podcast

Layer-2 project exec zooms in on the capabilities of Ethereum scaling solutions

Metis co-founder Elena Sinelnikova delves into the world of layer-2 blockchain technology, and its potential to transform how we interact, collaborate and build the decentralized economy of the future.

In episode 13 of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, Elisha Owusu Akyaw sits down with Metis co-founder Elena Sinelnikova. Metis is an Optimistic Rollup built on Ethereum to explore the world of layer-2 blockchain technology, and its potential impact on decentralization, scalability and real-world applications. Sinelnikova shares her unique insights and experiences in the rapidly evolving blockchain space, and gives us a glimpse into the future of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) powered by Metis.

The conversation begins with Sinelnikova providing a comprehensive introduction to Metis, its mission and the challenges it aims to address in the current blockchain landscape. Next, she dives deep into the limitations of Ethereum’s layer 1, highlighting issues such as high gas fees, congestion and slow transaction times. Sinelnikova explains how Metis leverages layer 2 technology to overcome these hurdles — enabling faster, more efficient, and cost-effective transactions for users and developers.

Metis is built on top of the Optimism codebase. Sinelnikova explains that even though the Metis team believes Optimism is on the right path, the team needed to make some changes to the code to create a more efficient platform for the Web3 economy.

“You see, Metis fees are way lower than Optimism fees. We needed these lower fees for the enterprise level — so the enterprise level apps can use Metis easier more than Optimism.“

Next, Akyaw and Sinelnikova discuss the importance of decentralization in the blockchain ecosystem. Metis intends to use its unique approach to building and supporting decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to shape the future of work and collaboration. What’s more, Sinelnikova emphasizes the role of Metis in empowering individuals and businesses to create, manage, and scale their DAOs, thereby fostering a more inclusive and transparent decentralized economy.

This episode also explores the topic of adoption and education. Sinelnikova believes that the most important thing is not getting new users into crypto but protecting users who have already ventured into crypto through extensive education.

Finally, Sinelnikova discusses the future of Metis and layer 2 blockchain technology, outlining the vision for the platform’s ongoing development and growth.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashing It Out with Elena Sinelnikova on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or TuneIn. You can also check out Cointelegraph’s full catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

Keeping the faith in crypto amid TradFi crisis: Paris Blockchain Week 2023

On this episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph, reporter Joe Hall is at Paris Blockchain Week 2023, chatting with some of the industry’s most prominent thinkers in the aftermath of the recent banking crisis.

Paris Blockchain Week 2023 (PBW) was buzzing with talk of innovation in blockchain technology and the future of the Web3 industry.

However, the conference occurred amid a major banking crisis in the United States, which shuttered crypto-friendly Silicon Valley Bank (SBV) and continues to affect many others worldwide. While it was not the central theme of PBW, for many, it was a moment to emphasize the utility of decentralized finance (DeFi) when traditional finance fails.

Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall was on the ground in Paris catching up with some of the leaders in the Bitcoin (BTC), crypto and Web3 space. In this episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph, we tune into the highlights of some of Hall’s conversations with industry movers and shakers on topics including Web3 mass adoption, the role of Bitcoin in current market conditions, the metaverse and more.

The episode starts with a message from Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger hardware. Gauthier spoke on the master stage at PBW, delivering a message of hope for the crypto space in times of uncertainty in traditional finance, or TradFi.

Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch Network, and Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, spoke on the power of Bitcoin against problems in TradFi, such as fiat inflation and the banking crisis.

*Cointelegraph journalist Joseph Hall with Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino at Paris Blockchain Week. Source: Cointelegraph*

The episode concludes with thoughts from Michael Amar, chairman of Paris Blockchain Week; Robbie Young, CEO of Animoca Brands; and Ryan Nitz, head of solutions architecture at Coinbase, who shared his thoughts on how brands are making the transition from Web2 to Web3.

To hear more industry insights from Hill’s time at PBW 2023, tune in and listen to the full episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph on Cointelegraph’s new podcasts page or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

The Agenda podcast chats crypto, media and ethics with Molly Jane Zuckerman

Should crypto media have a universal code of ethics, and what role — if any — should journalists play in promoting crypto mass adoption?

2022 was a rather challenging year for the crypto sector, and the prevalence of Ponzi schemes, decentralized finance scams, nonfungible token rug pulls and questionable centralized exchange bookkeeping put the issue of ethics in the space on blast.

