Ep. 63 - Web3 Is Just A Database That Cannot Lie W. Zahid, Founder @ Jutsu.ai Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod) podcast

1:43:38

On this episode AVB sits down with David Lachmish, co-founder of IKA (previously Dwallet Network). IKA is the fastest parallel MPC network launching on Sui. I really enjoyed this conversation as it has a really natural flow, covering, among many things: * How adversity creates excellence and comfort breeds mediocrity. Why everyone should spend at least one year living in a culture different from where they grew up in. * An analysis of the current web3 landscape - why web3 is fundamentally a cybersecurity industry. * The work of his cracked team of award winning cryptographers and security researchers. * Back to the basics: the fundamental guarantees of blockchain and how public key cryptography works. * A masterclass in MPC networks - how they have evolved, different ways of implementing (ZK, FHE) for different use cases. * IKA novel algorithm for zero trust, mass implementation. * Use cases for IKA builders * And a lot more! Resources https://ika.xyz Follow on Socials https://x.com/AvbNear https://x.com/d3h3d_ https://x.com/ikadotxyz…

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Ep. 71 - Let's Go Where the Magic is Happening w. Santi @ Crecimiento Argentina 1:51:54

for 9 weeks siden1:51:54

1:51:54

Conversation with Santi, the legend behind the Crecimiento movement in Argentina. Crecimiento is a movement to transform Argentina into the Crypto Capital of the world. Some of the things we covered: * The History and Anatomy of the Pop-up City Movement: from Mu and beyond. * What makes Argentina unique: bottoms up adoption and top down support. * Crecimiento origins, insights from last two popups * What to expect for the upcoming pop uppers city in March * and A LOT more Resources * Join the Spark Contributors Program https://airtable.com/appENuebGSKMB5sia/pagaH3MszSSMW7GpN/form * Learn more about Crecimiento https://bento.me/crecimientoar Follow on Social Media - Crecimiento https://x.com/crecimientoar - Wuipod https://x.com/wuipod - Santi https://x.com/scristobal94 - AVB https://x.com/avbnear…

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Ep. 70 - How Do We Reinvent Education When AI Killed Curiosity? w. Maria Yarotska 1:31:06

for 9 weeks siden1:31:06

1:31:06

On this wide ranging conversation we sit down with Maria Yarotska, Hackathon Headmistress of the NEAR Ecosystem, contributor at DevHub. Some of the topics we cover and stood out to me: * Anatomy of a hacker: tales from an experienced hackathon organiser on what makes some teams thrive and others burst in flames. * Maria's Origins: attending a Space Tech hackathon that changed her life. * Thoughts on different approaches to hackathons. In particular, her answer to what she would do if she had unlimited budget blew my mind. Podcast is Sponsored by @MetaPoolNEARliquidstaking - Thank You! Follow on Socials AVB - https://x.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://x.com/wuipod DevHub - https://x.com/NEARDevHub…

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Ep. 69 - Breaking Out of the Virtual Machine w. Illia Polosukhin (NEAR Protocol, NEAR AI) 51:35

for 20 weeks siden51:35

51:35

Conversation with Illia Polosukhin (co-founder @nearprotocol) also known on the streets as The Black Dragon, recorded live during [Redacted] Bangkok 2024. Illia does A LOT of public appearances and interviews. On this interview we break norm and rather than focus of the tech (the WHAT) we focus instead on Illia's journey (Who and Why). Even though we only had 1 hour, the result has far exceeded our expectations. Some of the highlights: * Illia reads in Megabytes. How his life changed when someone gave him a CD ROM loaded with 700mb of .txt books fuelling his imagination. * Wild imagination and builder more from a young age. Not only did Illia start writing his own science fiction books when he was young, he also built a publishing platform to distribute them! Only catch - he never finished any of them as he got bored after he knew how things played out in his head. * Learning how to code at age 10; importance of family and supportive teachers in school. Building games and keeping cheat codes in summer camp and more! * Growing up poor, building character. How Ukraine has shaped VALUES. * Broken internet and role of MATHs, formal verification, and AI agents. * So much more! Enjoy…

