries and popularized Ethereum from SXSW to Davos. After working on Ethereum through its initial growth period, she co-founded Serotonin. Amanda currently serves as CEO of Serotonin and President of Mojito. We discuss various topics, including Marketing within Web3, Building Decentralized Brands, ConsenSys, Crypto Twitter, Community, and more. We begin our conversation by discussing what content someone new to the space should consume. Amanda stresses the importance of immersing yourself in Crypto Twitter and how Twitter is the best place to learn about recent trends and concepts at the forefront of crypto. We discuss the value proposition of web3 social networks and the benefits from a censorship-resistant and audience portability standpoint. Amanda explains the platform risks that persist throughout traditional social networks and how web3 allows creators to have more autonomy. Our next conversation topic was centered around Amanda’s time working at ConsenSys. She shares how while at ConsenSys was able to spearhead many of the marketing practices now widely used throughout the crypto industry. Amanda explains how Serotonin is helping many Web 3 companies go to market and figure out the best way to grow their brand, engage with their audience and navigate web 3. We discuss the importance of community and how the strength of a crypto project’s community is vital for its success. Amanda shares nuances to help evaluate the value of a project’s community better to assess the project’s long-term viability. Our final conversation topic focused on the role of marketing within Web 3. Amanda explains why there will always be a need for marketing in Web 3. She also details how as a project matures, the need for marketing becomes less critical because of the incentives that exist within crypto innately. Please enjoy my conversation with Amanda Cassatt.

BingX is a crypto social trading exchange with over 3M users. BingX offers futures, spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 countries worldwide and connects users with expert traders on the platform in a safe, simple, and transparent way through social trading networks.

For Charlie’s listeners only, register using this link for a 155 USDT Welcome Gift: https://untoldstories.link/bingx

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let's Talk Bitcoin with Adam B. Levine Aug 30, 2022

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Today's guest is my friend Adam B. Levine, the founder and CEO of Tokenly and 330 AI. Tokenly is a leading innovator and developer of turnkey blockchain and token solutions. They have launched five blockchain applications, including turnkey solutions for blockchain eCommerce, auctions, secure multi-sig wallets, token creation, token crowd sales, and more. 330 AI Innovations is a technology company that creates unique text-to-image generator products utilizing a vast tool kit of artificial intelligence to fulfill the artist's vision for individual users and businesses. Adam is an entrepreneur, a frequent collaborator, an asymmetrical strategist, and a tangential thinker. Adam’s other interests include additive manufacturing tech, autonomous systems, new interfaces, open source hardware, and improbable solutions to impossible problems that could change everything. Adam is also the editor of CoinDes’s audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. BTC, Inc. acquired the LTBN in January 2017. With the network launched and growing in late 2014, Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. He led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com, and media with Token.fm. We discuss various topics, including 330 AI, Bitcoin, Crypto Culture, individual liberties, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing the dynamics of the early Bitcoin community. Adam explains why he believes Bitcoin has already won and the monetary movement spurred by Bitcoin is inevitable. We transition to discuss the importance of Crypto-Twitter to the fabric of the culture of crypto. Adam explains the progression of crypto discourse from IRC to Twitter. We discuss the importance of the origins of Bitcoin IRC to Bitcoin’s history. Our conversation transitioned to discuss Adam’s backstory and how he found bitcoin. We touch on why Adam has been adamant about refraining from talking about the price of Bitcoin on his podcasts. We discuss why permission blockchains will not be the future. We discuss the importance of innovation competition. Our next conversation topic focused on individual liberties. We discuss how Bitcoin preserves personal freedoms and the problem with regulatory capture and disincentives. We have a fascinating conversation about why El Salvador is important and what it represents. Our final discussion topic centered around 330ai. We discuss the future of gaming and generative art. Adam shares possible applications for generative art and how groundbreaking this technology can be. Please enjoy my conversation with Adam B. Levine.