Of course, the negative news of last year wasn’t an outlier or a one-off — generally, “good” ethics have been an issue in crypto for years, and it’s probably safe to assume that challenges will continue to dot the landscape for the foreseeable future.

Within the context of media, it’s important to recognize that objective, unbiased news reporting and transparency are paramount if the industry is to earn the trust of the wider public and, as a result, change the negative perspectives people often hold about it.

In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s podcast The Agenda, hosts Ray Salmond and Jonathan DeYoung sat down with crypto media vet Molly Jane Zuckerman to discuss her experience with ethics challenges in the industry and her ideas on how to integrate best practices into the sector.

When asked by Salmond about the most important things to fix in crypto media and the potential for journalists to experience a “kind of shadowy pressure to do what’s in the company’s best interest,” Zuckerman suggested that drastic improvements in transparency are needed. She mentioned that the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers, an organization she co-founded, has been working on a standards guidebook to help reporters and news agencies alike:

“It is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, just even outside of my day job, is how do we make sure that people working in crypto have sort of a rule book to follow beyond just what their newsroom might tell you might tell them.”

Zuckerman elaborated:

“I think the issue is if you have access to do something that’s so easy for really big money, it can really tempt a lot of people. So, I think that even people with very, very high moral standards and very clear ethical boundaries — at least I’ve seen this in a few companies I’ve worked for, [they] will purposely not give them access to parts of the site that would tempt them.”

Is the onus of ethics primarily on journalists or protocol builders?

When asked whether crypto’s ethics crisis stems primarily from companies and their profit objectives or from the capacity of journalists to be compromised, Zuckerman suggested that it could be a mixture of both. She also takes issue with the fact that many crypto media outlets and journalists see their mission as to help catalyze mass adoption, saying:

“I don’t think it [crypto media] should help catalyze mass adoption, personally. I think crypto media should just lay bare the facts of what is happening in the space. And I think, unfortunately, right now, if crypto media did a neutral job of that, then most people would probably leave the space because it would just be articles about bankruptcy after bankruptcy after bankruptcy.”

According to Zuckerman, the true purpose of crypto media is to educate readers:

“I don’t think that any media outlet should ever have a goal being, like, let’s get more people to use cryptocurrency. I think it should be, let’s get more people to understand how it works. But if they understand how it works and hate it, then that’s the same positive result to me as understanding how it works based on an article you read and liking it.”

To hear more from Zuckerberg, tune in to the full episode of The Agenda on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page, Spotify or Apple Podcasts — and be sure to check out Cointelegraph’s other shows as well.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Former Polygon VP of growth shares the secrets behind major partnerships

Polygon’s former vice president of growth, Arjun Kalsy, believes that integrating zero-knowledge roll-up technology will boost the network’s adoption.

Ethereum scaling solution Polygon has witnessed a lot of adoption through partnerships with major brands like Starbucks and Adidas, which has increased the network’s popularity among cryptocurrency users. In the latest episode of the Hashing It Out podcast, Arjun Kalsy, Polygon’s former vice president of growth, breaks down how the network has attracted partnerships with major brands and how the project is driving mass crypto adoption.

Before leaving Polygon late last year, Kalsy led a team tasked with onboarding companies to promote the adoption of the network. According to him, talking to brands looking to pivot from Web2 to Web3 or add elements of the decentralized world to their platforms was always enjoyable. The onboarding process involved several technical meetings where the Polygon network and its capabilities were scrutinized by these major brands, who consider integrating other technologies “a big deal.”

Kalsy explained that after the first set of big brands announced partnerships with Polygon, more doors were opened for the network. As major brands evaluated and approved the network, other teams gained the confidence to work with Polygon.

Despite the network’s impressive growth, Kalsy believes there is so much more that could come out of its use of zero-knowledge rollups. Zk-Rollups technology is expected to increase the speed at which the layer-2 platform can achieve finality while ensuring high-level security.

Polygon, zk-Rollup — *Tune in for more podcast series from Cointelegraph*

After Polygon, Kalsy moved to BitDAO, where he is head of ecosystem at Mantle, an Ethereum layer-2 network with a modular design. At BitDAO, Kalsy is looking to onboard companies seeking to evolve from centralized structures to decentralized leadership. He argued that several companies would make the switch to decentralized governance in the coming years.

