Bitcoin’s Taproot update paved the way for a new & exciting era for Bitcoin, as it expanded its use case far beyond that of an immutable ledger. However, Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens and, more recently, Runes, have limited functionality compared to what DeFi is capable of, on other smart contract blockchains. BitcoinOS envisions a revolutionary Bitcoin economy that stems from truly programmable tokens, unlocking staking, governance and many other use cases. Using BitSNARK and Grail, BitcoinOS enables Bitcoin “rollups”, which act as execution environments that use BTC as gas fee and inherit security from the L1. The missing link was always a trustless bridge between Bitcoin L1 and any potential L2. And Grail Bridge achieved just that - using zero knowledge cryptography, BTC could be transferred to other chains without relying on other custodians’ trust assumptions. In that sense, Bitcoin block #853626 is historically meaningful as it contains the first-ever onchain verification of a zero knowledge proof, on Bitcoin. A truly programmable smart contract operating system on Bitcoin was no longer a mere concept…it became a reality through BitcoinOS.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Yago’s background
- The effect of Trump’s election on the crypto industry
- The goal behind BitcoinOS
- The history of Bitcoin’s programmability
- Verifying ZK proofs on Bitcoin
- Taproot
- Ordinals
- BitSNARK, Grail bridge and Merkle Mesh
- BitcoinOS modularity and sequencing
- An impending (r)evolution of the industry
- Bitcoin vs. Ethereum L2 landscape
- Bringing Bitcoin liquidity to Cardano
- BitcoinOS roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Edan Yago on X: https://bit.ly/3OCKIjv
- Bitcoin OS on X: https://bit.ly/3VjHUeI

Sponsors: 
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one - 
- 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/576

#576 Edan Yago: Bitcoin OS – Bitcoin Block 853626 Changed Everything!

Polynomials are quintessential in machine learning for establishing relationships between outputs and inputs. However, there is also a field in cryptography which could not be made possible without polynomials - zero-knowledge technology. In zero-knowledge proof systems, computations are often represented as arithmetic circuits, and these circuits are translated into polynomials. This process is crucial for generating proofs that can demonstrate the correctness of computations without revealing the underlying data. The involved complexity explains the massive adoption hurdle for zk rollups compared to optimistic ones. Succinct aims to simplify the use of zero-knowledge proofs by providing a zkVM (SP1) that allows code written in languages like Rust to be proven in a privacy-preserving way. By doing so, it aims to lower the barrier to implementing zk-rollups and increase their adoption.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Uma’s background and her interest in zero knowledge tech
- How Succinct’s story began
- ZK light clients
- ZK circuits
- SP1 and the RISC-V instruction set
- The prover network
- Use cases
- ZK rollups and commoditizing ZKPs
- Incentivizing provers
- Succinct’s business model
- Supported blockchain applications
- Bottlenecks in ZK adoption
- Succinct metrics
- SP1’s competitive advantage and future roadmap
- The real world impact of verifiability

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Uma Roy on X: https://bit.ly/3OOQ0sk
- Succinct on X: https://bit.ly/41lzdoe

Sponsors: 
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one - 
- 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/577

#577 Uma Roy: Succinct – Every Rollup With Be a ZK Rollup!

The status quo for developers choosing an ecosystem for their blockchain usually revolves around trade-offs: do they go for Ethereum’s network effect, liquidity and decentralisation, or sacrifice some features in favour of a higher throughput. Monad aims to combine the best of both worlds, while not being limited by excessive hardware requirements. Monad built an EVM-compatible L1 from the ground up, completely rethinking execution and consensus, in order to achieve the infamous 10,000 TPS. This extreme scalability is made possible through Monad’s optimistic parallel execution which is asynchronous from consensus. The latter has also been optimized in order to achieve single-slot finality. Monad’s proprietary database architecture allows for states to be stored on SSDs instead of RAM, which ensures that consumer-grade hardware can run a Monad node, further increasing decentralisation.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Keone’s background
- TradFi vs. DeFi and how Monad was founded
- EVM’s network effect vs. other VMs
- How Monad aims to improve EVM’s performance
- MonadDB
- MonadBFT - New consensus mechanism
- Asynchronous execution
- MEV and proposer-builder separation (PBS)
- Monad’s throughput
- Further scaling and limitations
- Alternatives & trade-offs
- DevEx
- Community & ecosystem development

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Keone Hon on X: https://bit.ly/3Dq8k8Q
- Monad on X: https://bit.ly/3P47Esi

