The Interop

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BUILDING THE AEZ with Youssef Amrani of AADAO Dec 05, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a grant focused DAO for the Cosmos Hub, funded by the Hub. AADAO currently focuses on ecosystem initiatives and public goods with the goal of aligning the ecosystem and driving value for ATOM. AADAO has been around for 9 months and been giving grants for 6 months. AADAO is also actively working towards wrapping the DAO in a legal structure in order to have a cohesive onchain and offchain existence. ------------------------------------ TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:28 Youssef's background 00:05:30 Atom 2.0 whitepaper and lessons learned 00:14:04 What is AADAO? 00:18:41 Mandate and funding of AADAO 00:22:23 AADAO's objectives and accomplishments 00:25:25 AADAO's grants 00:39:19 Research areas of AADAO + outcomes 00:50:05 Prop 848 00:54:40 Is the Cosmos Hub overpaying for security? 01:03:47 Should the ICF be funding AADAO? 01:08:55 Hot take - will ATOM be a top 5 chain? LINKS Website: https://www.atomaccelerator.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ATOMAccelerator 2024 Funding Proposal for AADAO: https://forum.cosmos.network/t/funding-atom-accelerator-dao-for-2024/12249 Atom Accelerator 2023 Impact Report: https://www.atomaccelerator.com/blog/2023-impact-report Grants issued by AADAO: https://www.atomaccelerator.com/grant-issued GUESTS Youssef Amrani, Co-Founder: https://twitter.com/youssef_amrani ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

ETHEREUM IBC HUB with Bo Du of Polymer Nov 28, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures This episode is all about Polymer's shift to the OP stack. Polymer just announced they will transition to operate as a rollup leveraging the OP stack, and build Ethereum's interoperability hub. Polymer will no longer build a Cosmos app-chain secured by Cosmos validators. Polymer will use Ethereum for security, and the Eigen Layer for for data availability. ------------------------------------ TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:38 Polymer's IBC Summit 00:04:43 Polymer's shift to Ethereum 00:08:10 High level vision of Polymer 00:11:58 Connecting EVM chains to IBC 00:17:30 Futures contract and perpetuals 00:16:55 OP stack + Polymer 00:21:25 How Polymer's rollup will implement IBC 00:27:34 Bringing IBC to Ethereum 00:29:50 Challenges of implementing IBC + fraud proof layer 00:34:33 Cosmos Hub running Ethereum clients? 00:37:37 Multihop channel IBC 00:40:03 Benefit of bringing Polymer to ETH as a rollup 00:46:28 Polymer using Ethereum for security and Eigen for DA 00:48:05 Polymer's use of OP 00:53:42 Monomer SDK 01:00:11 Go to market strategy 01:01:52 Merging Ethereum and Cosmos 01:04:52 Road to mainnet LINKS Website: https://www.polymerlabs.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Polymer_Labs Blog: https://polymerlabs.medium.com/ Bo's Talk at Nebular Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmZiHj8lbrg GUESTS Bo Du, Technical Lead: https://twitter.com/0xshake ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

DYDX V4 MAINNET with Charles d'Haussy of dYdX Nov 18, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures In 2017 dYdX was launched as a decentralized exchange protocol. Fast forward to 2023 and dYdX has reached over 1T in total trading volume and commands a TVL of over $300m. Just last month dYdX released dYdX V4 which is a standalone open-source blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. With dYdX V4 the product development and governance is in the hands of the respective subDAOs, validators, dYdX stakers, and community members contributing to its future development. This was originally recorded for the Epicenter podcast ------------------------------------ TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:40 Charles Background 00:05:03 How did Charles join dYdX Foundation as CEO? 00:06:45 Decision making process for moving dYdX to its own chain 00:13:06 Is it an issue that the dYdX Cosmos chain isn't EVM compatible? 00:17:30 Futures contract and perpetuals 00:20:30 Permissionless markets 00:31:10 Can DeFi compete with CEXs? 00:38:04 Current state of dYdX post launch 00:41:15 Validator voting challenges 00:44:52 Challenges of dYdX's decentralization 00:48:41 Different entities that govern dYdX 00:52:14 MEV in dYdX? 00:54:44 Charles' opinion on MEV in dYdX 00:57:10 Working with the Cosmos ecosystem 01:01:40 Astropolis and Charles' vision for the future 01:06:45 Does Urbit tie into dYdX? 01:08:40 AI's agents role in crypto LINKS Website: https://www.dydx.foundation/ dYdX Exchange: https://dydx.exchange/ dYdX Foundation Twitter: https://twitter.com/dydxfoundation Charles' Talk at Cosmoverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7rO1Nwas GUESTS Charles d'Haussy, CEO: https://twitter.com/charlesdhaussy ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