He argued that all new companies have a predictable trajectory that involves raising money at the early stage and going public as the company grows, which is a long winding journey that can be cut short with decentralized governance. He said that with decentralized autonomous organizations, new companies go public immediately, allowing them to benefit from the transparency and global coverage that comes with opening up the governance of a company to everyone.

On the future of the cryptocurrency industry, Kalsy believes that the latest market downtrend is part of the regular ups and downs of all asset classes. He said the market recovery would be swift and could propel the industry to new highs.

In this episode, host Elisha Owusu Akyaw and Kalsy also discuss:

Growth management at a major Web3 firm
Evolution of companies into DAOs
Polygon’s future technical upgrades — zero-knowledge rollups
The growth of Ethereum scaling solutions
BitDAO and the Mantle network

For more on Polygon’s growth and the pivot of companies from centralized entities to decentralized autonomous organizations, listen to episode six of Hashing It Out on the new Cointelegraph Podcasts page or Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

Nicholas Merten of DataDash predicts a ‘cold winter’ for the crypto market

Episode four of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast features an interview with Nicholas Merten, who shared his opinions on the crypto bear market and more.

Nicholas Merten, a crypto trader and the creator of the DataDash YouTube channel, joined Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast for an interview with host Benjamin Pirus, discussing a number of topics, including his opinions on the state of the crypto market. “I think that right now, we’ve been going through what can only be seen as a period of consolidation,” he said when asked about his thoughts on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) as of Jan. 9, the date of the interview.

Bitcoin largely traded sideways for part of November and most of December. January, however, has seen the asset rise from below $17,000 to above $23,000. Looking back at Bitcoin’s price chart shows the asset near the beginning of its ascent on Jan. 9, sitting in the low- to mid-$17,000 range.

Merten noted that he likes to look at the big picture. “I think crypto is going through again this period of massive restructuring that I think is going to be overall good for the space long term, but I think people quite underestimate just how long this could really play out,” he explained, adding:

“The damage that was done by companies like FTX and Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, the whole fiasco with LUNA, is really going to leave an irreversible scar on the industry, and I think we need to understand not only how that contagion continues to play out but that it’s playing out in this little micro space within crypto. And when we really step out into the macro perspective, the big-picture view, we really start to see with inflation, global supply chain issues, that crypto is not going to be the leading asset class for some time.”

Throughout 2022, the crypto and blockchain space faced difficult times, seeing the collapse of multiple industry players. Industry hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and lending outfit Celsius both went bankrupt in 2022. Digital asset exchange giant FTX, crypto project Terra — with its LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) assets — and others also fell during the year, causing ripple effects in the crypto space.

“I say that as someone who got into crypto around 2016, 2017, who really rode the wave of the last decade in stocks and crypto,” Merten continued. “I think we need to understand that the end of that secular bull market where times were good, quantitative easing was fresh, there was lots of money being injected into the economy propping up asset evaluations — I think those times are unfortunately over, and we need to prepare for a cold winter where eventually we can start to look for some signs on bottoming.”

Merten also answered an array of other questions during the interview. Check out the episode and other episodes from Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast on Cointelegraph’s podcast page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

‘FTX was not crypto’ — DeFi Dad sets the record straight

Tune in to the third episode of Hashing It Out, where Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw discusses the evolution of decentralized finance with Fourth Revolution Capital investor, DeFi Dad.

In the fourth episode of Hashing It Out podcast series, Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw discusses the evolution of decentralized finance (DeFi) with DeFi Dad, a DeFi educator and investor at Fourth Revolution Capital (4RC).

DeFi Dad got into the cryptocurrency industry in 2017; however, things really took off for him after the bull market top in early 2018. Despite the downturn that followed, he decided to double down on crypto with a specific focus on decentralized finance. His love for DeFi translated into somewhat of an addiction, which led to the creation of a series of educational videos to onboard new users into the space.

The DeFi content maker describes decentralized finance as money-related applications which are permissionless, trustless and without geographic limitations. DeFi Dad emphasized the trustless nature of DeFi while showing the difference between decentralized applications and centralized applications like FTX, which he calls a bank:

“FTX was a bank that specialized in handling crypto, and unfortunately, it turned out that they didn’t even operate and uphold the terms of services you would expect from a bank.”

