WAGMI Ventures Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Self-Sovereign Identity: User Data Made Portable and Actionable, with Chris Were (Verida) Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

Chris Were is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Verida (https://www.verida.io). Backed by Launchub, Gate Labs, Qwerty Fund, & more, Verida is creating a new era of hyper-personalization, where user data is privately and consensually used to create new products and services. In this episode we discuss what becomes possible as Verida scales, thoughts on self-sovereign identity, Verida’s experience launching the first mobile crypto wallet supporting zero-knowledge credentials issued through Polygon ID, & much more.
Recorded Monday March 25, 2024.

Expanding the Frontier of Blockchains x AI, with Mike Hanono (Talus) Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

Mike Hanono is the Founder & CEO @ Talus (https://twitter.com/TalusNetwork). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Polychain, dao5, & more, Talus is building at the intersection of crypto & AI. In this episode we discuss the current state of AI and blockchain technology, smart agents (and the corresponding usefulness of blockchains), Mike’s perspective on what wastes time during the early stages of a startup, what future possible trajectories could look like, & much more.
Recorded Thursday March 7, 2024.

Building the Definitive Crypto Infrastructure Platform, with Michael Shaulov (Fireblocks) Mar 17, 2024

Show notes

Michael Shaulov is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Fireblocks (https://www.fireblocks.com). Backed by Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Paradigm, & more, Fireblocks is a digital asset infrastructure provider, with thousands of crypto businesses building on top of its products, 170M+ wallets created, $4T+ transactions secured. In this episode we discuss the Michael’s journey to creating Fireblocks, a unified view of the various products and services Fireblocks provides, how Fireblocks navigated the bear market, a deep-dive on stablecoins (present, future), how the future of crypto might look (from Michael’s vantage point), best advice for new crypto founders, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday March 5, 2024.

Building Engaging Web3 Experiences, with Jess Houlgrave (WalletConnect) Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

Jess Houlgrave is the CEO @ WalletConnect (https://walletconnect.com). Backed by Union Square Ventures, 1kx, & more, WalletConnect gives developers the tools to build secure, interactive, and powerful experiences that users everywhere can enjoy. In this episode we discuss Jess’ remarkable journey to the CEO role, most exciting possibilities at WalletConnect, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, what mistakes she most often sees from others building similar products, & much more.
Recorded Monday March 4, 2024.

Enabling Further Creativity on Farcaster, with David Furlong (Openframes) Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

David Furlong is the Founder @ Openframes (https://www.modprotocol.org). Backed by a16z Startup School & Dan Romero, Openframes is enabling developers to build mini-apps that are open, interoperable, and permissionless, now available for Farcaster. In this episode we discuss the nature of pivoting (what makes pivot good vs. bad), how to adapt in the fast-moving world of blockchain technology, why what’s happening within decentralized social matters so much, how to stick with your principles (in an especially tricky field to do so), & much more.
Recorded Friday March 1, 2024.

How to Think About Marketing in Crypto, with Jay Kurahashi-Sofue (Ava Labs) Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Jay Kurahashi-Sofue is the VP Marketing @ Ava Labs (https://www.avalabs.org). Backed by Polychain Capital, a16z, & more, Ava Labs is the creator of Avalanche, the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality. Avalanche is blazingly fast, low cost, and eco-friendly. In this episode we discuss Jay’s advice on biggest marketing pitfalls to avoid for protocols, what it will take for crypto to move past the bad actors into new frontiers, what Ava Labs is focused on right now, & much more.
Recorded Tuesday February 27, 2024.

Smart Contract Access Management Done Correctly, with Austin Green (Llama) Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

Austin Green is the Co-Founder @ Llama (https://llama.xyz). Backed by Founders Fund, Electric Capital, Elad Gil, & more, Llama is a full-stack platform for on-chain access control and governance, where users can securely take action using on-chain policies and custom execution strategies. In this episode we discuss Austin’s path to conviction around the problem space, his perspective on progressive decentralization (and how Llama fits into that perspective), how crypto’s changed since his introduction to the space, best advice for crypto founders in 2024, & much more.
Recorded Thursday February 22, 2024.

An API to Securely Manage Private Keys At-Scale, with Bryce Ferguson & Jack Kearney (Turnkey) Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Bryce Ferguson & Jack Kearney are the Co-Founders of Turnkey (https://www.turnkey.com). Backed by Sequoia, Variant, Coinbase, & Exponent, Turnkey enables developers to spin-up thousands of wallets and sign millions of transactions, all without compromising on security. In this episode we discuss the preceding steps to launching Turnkey (and how they reached conviction on the opportunity), earliest challenges and surprises (and how their team navigated both), how crypto’s changed in the intervening years since their entrance to the space, & much more.
Recorded Friday February 16, 2024.

Building The Marketplace for Data + Analytics, with Dave Balter (Flipside Crypto) Mar 02, 2024

Show notes

Dave Balter is the Founder & CEO @ Flipside Crypto (https://flipsidecrypto.xyz). Backed by HashKey Capital, Dapper Labs, M13, & more, Flipside Crypto offers decoded blockchain data for querying and building in its Studio. Users can also earn as an analyst by making dashboards and boards for various Web3 projects and networks. In this episode we talk about their journey through the bear market (as told via his open Medium letter to his team), what’s been different building Flipside Crypto (relative to other companies he’s founded), what we’re getting right (and wrong) in crypto here in 2024, and much more.
Recorded Monday February 12, 2024.

Seamless Interaction Between Chains, with Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh (Lagrange Labs) Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Lagrange Labs (https://lagrange.dev). Backed by 1kx, Daedalus, Maven 11 Capital, & more, Lagrange Labs enables seamless interaction between chains with cryptographically secure state proofs, not opaque intermediaries. Developers can now run expressive and dynamic distributed ZK computation at a Big Data scale on top of multi-chain contract states. In this episode we chat through what they’re building (in its fullness), their recent collaboration with EigenLayer, biggest surprises thus far in creating Lagrange Labs, best advice for crypto founders, & much more.
Recorded Monday February 5, 2024.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected