Bridging DeFi and TradFi: Niklas Kunkel on Chronicle Labs and the Future of Finance

Tomer Weller is the VP of Product at Stellar, one of the earliest alternative Layer 1 chains that existed before Ethereum. Stellar recently launched Soroban, its smart contract platform, designed to enhance the blockchain's functionality with efficient, developer-friendly tools for building sophisticated applications. In today's conversation, we dive deep into Stellar, overview their fundamentals, reflect on its decade long journey as a Layer 1 blockchain, and have a closer look into the current use cases. Thanks to Stellar for supporting independent journalism. 0:00 Intro 0:58 Stellar Overview 2:01 Tomer Weller 3:48 Stellar Fundamentals 8:49 Being Early 12:06 Smart Contracts 17:26 Attracting Developers 23:09 Use Cases 29:52 Argentina 33:10 Franklin Templeton 36:49 Censorship Resistance 39:30 Scaling 55:17 Stellar Validators 1:00:58 What's Next? ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

27 Mars 20241h 4min

Erica Kang is the CEO and founder of KryptoSeoul, a leading community building team in South Korea that focuses on blockchain projects. Erica has been a bridge between the East and the West for a very long time, and today we get to dive deep into her journey. She grew up in Korea, then moved to the United States and did a stint in Vietnam. She has not only reshaped the blockchain landscape, but she's also championed a new era of community driven empowerment. Before we dive into all of that, Erica will share a little bit about how she first got involved in the crypto community. 0:00 Intro 0:48 Community in Crypto 5:16 Erika Kang's Personal Journey 8:03 Differences in Culture 13:12 BUIDL Asia + ETH Seoul 15:47 Crypto Projects in Korea 20:30 Kimchi Premium 22:20 Information Flow 26:55 BTC as SOV 30:09 Terra's Implosion 33:00 KryptoSeoul Community 38:17 Events in Asia 40:50 How are you defiant? ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

25 Mars 202443min

In today's podcast we host two guests: Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin, and Meg Lister, GM at Gitcoin Grants Labs. Gitcoin is a platform that connects developers with open-source projects for funding, collaboration, and building digital public goods through various forms of contribution like coding, design, and more. In our conversation we learn about the origin story of Gitcoin and breakdown the main funding mechanisms, such as quadratic funding and retroactive funding, benefits of onchain capital allocation over traditional funding mechanisms, and we delve into Allo Protocol, an open-source protocol that enables groups to efficiently and transparently allocate pooled capital. 0:00 Intro 1:37 Kevin Owocki and Meg Lister 4:12 The Story of Gitcoin 12:39 Quadratic and Retroactive Funding 18:21 Main Usecases 24:35 Grants Programs in the Bull 28:44 Onchain Capital Allocation 33:53 Allo Protocol 37:33 Gitcoin Token 38:17 Revenue 41:01 Ultimate Vision 49:05 Fiat Onramps Our sponsor Synfutures: https://oyster.synfutures.com/ ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

18 Mars 202454min

Evan Cheng is the Co-founder & CEO at Mysten Labs, which is the team behind Sui Network. In their words, Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform "designed to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible". In our conversation we explore the potential of this up and coming Layer 1 by learning about the underlying motivation of the founder, what makes it different from other blockchains, in particular Aptos, the current main uses cases, and more. 0:00 Intro 1:06 Who is Evan Cheng 8:32 Why Web2 doesn't work 12:05 Lessons from building Libra 15:46 Sui vs Other Layer 1s 27:11 Modular Blockchains 28:50 Sui Use Cases 33:51 Challenges of usng Move 36:43 Future of DeFi 44:00 Bull Market 2024 46:12 Incentive Program on Sui 51:30 Future of Blockchains 53:50 What's Next for Sui? Our sponsor https://oyster.synfutures.com?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=news_release#/odyssey ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

