The Interop

Latest Episodes:

AI & Blockchain Will Redefine Everything Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, discusses the intersection of AI, blockchain, and crypto's evolving role in the global economy. From regulatory clarity to the rise of AI-driven super apps, Illia explains how these technologies will disrupt industries, empower users, and challenge traditional systems.

📚Chapters

01:40 The State of Crypto 

06:16 Why AI Startups Avoid Crypto 

11:51 Regulation’s Role in Innovation

17:13 AI Agents Meet Blockchain 

22:22 The Rise of Super Apps 

33:29 Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) 

37:18 Near’s Multi-layered Stack 

42:38 What’s Next for Near Protocol?

📎Links

Consider staking with Interop Ventures

🌐 Socials

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AI Agents will Empower DeFi in 2025 Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

AI agents are transforming blockchain and DeFi. SAFE’s modular smart accounts provide secure tools for agents to manage funds and drive innovation. Discover how autonomous agents enable synthetic economies, revolutionize transactions, and unlock new possibilities in DeFi, gaming, and beyond. SAFE is leading this shift with cutting-edge infrastructure and open-source technology for 2025 and beyond. Alexis Savvides shares insights into synthetic economies, autonomous agents, and how this technology is reshaping DeFi, gaming, and beyond.

🎧 Listen to The Interop on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58QAYwzVjCLrWR8E4tWbgm

📚 Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the SAFE Podcast

00:36 Latest Innovations

02:59 AI and Crypto Overview

05:18 Understanding AI Agents

11:12 Levels of AI Agents

14:14 Agents in On-Chain Transactions

17:24 AI Models Driving Innovation

19:51 SAFE’s Role in AI

22:41 Developer Opportunities

27:22 AI Agents Replacing Developers

29:04 Humans in a Synthetic Economy

🌐 Socials

Alexis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexissavvides

Sebastien Couture - https://x.com/seb3point0

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

Biconomy’s “Supertransactions” are changing the way we use crypto Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

Ahmed Al-Balaghi and Mislav Javor dive deep into their mission to simplify Web3 for developers and users alike. From gasless transactions to modular execution environments, this episode explores how Biconomy is tackling blockchain UX challenges. Learn about super transactions, multichain scaling, and the vision for a seamless Web3 future.

Consider staking with Interop Ventures by clicking the following link - https://interop.ventures

🎧 Listen to The Interop on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58QAYwzVjCLrWR8E4tWbgm

📚 Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:05 The Origins of Biconomy

03:36 Evolution of Mission & Products

06:42 Staying Focused Through Market Cycles

11:16 Introducing Modular Execution Environment (MEE)

17:00 ERC 4337 vs. MEE

26:19 What Are Super Transactions?

35:02 Supporting EVMs & Non-EVM Chains

40:36 Challenges in Gasless Transactions

44:48 Decentralization vs. User Experience

50:17 Exploring AI Agents in Web3

57:49 Biconomy’s Roadmap for 2025

🌐 Socials

Ahmed Al-Balaghi - https://x.com/arabalaghi

Mislav Javor - https://x.com/ox_shaman

Sebastien Couture - https://x.com/seb3point0

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

Morpho: Building a Unicorn from College with Paul Frambot Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho Labs, joins the show to discuss Morpho’s transformative impact on decentralized lending. From building a permissionless protocol to scaling Morpho’s ecosystem to $6 billion TVL, Paul shares insights into the protocol’s unique architecture, the challenges of creating risk-managed lending markets, and why Morpho is distinct from platforms like AAVE. With discussions on token strategies, cross-chain deployments, and institutional DeFi adoption, this episode is packed with actionable insights for the DeFi space.

Consider staking with Interop Ventures by clicking the following link - https://interop.ventures

📚 Chapters

00:00 Intro & Paul Frambot’s Journey

01:49 Building Morpho in France

06:07 What Makes Morpho Unique

11:32 Curators’ Role in Risk Management

20:14 Fee Switch & Open Source Transition

29:52 Token Transferability

35:37 Scaling Morpho Cross-Chain

44:41 Fintechs & Institutional DeFi Adoption

47:03 Is Morpho Competing with AAVE?

