🎙️ METACAST: Top Crypto Podcasts of March 2024

Paradigm

Published in

Paradigm

15 min readApr 1, 2024

Greetings, everyone!

Take a swift glimpse at the highlights of what we’ve been tuning into last month!

TL;DR

Attorney James Murphy’s insights on SEC lawsuits and regulations
Chris Giancarlo’s perspective on CBDCs and the Digital Dollar
Vitalik Buterin’s interview on finding the cypherpunk spirit in the era of AI and centralization
Insights on BlackRock’s new fund on Ethereum
Tim Beiko’s guide to Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade and future developments
The potential of Layer 3 development post Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade
Examination of EigenLayer’s rapid developer activity
Hack VC’s Alex Pack on crypto’s intersection with AI
Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, discusses USDT and stablecoin regulation
Sassal, Jordi, & Ippolito debate the bullishness of Layer 2 tokens
Exploration of Pacman’s Blast and its L2 yield-bearing system
Robert Leshner’s vision for tokenizing real-world assets
Discussions on the Coinbase Flare SongBird lawsuit and crypto’s impact on elections
Alin Tomescu on distributed on-chain randomness and keyless accounts
Uma Roy dives into Succinct’s platform and prover network
Anish Mohammed discusses Panther Protocol’s privacy solutions
Gearbox Protocol’s mission to reinvent credit on-chain
Fetch AI’s decentralized AI economies
SEDA Protocol’s intent-based modular data layer
Kevin Owocki & Meg Lister discuss empowering open-source projects with Gitcoin
Insights into Sui Network’s Layer 1 blockchain
Ethena’s Guy Young explores synthetic dollar protocols and internet bond
Ric Edelman’s take on RIAs and Bitcoin
Paolo Ardoino on Tether’s growth and future outlook
Seemay Chou’s revolutionary approach to science and entrepreneurship
Alfred Brown previews the DeSci London Conference
Erica Kang on bridging East and West in crypto
Justin Sun’s insights on TRON and Ethereum
Perspectives from 3AC’s Kyle Davies
Blockcrunch Roundtable’s Q1 2024 crypto recap
And more!

Unchained

How BlackRock’s New Fund on Ethereum Got a Very Crypto Welcome: Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, gives the scoop on why Blackrock’s new fund had to launch early and has a suggestion for how to handle dustings of Tornado Cash.

How Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Could Lead to the Rise of Millions of Layer 3s: Base creator Jesse Pollak argues that much cheaper Layer 2 transactions, as well as other developments, will enable the creation of multitudes of specialized Layer 3s that are deeply connected to the on-chain economy.
3AC’s Kyle Davies on Why He’s Crypto’s Lloyd Blankfein and Why He’s Not Sorry: The brash co-founder of the now defunct crypto hedge fund argues that most, if not all, companies eventually go bankrupt and that 3AC had a “pretty spectacular” run.
Why EigenLayer May Be the Most Innovative New Ecosystem Since Ethereum: Developer activity on EigenLayer has sprouted up extremely quickly, according to founder Sreeram Kannan and investor Olaf Carlson-Wee.

How, in 7 Weeks, Bitcoin ETFs Reached Inflows That Took Gold ETFs 3 Years: Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg Intelligence explains why the spot Bitcoin ETFs have made TradFi move at the speed of crypto — and why he’s uncertain spot Ether ETFs will be approved.
The Catalysts for This Crypto Bull Market: AI, DeFi, Real World Assets? As the crypto bull market gets started, Alex Pack of Hack VC dives into why he thinks crypto is still so early and how his firm believes crypto and AI will intersect.

Bitcoin’s Price Is Way Up. And $48 Trillion in Wealth Just Got Access: Alex Thorn unpacks how ETFs, long-term holders, and the upcoming halving should push Bitcoin’s price to over $100,000 by the end of the year.

