‘Attention Is All You Need’, co-wrote by Illia Polosukhin in 2017, laid the foundation for arguably one of the most consequential tech breakthroughs in our recent history. 1 year later, Illia founded Near AI, which later became Near Protocol. They were visionaries ahead of their time and, although AI took several more years before becoming a viable product, the experience of scaling databases would later prove valuable and applicable in blockchain world. As a result, Near Protocol aims to become the infrastructure layer for AI apps and the agentic economy. In order to achieve this, scaling was paramount, thus Near is one of the first blockchains to implement execution layer sharding, asynchronous execution and stateless validation, which brought the finality time down to 1.2 seconds, with a block time of 0.6 seconds.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Bowen’s background
- Near’s pivot from AI to blockchains
- The role of Near One
- Near’s tech stack upgrades
- Optimizing network architecture
- Stateless validation & block propagation
- Sharding & asynchronous execution
- Message passing between shards & shard ‘equality’
- Challenges of implementing stateless validation
- Applications benefiting from Near’s finality speed
- Intent-based infrastructure
- AI use cases on Near
- Expanding Near’s ecosystem
- Development challenges
- Near’s vision and goals

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Bowen Wang on X: https://bit.ly/458VdUK
- Near One: https://bit.ly/40oetec
- Near on X: https://bit.ly/46gJNzm

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/608		

#608 Bowen Wang: Near One – Scaling the Agentic Internet. AI X Crypto

Founded in 2018, Dragonfly has quickly become one of the most prestigious crypto VCs. Dragonfly was one of the first to adopt a global approach to backing founders and disruptive tech, all while building a strong brand that allowed them to secure top-tier deals. Join us for a fascinating discussion with Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, to learn the secrets behind running a top-tier crypto VC and what made Dragonfly succeed where others have failed.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Haseeb’s background, from poker to crypto
- Effective altruism
- Crypto investment
- Developing judgement
- The vision behind Dragonfly
- Consensus vs. non-consensus deals
- KPIs
- People, Product & Markets
- Thoughts on the current crypto market
- The evolution of crypto VCs
- Advice for crypto founders
- The importance of discipline
- Is the golden era of crypto investing sunsetting?

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Haseeb Qureshi on X: https://bit.ly/3TUXxZh
- Dragonfly on X: http://bit.ly/4o6C6ly

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/609			

#609 Haseeb Qureshi: Dragonfly – The Secrets of a Top-Tier Crypto VC

Universal Market Access (UMA) was founded by 2 ex Goldman Sachs traders that wanted to make global markets universally accessible through financial smart contracts that used synthetic assets on Ethereum. However, this was taking place long before the massive boom of DeFi summer of 2020. As a result, UMA shifted to building an optimistic oracle to power prediction markets as a decentralised ‘truth machine’, thus expanding oracle use cases. Through game theoretic models, UMA managed to properly incentivise its token holders to act as voters, rewarding them for good predictions & disputes, and vice versa. Later on, Hart Lambur also co-founded Across, an intent-based optimistic bridge that set out to create a seamless UX for unifying EVM chains. Through their solver network, Across managed to achieve fast (as low as 2 seconds) and cheap bridging, abstracting away crosschain complexities, without any security tradeoffs.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Hart’s background
- Universal Market Access, from synthetic assets to oracles
- Building Across
- UMA’s optimistic oracle
- Incentivizing voters & resolving disputes
- Dealing with invalid outcomes
- Optimistic security assumptions
- UMA x Across dual token interactions
- Across’ intent-based bridge
- Pricing mechanism & solver competition
- ZK settlement
- Bridging fragmentation
- Abstracting & unifying cross-chain bridging
- Bridging between rollups
- UMA & Across governance systems

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Hart Lambur on X: http://bit.ly/40Ij5vV
- Across Protocol on X: http://bit.ly/45e5cXz
- UMA Protocol on X: http://bit.ly/4ogUjx1

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/610			

#610 Hart Lambur: UMA & Across – Optimistic Oracles & Intent-Based Bridges for Unifying Ethereum

Inspired by Urbit’s minimal assembly language, Nockchain fuses Urbit’s vision of sovereign computing with a novel proof-of-useful-work consensus mechanism, creating a blockchain where every computation fuels progress and scaling. The crypto-economics behind Nockchain’s zkVM incentivise competition between zero knowledge provers, ultimately bootstrapping ZKPs as a new computational commodity.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Logan’s background
- Urbit’s values
- Nock, Urbit's minimal assembly language
- Use cases for zk proofs
- Nockchain’s zkVM efficiency
- Useful proof-of-work
- Launching Nockchain
- Future roadmap for Nockchain
- Building apps on Nockchain
- Store of value vs. revenue generation
- The impact of quantum computing