SafePal is a Singapore-based Binance labs backed company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the crypto masses. With the mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions, including hardware wallet, mobile wallet, extension wallet, cross-chain swap, trading service, and more. SafePal has supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages, and serves more than 6 million users global-wide.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-hardware-wallet.html

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How to get a Crypto Job with Lacey Kaelani Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is Lacey Kaelani, the founder of Metaintro. Metaintro is a professional resume wallet for web3. Utilising the Flow Blockchain and NFT technology, users can access their wallets through a browser extension, which can then be used to interact with web3 job applications. The wallet holds certifications, proof of work, and credentials, reducing the hiring time. Lacey is a two-time founder, previously co-founding a professional network for media & entertainment called Casting Depot. Currently, she’s the founder of Metaintro. Before founding her own company, she worked in casting departments at various studios in the Entertainment industry, including MTV, Nickelodeon, and A+E Network. We discuss various topics in the episode, including Metaintro, the crypto job market, advice for joining the crypto space, the entertainment industry, and much more. We begin our conversation with Lacey sharing her experience starting a casting company for the entertainment industry and how that information helped her in her current startup, Metaintro. Lacey explains the various outdated practices that plague the entertainment industry and how some of these issues mirror the issues people face when trying to hire someone in the crypto space. We discuss how she initially became involved in crypto and what attracted her to Web3. Our following conversation focused on Metaintro. Lacey outlines the thesis behind it and their North Star, guiding how they develop the project, explaining why their goal is to replace PDF resumes with wallet-based resumes. We discuss the most popular jobs in Web3 and how the nontechnical side is exploding with opportunities. Lacey shares tips for people looking to hire talent and advice for people looking to join the crypto space. We had an exciting conversation discussing why headhunters and recruiters are antithetical to crypto’s ethos and why they will eventually fall out of fashion within crypto. We also discuss the incredible growth of Metaintro’s community and the stickiness of their community. Metaintro is a community-first company, and it is exciting to hear how powerful a resource is for a crypto-native company. We also discuss the dynamics within the web3 job market that empowers employees and employers in a mutually beneficial way. We also had a fascinating discussion about the future of web3 native worker unions and the possible implications this would have on the space by creating a standard of best practices for crypto-native companies. We also touch on the continued growth of the crypto job market even through the bear market. Bear markets are for building, so it is no surprise that companies and protocols are still hungry for talent. One of our final topics focuses on the debate around privacy and the degree of access to someone’s credentials. We discuss how Web3 can enable a more privacy-centric approach for job seekers without compromising their ability to share their work history and portfolio with prospective employers. Our final discussion topic centered around the future of web3 and the nomenclature used to describe the space. This was a great discussion; anyone interested in understanding the job market dynamics of web3 or looking to join the space must listen. Please enjoy my conversation with Lacey Kaelani.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-hardware-wallet.html

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Death of Maximalism with George Harrap Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is George Harrap, co-founder of Step Finance, the front page of Solana, whose mission is to take the currently disjointed and hard-to-understand Solana DeFi ecosystem and distill it into a single platform. Step Finance is a portfolio visualization platform aggregating all LPs, tokens, farms, and positions a user may have associated with their wallet and displays them on a seamless dashboard. Step aims to be the page that DeFi users have open perpetually, with all the functions and information they need to make informed decisions. George is also an advisor at YAP Global. George is a veteran crypto entrepreneur and former CEO and Co-founder of Bitspark. He started in the crypto world almost a decade ago as an early miner, and brings a wealth of experience, having built the first crypto remittance startup in the world, built six cryptocurrency exchanges, both centralized and decentralized, and launched 12 stablecoins, raising millions from VC and corporate investors along the way. We discuss various topics, including Solana, Crypto Adoption, the future of DeFi, the industry's early days, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how George began his crypto journey. George shares how he first got into crypto by mining bitcoin. We also discuss how we learned finance and financial literacy by trying to understand crypto and the principles behind it. George also discusses his first crypto-startup, Bitspark, and the various roadblocks he faced. We discuss the exponential growth of crypto adoption over the last few years and how that has enabled more crypto-native businesses to start. We pivot our conversation to discuss Solana. We begin our conversation by discussing how to evaluate coins based on their philosophy and the unique problem they're optimizing for. George explains how Solana is optimizing for transaction speed and low cost. George also discusses the importance of hitting a critical mass of users for the ecosystem to become valuable, which Solana has over the last year. George explains the consensus mechanism that powers Solana and how it differs from Proof-of-Stake. We discuss the different approaches various chains take to scale their transaction output. George explains the security risks and user experience problems associated with Layer-2 solutions. We transition our conversation to discuss how crypto impacts emerging market societies where their financial systems are less robust and trusted than their first-world counterparts. Our next discussion topic centered around the merge. We discuss the various probable outcomes of the merge and the second-order consequences of the merge. Our final discussion topic centered around Solana’s go-to-market strategy. George explains Solana’s unique approach to user acquisition and its marketing philosophy. Please enjoy my conversation with George Harrap.

Use code charlie for 10% off SafePal’s S1 wallet at https://store.safepal.io/safepal-s1-hardware-wallet.html

Download the SafePal App and SafePal extension wallet at https://untoldstories.link/safepal

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Building an Army of Fans with Sarah Figueroa Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is Sarah Figueroa, CEO, and co-founder of Geojam. Geojam is a social engagement platform that generates meaningful and passion-fueled engagement between fans and creators. Their vision is to build the creator economy of the future that redirects the flow of incentives back into the hands of the creators and users themselves. Geojam has been a bridge for fans to engage directly with artists, athletes, and influencers such as Mariah Carey, Machine Gun Kelly, and Nyjah Huston. With the inception of their token, $JAM, they combine the technological advancements of decentralized finance with real-world experiences while interweaving the ethos of autonomous decentralized communities and mainstream social networking. Sarah Figueroa is the CEO and co-founder of Geojam. Sarah is a serial entrepreneur with ten years of experience building and designing consumer tech companies centered around social media, entertainment, and the community. She has been recognized in the New York Times for Geojam’s pivot during the pandemic and is a Rolling Stone Culture Council member. Sarah is extremely passionate about community governance and decentralization; as an early adopter of Ethereum, she has been mining crypto since 2016. At Geojam, she leads a fifteen-person team on product, marketing, and token utility. Before founding Geojam, Sarah founded One Box Agency, a creative agency for Brands, Events, and Talent. They produced groundbreaking 360˚ marketing experiences that ignited consumers to turn up the volume on a brand's story. We discuss various topics, including Geojam, the future of the creator economy, Web3 and NFTs, tokenomics, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Sarah found her way to crypto. We discussed our passion for the crypto community and what compelled her to start a crypto-based social media company. We discuss how Geojam evolved and transitioned to become a fully crypto-native company. We transition our conversation to discuss how Geojam is a community-first platform. Sarah explains how Geojam enables creators and their fans to further engage by helping creators design their merch line, where they should go on tour, organizing events together, and much more. Sarah details how Geojam is a decentralized mobile first governance tool. Sarah explains how these creators and the community can participate in governance by proposing ideas seamlessly and frictionlessly. We pivot to discuss Geojam’s collaboration with Mariah Carey, where a fan had the opportunity to go on her private jet with Mariah. Sarah explains why creators are incentivized to use Geojam and the insights they gain from their audience using the platform. We transition to discuss the process of designing Geojam’s tokenomics and the benefit of creating a token to engage with your community. Sarah explains Geojam’s goal to become the hub for communities by building tools and a decentralized hub for community members to engage with each other. We discuss how Web3 can help emerging artists develop their community and fanbase. We discuss the power of superfans and how Geojam enables them to be as involved as possible. Our final discussion topic centered around utility. We discuss the importance of utility to tokens and more potential applications for NFTs and how the use of NFTs may evolve. Please enjoy my conversation with Sarah Figueroa.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bringing DeFi to Bitcoin with Chad Barraford and Erik Voorhees Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guests are Chad Barraford and Erik Voorhees. Chad Barraford is the technical lead at Thorchain, a decentralized liquidity network. Before this, he served as Chief Technology Officer at the Skyy Network, where he designed and built air traffic management on a blockchain. Barraford was also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cryptocades, an online gaming site that utilizes a device’s spare computing to mine Monero. THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to easily exchange cryptocurrency assets across a range of networks without losing full custody of their investments in the process. Erik Voorhees is the founder of the startup ShapeShift.io, a Bitcoin and altcoin exchange. He is a dedicated supporter of Bitcoin and frequently is a speaker at related conferences and meetings. Voorhees believes the national monetary system has essential problems, and he, being an opponent of taxation, is actively involved in the creation of cryptocurrency regulation. He is also advocating for the use of smart contracts. We discuss various topics, including Thorchain, ShapeShift, open source systems, the permissionless revolution, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing ShapeShift’s transition to becoming a DAO. Erik discusses where the idea started and what compelled the company to transition to DAO. Erik explains the various reasons that influenced the company's decision to become a DAO. We transitioned to discuss ThorChain. We begin our conversation about ThorChain by discussing THORChain's origins and how it garnered so much interest. We discuss the ambition of the project. Chad explains why Thorchain is against the use of bridges and wrapped assets. We discuss how wrapped assets and bridges are not decentralized and how they limit the full potential of crypto. Erik discusses what attracted him to Thorchain and how his experience running ShapeShift informed him of the need for infrastructure that enabled trustless swapping of assets. Erik goes on to explain how Thorchain is able to allow decentralized swapping. We transition to discuss Thorchain’s commitment to creating a permissionless system. Chad and Erik explain how the system derives its security and how this is enabled by how Thorchain was designed and engineered. We transition to discuss how anyone can get involved with the projects because they are open source and why this leads to more innovation over time. We discuss how tokenomics incentives users and builders by giving them a vested interest in these protocols. Our next conversation topic centered around why value will accrue to the protocols that are open and permissionless. The final topic we discussed was where the yield is derived from on THORChain. Erik explains how the yield on THORChain is directly coming from the fee revenue generated. Erik also touches on the nuances of being an LP on THORChain by describing how all the pools are denominated in RUNE and why that makes the system more stable.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Celebration of Bitcoin and Sarasota with Bob Williams Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