The Chopping Block:

Bankless

Tether CEO on Their $100B Stablecoin ($USDT): Paolo Ardoino is the CEO of Tether, the $100 Billion stablecoin company that owns more U.S. Treasuries than most countries. They explore why Tether is winning, how it’s helping people in emerging markets, and what really backs a $USDT. They also cover the state of the stablecoin regulation and even market competitors. Tether has been and it’s still a target of Fud in the Crypto industry. Paolo is here to refute that Fud and much more.

L2 Tokens: Bullish or Bearish? with Sassal, Jordi, & Ippolito: Are Layer2 Tokens bullish or are they just worthless governance tokens? The hosts heve brought a team of expert panelists to help them answer that exact question. Mike Ippolito, Jordi Alexander and Anthony Sassano explore Layer2 business models, where value is accrued and how to capture that upside.
Justin Sun: On Tron, Vitalik, and Becoming Humble: Justin Sun, the Controversial Founder of TRON has finally entered the chat. This episode is packed with hot takes. Expect to learn why Justin is still in Crypto, why he should’ve copied Ethereum 100% and not just 95%, why he views Vitalik as a goldmine, and much more.

BLAST: The L2 with Native Yield | Pacman: Pacman is one of the most interesting builders in crypto right now. After creating Blur, a disruptive NFT exchange, the crypto wonder kid is targeting the L2 space with his new yield bearing L2 called Blast. In this episode, they cover Pacman’s story, how he built Blur, how he pioneered Points and finally, get into Blast, the already third largest L2 in TVL.

Dencun 101: Tim Beiko Explains Ethereum’s Upgrade and Beyond: Ethereum’s next hard fork is here and the hosts are joined by Tim Beiko from the Ethereum Foundation to walk us through and explain what it all means. He shares a comprehensive guide on each and every EIP along with what comes next, Dencun, Pectra, and beyond. If you want to be up to date with the state of all things Ethereum this is the episode for you.
Tokenizing Real World Assets | Robert Leshner: Can we Tokenize the World? Robert Leshner, creator of Compound and one of the forefathers of DeFi, is on a mission to do so. With his new company Superstate, new product, tokenized t-bills and new location, New York city. Robert is trying to bring $300 trillion in TradFI assets on-chain.

Is Crypto a Scam? with Crypto Skeptic Patrick McKenzie: Why do banks have holidays? Should we redesign the banking system? Is there a future for crypto? The hosts are joined by Patrick McKenzie, an advisor at Stripe who writes about the modern financial system and helps us answer these exact questions. First, they talk about the inner workings of the existing banking system. Then they get into crypto, where Patrick shares his reasons for skepticism.
The 7 Most Bullish Crypto Narratives of 2024: The crypto bull market is here and nothing drives price like a good ol’ narrative. On the show, the hosts walk you through the top 7 that they’re most excited about to watch unfold during this bull run.

Memecoins: Good or Evil with Ledger & Stephen Cesaro: The hosts have two guests debating the merits and costs of crypto memecoins. Ledger (Brian Krogsgard) from the UpOnly podcast thinks that memecoins are financial nihilism that creates room for bad actors and grifters. Stephen Cesaro, from the Alfalfa Podcast, thinks memecoins are something to appreciate and celebrate. Which side are you on?

AI Memecoins & Lessons for Narrative Investing: Ryan and David share another Bankless Takes episode where they discuss their AI memecoin analysis, why AI crypto tokens are a big deal, how to speculate on narratives like AI memecoins (lessons and guidance for “narrative investing”, and what are the next big narratives this cycle.
The RFK Interview: An in-person interview with presidential candidate RFK Jr. who shares his takes and policies on the state of crypto in the United States.

Rollups:

Zero Knowledge

Episode 316: Alin Tomescu on Distributed On-chain Randomness and Keyless Accounts: In this episode, Anna and Nico chat with Alin Tomescu, founding team member and Head of Cryptography at Aptos Labs. They discuss Alin’s journey to Aptos and his work on distributed on-chain randomness as well as the new Aptos Keyless project. They cover the Keyless accounts architecture, how the flow works for the user and some of the subtleties in the approach they have taken.