49:25 Challenges of Building Morpho

🔗 Links

Morpho’s Mission: https://morpho.mirror.xyz/Df_r4-mDzR-xFLA3P3amuhzwq4GjuuNOnOiiVizx6ZU

MIP 87 - Crosschain Deployments Framework: https://forum.morpho.org/t/mip-87-crosschain-deployments-framework/1199

Call for Grants: https://forum.morpho.org/t/call-for-grants/1177

🌐 Socials

Paul Frambot - https://x.com/PaulFrambot

Morpho Labs - https://morpho.org/

Sebastien Couture - https://x.com/seb3point0

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

How Movement CRUSHED its token launch with Ali Sheikh Jan 17, 2025

Show notes

Movement launched its token to massive success, surpassing FDV expectations and igniting a vibrant ecosystem of Move powered applications. Ali Sheikh shares insights on their strategic TGE, the Move language’s impact on blockchain security, and the roadmap ahead.

Consider staking with Interop Ventures by clicking the following link - https://interop.ventures

📚 Chapters

00:00 Intro & Background

02:10 From VC to Builder

04:30 Movement’s TGE Lessons

07:45 MOVE’s Role in Security

10:55 Movement’s Culture of Success

14:20 Supporting Ecosystem Projects

18:30 TGE Challenges

23:00 MOVE Liquid Staking & Utility

27:00 What’s Next for Movement

31:00 Emerging Markets & Developer Growth

34:30 MoveVM vs. EVM

38:00 Community Growth Initiatives

42:00 Final Thoughts & Series B Plans

🌐 Socials

Ali Sheikh - https://x.com/analyticalali

Movement Labs - https://x.com/movementlabsxyz

Sebastien Couture - https://x.com/seb3point0

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

Bitcoin L2s will take off in 2025 | Charlie Hu of BitLayer Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

Charlie Hu, co-founder of BitLayer, discusses the evolution of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, the significance of BitVM, and the interaction between Bitcoin L2s and core developers. He shares how BitLayer enhances Bitcoin scaling, the implications of institutional interest in Bitcoin, and the future of DeFi on the platform, highlighting the importance of partnerships and the potential risks associated with institutional capture of Bitcoin's core values.

📚 Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:55 Charlie’s transition to Bitcoin development 05:30 The rise of ordinals and Bitcoin primitives 10:18 Scaling Bitcoin: From on-chain to Layer 2 18:20 Challenges in integrating with Bitcoin Core 24:02 How Bitlayer enhances Bitcoin scalability 32:45 BitVM and trust-minimized bridges explained 39:49 What is OP_CAT and its potential impact? 46:08 The Bitcoin Defi ecosystem and its growth 50:14 Institutional interest in Bitcoin defi 56:11 Partnerships with Binance Wallet and adoption strategies 🌐 Socials Charlie Hu: https://x.com/charliehusats Bitlayer: https://x.com/bitlayerlabs Sebastien Couture: https://x.com/seb3point0 🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

How Electron Cuts ZK Proving Costs by 95% with Garvit Goel Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

In this conversation, Garvit Goel, CEO of Electron, discusses the advancements and future plans of Electron, a platform designed to significantly reduce the costs associated with verifying zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on Ethereum and other blockchains. The discussion covers the launch of their flagship product, Quantum, the integration of various proving systems, the importance of decentralization, and the potential future use cases for ZK technology. Garvit emphasizes the need for a universal aggregation layer and the competitive landscape in the ZK ecosystem, while also addressing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Electron and its partners.

