The Delphi Podcast

Latest Episodes:

EmberSword: A Next Gen Blockchain MMORPG — Metaverse Musings Ep 26 May 07, 2021

Show notes

Host Piers Kicks and sits down for Episode 26 of Metaverse Musings with Mark Laursen, the founder and CEO of Bright Star Studios who are building a game called EmberSword. Mark has a deep background in video games, having spent much of his life playing them professionally as well as creating them. From as early as 2016 he had a strong vision of how crypto could infuse with game economies to liberate the evident demand for open, unrestricted trade.

Resources:

Game Website: https://embersword.com/
Guest’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkLaursen
Piers' Twitter: https://twitter.com/pierskicks
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://tinyurl.com/ycvsp75h
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Exploring Cosmos Network With 6 Leading Cosmonauts May 05, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy hosts a galaxy brain group of leading Cosmos builders to discuss the Cosmos Network, value accrual, IBC, comparisons to other Layer-1s and much more.

We would like to thank Cosmos for making this podcast possible through their sponsorship! Cosmos is on a mission, link one million blockchains. Name brand projects like Terra, Band, Kava, and Secret use Cosmos and the Cosmos Hub to connect to every other chain in our network. The Cosmos Hub is the port city that delivers Inter-Blockchain Communication today. Learn more at cosmos.network.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as an audio interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:41) - (First Question) Joe's Intro.

(2:23) - Jelena's Intro.

(3:08) - Zaki's Intro.

(3:18) - Jack's Intro.

(3:29) - Sunny's Intro.

(3:48) - Ethan's Intro.

(4:43) - Cosmos Elevator Pitch.

(5:02) - What is different about Cosmos.

(8:19) - Insights about Cosmos Security / Benefits / Overpay.

(20:30) - How does the Validator side work.

(24:37) - What is the Inter-Blockchain Communications (IBC) protocol / How does it further the ecosystem of application-specific blockchains built on Cosmos.

(30:38) - Thoughts on handling a supreme ccale to run a decentralized exchange on Cosmos.

(33:59) - Why is Cosmos designed the way it is.

(36:19) - Does it really matter if people or app chains have to choose their security to pay less if they could just pay such a small amount on Ethereum.

(46:30) - Thoughts on the Value Accrual side with Cosmos and ATOM.

(53:18) - Who is Jack.

(53:55) - Who is Ethan.

(54:43) - Who is Jelena.

(54:53) - Who is Zaki.

(55:48) - Who is Sunny.

(56:25) - Who is Joe.

Resources:

Zaki Manian: Co-Founder of IqLusion and SommFinance
Sunny Aggarwal: Co-Founder of SikkaTech
Jelena: Working on InformalInc and Cosmos
Joe Dirtay: Communications at Cosmos
Ethan: CEO of Informal and Co-Founder of Cosmos
Jack Zampolin: Co-Founder of SommFinance and Pylon Validator
Tom’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Delphi Podcast Twitter:

Antonio Juliano: Scaling dYdX’s Perpetuals Using Starkware To Target The Trillions In Monthly Perps Volume Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy hosts Antonio Juliano, the founder of dYdX, the decentralized derivatives exchange for perpetual swaps and margin trading. We talk scaling on Starkware to the sheer size of this market to economic attack vectors and everything in between.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as an audio interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:40) - (First Question) Antonio's Background.

(2:40) - David's Background.

(3:45) - Rob's Background.

(3:52) - Why The Perpetuals Market / Market sizing.

(5:01) - dYdX Overview.

(6:00) - What is a Perpetual Contract.

(8:51) - Thoughts on PERPs target.

(11:06) - How the funding rate allows the perpetual swaps to trade in line with index price.

(18:45) - Why ZK-rollups.

(26:49) - Thoughts on dYdX risks / Attack vectors.

(37:16) - How has the community received the new PERPs product / dYdX traction.

(40:38) - Differences in costs from L1 and L2.

(41:38) - Insights into recent crash / the unwinding of a lot of liquidations / How did dYdX perform during that time period.

(43:55) - Thoughts on cross margining / benefits.

(49:10) - Thoughts on cross-chain.

(50:40) - dYdX fees.

(52:00) - Thoughts on the world transitioning from centralized exchanges to decentralized platforms.

(55:00) - Thoughts on Coinbase offering perpetuals.

Resources:

Antonio’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntonioMJuliano
dYdX’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/dydxprotocol
Tom’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi
Tom’s Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@toms119

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Disclosures: This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host may personally own tokens that are mentioned on the podcast. Lets Talk Bitcoin is a distribution partner for the Chain Reaction Podcast, and our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token. Delphi’s transparency page can be viewed

Ethereum Layer 2 Rollup Debate: Optimism, Starkware, Arbitrum and zkSync Apr 23, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy hosts an all star crew of all of the leading Ethereum Layer 2 Rollup scaling projects for an in-depth debate. See the transcript on our site as well.