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Logan Allen on X: https://bit.ly/40ZzOLk
- Zorp on X: https://bit.ly/4fEbLrl
- Nockchain on X: https://bit.ly/46JooyZ
- Urbit on X: https://bit.ly/4lnolfX

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/611			

#611 Logan Allen: Zorp – Nockchain's ZK Proof-of-Useful-Work Consensus

In an age when AI models are becoming exponentially more sophisticated and powerful, how does one ensure that proper results are being generated and that the AI model functions in desired parameters? This pressing concern of AI alignment could be solved through cryptographic verification, using zero knowledge proofs. ZKPs not only allow for verifying computation at scale, but they also confer data privacy. Lagrange’s DeepProve zkML is the fastest in existence, making it easy to prove that AI inferences are correct, scaling verifiable computation as the demand for AI grows.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Ismael’s background and founding Lagrange
- AI x crypto convergence
- ZKML use cases
- AI inference verifiability
- AI safety regulations
- Revenue accruing tokens
- Pitching Lagrange to enterprise clients
- Assembling a dedicated team
- Cryptography research

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh on X: http://bit.ly/3UsSvU3
- Lagrange on X: http://bit.ly/4mEq5lU

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/612			

#612 Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh: Lagrange – ZK-Proving AI Alignment

Built primarily for institutional-grade clients, Pareto delivers customizable on-chain credit markets designed to expand DeFi liquidity and TradFi tokenization through structured yield strategies tailored to diverse risk profiles. Pareto allows its users to construct individualized credit lines in specific risk-adjusted tranches, with custom: interest rates, lockup periods, withdrawal cycles, reserve ratios, etc. In addition, Pareto’s USP is an yield-bearing synthetic stablecoin, fully backed by major stablecoins, that can be deployed into a diversified portfolio of liquid, short- and long-term credit, thus increasing capital efficiency.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Matteo’s background
- Idle Finance yield optimization
- Pivoting to Pareto
- Institutional borrowers in early DeFi
- Competitive advantage of Pareto
- Outsourcing underwriting
- Managing defaults
- Customized lending
- KYC requirements
- Timeline terms ‘marketplace’
- USP, Pareto’s synthetic yield-bearing dollar
- Legal framework & credit allocators
- USP yield, liquidity & integrations
- ‘Opaque’ credit vs. DeFi
- Pareto smart contracts and redeems
- Success in on-chain credit markets

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Matteo Pandolfi on X: http://bit.ly/4mzCRmc
- Pareto: https://bit.ly/4muwbpb
- Pareto on X: https://bit.ly/41lcBDv
- Idle Finance on X: https://bit.ly/3JzFaqC

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/613			

#613 Matteo Pandolfi: Pareto – Customizable On-Chain Private Credit Marketplace

Blockchains operate as a public ledger, ‘disclosing’ the entire transaction history and associated data to everyone. While verifiability and traceability are key traits, as blockchains gain global adoption, those very features hinder the process. Self custody, on-chain identities, corporate strategies, transaction history, private deals, all represent highly sensitive information that call for provable confidentiality. Fully homomorphic encryption has long been considered the ‘holy grail’ of cryptography as it enables computation to be performed on encrypted data without the need of prior decryption. This basically translates to true end-to-end encryption, both on-chain and off-chain. As cryptographic research advances, so does the scalability and applicability of FHE. As a result of more than 5 years of work, Zama has now released Zama Protocol, which enables confidential smart contracts on top of any L1 or L2 using FHE, without any additional execution burden. By encrypting all ciphertexts with the same public key, FHE ensures composability and seamless integration across different blockchains and applications, making it a true cross-chain confidentiality layer. Through parallel execution, Zama Protocol already surpasses Ethereum’s throughput, yet future roadmap includes open-source development of FPGA & ASIC in order to scale it even further, to accommodate faster, non-EVM chains.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Zama’s progress in FHE
- Zama's confidential blockchain Protocol
- Security guarantees of MPC coprocessors
- Maintaining a healthy operator set
- Slashing and governance
- Zama’s throughput
- Open-sourcing FPGA & ASIC development
- The Zama token & its implications
- Zama’s public testnet
- Private voting
- Zama funding
- Regulations
- Expanding use cases beyond blockchains
- Future goals and expectations