LIQUIDITY ROUTER with Fig of Squid Nov 09, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ Squid was built out of the need to communicate with multiple blockchains when there is not just one dominant chain. Squid is the router for moving assets across different chains, utilizing Axelar as the underlying layer. Squid does the work of figuring out the best path and rates for swapping assets across ecosystems, and simplifies this into a one-click process for the user. Squid has packaged swaps, bridges, and message transfer into one router. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:55 Fig's background 00:06:18 What is Squid? 00:11:11 Pain points for developers Squid is solving 00:13:20 Squid's relationship to Axelar 00:17:50 Message passing layer 00:20:30 Gas management in Axelar 00:22:40 Atomicity guarantees between chains 00:25:55 Will intents lead to everything going off-chain? 00:33:20 User considerations using Axelar over other interoperable solutions 00:41:56 Longterm view of $AXL and $USDC 00:45:20 Squid integration with Noble and dYdX 00:48:07 Bridge asset fungibility and liquidity fragmentation 00:54:02 ETH stake used to secure Cosmos chains? 00:55:51 What would a Squid token be used for? 00:57:55 Squid business model LINKS Website: https://www.squidrouter.com/ Squid dApp: https://app.squidrouter.com/ Squid Twitter: https://twitter.com/squidrouter GUESTS Fig, Co-Founder: https://twitter.com/ecdsafu ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

COSMOS IBC EVERYWERE with Karel Kaiser of Union Nov 07, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ Union builds Zero Knowledge infrastructure for interoperability that will enable permissionless and trust minimized message passing between the Interchain and Ethereum. Union is based on consensus verification and has no dependencies on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or MPC. Union is the first messaging protocol with an IBC connection between Ethereum and their testnet. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:45 Karel's background 00:06:25 Karel's take on Cosmos ecosystem 00:08:08 Union product & mission 00:10:45 Verifying the state between chains 00:15:30 Consumer hardware generated proofs 00:17:25 Union architecture 00:21:30 Comet BLS 00:27:30 What are storage/state proofs? 00:29:15 How does BLS enable more validators? 00:32:49 Relayer architecture - Galois and Voyager 00:36:46 Realyers for sending/receiving messages cross-chain 00:42:38 Why Unions doesn't use governance proposals to run chains 00:46:30 Need for packet forward middleware? 00:49:48 Union & Celestia 00:53:04 Leveraging Interchain security across Ethereum 00:57:50 Union enables BTC transfers into IBC 01:02:46 Union roadmap LINKS Website: https://union.build/ Blog: https://union.build/blog/ Unioned FAQ: https://docs.union.build/ Union Twitter: https://twitter.com/union_build GUESTS Karel Kaiser, CEO: https://twitter.com/0xkaiserkarel ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

MODULAR BASE LAYER with Anurag Arjun of Avail Oct 27, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ Avail is a modular blockchain built to scale other blockchains, spun out of Polygon. It provides a fast, secure data and consensus layer for launching a sustainable blockchain. Avail is part of a growing modular ecosystem in the ongoing effort to increase data availability for blockchains. Avail's final incentivized testnet is starting in the end of October with final audits by the end of the year, and mainnet launch expected in 2024. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:13 Introduction to Anurag 00:04:18 Starting Avail while at Polygon 00:07:19 Tradeoffs when choosing security layers 00:16:15 Longterm viability of EVM Rollups 00:24:00 Avail's stack 00:29:22 Avails vs Celestia 00:40:10 Data Availability Sampling 00:49:45 Tradeoffs in increasing block size 00:54:24 Economics of Avail 01:04:10 Avail roadmap, milestones, and challenges LINKS Website: https://availproject.org/ Blog: https://blog.availproject.org/ Blogpost on data availability layer: https://blog.availproject.org/a-guide-to-selecting-the-right-data-availability-layer/ Avail Twitter: https://twitter.com/AvailProject GUESTS Anurag Arjun, Founder: https://twitter.com/anuragarjun ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

MODULAR INTEROPERABILITY with Jon Kol of Hyperlane Oct 22, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ Hyperlane is an interoperability protocol enabling permissionless connectivity between blockchains. Hyperlane is unique in that it provides a modular framework allowing developers to build interoperability solutions that fit the needs of their applications. Their recent v3 upgrade solves developer pain points, including the release of Hooks, which allows you to customize message routing. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:20 Jon’s interest in interoperability 00:09:00 How are interoperability protocols competing? 00:14:05 What are modular blockchains? 00:19:15 Making modularity accessible and secure 00:22:55 Hot take: Decentralized shared sequencers are not real 00:29:22 Tradeoffs for optimizing Hyperlane 00:34:02 Hyperlane’s architecture 00:44:45 Difference between IBC and Hyperlane 00:48:10 Application layer interoperability 00:50:15 Role of validators and relayers 00:54:50 Security modules 00:56:25 Gas module 01:00:48 What’s new in Hyperlane V3 01:03:50 Who’s building on Hyperlane? 01:07:10 Who should be using Hyperlane? LINKS Hyperlane: https://www.hyperlane.xyz/ Hyperlane FAQs: https://docs.hyperlane.xyz/docs/introduction/readme Hyperlane Explorer: https://explorer.hyperlane.xyz/? GUESTS Jon Kol, CEO: https://twitter.com/thePalenimbus ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