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Ep. 68 - Pagoda Unplugged w. Eric Winer, CTO & Managing Director @ Pagoda 1:50:06

for 31 weeks siden1:50:06

1:50:06

Wide ranging conversation with Eric Winer, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Managing Director at Pagoda. What makes this podcast special is that it was recorded just a few days after the announcement of several spinouts and the rest of Pagoda sunsetting came out. Which sets the scene for a very honest and insightful Eric. Some of the topics we cover and personal highlights: - Eric has been very early and led massive growth at Gemini and Nifty Gateway. Common thread: taking familiar user experiences, implementing high standards of delivery and excellence to bring web3 to the masses. - The ways in which working for a hedge fund are different from building products; money as end goal cf. a real user as end-goal, how this influences team formation (skills and view-point diversity). Finally, we also touched on challenges of Product in an Engineering focused organisation (following up on our previous conversation with Alex Chiocchi, former head of Product at Pagoda. - Raw, honest assessment of factors that lead to Pagoda dissolution: expensive organisation, on competitiveness and sustainability of NEAR ecosystem of third party providers, founder led organisations and the advantages of smaller, focused teams as startups over larger well funded organisations. - A breakdown of a lot of Pagoda's services: what they do, importance, challenges going into the future, and opportunities for new providers. There is A LOT more, including a lot said between the lines. We hope this conversation is well received by all stakeholders involved and that it may be useful in addressing some of the outstanding matters in the best way possible. Resources - Blog Post Announcing NEAR One and Chain Abstraction Spinouts - Future of Pagoda Services Post - NUFFLE: NEAR DA Spinout - [Redacted] Hackathon Follow on Socials Eric - https://x.com/eric_winer AVB - https://x.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://x.com/wuipod Pagoda - https://x.com/PagodaPlatform…

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Ep. 67 - Beyond Memecoins: Discover The Movement to Achieve SuperIntelligence w. Cameron Dennis 1:24:15

for 32 weeks siden1:24:15

1:24:15

This is the second conversation we have with Cameron Dennis, although the first one never got released as it was deemed too spicy! Cameron was one of the earliest contributors to NEAR Inc, spearheading Business Development and eventually recruiting a BD team. He's outlasted several NEAR Foundation CEO's, even it as some point he parted ways with NF due to a 'lack of culture fit'. A ruthless hustler. Cameron provides unique insights into many things. Some of my personal highlights: 1. Evolution: we are very candid about the Evolution of NEAR ecosystem. With a focus on the lessons learned and practical suggestions on how to move forward, we provide a detailed overview for those who may have been lost or confused along the way. 2. What is NEAR, really? We drill down on the origins story, the pivots, the vision that has always been but nobody knows. NEAR is not just another blockchain, it is THE OPEN WEB. 3. Community Reset: is it time to start a cult? 4. Beyond crypto; this is a race for humanity and superintelligence. 5. NEAR AI is two things: a hub for everyone working on any piece of the AI stack, and the in-house Developer AI Resources NEAR AI Masterplan: https://near.ai/ Follow on Socials Cameron - https://x.com/Cameron_Dennis_ AVB - https://x.com/avbNear Wuipod - https://x.com/Wuipod…

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Ep. 66 - From Infra Saturation to Mass Consumer Applications w. Romain @ Polymorphic Capital 1:45:24

for 34 weeks siden1:45:24

1:45:24

Wide ranging conversation with Romain Despoel, an associate at Polymorphic Capital. Romaind and AVB met at ETH CC Brussels 2024 and immediately hit if off. Some would say that sharing across two hackathons in such a short timeframe would bring any two people together, but we believe it is due to their shared past growing up in Venezuela that they have developed a strong friendship. Some of the things we talk about that stood out to me: - We open by discussing Venezuela. Romain's brief sting there when he was 7 and AVB's childhood, along with current electoral fraud. - ZK Explainer: how it went from something cool but only theoretical Romain learned at uni to cool, real world uses cases in web3. - Fully Homomorphic Encryption: what it is, how it works, why it is exciting! - ETH CC Builds and hackathon stories in general. Being a builder is fun. The energy captured on the pod is contagious. - Tales as a VC: challenges of investing in a Bull Market. Wild valuations, founders taking secondaries, what do people actually do for work everyday?! - From Infra saturation to mass consumer applications. - Infra fire round: hot takes on Real World Assets, Social, chain abstraction, DePIN. We had a blast recording. Hope you enjoy. Let us know what you think Resources: Polymorphic Capital - https://polymorphic.capital/ MBD - https://www.mbd.xyz/ FHERMA - Platform for FHE Challenges: https://fherma.io/ Follow on Socials: Romain - https://x.com/romdespoel Polymorphic Capital - https://x.com/polymorphiccap AVB - https://x.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://x.com/wuipod…