Episode 315: ZK Hack Ecosystem & Winners of ZK Hack IV: This episode is a little different from the usual and is split into two parts with Anna and Kobi exploring the history of ZK Hack, its origins and how the event has evolved into what it is today, including current activity in the ZK Hack ecosystem. The second half of the show splits off with Anna and Nico chatting about the top 3 hackers from ZK Hack IV Online, which wrapped back in February. Each mini-interview catches up with one of the winners and dives into what it was like to hack on the puzzles, what their favourites were and how they can be improved in the future.
Episode 314: Succinct’s Platform, Prover Network and SP1: In this episode, Anna and Tarun catch up with Uma Roy, CEO and co-founder of Succinct. They dive into Succinct’s developments over the last year ranging from the work they did on the ZK bridge infrastructure to the Succinct platform, the Succinct prover network and their most recent release of SP1. They discuss connections between these products, how their development evolved, the competitive landscape, the future for the project and much more.

Epicenter

Gearbox Protocol: ‘DeFi Is Boring, Let’s Reinvent Credit’ — Ivan & Mikael Lazarev: The hosts were joined by Mikael Lazarev and Ivan from Gearbox Protocol, to discuss how they aim to create a universal and composable on-chain credit layer, through credit account abstraction.

Humayun Sheikh: Fetch AI — Decentralising AI Economies: The hosts were joined by Humayun Sheikh, co-founder & CEO of Fetch.ai, to discuss AI economic models and how LLMs can be integrated by agentic systems as a foundation for autonomous AI apps.
Jasper De Goojier: SEDA — Intent-Based Modular Data Layer: The hosts were joined by Jasper De Goojier, co-founder of SEDA Protocol, to discuss the oracle landscape and how SEDA aims to decentralize it and make data access permissionless.

Anish Mohammed: Panther Protocol — Zero-Knowledge Compliant Privacy in DeFi: The hosts were joined by Anish Mohammed, co-founder & CTO of Panther Protocol, to discuss the importance of compliant privacy for on-chain transactions, powered by zero knowledge technology.

The Defiant

Bridging East and West in Crypto | Erica Kang of KryptoSeoul: 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. 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.

Funding the Future Onchain: Empowering Open Source & Public Goods with Gitcoin | Kevin Owocki & Meg Lister: In this episode, there are 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 this conversation, we learn about the origin story of Gitcoin and breakdown the main funding mechanisms, such as quadratic funding and retroactive funding, benefits of on-chain 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.

Exploring the Ex-Apple Engineer Led Sui Network: 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 this conversation they 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 use cases, and more.
How USDe Pays The Highest Stablecoin Yield | Ethena Founder & CEO Guy Young: 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 this discussion, they thoroughly explore the mechanics and intricacies of Ethena, gaining a deeper understanding of its operation and the risks involved.

Thinking Crypto Podcast

Ric Edelman Interview — RIAs Will Bring Billions To Bitcoin: Ric Edelman is the founder of Edelman Financial Services & the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals. He is also the author of over 10 books on personal finance and host of The Truth About Your Future Podcast. They discuss:

The Bitcoin Spot ETF launch and inflows
A walkthrough of the process of how RIAs will adopt the Bitcoin ETFs
What happens at the peak of the BTC cycle, will ETFs sell-off?
Will the SEC approve the Ethereum Spot ETF this year?
Will Crypto Regulations be approved in 2024 or 2025?
The impact of AI on investing and the economy
The growing fiat debt problem

James Murphy Interview — The SEC Sanctioned in the DebtBox Case: Attorney James Murphy aka MetaLawMan joins the show to discuss:

SEC sanctioned by Judge in DebtBox case
SEC wants to classify Ethereum as a security
Kraken fights back against the SEC and gets support from 8 state attorney generals
What happens next in the Ripple XRP lawsuit
Can individual crypto investors sue the SEC?