Ed Felten, Fo-Founder of Off-chain Labs (Arbitrum)
Eli Ben-Sasson, Co-Founder of Starkware
Alex Gluchowski Founder of zkSync
Liam Horne, Contributor to Optimism
Mark Tyneway, Systems Lead at Optimism
Ben Simon, Investment Analyst at Mechanism Capital

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as an audio interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

2:00) - (First Question) Eli's Intro. (2:26) - Alex's Intro. (2:43) - Mark's Intro (2:57) - Liam's Intro. (3:17) - Ed's Intro. (3:40) - Ben's Intro. (4:30) - Optimistic roll-ups. (5:42) - Key differences between Arbitrum and Optimism. (8:13) - What is Starkware doing compared to Optimism. (11:20) - Optimistic vs ZK roll ups. (20:19) - Differences between fraud proofs and validity proofs. (29:07) - What would happen if the network splits and two parties propose progress in different directions? (21:18) - Mark thoughts on fraud proofs. (28:34) - Thoughts on attacks on Ethereum. (40:02) - Optimism and Arbitrum plans to reach high scale / Signatures / Price feeds (57:55) - Optimism progressing into production on Ethereum. (01:01:00) - Thoughts on bootstrapping usage and adoption - Starkware/zkSync/Optimism. (01:11:57) - Is the roll-up ecosystem going to be sort of a winner take all? (01:20:10) - Where to find Starkware. (01:20:55) - Where to find zkSync. (01:21:57) - Where to find Optimism. (01:22:43) - Where to find Arbitrum. (01:23:25) - Where to find Ben Simon.

Resources:

Ed Felten, Fo-Founder of Off-chain Labs (Arbitrum)
Eli Ben-Sasson, Co-Founder of Starkware
Alex Gluchowski Founder of zkSync
Liam Horne, Contributor to Optimism
Mark Tyneway, Contributor to Optimism
Ben Simon, Investment Analyst at Mechanism Capital
Tom’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi
Tom’s Clubhouse:

Thorchain Launch Party: The Magic Experience of Swapping Assets Cross Chain In A Few Clicks Apr 17, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy and DV MP Yan Liberman host an expert group for a fun and exciting conversation on Thorchain’s Multi-Chain Chaosnet Launch. Thorchain now enables real, trustless, non-wrapped exchange of assets, cross chain. Guests Include:

Chad Barraford: Technical Lead At Thorchain
Erik Voorhees: Founder of Shapeshift
Yan Liberman: MP at Delphi Ventures
Tushar Jain: MP of Multicoin Capital
Rob Paone: Founder Proof of Talent
Michael Perklin: Chief Information Security Officer of ShapeShift.com
Jon: Co-Founder and former COO of ShapeShift.com
Tyler Reynolds: Angel Investor and Founder of HackalertIO

As a reminder, we originally hosted Chad on our Podcast back in September 2020 for a technical deep dive, and our foundational thesis on RUNE from Dec, 2019 can be accessed here.

Delphi Ventures and members of the team are long $RUNE.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as a video interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:57) - (First Question) Jon's Background. (2:14) - Michael's Background. (2:45) - Erik's Background. (3:36) - Rob's Background. (4:09) - Chad's Bakground. (4:31) - Yan's Background. (4:44) - Tushar's Background. (5:10) - What is Thorchain / Impact of the multichain launch. (6:35) - How does Thorchain work with ShapeShift. (9:36) - Tushar and Michael thoughts on Thorchain. (13:54) - Chad thoughts on multichain launch. (16:43) - Overview of the different stages that THORChain has been in. (21:18) - RUNE’s token. (28:34) - How the validators work. (32:46) - Use of the Cosmos SDK for Thorchain / Benefits. (40:27) - Difference between how Thorchain liquidity pools work and how Atomic swaps work. (44:33) - Thoughts on Wrapped Assets. (54:17) - Thoughts on Thorchain in the future. (01:00:39) - Chad’s thoughts on Yield Farming. (01:02:40) - The project Decentralizing the Community / Timeline / Who takes over. (01:22:00) - Thorschain's biggest competition. (01:29:10) - Closing thoughts.

Other Resources:

Tom’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi

Sam Williams: Pay Once and Store Data Forever on Arweave Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy and Can Gurel, analyst at Delphi Ventures, host Sam Williams the Founder of Arweave.

Arweave is a new type of storage that backs data with sustainable and perpetual endowments, allowing users and developers to truly store data forever – for the very first time.

As a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets, Arweave allows us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. By preserving history, it prevents others from rewriting it.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as an audio interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:45) - (First Question) Sam's Background.

(2:55) - Arweave's Elevator Pitch.

(6:01) - What incentivized Sam to start Arweave.

(8:07) - Arweave Use Cases.

(13:26) - Endowments / Payment Structure.

(20:27) - Thoughts on Spora.

(23:59) - How Sam envisions Arweave in 25, 50 years.

(35:35) - Arweave, a profit-sharing community.