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Ep. 65 - Size Matters. Small (Models) Win w. Nick Havryliak, co-founder @ Assisterr 1:07:16

for 35 weeks siden1:07:16

1:07:16

Wide Ranging conversation with Nick Havryliak, co-founder at Assisterr. Assisterr is a Data Provenance Protocol & Marketplace of domain-specific Small Language Models (SLMs) owned by the community. Summary In this episode we discuss the convergence of Web3 and AI. They delve into Nick's background in consulting, product management, and his journey into Web3 and AI. Nick elaborates on the limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs) and explains the advantages of using Small Language Models through the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) process. They also brainstorm innovative applications for community-generated data, such as leveraging past hackathon projects to enhance future hackathons. Throughout the conversation, they explore the importance of maintaining human-centric values in AI development while navigating the evolving technological landscape. Spicy and Memorable Things that stood out to me (AVB) and kept me reflecting long after episode was recorded: * Importance of keeping it human. On dancing, focusing on enjoying life and spreading good vibes. * How the geopolitical (Ukraine) has shaped Nick's worldview. The West just doesn't get it. * Approaching Dev Rel with a Product Mindset; leveraging AI to obtain efficiency gains and unlock more value and new use cases. * The limitations of current LLMs (trained on publicly available data) and how to create incentives for procuring privately held data. * Cost structure of different approaches to AI: RAG, fine tuning, and own base models. Resources Assisterr - https://www.assisterr.ai/ Assisterr on X - https://x.com/assisterr Nick on X - https://x.com/nick_havryliak…

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Ep. 64 - From WASM to Web3 via Shit(zu) memecoins w. Mario Reder (Shitzu, Orderly) 1:31:03

for 37 weeks siden1:31:03

1:31:03

Wide ranging conversation with Mario Reder. Mario is an engineer at Orderly (on-chain perps), lead dev at Shitzu (NEAR's OG memecoin and most active community). Some of the topics we covered include: - How we was lured from being a web2 developer to web3 thanks to WASM - The beauty and nuance of Rust language - The origins of Shitzu: how AGT managed to get him onboard - Memecoins & Fundamentals.... - Alpha on everything Shitzu has been building, plus a major launch coming up! Resources Delegate to Shitzu Validator - https://shitzuapes.xyz Trade Shitzu NFT on Mitte - https://beta.mitte.gg/?contractAddress=shitzu.bodega-lab.near Farm $Shitzu on REF.Finance - https://app.ref.finance/meme Follow on Socials Mario - https://x.com/marior_dev Shitzu - https://x.com/ShitzuCommunity Protocol Pawns - https://x.com/ProtocolPawns Shroom Kingdom - https://x.com/shrm_kingdom…

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Ep. 63 - web3 is just a database that cannot lie w. Zahid, founder @ Jutsu.ai 2:13:56

for 1 year siden2:13:56

2:13:56

Zahid is the founder of Jutsu. Jutsy is the co-pilot of web3 enabling and empowering developers to be 10x more efficient! Some of the topics we cover on this wide ranging conversation: 1. Just origins: feeling the pain points at ETH Denver 2023 hackathon 2. Jutsu evolution: hackers using it and winning in the wild 3. Philosophical musings on AI: defining Agents, challenges for adoption and opportunities. 4. Core infrastructure of Consumer application? What are the differences and why it matters 5. Road to mass adoption: what web3 can learn from the web2 world 6. and more! 0:00 Ep 63 - Jutsu 01:39:13 Dev Rels & Presence at Conferences 01:42:47 Community Follow on Socials https://twitter.com/tryjutsu https://twitter.com/AvbNear https://twitter.com/wuipod…

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Ep. 62 - Drama Is the Prime Indicator of Decentralisation w. Dr. Nick @ Factory DAO 1:39:27

for 1 year siden1:39:27

1:39:27

Resources Blog Post 'Nearcon: the Post Protocol Era' - https://thecryptospace.substack.com/p/nearcon-the-post-protocol-era-is Nearcon 2023 Panel: DAOs and Collective Intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj2PpoZW47g&t=14431s The Big V Value Thesis - https://x.com/DrNickA/status/1749062167188349052?s=20 'Why? The purpose of the Universe' by Dr Phillip Todd Factory DAO - https://www.factorydao.org Follow on Socials Dr. Nick - https://twitter.com/DrNickA Factory DAO - https://twitter.com/FactDAO AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

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Ep. 61 - Throwing Stones was a Distraction w. Boris Polania, NEAR Dev Hub 1:26:19

for 1 year siden1:26:19

1:26:19

On this podcast we sit down with Boris Polania, from NEAR DevHub. Some of the topics we cover are: - Boris background: challenges as an entrepreneur and frustrating with the political class in Venezuela - Complexity Science and DAOs - DevHub role and initiatives to growing the NEAR ecosystem - and more! Resources - DevHub Home Base on BOS - https://near.social/devhub.near/widget/app Follow on Social Boris - https://twitter.com/HackBoing NEAR DevHub - https://twitter.com/NEARDevHub AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