Sponsors: 
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one - 
- 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/578

#578 Keone Hon: Monad – The EVM-Compatible 10,000 TPS L1 Blockchain

One of the most limited blockchain resources is blockspace. From Bitcoin’s Blocksize Wars to Ethereum’s scaling roadmap, a common denominator seems to have emerged in the form of rollups. Advancements in zero knowledge proofs have enabled trustless bridges, which are a cornerstone to onboarding liquidity to any blockchain. Furthermore, Celestia’s modular approach to blockchain architecture and their recent commitment to gigabyte blocks of data availability marked the beginning of commoditization for rollups. Abundance is the first rollup-as-a-service platform that is able to scale to 1 gigagas/second throughput, finally bringing off-chain applications, on-chain.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Gelato’s pivot to rollup-as-a-service platform
- Sovereign rollups
- Enshrined bridges and settlement proofs
- Abundance and 1 Gigagas/second rollups
- Modularity
- Security assumptions
- Sequencer (de)centralisation
- Social consensus
- Celestia’s DA layer bandwidth
- Ethereum native rollups
- Decentralisation and censorship-resistance

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Hilmar Orth on X: bit.ly/3I98z6T
- Gelato Network on X: bit.ly/3k1uZir
- Abundance on X: http://bit.ly/4iR1HMH

Sponsors: 
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one - 
- 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/579

#579 Hilmar Orth: Abundance – The First 1 Gigagas/second Stack for Sovereign Rollups

As more and more protocols compete for marketshare, user acquisition represents one of the most important elements of the GTM strategy. Web3 projects, through their governance tokens, can incentivise users directly to participate in meaningful activities for each protocol, subsidising their revenue generation through vested upside in the project. Turtle Club built the first distribution protocol of Web3, helping its users maximise their rewards they get for meaningful on-chain activities that help bootstrap projects.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Esfandiar’s background
- The evolution of DeFi
- Yield sustainability in DeFi
- DeFi vs. TradFi
- Quantifying risk
- Main blockers for DeFi adoption
- On-chain transparency or privacy?
- What is missing in DeFi?
- Genesis story of Turtle Club
- How Turtle Club users accrue rewards

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Esfandiar Lagevardi on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/415wA82
- Turtle Club on X: https://bit.ly/3CRZQY4

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 - 
- Chorus1: Chorus One is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at chorus.one -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/586

Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

#586 Esfandiar Lagevardi: Turtle Club – Helping Web3 Users Monetize Their On-Chain Activity

lots of emotions, iron giants.
melancholic song

Mundo Descomunal - Noctive

Cold startup

Вне зоны комфорта

The K9 Finance DAO Booth Anthem is a vibrant, synth-pop track with a danceable 171 BPM beat, crafted to energize crowds at Blockchain Futurist Miami (November 5-6, 2025). It features a pulsating synth bassline, crisp drum machine hits, and shimmering synth chords, creating an ‘80s-inspired, futuristic vibe that mirrors the Web3 conference’s dynamic energy. A catchy synth riff drives the song through its verses, pre-choruses, and sing-along-friendly chorus (“Ooh, I’m howlin’ at the moon / K9 Finance, join us soon”), with a brief bridge adding variety. The bold, melodic vocals blend urgency and optimism, using dog-themed imagery tied to K9’s Shiba Inu branding to promote staking $BONE and locking $KNINE. Harmonies in the pre-chorus and bridge enhance its anthemic feel, while the outro fades with an inviting “join the pack.” Perfect for a lively booth atmosphere, the song captures K9 Finance’s DeFi mission in a fun, memorable way.

K9 Finance DAO Miami Booth Anthem

Always verify that you're using the correct number: +1~866^374`12OI is the official US support number for Kraken Wallet.



🌟 07 Easy Ways for US Users to Contact Kraken Wallet Support ☎️ (866 ||374|| 1201) 🌟

Experimental music producer pushing the limits of sonic exploration. 
My work blends unconventional structures, immersive textures, and innovative sound design, creating a distinct auditory experience that transcends genres. With a focus on originality production.

K9 Finance community member, just mining the Bone Gas token for the Shibarium Blockchain while doing what is possible for the K9 Project. Checkout the links below!

Epicenter is a podcast about the technologies, projects & people driving decentralization and the global blockchain revolution.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sebastien Couture and Meher Roy. Every week, we find the most interesting people in the industry for in-depth discussions about their projects, ideas and stories.

New tracks tagged #Crypto,