(39:06) - Thoughts on dealing with illegal content.

(44:20) - How does Arweave handle NFTs.

(47:01) - Thoughts on Arweave in blockchain projects.

(51:37) - The most unforeseen positive & negative event that Sam has overcome.

Resources:

Sam’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/samecwilliams
Arweave: https://www.arweave.org/
Tom’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Can’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/CannnGurel
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi
Tom’s Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@toms119

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Alethea: Laying The Foundations For Trusted Synthetic Media — Metaverse Musings Ep 25 Apr 11, 2021

Show notes

Host Piers Kicks and sits down for Episode 25 of Metaverse Musings with Arif Khan, the founder and CEO of Alethea. Arif posseses a rare blend of technical excellence and philosophical grounding that has allowed him to execute upon such an interesting project. It seems clear that artificially intelligent media is going to play a large role in our digital future, and it's great to see a project leveraging blockchain technologies to enable it early on.

Resources:

Project’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/real_alethea
Piers' Twitter: https://twitter.com/pierskicks
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://tinyurl.com/ycvsp75h
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Carson Cook: Tokemak Is The Decentralized Liquidity Engine for DeFi ☢️ Apr 09, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Host and GP of Delphi Ventures Tom Shaughnessy, hosts the Tokemak team (Carson Cook, Paul, Craig and Bruno) to discuss Tokemak, the decentralized liquidity engine for DeFi. We discuss why Tokemak may be one of the most important future pieces of crypto infrastructure. This episode was a recording of our clubhouse episode with the group.

As a refresher, our original tweet storm can be viewed here.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as a video interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:58) - (First Question) Carson's Background. (2:45) - Paul's Background. (3:15) - Bruno's Bakcground. (3:38) - Craig's Background. (4:13) - Tokemak's Elevator Pitch. (5:57) - The inefficiencies that Tokemak is attempting to solve. (9:30) - What Tokemak's Team learned in the market making business. (13:36) - How Tokemak works (21:45) - Tokemak's Token - TOKE. (24:59) - What the liquidity directors can do (32:33) - Quick Tokens Allocation / Walkthrough (37:37) - Thoughts on Dynamic Rewards. (43:27) - What would make Tokemak a success? (49:48) - Tokemak's Biggest Risks. (52:58) - How do you think about forkability with TOKE? (57:04) - Do you envision a future where Tokemak goes multi-chain? (58:40) - Thoughts on why Tokemak is an infrastructure play vs apps level (01:01:37) - Where to find Tokemak / What’s on the near term horizon for Tokemak?

Resources:

Carson’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiquidityWizard
Paul’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/internet_Paul
Bruno’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/70k3m3ch
Craig’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/cabraun
Tokemak Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokenReactor
Tom's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

LUKSO: Building The New Creative Economy — Metaverse Musings Ep 24 Apr 03, 2021

Show notes

Host Piers Kicks and sits down for Episode 24 of Metaverse Musings with Fabian Vogelsteller, the author of the ERC-20 standard and founder of LUKSO. Fabian draws upon a deep technical background having been a core contributor to Ethereum. He possesses a strong vision for how these technologies could evolve, and is actively architecting the world he wants to see.

Resources:

Guest’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/feindura
Piers' Twitter: https://twitter.com/pierskicks
Delphi Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastDelphi

Our Video interviews Can Be Viewed Here: https://tinyurl.com/ycvsp75h
Access Delphi's Research Here: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Kieran and Aaron Warwick: Illuvium Enters the Arena Apr 02, 2021

Show notes

The Delphi Podcast Hosts Yan Liberman and Colm Buckley have Kieran Warwick and Aaron Warwick, Co-Founders of Illuvium, on the podcast to discuss the upcoming launch of their new game. The group discuss Kieran and Aaron’s story to better understand the genesis of Illuvium. Afterwards they go into all aspects of the game, ranging from token econ to long term vision.

We would like to thank Cosmos for making this podcast possible through their sponsorship! Cosmos.network is on a mission, link one million blockchains. Name brand projects like Terra, Band, Kava, and Secret use Cosmos and the Cosmos Hub to connect to every other chain in our network. The Cosmos Hub is the port city that delivers Inter-Blockchain Communication today. Learn more at cosmos.network.

Every Delphi Podcast is dropped first as a video interview for Delphi Digital Subscribers. Our members also have access to full interview transcripts. Join today to get our interviews, first.

Show Notes:

(1:35) - (First Question) Kieran and Aaron's Background.

(3:19) - What is Illuvium? / How it works?

(7:12) - Thoughts on the Illuvium skills.

(9:36) - Illuvium game modes.

(15:36) - New user onboarding / Strategies.

(19:30) - ILV Token.

(27:15) - How the leveling system works with fusion?

(29:59) - Insights about sILV.

(35:07) - Thoughts on governance and IIPs.

(39:00) - LBP sale / NFT rewards.

(50:10) - ILV emotes.