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Ep. 60 - The Degenerate Founders w. Edward & Jonathan, co-founders @ Meteor Wallet 2:02:48

for 1 year siden2:02:48

2:02:48

Jonathan and Edward are co-founders at Meteor Wallet, one of the main and rapidly growing wallet in NEAR ecosystem. Prior to founding Meteor, Jonathan joined Edward in NEAR Tinker Union, a rich NFT community focused on the technology, innovation and product. Resources Meteor Wallet Website - https://meteorwallet.app/ NEAR Tinker Union (NTU) Website (Stake) - https://tinkerunion.com/stake/ Buy NTU - https://www.tradeport.xyz/near/collection/tinkerunion_nft.enleap.near Follow on Socials Edward Twitter - https://twitter.com/r3ktdegen Jonathan Twitter - https://twitter.com/web3hedge Meteor Twitter - https://twitter.com/MeteorWallet NEAR Tinker Union (NTU) - https://twitter.com/NearTinkerUnion…

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Ep. 59 - We Probably Need Relevant People In the Room w. Vlad & Boris, DevHub 27:25

for 1 year siden27:25

27:25

Bonus Special Episode: Cross-posting the first episode of the DevHub Unplugged Podcast, a new series produced by DevHub Link to Original Podcast: https://youtu.be/Ke5c3GS5-KU Subscrite to DevHub Unplugged: DevHub Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@NEARDevHub Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/24Ns7EaHzEhMl8OQqrkomg Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devhub-unplugged/id1720735707?uo=4 Google Podcasts - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2Rldmh1Yi11bnBsdWdnZWQ= Follow on Socials DevHub - https://twitter.com/NEARDevHub Vlad - https://twitter.com/Freol Boris - https://twitter.com/HackBoing…

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Ep. 58 - There is No Future for Existing Oracles or Bridges w. Peter & Jasper, co-founders @ SEDA Protocol 1:39:03

for 1 year siden1:39:03

1:39:03

Peter (CEO) and Jasper (CTO) are co-founders at SEDA Protocol, a base layer focused on interoperability. You may know them from Flux, their prior First Party Oracle protocol - Flux. On this pod, we waste no time and we go DEEP into the future of decentralised infrastructure and what would be required for mass adoption. The promise? Chain abstraction. ALPHA WARNING Some of the things we cover include: * Defining key terms such as blockchains (multiple), oracles and bridges using tons of useful and playful analogies. * Challenges and shortcomings of the current oracles. Kingmakers or bottlenecks? Perhaps both * SEDA's evolution: from a fancier cart and buggy to becoming a Ferrari. Rethinking interconnectivity and data availability * Novel ways to monetise data: mind-melting Oracle Extractable Value [Alpha Warning] * Other protocol features: how anyone can become a data provider, how to setup your own relay, how to launch products as modules, and more! * Data. Chain abstraction. Rust. Rrrrrrrr * and much more. Resources SEDA Website - https://www.seda.xyz/ Modular Blockchain Thesis (AltVMs)- https://x.com/jasperflux/status/1730193805507223654?s=20 Layer Zero - https://layerzero.network/ Follow on Socials SEDA X - https://twitter.com/sedaprotocol Peter X - https://twitter.com/realpeterjm Jasper X - https://twitter.com/jasperflux…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 57 - Death and Rebirth w. David Weinstein, Chief of Staff @ NEAR Foundation 1:13:23

for 1 year siden1:13:23

1:13:23

David Weinstein is the current Chief of Staff at NEAR Foundation. Some of the topics we cover on this wide ranging conversation with David: * David Background - from great intellectual input at a large financial firm to optimise tiny credit card margins to working at LinkedIn, Circle, and now NEAR Foundation * Road to Self-Actualisation: where do classic philosophy meets modern day problems? * Classical philosophy meets AI: what would Marcus Aurelius say? * Death and Rebirth: the cycles of growth. * Hero's journey: the hero must come back home to share what he has learned. Illia as the hero coming back to NF? What has he learned as he returns home? * And A LOT more Resources NEAR AI Medium - https://medium.com/near-ai Collective Intelligence Panel NEARCON 2023 - https://youtu.be/Cj2PpoZW47g Follow on Social Media David - https://twitter.com/dw_stein…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 56 - "We Don't b* About It. We Focus on High Impact Initiatives Instead" Pet3r @ NEARWEEK 1:35:22

for 1 year siden1:35:22

1:35:22

Wide ranging conversation with Peter, co-founder at NEARWEEK, the OG newsletter of the NEAR ecosystem. Some of the topics we cover on this conversation include: * How high levels of trust in government in Denmark have shaped the web3 landscape there. * Role of adversity in hustle and ambition * Getting things done * NEAR ecosystem: evolution, challenges and opportunities. * Branding * and more! Subscribe to NEARWEEK and claim weekly free cover NFT: https://subscribe.nearweek.com Resources Heroes Bounty Platform by NEARWEEK - https://www.heroes.build Illia new NEAR Foundation CEO - https://near.org/blog/enter-the-black-dragon-near-co-founder-joins-the-near-foundation-as-ceo Follow on Social Media NEARWEEK -https://twitter.com/NEARWEEK Heroes - https://twitter.com/heroes_build Peter - https://twitter.com/quadron3stat3 Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 55 - I Look Peaceful But On the Back End I Calculate Things by The Second w. Erica Kang 1:35:35

for 1 year siden1:35:35

1:35:35

Erica Kang is the founder of KryptoSeoul, a leading community building team in South Korea made up of professional communicators, marketers, and analysts. Some of the topics we cover on this wide ranging conversation include: * Origins of KryptoSeoul: transitioning from Korean Corporate world to crypto. * Importance of Brand and Reputation: how to identify and filter out bad actors while building trust * Korean Culture: what is meant for innovation, challenges for global cooperation and governance * Barrier to Mass Adoption: lessons learned from 7 years collaborating with many ecosystems and projects * Empire Building: expanding from South Korea into the rest of Asia and the world! * Not Everything Can or Should Be Decentralised: the need for a strong vision and ability to execute efficiently * and more! Resources Asia Buidl - https://www.buidl.asia @kryptoseoulofficial - http://kryptoseoul.com ETH Seoul - https://2023.ethseoul.org/ Women in Web3 Change Makers Interview - https://youtu.be/SnqfeX4viRk Follow on socials: Erica - https://twitter.com/ekang426 KryptoSeoul - https://twitter.com/KryptoSeoul KryptoPlanet - https://twitter.com/ericaplanet BuidlAsia - https://twitter.com/buidl_asia ETH Seoul - https://twitter.com/eth_seoul_ AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 54 - You Will Get Destroyed By Someone Who Focuses More on People w. Kendall Cole, Proximity Labs 2:27:44

for 2 years siden2:27:44

2:27:44

Kendall Cole is the founder and CEO at Proximity Labs, also known over time as the 'Defi Arm' of NEAR Ecosystem. On this wide ranging conversation with Kendall, you can actually hear the energy and the tone in the room change as time goes on. As we keep hitting him with quirky jokes, and asking genuine questions from every angle, Kendall finally starts to open up and share some top tier insights and alpha. Some of the topics discussed include: Unconventional Origins of NEAR Protocol. Unlike other web3 ecosystems, NEAR was birthed by a rare cohort of 'outsiders': big tech type, competitive programmers, and other giga brains. This has led to everything being reimagined and built from the ground up, which has presented some early challenges around implementation and communication: but could it be the secret for long term success? Origins and Evolution of Proximity: spanning across three stages we see Kendall's team solving the 'deep application layer', recruiting and enabling external teams to build on NEAR, and now putting al pieces in place to kickstart the BOS flywheel Beyond BOS as we know it. As Kendall touches on BOS, we finally get a glimpse of where this is all going. We aren't just the sidekick, a simple front-end. With the addition of remote accounts (coming soon) NEAR will be able to provide a unified user experience being a core access point to smoothly transact on any blockchain [Mind-melt alert!] NEAR Data Availability - we geek out on how L2s (optimistic rollups) work on Ethereum, the challenge of storing State, some of the emerging Data Availability solutions such as Celestia and Mantle. Then Kendall explains how NEAR has very cheap state which, inadvertently, is the best solution at the moment for all these L2s... MORE Resources Blockchain Operating System (BOS) - https://www.proximity.dev/BOS Ignas Defi Interviews - The Endgame for NEAR Protocol, interview w. Kendall: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/the-endgame-for-near-protocol-an Startup Chile - https://startupchile.org/en/ Coindesk - How AI, web3, and Humans can work together to solve global, complex problems https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/08/01/how-ai-web3-and-humans-can-work-together-to-solve-complex-global-problems/ Laura Shin Podcast w. Illia - When AI and Blockchain Meet, How Can Each Technology Benefit? https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/unchained/id1123922160?i=1000620761192 The Knowledge Project w. Shreyas Doshi: Better Teams, Better Products https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-knowledge-project-with-shane-parrish/id990149481?i=1000626771622 Modular Blockchains & Data Availability Celestia - https://celestia.org/ Mantle - https://www.mantle.xyz/ Eigen Layer Data Availability (DA) - https://x.com/eigenlayer/status/1706349539169538241?s=20 Follow on Social Kendall - https://twitter.com/kendaIIc Proximity Labs - https://twitter.com/proximityfi AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 53 - We don't need infrastructure, we need consumer facing apps w. Riqi, co-founder @ Paras, Arkana & Akoma 2:13:29