Chris Giancarlo Interview — When will we see the Digital Dollar CBDC?: Chris Giancarlo is a former CFTC chairman and author of the book crypto dad the fight for the future of money, co-founder of the Digital Dollar Project. They discuss:

What’s the latest with the Digital Dollar
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent comments about the Digital Dollar development
Stablecoins vs CBDCs
Will AI be used with the Digital Dollar CBDC?
Thoughts on members of Congress and some political candidates coming out against CBDCs
Revisiting the pushback on Facebook’s Diem Digital Currency
Bitcoin Spot ETF
CFTC vs SEC Ethereum

Paolo Ardoino Interview — Tether USDT’s Incredible Growth & Future Outlook: Paolo Ardoino is the CEO of Tether and the CTO at Bitfinex. They discuss:

Are Stablecoins the killer app of Crypto?
Tether Reserve FUD and disproving naysayers
Cantor Fitzgerald review and confirmation of USDT reserves
Can USDT depeg?
Tether Gold & Euro Stablecoin
Is AI a threat and opportunity for Tether?
How Tether is preparing for Stablecoin regulations
Can Stablecoins and CBDCs coexist?
Bitcoin Spot ETF performance

David Johansson Interview — GameFi and BLOCKLORDS Web3 Integration: David Johansson is the CEO of BLOCKLORDS. He discusses:

BLOCKLORDS Game Play and Web3 Integration
LRDS Token Airdrop and in-game economy
The future of GameFi
The current state of play in the video game industry
Utilizing Ethereum and Polygon
Bitcoin Spot ETFs

Marisa Coppel Interview — The SEC’s Overreach Against Crypto Exchanges: Marisa Coppel is the Head of Legal at the Blockchain Association. She discusses:

SEC cases against Coinbase, Kraken, and ShapeShift
8 state attorney generals push back against SEC in Kraken case
SEC SAB 121
Lejilex vs the SEC
EIA vs Bitcoin Miners
Elizabeth Warren Crypto
Crypto’s impact on Elections

Hailey Lennon Interview — Crypto’s Big Recovery & Fight Against Government Overreach: Hailey Lennon is a Partner at Brown Rudnick and Contributor at Forbes Crypto. She discusses:

Crypto’s recovery from bear market collapses
Bitcoin ETF performance
Crypto industry fighting back against overreach
SEC SAB 121, Kraken and Coinbase vs the SEC, EIA vs Bitcoin Miners
Will the Ethereum ETF be approved?
John Deaton vs Elizabeth Warren

Fred Rispoli Interview — The Coinbase Flare SongBird Lawsuit: Attorney Fred Rispoli joins the show to discuss:

Coinbase Flare SongBird lawsuit
Donald Trump warming up to Bitcoin
SEC vs Ripple
SEC vs Kraken, Coinbase
John Deaton vs Elizabeth Warren
Ethereum ETF Approval chances

Eleanor Terrett Interview — Crypto’s Big Impact on Elections:: Eleanor Terrett is a Journalist and Producer at Fox Business. She discusses:

Crypto impact on Super Tuesday elections
John Deaton vs Elizabeth Warren
SEC vs Kraken, ShapeShift Settlement, and Lejilex Lawsuit
SEC Ripple XRP
Will Gary Gensler approve an Ethereum ETF
Stablecoin and Crypto Regulations
Custodia Bank vs the Fed

Perianne Boring Interview — The War Against Crypto is Not Over: Perianne Boring is the Founder of The Chamber of Digital Commerce. She discusses:

SEC vs Kraken
SEC SAB 121 repeal
Elizabeth Warren’s war against crypto
Will the Biden Administration pivot on Crypto ahead of the election?
If Biden is re-elected will Gary Gensler remain?
EIA vs Bitcoin Miners
John Deaton vs Elizabeth Warren

Akin Fernandez Interview — Making Bitcoin Accessible to Billions Around The Globe: Akin Fernandez is the CEO and Founder of Azteco. They discuss:

Azteco Bitcoin Voucher
Helping people get access to bitcoin around the world
Investment and backing from Jack Dorsey
Bitcoin a solution to fiat currency issue
Bitcoin ETFs
Bitcoin Lightning Network

Zack Guzman Interview — Disrupting the Legacy Media Model with Web3 Tech: Zack Guzman is Founder of Trustless Media. They discuss:

Trustless Media overview & being backed by Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph
Coinage media and Best Dish Ever shows
Giving NFT holders ownership and disrupting legacy media
Could Mr. Beast use a Web3 model to boost engagement and branding
AI Deepfakes and Blockchain
Crypto market Outlook

Douglas Boneparth Interview — Will the Bitcoin ETFs Increase Millennial Investment in Crypto?: Douglas Boneparth is a financial advisor and president of Bone Fide Wealth. They discuss:

Bone Fide Wealth providing financial services to Millennials
Bitcoin Spot ETF launch and performance
How will the Bitcoin ETF’s change Millennial investment habits as they are set to inherit wealth from Boomers
Will the Fed get its soft landing with interest rate cuts and issues like the commercial real estate problem?
Why is the Stock Market and Bitcoin performing so well?
Will we see an Ethereum ETF approval this year?

Staci Warden Interview — The Future of Algorand: Staci Warden is the CEO of the Algorand Foundation. She discusses:

Staci’s transition from TradFi to Crypto
The pushback on Crypto from Jamie Dimon and TradFi incumbents
Algorand blockchain and foundation overview
Interesting projects are being built on Algorand
Algorand Consensus Incentivization — Staking in a Node
Are CBDCS still being built on Algorand?
SEC Attack on Crypto and ALGO mentioned in lawsuits
Upgrades coming to the Algorand Blockchain
HesabPay investment

The DeSci Podcast

Seemay Chou on Arcadia’s Revolutionary Approach to Science and Entrepreneurship: Seemay Chow is Co-founder and CEO of Arcadia Science, a for-profit research institute with a specific focus on novel model organisms that haven’t been traditionally studied in the lab and translating discoveries into commercial ventures. In this episode, they discuss Arcadia’s mission, structure and approach, emphasizing the importance of providing scientists with the context needed to understand the practical applications of their research. Seemay explains how this approach fosters a different kind of creativity among researchers, thus increasing the likelihood of research success. They also explore the limitations researchers face in the traditional setting while further highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of Academia and industry. Other topics touched on include notions of diversity in science, strategies for spotting the best talents and ideas to fund, and many more.

The DeSci London Conference 2024: A Preview with Alfred Brown: The hosts were joined by Alfred Brown, co-founder of Desci London, a community dedicated to transforming science through web3 technology. In this episode, they talked about the DeSci London conference.

MISC

Vitalik InterviewFinding the Cypherpunk Spirit in the Era Of AI and Centralization: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin visited Taiwan to participate in the Plurality Salon《Building Islands from Sand: The Taiwanese Experience of Plural Democracy — How to Advance into the web3 Era?》held by Tempo X. In the first part of the interview, Vitalik delved into the current lack of “cypherpunk spirit” in the AI era and centralization, also mentioning the recently proposed technological optimism (defensive accelerationism). He revealed for the first time the significant secrets of Ethereum’s transition to PoS and the origin and outlook of its shift towards the Dencun upgrade, and how it relates to the future of humanity — the Plurality (multiverse). In the second part of the video, Vitalik gave his first interview in Chinese. Apart from extending blessings to the Taiwanese community, he discussed the uniqueness of Taiwan in the Ethereum community. Continuing from his lecture on “Different Voting Mechanisms,” he engaged in a deep discussion with the audience on how blockchain can improve modern democratic mechanisms. Using technologies like ZK and DID as building blocks, he exemplified how these blockchain technologies and materials can be used to construct a more suitable democratic society for humanity.