DIVERSIFIED YIELDS with Valentin Pletnev of Quasar Oct 16, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ This week I sat down with Valentin Pletnev, Founder of Quasar Finance, an Interchain yield aggregator. We discuss Quasar's concentrated liquidity and staking vaults, how Quasar works with Osmosis, vault creators that provide strategies, the tech under the hood of their product, and Cosmos DeFi. We also hear Valentin's take on why he thinks the growing amount of Cosmos chains is a bearish direction for the ecosystem. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:15 Valentin's Background 00:07:53 Deploying Capital on Asset Management Platforms vs. Protocols 00:14:04 Liquidity Concentration and Community Governance 00:18:35 Early Yield Aggregation Products 00:22:46 Quasar and Sommelier Differences 00:27:52 How Quasar Vaults Work 00:37:35 Growing Amount of Cosmos Chains Makes Valentin Bearish 00:41:50 Osmosis Merging with the Cosmos Hub? 00:44:29 Flow of Transactions on Quasar 00:50:30 How Do Vault Creators Interact with Quasar? 00:55:09 How DLL Interacts with Quasar 00:58:10 Quasar Expansion Plans 01:02:23 User Risks for Using Quasar LINKS Quasar Finance: https://www.quasar.fi/ CL Vault Launch: https://www.quasar.fi/blog/quasar-vaults-for-concentrated-liquidity Quasar Rundown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpxN6Inoz3A Roadmap: https://www.quasar.fi/blog/the-quasar-roadmap GUEST Valentin Pletnev: https://twitter.com/valeyo777 ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

PERPETUAL SWAPS with Jonathan Caras of Levana Sep 29, 2023

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Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures ------------------------------------ This week I sat down with Jonathan Caras, Head of Communications for Levana Protocol, a perpetual swap protocol deployed in the Cosmos ecosystem. We discuss the launch and future of Levana and dissected the ins-and-outs of DeFi yield, perpetual swap fees, and user strategies deployed on Levana. We also break down aspects of Levana's white paper, and discuss Jonathan's take on how the appchain thesis has failed. TOPICS 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:20 Jonathan's background 00:05:48 Best Non-Finance User Products 00:12:15 Why has the Appchain Thesis Failed? 00:17:16 Sovereignty as an Appchain 00:24:00 Levana Background and Deployment 00:26:38 What is Real Yield? 00:31:52 What is a Perpetual Swap? 00:38:50 Perpetual Swap Fees 00:44:44 Levana Users, Use Cases, & Strategies 00:52:00 How is Levana well-funded? 00:59:11 Insolvency Protection & Mark Price 01:03:01 Future of Levana LINKS Levana: https://levana.finance Levana Roadmap: https://blog.levana.finance/levana-is-headed-for-the-skies-check-out-our-roadmap-ad1f1328cb98 GUEST Jonathan Caras: https://x.com/madcapslaugh ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

THE STAKING ECONOMY with Brian Crain of Chorus One & ICF Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

Consider staking with Interop Ventures https://interop.ventures Brian Crain of Chorus One talks about his role in the Cosmos ecosystem as an early team member at Tendermint and his work structuring the ATOM token sale. He also discusses the staking economy, interoperability, and liquid staking, reflecting on the centralization-decentralization tension in these areas. He also talks about the Interchain Foundation's (ICF) role and how the organization can better steward the broader Interchain ecosystem. Brian Crain is CEO of Chorus One, President of the Interchain Foundation Council, and Host of the Epicenter podcast. ------------------------------------ LINKS - Unbundling PBS: Towards protocol-enforced proposer commitments (PEPC): https://ethresear.ch/t/unbundling-pbs-towards-protocol-enforced-proposer-commitments-pepc/13879 - MEV Matters: Decoding Chorus One’s winning MEV strategy: https://chorus.one/articles/mev-matters-decoding-chorus-ones-winning-mev-strategy - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md - Building a Second Brain: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com GUESTS Brian Crain: https://x.com/crainbf ------------------------------------ SOCIAL MEDIA Sebastien Couture: https://twitter.com/seb3point0 The Interop: https://twitter.com/TheInterop

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