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Rand Hindi on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3uxy5iX
- Zama on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3uuYJJc

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/614			

#614 Rand Hindi: Zama – FHE - the Holy Grail of Blockchain Privacy

Euler is a DeFi lending protocol built around the idea of permissionless modularity, enabling users to lend and borrow almost any crypto asset with flexible, permissionless pools, tailored to individual risk profiles. Moreover, Euler Vault Kit (EVK) and Ethereum Vault Connector (EVC) enable the creation of custom lending vaults which, in turn, can be used as collateral for other vaults. Earlier this year Euler also announced EulerSwap, a new DEX with a built-in AMM powered by Euler’s lending infrastructure and integrated with Uniswap v4’s hook architecture. EulerSwap integrates directly with Euler’s lending vaults, allowing assets to be used across multiple pools. This turns the lending protocol into a shared liquidity layer, improving capital efficiency across the ecosystem via swaps, lending yield or collateral for borrowing other assets.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Michael’s background
- The history & vision behind Euler
- The Euler hack
- Euler V2
- Euler vs. other lending protocols
- Diversifying offerings
- Variable vs. fixed rates
- How Pendle works
- Euler’s future
- RWAs
- Privacy in DeFi
- Euler roadmap
- The impact of AI in DeFi

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Michael Bentley on X: https://bit.ly/4nits2k
- Euler on X: https://bit.ly/41JwhRM

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/615			

#615 Michael Bentley: Euler – The DeFi Super App

"Without a doubt, the introduction of stablecoins has vastly increased overall crypto liquidity, adoption and real-world use cases as they offered a safe haven against the industry’s volatility, especially during bearmarkets. However, despite being extremely efficient, the main stablecoin actors (i.e. Circle & Tether) are centralised entities. Many attempts have been made to create a reliable decentralised stablecoin, but regulations and the resounding collapse of Terra’s UST have only pushed towards more established, yet centralised, variants.
f(x) is a new generation CDP (collateralised debt position) protocol that offers on-chain perpetual trading for BTC & ETH with near-0 funding rates and a novel liquidation mechanism which protects users against hard liquidations. The leverage component is powered by emitting fxUSD, the protocol’s decentralised stablecoin, which boasts robust peg-keeping mechanisms, the main one being fxSAVE’s stability pool. The fxSAVE strategy bestows nearly 10% APY to the yield-bearing fxUSD-USDC pair.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Cyrille’s background
- AladdinDAO
- Decentralised stablecoins
- f(x) perps and sharing liquidation risks
- The efficiency of progressive liquidations
- Removing funding rates
- fxSAVE’s stability pool yields
- fxUSD’s organic adoption
- The importance of decentralised stablecoins
- Winning in the perp arena
- Opportunities in the stablecoin adoption race

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Cyrille Brière on X: https://bit.ly/462ZycF
- f(x) Protocol on X: https://bit.ly/4mesVgK
- AladdinDAO on X: https://bit.ly/4nwrH1D

Sponsors: 
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/616"			

#616 Cyrille Brière: f(x) Protocol – Decentralized Yield-Bearing Stablecoin & No-Liquidation Perps

A conversation with MetaCert's Founder and CEO, Paul Walsh, on the evolution of CyberSecurity from the dial-up days, the internet adoption, and blockchain now.

Ep - 15 Cybersecurity In The Blockchain

SingularDTV is creating a decentralized movement powered by blockchain technology and Ethereum.

Blockchain technology brings much-needed transparency to all industries including entertainment. The decentralized, peer-to-peer ledger system provides an instantaneous value exchange, applying in areas such as copyrights, revenue, or real-time streaming metrics. We are building an entertainment ecosystem of applications with the creator in mind. We will restore trust and confidence to creators while delivering an exceptional experience for consumers. 

SingularDTV also creates and distributes original content. The studio will release its first film, Alex Winter’s feature-length documentary TRUST MACHINE: THE STORY OF BLOCKCHAIN, worldwide in the fall of 2018. SingularDTV is producing the feature film THE HAPPY WORKER by Duwayne Dunham, with executive producer David Lynch. Headquartered in Switzerland, SingularDTV has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Hong Kong and is made up of thought leaders from the entertainment, technology, communication and finance industries.

Ep - 15 Cybersecurity In The Blockchain

SingularDTV Podcasts