💡 Total gas cost saved by Electron 🎧 Listen to The Interop on Youtube

📚 Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:20 Electron’s Mission 03:30 Why ZK Proofs Are Expensive 05:50 Quantum: The Aggregation Layer 08:46 Supporting Multiple Proving Systems 12:00 Innovations in Aggregation 16:34 Decentralizing the Prover Network 22:09 Protocols Using Quantum 27:41 Use Cases for ZK Rollups 35:06 Plans for Bitcoin and Other L1s 38:34 Mainnet and Future Plans 🌐 SocialsElectron's Official Website: electron.dev Stay connected with Electron: X : @ElectronZK

Follow Garvit Goel: GitHub: garvitgoel Medium: garvitgoel.medium.com Instagram: @garvitgoel_

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay updated with the latest insights in blockchain technology!

Shared Security for AVS Explained | Abhishek Kumar (CEO at Catalysis) Jan 02, 2025

Show notes

"Economic security is not free, but Catalysis helps you find the most cost-effective solution.”

Watch Abhishek Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Catalysis explain the role of Catalysis in providing abstraction layers for restaking protocols, enabling AVS builders to tap into diverse economic security sources while simplifying development. This episode explores the AVS landscape, the challenges of decentralization, and how Catalysis is solving interoperability and cost issues to accelerate innovation in decentralized app ecosystems.

Topics:

- The role of shared security in decentralized applications

- Challenges and benefits of AVS (actively validated services)

- How Catalysis abstracts restaking protocol complexities

- Trade-offs between app chains and rollups

- The future of multi-chain economic security

- Economic and liquidity benefits of diversified security sources

- Upcoming roadmap and milestones for Catalysis

- Tools like the Catalysis SDK for developers

- Risks and mitigations for cascading slashes

- Emerging markets enabled by Catalysis (e.g., bribing and arbitrage)

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Overview

01:19 What is Catalysis?

03:32 AVS Landscape and Growth

05:46 App Chains vs. Rollups

08:32 Breaking Down Blockchain Stacks

13:15 Catalysis SDK and Tools

17:52 Economic Security Explained

25:27 Benefits of Diversified Security

37:44 Interoperability Challenges Solved

42:37 Emerging Markets in Shared Security

46:03 Catalysis Roadmap and Future

Referenced:

- Catalysis Blog: https://catalysis.medium.com/

- Catalysis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xcatalysis

- Catalysis Website: https://catalysis.network/

- Blog Post: https://catalysis.medium.com/why-catalysis-enabling-a-future-with-thousands-of-avss-9197bedcf283

- Proof of Stake Mechanisms with Strong Cryptoeconomic Safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHj9UYoiU0

Follow Abhishek Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Catalysis

• Abhishek Kumar on X - https://x.com/xenowits

• Catalysis on X - https://x.com/0xcatalysis

Follow Sebastien Couture, Host of The Interop on Social Media

• Sebastien Couture on X - https://x.com/seb3point0

• The Interop on X - https://x.com/TheInterop

Explore 'The Interop' playlist: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ohpd7RttERAZqb2iWKNOA/playlists/playlists

Listen to 'The Interop' on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/58QAYwzVjCLrWR8E4tWbgm

Bringing XRP, ADA, BTC, and LTC to DeFi w/ Larry Lyu of Dango Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

"Dango is simplifying margin trading in DeFi."

Hundreds of billions of dollars of liquidity in $BCH, $DOGE, $XRP, $ADA and other assets is mostly absent from DeFi, not to mention Bitcoin. Imagine if we could fully utilize that TVL.

That’s what Dango wants to achieve. Right after they rebuild the entire DeFi stack...

The team built Grug as a new CosmWasm-based chain purpose-made for DeFi:

- On-chain credit account

- By-default smart accounts

- No wallet, passkey-first approach

- Fees paid in USDC

- 0.5-second block times & 2,000 TPS

- Secure Rust-based smart contracts

They created Grug so they could be its first customer, building an ecosystem of DeFi apps: a spot DEX, a perp DEX, and a margin account for borrowing and lending.

With a relentless focus on UX and an upcoming Mica-compliant ICO, I’m bullish on Dango setting a new standard for on-chain apps.

