Welcome To The Banana Zone | 1000x

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of the Near. Near is one of the fastest-growing layer-one blockchains that uniquely focuses on the user and developer experience. Illia believes Near's innovative culture, simplicity and dynamic scalability will onboard the next 1B users to crypto. Don't miss this discussion on Near's roadmap, scalability solutions, the layer-one landscape, Ukraine and more. This podcast was recorded the day before NEAR announced their latest $350M raise led by Tiger Capital; just 3 months after raising $150M from Three Arrows Capital. -- BitMEX is back and better than ever. Sign up for BitmEX's new Spot Exchange for a chance to win a piece of $500,000 in BTC (new users). Learn more about them at https://www.bitmex.com/ -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- (00:00) Introduction (01:00) Near's Inspiration (06:35) Ethereum's Scaling Challenge (09:48) Scalability Tradeoff (15:00) Centralization (16:51) Enabling Innovation (24:03) Blockchains As Cities (27:18) Bitmex Ad (28:34) Sharding (32:35) Coordination Problem (37:27) Rollup Complexity (40:13) Solana and Avalanche (43:41) Composability (46:33) Low Switching Costs (48:38) Multichain and Bridges (52:59) Open Source Competition (56:03) Ukraine

8 Apr 20221h 6min

On today's episode of Empire, Jay Clayton, former-SEC Chairman, joins Santiago and Jason in a discussion about the merits of crypto and how regulation threatens its freedom. Giving a special perspective as a former head of the epitome of traditional finances, Jay Clayton talks about his journey in embracing crypto, how enforcement could affect it, and what he sees for its future in the markets. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. --- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:52) Stabalizing Markets (05:25) Decentralized Market Operations (12:55) Embracing Crypto (14:32) The Tradeoffs (18:44) The Real Opportunity (27:14) Paraswap Ad (28:02) Bitcoin ETF (31:44) Enforcement (35:44) Biden's Executive Order (39:52) Stablecoins  (43:32) Final Thoughts -- 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.

4 Apr 202246min

In today's episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos tackle the Ronin Hack and wallet security, explaining the whens and hows, and postulating on how to better protect themselves and others in the wake of the largest crypto hack thus far. They also look at some breaking news concerning wallets and securities, music NFTs, safety nets and more. With so much happening in the space, there's a lot to cover-- so tune in! Link discussed: https://twitter.com/paddi_hansen/status/1509536318585454597 -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.  Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/  --- Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:00) Curiosity and Culture (04:46) NFT Collectors and A Growing Space (10:16) What Do Investors Look For? (14:20) Ronin Hack Explained (20:34) Avalanche Ad (22:03) Where The Community Goes From Here (26:30) Bridging & Web 2.0 Inspired Buffers (31:05) Music NFTs vs. JPEG NFTs (39:09) SEC News and Securities  (41:10) News -- Blockchain.com, MacroStrategy, FTX & More  (50:45) Permies and Permissionless! -- 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.

1 Apr 202252min

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs. Do explains Terra’s evolving roadmap, how UST will be the most dominant stablecoin in the interchain world, and why Terra is adopting BTC as a reserve asset. Do is an absolute force - don’t miss his alpha on Terra, Anchor, bridges and more. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:14 Stable Coins 04:58 Terra's Beginning 11:48 Terra's Path 35:08 Use Cases 39:07 The Crypto Community 44:36 Seigniorage 50:09 Tradeoffs 54:59 Bitcoin Buys 58:52 Anchor 1:05:44 What's Next 1:08:56 NFTs -- 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.

31 Mars 20221h 12min

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Li Jin and Jesse Walden of Variant. Bringing their specific expertise on the creator space, Li and Jesse discuss what it means to form a crypto creator economy that not only supports quality content but attracts players to actually invest in the concept. With Jason and Santiago, they cover mainstream adoption, NFTs, what it means to be an owner, and more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

28 Mars 20221h 21min

On today's episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Jason and Santiago go through the latest in crypto news. They dive in by talking wallet security in the wake of Arthur0x's wallet hack, then segue into equity vs. tokens, Bitcoin as a reserve asset, and what the future will hold for hard commodities like gold as BTC becomes foundational to other nation states. Links discussed: https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x/status/1506167899437686784 https://cryptohayes.medium.com/energy-cancelled-e9f9e53a50cd -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry.  Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/  --- Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M -- 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.

25 Mars 20221h 7min

Jason and Santiago are joined by Gabby Dizon (co-founder YGG) and Felix Sim (co-founder Salad Venture) for a deep dive into crypto-gaming guilds. We discuss the future of play-to-earn (P2E) and how guilds provide the core infrastructure necessary for gaming's exponential growth. This is a must-listen if you're curious about how P2E economies work, how guilds add value to the gaming ecosystem, or where P2E gaming is headed in the next 5 to 10 years. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

21 Mars 20221h 13min

On today's episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Gmoney joins Santiago and Jason to discuss CryptoPunks, IPs, and the creator space in the wake of this week and last week's news. Not only weighing in on the NFT space's tricky relationship with IP and creative commons rights, Gmoney discusses his own journey with self-branding in the space and outside of it. Santiago and Jason also cover $APE and the ApeCoin DAO, the vote results of last week's discussion on Anchor, and more. -- Avalanche: Thank you to Avalanche for sponsoring Empire. Avalanche is one of the best and fastest growing smart-contract platforms in the industry. Learn more about them at https://www.avax.network/ --- Empire's Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

18 Mars 20221h 1min