The Defiant

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"Collector DAOs Are Going to be a Game-Changer For The NFT Space:" pplpleasr Apr 02, 2021

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In this week’s episode we talk with the DeFi artist of the moment. Pplpleasr got into DeFi drawn in by the crazy yields but really stayed when she resonated with the community —the gaming-like, niche subculture of memes and internet-native humor. She started making videos for many DeFi teams, from Yeran to Pickle Finance. Her latest and best-known work though is the video she made for the highly anticipated v3 of Uniswap. The clip of a unicorn in an otherworldly oasis, Ethereum dapp symbols floating about, gained her universal praise. But it’s what happened later when it gets really interesting. Pplpleasr decided, like many other artists these days, to sell the video as an NFT. But unlike most artists fetching big chunks of cash, she was set on donating the proceeds to charity. Also unlike other auctions, it was a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, created just for the occasion, what ended up winning the piece.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"I Try to Tell People About DeFi; It Will Come Here and Completely Flatten You:" Jim Bianco Mar 26, 2021

Show notes

Jim Bianco has decades of experience as a macro markets researcher. He's been leading his firm Bianco Research since 1990 and was at UBS and Lehman Brothers before that. It was after installing MetaMask, and doing some yield farming and NFT investing, that he realized, DeFi is a new financial system, and it will replace the old one. And the reason is simple: it’s just better. He has carefully brought this up to his clients, but it’s been tough. Those that don’t underestimate open finance, are waiting to retire before they have to catch up. But Bianco thinks DeFi is taking over sooner than they think.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
Enzyme provides an easy way to build, scale and monetize DeFi investment strategies
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"People Are Seeing The Writing on The Wall; DEXs Will Rule Crypto:" dYdX's Antonio Juliano Mar 19, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode we speak with Antonio Juliano, founder and CEO of dYdX, one of the biggest decentralized exchanges on Ethereum, focusing on derivatives. dYdX recently made news by being one of the first major DeFi projects to move to Layer 2.

One of the main goals for his team this year will be to further decentralize dYdX, Juliano said, from the order book to the control of their smart contracts. So yes, for those reading between the lines, that means decentralized governance, and Juliano isn’t ruling out a dYdX token. Juliano believes derivatives are going to be the biggest products in crypto and so his long-term goal is for dYdX to become one of the biggest crypto exchanges, period. He knows DEXes are just 5% of total crypto volume, but that’s up from 0% two years ago. He says, a lot of people are seeing the writing on the wall.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"I Don't Think We're in a Bubble. We Had a Bubble in ‘17; Now We're in a Movement:" Mike Novogratz Mar 12, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode we speak with Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital. He started his career at Goldman Sachs and then led a macro hedge fund at Fortress, which was shuttered in 2015. He then went all-in on crypto, in part thanks to convincing from his college roommate Joe Lubin, and founded Galaxy Digital, an investment bank for digital assets. After grinding through the 2018 and 2019 bear market, Mike says he can finally breathe. He is convinced that Bitcoin is finally derisked.

While Bitcoin is firmly established as digital gold, to him, Ethereum is a venture bet because it’s not totally finished yet. It's getting there, and so the bet is it's going to happen, not that it's happened. Novo is wildly bullish DeFi. He says the threat to the banking system and payments is DeFi, not Bitcoin. But that also means the big guys are going to fight back with lobbying and regulation because protocols like Uniswap and Aave are going after their business.

About the hype and rally in the crypto market, Novo says this time it’s different. Unlike in 2017, he doesn’t believe we’re in a bubble. He says we’re in a movement.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"We Were Idiots and We Were Poor; Then From Mid 2020 to Now, Suddenly, We're Right: " Ameen Soleimani Mar 05, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode I interview Ameen Soleimani, one of the most prolific builders in Ethereum. He’s the CEO of SpankChain, a blockchain-based adult entertainment platform, the co-creator of MolochDAO, a DAO to fund Ethereum projects, and the co-founder of Reflexer Labs, which created RAI, a purely ether-backed stablecoin.