Topics

- Grug: A blockchain VM with smart accounts and cron jobs.

- The challenges and benefits of Passkeys in blockchain.

- Dango's focus on user-friendly DeFi and margin trading.

- Integrating "dinosaur" assets like BCH and XRP into DeFi.

- ICO strategy compliant with Mika regulations.

- Tokenomics: Low-supply token design and buyback mechanism.

- Proof-of-Authority vs. traditional Proof-of-Stake chains.

- Decentralizing Grug: Long-term roadmap for scalability.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:12 Grug VM

06:05 Smart Accounts

13:38 DeFi Margin Trading

20:09 Dango’s UX

27:21 Dinosaur Assets

41:26 Passkeys Security

43:01 PoA Approach

53:21 Mica-Compliant ICO

58:50 Tokenomics

61:55 Demo Net & Roadmap

Follow Larry Lyu, Founder of Left Curve Software

• Larry Lyu on X - https://x.com/larry0x

• Left Curve on X - https://x.com/leftCurveSoft

• Dango on X - https://x.com/dango_zone

Follow Sebastien Couture, Host of The Interop on Social Media

• Sebastien Couture on X - https://x.com/seb3point0

• The Interop on X - https://x.com/TheInterop

Explore 'Devcon 2024' playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU0Pw_Qg-ww&list=PLAbjjdO-

Explore 'Cosmoverse 2024' playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MisEYEis1_s&list=PLAbjjdO-rjbmGnQUm60PPtmXZZ7a8PSOh&index=1&t=0s

Explore 'The Interop' playlist: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ohpd7RttERAZqb2iWKNOA/playlists/playlists

Listen to 'The Interop' on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/58QAYwzVjCLrWR8E4tWbgm

Can Cosmos Become a Top 3 Ecosystem? Maghnus Mareneck & Josh Cincinnati Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Cosmos is gearing up for a new era. Join Josh Cincinnati, Chair of the Interchain Foundation Council, and Magnus Marinak, Co-Founder of Interchain Labs, as they discuss the bold steps being taken to redefine the Cosmos ecosystem. From unifying development to attracting institutional liquidity, this conversation dives into the hub's role, rebranding debates, and the future of decentralized blockchain architecture.

Topics

- The ICF's acquisition of Skip and its rebranding as Interchain Labs.

- Vision of multiple sovereign blockchains and ecosystem growth.

- Attracting institutional liquidity to the Cosmos Hub.

- The role of the Cosmos Hub in uniting the ecosystem.

- Reorganizing development for efficiency and innovation.

- Addressing community feedback and restructuring governance.

- Leveraging the Hub’s assets for broader ecosystem growth.

- Overcoming Cosmos branding challenges and embracing its history.

- Building privacy-first solutions unique to Cosmos architecture.

- Scaling the ecosystem with liquidity, speed, and alignment.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:56 Community’s Reaction to the Acquisition

06:41 Why the ICF Chose Radical Change

13:10 The Cosmos Vision: A Top-Three Ecosystem

20:01 Unlocking Liquidity for Ecosystem Growth

30:32 Cosmos Hub’s Role in Ecosystem Alignment

38:50 Addressing Cosmos Branding Challenges

46:43 Plans for Conferences and Community Engagement

52:42 ICF and Interchain Labs: Dividing Responsibilities

58:47 Why the Cosmos Community Should Be Bullish

Follow Josh Cincinnati, President of the Interchain Foundation Council

• Josh Cincinnati on X - https://x.com/acityinohio

• Interchain Foundation on X - https://x.com/interchain_io

Follow Maghnus Mareneck, Co-founder of Skip (Interchain Labs)

• Maghnus Mareneck on X - https://x.com/0xMagmar

• Skip Protocol (Interchain Labs) on X - https://x.com/SkipProtocol

Follow Sebastien Couture, Host of The Interop on Social Media

• Sebastien Couture on X - https://x.com/seb3point0

• The Interop on X - https://x.com/TheInterop

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