Today we have a special episode where I am sharing my conversation on Sarasota Stories hosted by Bob Williams. Bob hosts me to discuss the early days of Bitcoin, my love for Sarasota, how to navigate the crypto winter, my passion for film production, and much more. In each episode, Bob conducts in-depth interviews with a local Sarasota business owner, civic leader, entrepreneur, artist, or philanthropist to find out who they are, what they're doing now, and the impact they hope to make on the Sarasota community. This podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in learning more about me, the early days of Bitcoin, what makes Sarasota unique, and the disruptive potential of crypto in the film industry. We begin our conversation by discussing something people might not know about me: I am an avid guitarist. We discuss my broad range of taste in music and especially my love for bluegrass. We touch on the beauty of music and the ability to connect with people through playing music Our first major conversation topic centered around my backstory and upbringing. We discussed my very traditional Jewish upbringing and how that informed my understanding of the importance of community. We transition to how I first learned about Bitcoin by stumbling into an early Bitcoin chat forum. The forum was full of early bitcoin developers, and even Satoshi frequented and communicated to discuss Bitcoin. Our next conversation topic focused on my foray into Bitcoin. We discuss how I eventually started my bitcoin-focused startup, BitInstant, which became the first venture-backed Bitcoin startup. We discuss the craziness of the early Bitcoin days and how Bitinstant grew to encompass 30% of total Bitcoin transaction volume. We discussed how starting BitInstant propelled me to the world stage; I traveled all over the world to give talks about Bitcoin and the future possibilities this new technology could bring to the world. We discuss how one of the primary reasons why I was attracted to the Bitcoin space was because I found a family in the Bitcoin community. We discussed how I realized the disruptive potential of Bitcoin and why I knew the space was still in its infancy. We touch on how the initial experience using Bitcoin. Our conversation transitions to focus on how we ended up in sunny Sarasota. We discussed what attracted me to Sarasota. Another Sarasota conversation topic centered around how Sarasota is a burgeoning crypto hub. We discuss how Sarasota has birthed a wave of very successful crypto entrepreneurs. We also discuss what makes a city a crypto hub. We dive deep into the qualities of the city that attract and birth innovative leaders. Our next conversation topic centered around government and the importance of freedom. We discuss the necessary tradeoffs for a government to run effectively while preserving the rights of its citizens. We pivot our conversation to discuss the volatility and market turmoil currently impacting crypto. We discuss how bear markets are the perfect time to invest. We discuss the importance of doing due diligence and investing in projects with solid fundamentals. We stress the importance of dollar cost averaging and building conviction through the bear market. Our final conversation topic centered on my recent Cannes Film Festival trip. We discuss my experience of being a part of the festival and the overall vibe of the festival. We discuss the various problems with the business of making films and how DeFi and crypto can help address these inequities.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Building the Web3 AWS with Jesse Berger Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is Jesse Berger, serial Entrepreneur/technologist. Jesse is a Founding PKT community member and has raised over $300 million for films that generated over $850m in global revenue. PKT is a decentralized high-speed data network that enables anyone to monetize their unused internet bandwidth. Powered by PacketCrypt, the world’s first bandwidth-hard proof-of-work, people who connect to the PKT Network are paid in PKT Cash (PKT) every 60 seconds. PKT provides an economic incentive for people to grow internet connectivity and infrastructure with minimal technical knowledge. PKT Pal is a technology company building turnkey hardware and software solutions that support the open source PKT blockchain project. PKT Pal’s first product is the PKT Cube, a plug-and-play mining device with innovative features that allows people with minimal technical knowledge to monetize their unused internet bandwidth. PKT Cube features include a PKT hardware wallet and the ability to earn PKT Cash every 60 seconds and send and receive PKT payments using a mobile device. Future functionality includes connecting to a user’s home network from anywhere in the world via VPN, being paid to share wifi access with neighbors securely, and access to a variety of DApps for streaming, gaming, and more. We discuss various topics, including PKT, Decentralized Networks, Internet Infrastructure, the Film/Entertainment Industry, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing Jesse’s background in the film and entertainment industry. We discuss how a lot of the success of a movie comes down to luck. Jesse explains how many moving parts go into making a successful movie and how everything needs to go just right for a film to be a commercial success. Jesse discusses how the entertainment industry's inequity and lack of transparency opened his eyes to the need for an alternative system. Jesse explains the business of films. We discuss the process of selling a movie to a studio and the various hurdles and problems filmmakers and actors face during the process. This eventually brought him to crypto and web3. We transitioned our conversation to discuss the PKT network and the PKT cube. Jesse explains how the PKT network works and the origins of how the PKT network was developed. We discuss the enormous TAM for internet infrastructure and the need for a censorship-resistant way to access the internet. We discuss how our internet bandwidth is a commodity that isn’t fully utilized to its full potential and how PKT helps unlock this potential. We transitioned to discuss the PKT cube. Jesse explains how the PKT cube enables an easy on-ramp to the PKT network for people looking for a dedicated device that can be used to participate in the network. But Jesse stresses that unlike many of their competitors, the Cube is not necessary to participate in the network. Jesse explains how a user can elect to use a regular computer instead of the Cube. Another fascinating topic we discussed was how the tech protects the users from the liability of the actions of the people using PKT. We transitioned to discuss the use of NFTs in entertainment. We discuss how NFTs are the perfect medium for facilitating content rights ownership. Jesse explains how NFTs can be used to disrupt the monetization of various content mediums. Our final discussion topic centered around the future of the PKT network. Jesse discusses how they are thinking about scaling the infrastructure by building layers on top of PKT to enable more functionality. We discuss how PKT could bring smart contracts and NFTs to the PKT ecosystem and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Jesse Berger.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Gravity of Decentralization with Jesse Pollak Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Today’s guest is Jesse Pollak, Senior Director of Engineering at Coinbase. Coinbase is the premier platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency. Jesse is currently working on protocols, public goods, cities, and currencies at Coinbase. Jesse previously led all Retail engineering at Coinbase, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet. We discuss various topics, including Ethereum, the Merge, Smart Scaling, the gravity of Decentralization, Public Key Infrastructure, building in Bear Market, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how Jesse got into crypto. Jesse shares how he started a startup focusing on identity and security software. The company leveraged public key infrastructure to enable companies to scale their identity and security needs. Most of his clients were crypto companies; this is how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole. The company was eventually acqui-hired by Coinbase in 2016. Jesse explains how public key infrastructure works and how it is widely used in crypto and throughout the internet. We pivot our conversation to discuss why now is the best time to build in Crypto. We discuss how the tools for building in crypto have become more accessible and more robust. We also discuss why this bear market feels different than previous bear markets. We focus on discussing how the number of people building something exciting and innovative is ten times bigger than there was in the last bear market. The number of real-world use cases is an order of magnitude bigger than in previous cycles. This leads us to discuss what sector of crypto excites us the most. Jesse shares that the trend that excites him the most is the increased adoption of users and businesses. Jesse predicts that this trend will eventually culminate in the large migration of a large portion of our society being on-chain. We discuss how we are seeing legacy companies beginning to embrace crypto and integrating crypto into their business Our next conversation topic centered around the rise of alternative L1s and the importance of smart scaling. Jesse discusses how the emergence of alternative L1s has impacted Ethereum and its developer base. Jesse also addresses the design trade-offs these alternative L1s are making to achieve higher transaction throughput. We also discuss how the Ethereum developers have approached scaling Ethereum while prioritizing decentralization and security. Jesse outlines why he is excited about EIP-4844. Jesse explains how EIP-4844 will help scale Ethereum by reducing the cost of Layer2s on Ethereum. Jesse explains how L2s work and how they help Ethereum scale without compromising Ethereum’s decentralization. We discuss the trilemma problem that all blockchains face or will eventually face. Jesse shares his thesis in the ideal way. Blockchains will tackle this problem. A fascinating topic we discussed centered around how decentralization is a new form of gravity within crypto. Jesse explains how everything tended to gravitate towards the most centralized outcome in the legacy world and how crypto is inverting that paradigm. We discuss how decentralization enables people to have sovereignty and autonomy. Our final discussion topic centered around how the future will be layer-specific blockchains. Jesse explains how he believes that as crypto matures, DApps will converge onto layer-specific use cases on a few blockchains instead of having hundreds of different blockchains. Please enjoy my conversion with Jesse Pollak.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the Love of Bitcoin with Courtney Warner Shrem Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