for 2 years siden2:13:29

2:13:29

Riqi is the co-founder of Paras, Arkana and Akoma and one of the five NEAR Community Treasury Trustees. This podcast was recorded in person, at the Paras HQ in Jakarta on September 4, 2023. This is a wide ranging, wholesome, at time hilarious conversation where you can see Riqi and AVB become best friends in real time while talking about: * The Origins of Paras: to elevate NFTs beyond digital art. * The Origins of Akoma and why they had to rebrand from Paras Comics * Growing Akoma into 100s thousands of users in Indonesia. Considerations when looking for a web3 ecosystem to deploy to transition that project. * Best selling comics art on Akoma - local ghost stories! And plans for regional expansion. * Insights on growing and scaling an organisation internationally from Indonesia - easier to hire engineers than marketing or BD? * Paras approach to hiring and training engineers - bearish on fully remote. * State of web3 - community, growth, challenges & opportunities. * Introduction to Arkana: membership and rewards platform with 100s of thousands of users. * Quirky business ideas - thinking outside of the box on fun, engaging consumer applications that can have mass appeal. * Best explanation of technical concepts ('explain it to me like I'm six') such as Zero Balance accounts, Meta Transactions, and other NEAR Protocol primitives. * And more...! Resources Paras - OG Marketplace on NEAR: https://paras.id Arkana - https://arkana.gg Akoma - https://akoma.xyz Follow on Socials Riqi - https://twitter.com/hdriqi Paras - https://twitter.com/ParasHQ Arkana - https://twitter.com/ArkanaHQ Akoma - https://twitter.com/AkomaLabs AVB - https://twitter.com/avbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod Wuipod is also available on all major podcasting platforms for streaming.…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 52 - Don’t Paint Me as Some Angel, Even Though I’ve Got Bleached Hair w. Mike Purvis 2:24:51

for 2 years siden2:24:51

2:24:51

Mike Purvis is an engineer, builders, and awesome human being. Early NEAR Core, co-founder at Croncats, and current contributor to Cosmos. Some of the topics we cover on this wide ranging conversation with Mike: Origins Story - Mike joining NEAR early days (2020) - working alongside founding team, hustle beast mode on. Serendipity - magic happens when people are bored together. Importance of IRL event - we are getting a castle in Burgundy! Founder’s Journey - difference between being a salaried employee and a founder. Product Market Fit v Value Creation at an early stage ecosystem. Importance of User Experience - deconstructing what needs to be true for mass adoption to occur. Market Trends - group think, follow the leader: everyone giving out grants, rise of the multi-chain raidooors (Scammers). Now everyone is too tight with grants - how can we support the builders?! Extinction events - setting a deadline for differentiation. Community and culture - in search for a tribe. Soft skills that matter. Origins Story of Croncats! Automation and Long Running Smart Contracts AVB shills a few product ideas as bait - #getMikeBack Governance - decentralising tech v decentralising human structures. The return of the benevolent king?! Follow on Socials - Mike - https://twitter.com/mikedotexe Croncats - https://twitter.com/croncats AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 51 - Web3 isn't a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card for Making a Sh*t Game w. Hugo & Jon, @ PlayEmber 2:00:03

for 2 years siden2:00:03

2:00:03

PlayEmber is a mobile games studio with over 100 million downloads. PlayEmber is making web3 easy & rewarding for players, developers & creators. Their web3 team are building the infrastructure and games to mass onboard web2 games into web3. they are already Top20 Blockchain Game and still in private beta. On this wide ranging conversation with PlayEmber cofounders Jon and Hugo, we cover: * On being a data driven organisation: how games are born and killed. * Games as art of commodities? Balancing the creative nature of creating a game (Passion project) with the commercial realities of running a business. * Inception: choosing to build a web2 to web3 onboarding engine that leverages their existing games over a fully web3 native game. * Different typed of games and what it takes to build them (cost, demographics, game design). * How the sausage is made: ad-revenue, and other privacy considerations when deploying on-chain. * A vision to grow the NEAR ecosystem: * And more! Resources PlayEmber Website - https://playember.com Crystals of Naramunz - https://twitter.com/naramunz NEAR Gaming DAO - https://twitter.com/NearGamesDAO NEAR Foundation Q2 Transparency Report - https://near.org/blog/near-foundation-transparency-report-q2-2023 Ignas Defi - Endgame of NEAR Protocol (Blog Post about Data Availability) - https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/the-endgame-for-near-protocol-an Follow on Socials PlayEmber - https://twitter.com/play_ember Jon - https://twitter.com/JonHook Hugo - https://twitter.com/https://twitter.com/hugofurn AVB - https://twitter.com/avbnear Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 50 - When PsyOps & Jokes Turn Serious w. Plug, Chief Decentralisation Officer @ Banyan Collective 1:58:31

for 2 years siden1:58:31

1:58:31

Web3 Plug is the mastermind behind many great projects on the NEAR ecosystem and beyond. Plug agreed to come on the Wild User Interviews podcast as long as he could remain anonymous. Masked up and constantly moving in the middle of the night at an undisclosed location, we do DEEP... Some of Plug's publicly disclosed affiliations include: co-founder at Minority Programmers, Chief Decentralisation Officer @ Banyan Collective, & Blunt DAO. Some of the topics we cover: Origins of Minority Programmers: started as a joke... History and Evolution of Dev Hub: scope creep, parallel governance? All things NDC - feedback to AVB, Joe's Tweet, Illia dropping into chats, candidacy announcements, fighting for culture and more! Public funding - lessons and collaboration with Gitcoin. Follow on Social Media AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear Plug - https://twitter.com/plugrel Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod Banyan Collective - https://twitter.com/BanyanUS NEAR Dev Hub - https://twitter.com/neardevhub Minority Programmers - https://twitter.com/minorityprogram Blunt DAO - https://twitter.com/BluntDAO NEAR Digital Collective - https://twitter.com/neardc…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 49 - Don't Piss On Me and Tell Me It Is Raining w. Jared & Joe, RLO + Shard Dog 2:15:43

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2:15:43

Some of the things we cover: * State of the NDC - airing and listing grievances from a Builder's perspective (Diving deeper into The Viral Tweet). * Anatomy of a Revolution: AVB got sacrificed first for speaking out, now moderates are coming forward with a silent majority behind us. * What happens when a chain's main product become's governance? Incentive design. Admins overpowering the will of Builder's in what was once a Builder's Blockchain. * Ideological Battles: the Socialists versus the Meritocrats (UBI takeover of NDC, Builder's) * NDC Shift from token holder voting to Any Human voting - questionable measures put in place that results in lack of confidence from OGs to run. * Many ways in which contributors that are critical of NDC are ignored, written off and increasingly targeted. Scope creep ('misconduct' now a common threat to anyone who dares to dissent). * Technology winning *despite* governance - similarities between Venezuela and NEAR governance. * Key differences between building a Product - must solve a problem for people, be validated or die -, and Governance - the product is to build moats to stay in power. * Jared & Joe's life before NEAR - learning about the value of money by hustling and grinding in the real world: past businesses, startup ventures (both successful and unsuccessful), and more! * On creating a culture of self-improvement and excellent. Mentoring builders and developers. * and more! Resources : The Viral Tweet: https://twitter.com/joespano_/status/1690406276113563648?s=20 NEAR Digital Collective: https://www.neardc.org/ Follow on Socials Jared - https://twitter.com/jarednotjerry1 Joe - https://twitter.com/joespano_ Ready Layer One - https://twitter.com/ready_layer_one Shard Dog - https://twitter.com/sharddog…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 48 - Utility NFTs & Infra for Mass Adoption w. Carolin Geier, co-founder @ Mintbase 48:33

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48:33

Wide ranging conversation with Carolin Geier, co-founder at Mintbase and one of the five NEAR Community Treasury Trustees. This podcast is a short one but packed with goodies where we come, among other things: * The beginning: from German Parliament researching 'Distributed Ledger Technology' to meeting Nate working on Blockchain and NFTs. * Changing landscape from lots of talks and unfulfilled promises in 2018 to today * Role of Mintbase in NEAR - infra enabling many other projects to build on top. * Challenges of Decentralisation: from Createbase to Community Treasury * and more...! Resources Mintbase Website - https://www.mintbase.xyz Mintbase Demo Day (Youtube) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Eoy9YP86A Mintbase Demo Day (Medium) - https://medium.com/mintbase/wrapping-up-mintbases-demo-day-f13fd192c8fc Follow on Socials Carolin - https://twitter.com/carolinwend Mintbase - https://twitter.com/mintbase AVB - https://twitter.com/avbnear…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 47 - The Art of The Possible w. Alex Chiocchi, Chief Product Office @ Pagoda 1:50:14

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1:50:14

Alex Chiocchi is the Chief Product Officer at Pagoda. Prior to joining Pagoda, Alex was en early LinkedIn employee, founded and exited an AI startup (that used one of Illia's open source libraries), and worked at Kraken. On this wide ranging conversation we cover many things, including: * What makes a good product - frameworks for building successful applications. * Tension between Product and Engineering. * Challenges of building towards a long term vision while also trying to survive in short term. * How to recruit top talent at a grassroots level * Current limitations of Javascript SDK and upcoming VM 2.0. * Beyond Words. Pagoda needs to show real use cases and 'show the tech under the hood' (open source). * Communicating through code. Creating an inviting environment, NEAR as the Builder's Blockchain * Pragmatic Decentralisation - the case for smaller teams of top contributors. * Insight into Pagoda future Pricing model (Open Source, Paid for Hosted, Innovative Ways to capture value) * Tokenomics for the Attention Economy * and more...! Resources * Pagoda Website - https://www.pagoda.co/ * Alex Personal Website - https://www.alexchiocchi.com/ * Building NEAR Protocol SuperApps (Banyan Collective) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n7uhqAqsQo&t=3s * Onboarding Millions of Users to NEAR. Alex Presentation @ ETH Denver 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aLifgUujAY * The Upcoming Renaissance of SuperApps. Alex Presentation @ ETH Denver 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n7uhqAqsQo&t=3s * What NEAR's BOS can do for Enterprise and Builder, Consensus 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR2QlP79Tcg Follow on Social https://twitter.com/AlexChiocchi https://near.org/near/widget/ProfilePage?accountId=keyokey.near https://twitter.com/PagodaPlatform…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 46 - Governance, Culture & Economics: Unpacking NDC. w. Illuminfti, Core Contributor @ GWG 1:48:08

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Podcast Recorded July 3, 2023 Illuminfti is the co-founder of Anti-social Labs and a core contributor to the NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) Governance Working Group (GWG). This is a wide ranging, unfiltered, and at times spicy conversation where we cover: * Illuminfti Journey: from College in US to startup ecosystem in UK * Crypto Counterculture. * Insights into NFTS on NEAR - Post Mortem. * Complex relationship between Governance, Culture & Economics * How to attract and retain the best talent (while keeping grifters and scammers away). * Compensation - how to align long term incentives? * NDC Governance Structure Overview: House of Merit, Transparency Commission & Advisory Council. Resources * I-am-Human - https://near.org/sking.near/widget/IAH.Invite?referrer=wuipod.near * I-am-Human Docs - https://i-am-human.gitbook.io/i-am-human-docs/ * Governance Working Group - https://near.social/#/mob.near/widget/ProfilePage?accountId=govworkinggroup.near * NEAR Digital Collective - https://near.org/near/widget/ProfilePage?accountId=neardigitalcollective.near RC DAO Election Report - https://courageous-camelotia-2ec.notion.site/RC-DAO-Investigation-00ed9f8d80b440bfb6f6fb06af51ca90#16df22ba9d344420867e61337170b948 Follow on Socials Illuminfti - https://twitter.com/illuminfti AVB - https://twitter.com/AvbNear NDC - https://twitter.com/neardc Wuipod - https://twitter.com/wuipod…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 45 - Telling Stories with Data: Didier Pironi, co-founder Pikespeak 1:35:16

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1:35:16

Didier Pironi îs an OG of NEAR ecosystem. Previously served as Product Manager at REF Finance, the leading DEX on NEAR. Current he is co-founder at PikeSpeak, advanced analytics tool. Some of the topics we cover on this wide ranging conversation: * Journey from Consultant at PWC to becoming a web3 Builder * The impact that working at Techstars and being surrounded by other founders had on him. Importance of role models. * Differences in business environment and culture between UK and France * The Origins of Pikespeak * Product development cycle * and more...! References https://pikespeak.ai Follow on Social https://twitter.com/pironidi https://twitter.com/pikespeak_ai…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 44 - Ancient Wisdom & Future of Web3 w. Agwn @ Ludium 1:43:41

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Podcast recorded live in Seoul as part of the ETH Seoul and Asia Buidl 2023 tour. Discover the untold potential of Web3 as we navigate the world of blockchain technology with Agwn, the founder of Lidium – a Web3 education venture in Korea – and co-organizer of ETH Seoul. Together, we'll examine the unique aspects of Korea's history and culture that make it a fertile ground for crypto adoption, while also delving into the importance of education in this new era of decentralization. Join our thought-provoking conversation as Agwn shares his passion for education and enlightens us on the power of self-sovereignty, the role of technology in learning, and the potential of blockchain to revolutionize society. From exploring the cultural phenomenon of MySpace to discussing the key players and impact of the Luna Collapse, we'll uncover the current landscape of Web3 in Korea and the challenges faced by its burgeoning ecosystem. Don't miss this captivating dialogue, where we also dive into the technical aspects of the Ethereum ecosystem. Learn about Egon's experiences with educational initiatives in the local Korean blockchain community, and the importance of translations and international outreach for projects. Be a part of this enlightening journey as we unlock the possibilities of Web3 and its potential to transform education and our world. Resources * History of Korea - https://www.history.com/news/north-south-korea-divided-reasons-facts * ETH Seoul, 2023 - https://2023.ethseoul.org/ * Ludium Website - https://ludium.oopy.io/ Follow on Social Media https://twitter.com/Ludium_Agwn https://twitter.com/eth_seoul_ https://twitter.com/ludium_official https://agwn.medium.com/…

Wild User Interviews Podcast (Wuipod)

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Ep. 43 - Be Proud of The Work You Do w. Alina Tustanovska, NEAR Community Trust 2:07:54

for 2 years siden2:07:54