Empire

On today's episode Jason and Santi are joined by Ramon, co-founder and CEO of Memori Labs. The trio dive into Kinto - a secure layer 2 built on Arbitrum Nitro that provides KYC at the chain level to enable institutions and users to access DeFi more safely. They discuss the pain points that led Ramon to build Kinto, the importance of compliance and security for mainstream adoption, how Kinto manages user data privacy, and Ramon's vision for how KYC may evolve in a Web3 future. Stay tuned to dig into all of this and much more! - - Follow Ramon: https://twitter.com/ramonrecuero Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - Harpie is the most advanced on-chain security solution for monitoring and protecting your crypto wallet from theft in real time. Harpie detects, blocks, and recovers compromised assets from malicious transactions before they execute, and is the only security tool to also protect users from off-chain signature attacks like the recent Ledger Connect Kit exploit. Secure your wallet for free at harpie.io. - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (00:00) Kinto Overview (15:00) KYC Requirements & Security (19:13) The Ideal Kinto Customer (26:02) Regulatory Pressure Protection (28:10) Arbitrum Ad (28:58) Harpie Ad (30:12) Kinto Product Today (36:48) Costs & Value of KYC (43:41) RWA Products (48:40) Kinto Adoption - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

13 Feb 202452min

In today's episode of the convo, Ryan, Tommy, and Santi debate the biggest topics and narratives across crypto. They dig into the the recent Solana outage, Ethereum's scalability roadmap, the intersection of AI and crypto, and their defining crypto theses for 2024. They unpack the implications of the Solana outage and whether it impacts institutional adoption. Transitioning topics, they debate Ethereum's scalability roadmap, including rollups, modular architectures, and Ethereum's ability to maintain composability long-term. To close out the trio explore the intersection of AI and Crypto, analyzing whether crypto can successfully compete with big tech for AI development or risk being too decentralized to keep pace. Stay tuned for all of this and much more! - - Follow Tommy: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119 Follow Ryan: https://twitter.com/kukulabanze Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (0:00) The Solana Outage (15:40) Value flows of Ethereum & DA Layers (26:56) DAS London Ad (27:52) Ethereum Scalability Roadmap (37:31) Intersection of AI and Crypto (58:33) Sustainability of Token Incentives (1:11:14) Santi's Blast Thesis (1:21:29) 2024 Thesis - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

9 Feb 20241h 30min

In this week's roundup Jason and Santi discuss Farcaster's recent surge in adoption, analyzing features like channels and programmable posts, and how it could transform distribution and customer acquisition. The conversation then turns to a deep dive into airdrops questioning the efficiency and high costs of current models while discussing Dymension's recent airdrop struggles. Stick around for all of this and much more! - - Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability platform powering multi-chain applications and bridges. It provides developers with access to liquidity and users on over 30 leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases in DeFi, data queries, and governance. The platform is trusted by teams like Uniswap and Circle and, to date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 35 billion dollars through over 850 million cross-chain messages. Claim your unique Wormhole NFT at https://wormhole.com/empire4-6823 - - Send your crypto to your PayPal account, swap it for PYUSD, and use it to checkout at millions of stores. Pay how you want by getting started at: https://blckwrks.co/PYUSD - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (00:00) Frostbite & Santi's Status (04:33) Thoughts on Farcaster & Decentralized Social (25:40) Wormhole Ad (27:06) Paypal Ad (28:04) Dymension Airdrop & Overview (39:05) NFT Communities & Rewarding Holders (44:36) Debating Airdrops (50:26) Staking & ETF Synergy (56:35) Mass Adoption Cycle? - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

9 Feb 20241h 2min

In today's episode we dive into the emergence of decentralized social networks and how they enable new forms of distribution and business models. ​​Farcaster, a decentralized social network built on Ethereum, has seen 400% increase in daily active users. This episode's discussion unpacks the concept of headless marketplaces, powered by global onchain identity and money, and how they bring markets to users wherever they already are. We explore the the permissionless composability unlocked by onchain protocols and how frames allow embedded experiences inside applications, enabling seamless transactions and viral growth. Stick around for all of this and much more! - Follow Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn Follow Antonio: https://twitter.com/antoniogm Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - Harpie is the most advanced on-chain security solution for monitoring and protecting your crypto wallet from theft in real time. Harpie detects, blocks, and recovers compromised assets from malicious transactions before they execute, and is the only security tool to also protect users from off-chain signature attacks like the recent Ledger Connect Kit exploit. Secure your wallet for free at harpie.io. - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps (01:51) Headless Marketplaces (13:50) Embedded Experiences in Applications (18:58) Permissionless Composability of App Experiences (28:26) Frames & Farcaster Overview (37:05) Arbitrum Ad (37:52) Harpie Ad (39:07) Company Adoption (52:52) Importance of Brand (58:55) Ownership Economy Thesis - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

6 Feb 20241h 6min

On today's episode we dive into Near Protocol with Co-founder and Near Foundation CEO Illia Polosukhin. Illia details key innovations, like account aggregation, sharding, and chain abstraction, that are aimed at bringing blockchain to a mass consumer base. We also discuss Near's strategic partnerships, challenges in onboarding Web 2.0 companies, and their impressive vision of a decade with over a hundred million monthly users. We then shift focus to AI as we explore user-owned AI, software generation replacing traditional SaaS companies, and the intriguing concept of an 'AI president' in forward-thinking governance. Stay tuned for all of this and much more! - - Follow Illia: https://twitter.com/ilblackdragon Follow Spencer: https://twitter.com/0xpibblez Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability platform powering multi-chain applications and bridges. It provides developers with access to liquidity and users on over 30 leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases in DeFi, data queries, and governance. The platform is trusted by teams like Uniswap and Circle and, to date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 35 billion dollars through over 850 million cross-chain messages. Claim your unique Wormhole NFT at https://wormhole.com/empire3-6877 - - Send your crypto to your PayPal account, swap it for PYUSD, and use it to checkout at millions of stores. Pay how you want by getting started at: https://blckwrks.co/PYUSD - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (01:58) Illia's Return to CEO & NEAR's Recap (05:55) Focus on Chain Abstraction (09:41) Evolution of NEAR Sharding (18:57) Account Aggregation Thesis (30:11) Modular vs Monolothic Approach (35:04) DA Landscape (39:41) Record Consumer Usage (43:06) Wormhole Ad (44:32) Paypal Ad (45:31) Owning Your Data & AI Usecase (49:43) Onboarding Web2 Companies (51:58) The Account Aggregation Flow (57:51) NEAR BD Strategy (01:04:45) Why does AI matter? - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

2 Feb 20241h 20min

On today's episode of Empire Haseeb and Avichal return to Empire to discuss crypto in 2024. They debate whether we're entering a bull market and analyze key indicators like retail engagement, institutional flows, and blockchain development activity. The majority of the conversation focuses on a debate of the EVM versus alternative chains like Solana, Monad, or other virtual machines. They also touch on the sustainability of meme coins, and whether major consumer apps will emerge this cycle. They close out by discussing crypto's scalability trilemma, the prospect of regional fragmentation, and whether financialization detracts from user experience in areas like gaming. Stay tuned for all of this and much more! - - Follow Haseeb: https://twitter.com/hosseeb Follow Avichal: https://twitter.com/avichal Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - Harpie is the most advanced on-chain security solution for monitoring and protecting your crypto wallet from theft in real time. Harpie detects, blocks, and recovers compromised assets from malicious transactions before they execute, and is the only security tool to also protect users from off-chain signature attacks like the recent Ledger Connect Kit exploit. Secure your wallet for free at harpie.io. - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (01:48) Where are we in the cycle (07:28) Allocation Decisions and Mindset (11:30) Sentiment Outstripping Fundamentals (20:23) Developer Report & Performant Chains Exposure (29:49) Market Structure of Virtual Machine Adoption (42:21) EVM Landscape Prediction (56:26) Arbitrum Ad (57:13) Harpie Ad (58:28) Can Solana Overtake Ethereum? (01:09:00) The Big Consumer App (01:25:28) Speculation vs Social Experiences (01:31:15) Meme Coin Perspective - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

30 Jan 20241h 46min

In today's episode Jason and Santi are joined by Logan Jastremski, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Frictionless Capital. He shares his thesis on why high-throughput blockchains are essential for crypto to reach mainstream adoption. We dive deep into the technical limitations of existing chains, and how innovations like parallelization and higher bandwidth unlock entirely new applications and business models not possible before. Stay tuned for a deep dive into deterministic and optimistic parallelization, performant validator nodes, and much more! - - Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability platform powering multi-chain applications and bridges. It provides developers with access to liquidity and users on over 30 leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases in DeFi, data queries, and governance. The platform is trusted by teams like Uniswap and Circle and, to date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 35 billion dollars through over 850 million cross-chain messages. Claim your unique Wormhole NFT at https://wormhole.com/empire2-9988 - - Send your crypto to your PayPal account, swap it for PYUSD, and use it to checkout at millions of stores. Pay how you want by getting started at: https://blckwrks.co/PYUSD - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Follow Logan: https://twitter.com/loganjastremski Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Timestamps: (01:35) The Logan Jastremski Thesis (08:47) Parallelization Adoption & Usecases (15:53) Blockchains at Scale (30:24) Limitations of Data Propagation (37:38) Edge Cases of Performant Blockchain Thesis (42:26) Wormole Ad (43:52) Paypal Ad (44:51) Frictionless Portfolio Decisions (48:36) Solana Criticisms (59:07) Biggest Problem Solana Faces Today (01:04:10) Applications Unlocked by High Performance (01:13:36) Investing in Private Teams vs L1 Tokens (01:16:55) Thesis Invalidation - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

26 Jan 20241h 27min

In today's episode Jason is joined by Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital and Dmitriy Berenzon of Archetype for an in-depth debate on the emerging decentralized physical infrastructure industry. They analyze the complex economic flywheel effects that drive growth, including how token incentives align infrastructure providers and fuel liquidity and value. The discussion covers considerations around hardware needs, revenue models, and mainstream adoption challenges. They also assess the differences between B2B and B2C models, approaches to token issuance, and evaluating timing for mainstream adoption. We hope you enjoy! - - Follow Kyle: https://twitter.com/KyleSamani Follow Dimitriy: https://twitter.com/dberenzon Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - Harpie is the most advanced on-chain security solution for monitoring and protecting your crypto wallet from theft in real time. Harpie detects, blocks, and recovers compromised assets from malicious transactions before they execute, and is the only security tool to also protect users from off-chain signature attacks like the recent Ledger Connect Kit exploit. Secure your wallet for free at harpie.io. - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps: (01:24) What is DePIN? (09:33) Barriers to DePIN (21:40) DePIN Flywheel (24:22) B2C vs B2B DePIN Designs (33:41) Arbitrum Ad (34:28) Harpie Ad (35:43) CapEx & OpEx Costs (45:00) Filecoin Thesis (49:28) Best Token Issuance Models for DePIN (55:56) Open Sourcing Hardware (57:48) Active vs Passive DePIN - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

23 Jan 20241h 5min