Today we have a very special episode; we are celebrating our 300th episode. I am joined by my lovely wife, Courtney Warner Shrem. Thank you so much to everyone who has been on this incredible journey with me, from the listeners to our team that make this amazing show possible; thank you from the bottom of my heart. We discuss various topics and stories, including how we met, the early days of Bitcoin, advice for people pursuing a career in the arts, our love for Bitcoin and crypto, persevering through tough times, the origin of Untold Stories, and much more. We begin this iconic episode by discussing the EVR days. Our conversation started by discussing how we first met. Courtney shares how she became a cocktail waitress at EVR and helped facilitate the first payment of Bitcoin for a physical good in NYC. We discussed how in 2013, NYC was one of the few Bitcoin hubs and how, at the time, the community mainly existed in forums on cyberspace. We discuss the various legendary personalities who hung out at EVR. We share a charming story of how we were set up on a blind date by our friends who frequented the club. Our next conversation topic centered around traveling to our first Bitcoin Conference as a couple. Courtney shares her experience at the San Jose Bitcoin Conference and how small the community was at the time when compared to today’s conferences. An entertaining story we shared on the episode was the time I sold Fred Wilson his very first Bitcoin at Satoshi Square. Courtney explains the atmosphere and the electricity you felt when you would visit Satoshi Square. Another fun story we shared was about my and Vitalik’s first experience eating lobster. We pivot the conversation to discuss Courtney’s journey to Bitcoin and her passion for acting. Courtney discusses her experience pursuing acting and other artistic pursuits. Courtney shares her experience of her breakout role on set and the camaraderie that develops from being a part of the cast and crew on a movie set. We discuss how difficult it is to become a working actor and the grind it takes to break into the industry. She stresses the importance of creating opportunities for yourself in any artistic pursuit. Our next conversation topic centered around our various travels. We discuss our experience attending to La BitConf. We share memorable stories of our experience visiting Buenos Aires and the craziness of the conference. We pivot to discuss Stacy Herbert officiated our wedding and how we almost codified our marriage on the blockchain. We discuss the iconic Proof-of-Steak, which started the tradition of Bitcoin Steak Dinners. We discuss our various challenges during our relationship and how we have used them as springboards to further our relationship and lives to bigger and better places. We discussed how I used Steem as a way to reintroduce myself to the crypto community by sharing my thoughts on blog posts and hanging out in the Steem community. We discuss how incredible the crypto community is and how the crypto community is filled with so much love and support. Our final conversation was discussing how Untold Stories was started. Please enjoy my conversation with Courtney Warner Shrem. Thank you to everyone who supports the show and the fantastic team that makes this show possible. Love you guys.

This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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