11 Mars 202455min

Guy Young is the founder and CEO of Ethena Labs, which is the entity behind Ethena, the synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum. Ethena also introduces a universally available dollar-linked savings option known as the 'Internet Bond'. Ethena introduces an innovative stablecoin model. Throughout our discussion, we thoroughly explore the mechanics and intricacies of Ethena, gaining a deeper understanding of its operation and the risks involved. 0:00 Intro 1:24 Guy Young's Background and Ethena Origin Story 5:33 How is USDe Different? 11:56 Off Exchange Provider Risks 20:23 ETH Short Positions 31:08 Insurance Fund 38:35 USDe Scalability 42:44 New Collateral 45:35 Staked ETH Depeg 48:48 Stablecoin / USDe Use Cases 57:33 Ethena Airdrop 1:00:00 Biggest Risk 1:02:42 Success for Ethena 1:05:40 Revenue Our sponsors https://defisaver.com/?utm_source=Defiant+Youtube&utm_medium=Podcast+Shoutout+february&utm_campaign=Defiant+podcast+shoutout+ad https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

4 Mars 20241h 7min

Avery Ching is the co-founder and CTO of Aptos, which is a Layer 1 blockchain developed by former Facebook employees that launched towards the end of 2022. Aptos uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism and aims to achieve high throughput and high security for smart contracts. In our conversation, we cover the fundamentals of Aptos, with Avery highlighting the unique features that set Aptos apart from other Layer 1s, we delve into the technical aspect, focusing on the concept of Dynamic Parallelism, Avery addresses the concerns surrounding the significant venture capital investment in Aptos, we also explore the current and potential future use cases, including the introduction of the Aptos Phone. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:45 What makes Aptos different? 10:15 Trilemma 15:07 Aptos fundamentals 17:45 Aptos VS Sui 20:07 Dynamic Parallelism 23:30 VC Chain 25:15 Points and Airdrops 27:05 Aptos Labs + Foundation 28:27 Aptos Use cases 38:17 Verifying Content On Chain 42:30 Aptos Phone 48:33 Future of Blockchain 51:45 Success for Aptos ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

26 Feb 202454min

Brendan Farmer is the co-founder of Polygon, which is a project that is focused on scaling Ethereum. Brendan's contributions have been instrumental in the research and development of key scaling technologies within Polygon's framework, including Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, and Polygon Miden. Our conversation begins with an exploration of the foundational elements that constitute the Polygon ecosystem. We then delve into the realm of ZK technology, discussing its advantages as a preferred scaling solution, its comparison with optimistic rollups, and the intricacies of Polygon's Aggregation Layer and CDK. We also discuss how the future of blockchain activity can be made more efficient and optimized with Aggregation Layer. Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:13 Polygon's Products 7:55 Zero Knowledge Proofs 11:15 ZKP vs Optimistic Rollup 15:42 Aggregation Layer 38:00 Non-EVM Chains x AggLayer 41:40 Monolithic Chain 47:40 Consumer Apps 50:30 Polygon in 2024 Our sponsors https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

19 Feb 202451min

Alex Blania is a cofounder of Worldcoin alongside Sam Altman and Max Novendtsern. Worldcoin is aiming to become the world's largest digital identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. Worldcoin could be considered the frontrunner in terms of ambition, leveraging unique methods to accelerate the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency technologies globally, to a point where critics have labelled it as "dystopian". In our conversation we dive into the controversial aspect of Worldcoin, get a better grasp of what the project is about and its founding story, the $WLD token, the (new) Orb, how scanned data is stored, and much more. Our sponsors https://stellar.org/soroban?utm_source=defiant&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant_podcast https://matcha.xyz/swap-tokens?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=defiant-24Q1 https://defisaver.com/?utm_source=Defiant+Youtube&utm_medium=Podcast+Shoutout+february&utm_campaign=Defiant+podcast+shoutout+ad TS 0:00 Intro 1:20 What is Worldcoin? 7:52 $WLD Token 8:35 Who is Alex Blania? 12:04 The Orb 22:28 Dystopian Scenario 27:16 How Scanned Data is Stored 31:08 Bribing with Crypto 33:40 $WLD Utility 34:36 UBI 36:00 Usecases of Worldcoin 48:20 Bigger Issues 50:55 The New Orb 53:30 Decentralizing 54:50 The End State 56:30 Biggest Risk 57:30 Treasury 01:00:50 Doing things differently ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

12 Feb 20241h 4min