We talk about the need of a purely ETH -backed stablecoin, and how RAI is so cypherpunk it’s not only not backed by fiat, but it’s also not pegged to the dollar, it’s only pegged to itself, and stabilized by its own algorithm. It’s a pretty radical experiment and Ameen has very high hopes for it: The goal is for Rai to become a global reserve currency.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"We Haven't Seen Anything Yet, So Hold Your Long-Term Bag:" Qiao Wang Feb 19, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s podcast episode, we speak with long-time crypto investor Qiao Wang. Wang is a partner at the DeFi Alliance and former head of product at Messari. Unlike many Bitcoiners who get into crypto because of their ideological views, or Ethereans attracted by the possibility of building decentralized apps, Wang had been a quant trader for 10 years when he first learned about Bitcoin, and it was the asset’s volatility and potential upside what drew him in. Years later, he’s still actively trading.

We talk about his portfolio and which coins look the most promising. He looks at all sorts of metrics to come to his trading conclusions. In the end though, he says, the market is purely driven by memes and Twitter influencers. About the current bull market, Wang says he’s 90% confident prices will go a lot higher. And while he doesn’t like to give price estimates, he still told me what he thinks the top for BTC and ETH will be for this cycle.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

Mark Cuban: "ETH Has an Advantage Over BTC as a Store of Value" Feb 12, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s episode, we speak with Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, billionaire investor and Shark Tank star. It’s been hard to pin down if Cuban is a crypto skeptic or believer. He has questioned the value of bitcoin and called its price surges a bubble, but he has also accepted crypto payments for his basketball team, and tweeted about using Aave and selling NFTs. You’ll have no doubt after listening to this interview where he stands: Cuban is a crypto bull, but more specifically a DeFi and Ethereum bull.

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

"For the First Time, You Can Buy a Piece of the Art, and a Piece of the Gallery:" MetaKovan Feb 06, 2021

Show notes

In this week’s podcast episode we interview MetaKovan, the pseudonymous investor who holds the largest known NFT collection in his Metapruse fund, which he leads with his (also pseudonymous partner) Twobadour. MetaKovan made waves in the surging NFT space after buying all 20 pieces of the Beeple collection at auction for $2.5M. In this interview, we dive into how exactly he managed to get his hands in the entire collection and what the bigger purpose of holding those pieces was.

MetaKovan didn’t buy the 20 pieces to just hold them in his wallet. Instead he and Twobadour built sprawling museums across the metaverse, added original ambient music by 3LAU, bundled it all together, and tokenized it. The B20 tokens are now the keys to owning this experience

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
Ledger, a hardware wallet combined with the Ledger application to securely buy, sell, exchange, stake, lend & manage your crypto
Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi

Crypto Devs Are "Building a Life Raft For The World After Fiat Falls Apart:" Erik Voorhees Jan 29, 2021

Show notes

In today’s episode, I speak with Erik Voorhees, long-time crypto advocate and founder and CEO of ShapeShift. In this interview, he talks about how he was able to stop gathering information about his customers and take the exchange back to its roots, by leaning into DeFi. His plan is to create a platform that connects with all of the different DeFi applications, starting with decentralized exchanges.

Voorhees holds probably the most extreme view of anyone who has come on this podcast. He thinks we will see the collapse of the US dollar within our lifetime. He argues the level of US debt and continuous erosion of the currency is untenable. When this happens an entire financial ecosystem built on open, immutable blockchains will be the solution. He believes today’s developers aren’t just building a product for their customers. They’re building a life raft for the world after fiat falls apart.

"I'm Imagining a World Where Every Song Has an Investable Layer:" DJ 3LAU Jan 15, 2021

Show notes

Justin Blau, better known as 3LAU, is a DJ who frequently plays at all the major festivals, he produces his own successful tracks, as well as remixes for pop stars like Rihanna and Katy Perry. He became interested in blockchain technology because it can provide a means for fans to provably to own and digital content and for artists to better monetize their work. He believes this innovation has the potential to revolutionize the music industry.

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