According to DeFi Dad, for regular users, the latest issues have made a convincing case for DeFi. From an investor’s perspective, DeFi continues to develop despite the crypto market turmoil. DeFi Dad said that his investment company had received more pitches from new startups building decentralized services. However, he worries that some of these creators might be unable to launch due to declining capital funds in the sector.

*Tune in for more podcast series from Cointelegraph*

Elisha also engaged DeFi Dad in a conversation about the future of decentralized finance. According to DeFi Dad, there will be an exponential increase in economic activity in the DeFi space, starting with people employed by decentralized platforms, to a potential increase in the total value locked to a trillion dollars in the next five years.

In the episode, Elisha and DeFi Dad also cover:

The Ethereum ecosystem and the popularity of layer-2 platforms.
The use cases of DeFi
The emergence of real yield
Potential regulation of DeFi platforms in the United States of America

Hashing It Out is a new crypto podcast covering innovations and important stories in the blockchain industry, featuring interviews with thought leaders in the space hosted by Elisha Owusu Akyaw (GhCryptoGuy).

For more discussion with DeFi Dad, listen to the full episode of Hashing It Out on the new Cointelegraph Podcasts page or Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

Music NFTs are helping independent creators monetize and build a fanbase

The Agenda podcast chats with Adam Levy of Mint and rapper Jay Kila about nonfungible tokens, Web3 and the struggles of being an independent musician.

The music industry is notoriously centralized, with major record labels often controlling nearly every facet of an artist’s career — from which songs they are allowed to release to what percentage of the royalties they keep and more.

While the rise of streaming platforms like SoundCloud and Spotify has helped democratize the industry and made it significantly easier to get one’s music in front of more ears, it’s still an uphill battle to build a dedicated fanbase and generate enough revenue to survive.

Enter music NFTs. For those in the blockchain space, nonfungible tokens represent an opportunity for fans to directly support their favorite artists, for musicians to build stronger communities with their listeners, and for content creators to build more substantial and sustainable income streams.

To better understand the topic, Cointelegraph’s new podcast The Agenda sat down with Adam Levy, host of Mint — a podcast exploring the Web3 creator economy — and Jay Kila, a crypto-native rapper based in Mumbai who founded OTP India — a digital-collectibles and fan-engagement platform for Indian hip hop artists.

What exactly are music NFTs?

Levy told The Agenda co-hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond that music NFTs generally fall under two categories. The first is ownership-based NFTs, which “are basically tied to IP [intellectual property] rights and royalties. So, when you buy the NFT, you now are entitled to the accrual of revenue that is produced from Web2 audio streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc.”

The second is patronage-based NFTs, which do not grant holders any ownership rights but “are collected to support an artist.” According to Levy, “The upside of the NFT is sort of derived from appreciating secondary sales.”

“It really just comes down to tokenizing an audio file and being able to set that up out in the open market and find a collector buy that, engage with that, and join you and your journey as a creator in the music industry.”

How music NFTs are helping musicians

Jay Kila told The Agenda that he first became interested in music NFTs in early 2020 after most of his performance opportunities disappeared with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He found it inspiring that this new technology offered a new way for artists to make a living that was an alternative to the traditional model. That’s when he founded OTP India with a friend of his.

“I just thought it was really cool that you could sell an NFT, and even if you sold it for $300, right, that’s more money than you’ll see from Spotify in like 10 years as an average artist,” he said. “Unless you’re getting millions of streams, it’s almost impossible to make a living from streaming.”

Spotify says it paid out $7 billion in royalties in 2021 alone, a figure the company claims “is the largest sum paid by one retailer to the music industry in one year in history.” But the vast majority of that money went directly to record labels and publishers, which collect enormous percentages for themselves before passing what’s left on to the artists. Plus, Spotify reportedly pays only $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, and major record labels negotiate higher payouts than independent artists receive.

1.85 ETH (~$5.7k) in royalties in 1 week.

this was generated by 36 people.

It would take 1.4 million plays to generate this on spotify.

not counting the primary sale of 10 ETH (~$31k) which is the equivalent of 7.75 million plays

136 people generated more than 9.1mil people. pic.twitter.com/cmwyI0yMa1

— rac.eth ⌐◨-◨ (@RAC) April 20, 2022

According to Jay Kila:

“NFTs are kind of like the last hope, I think, for independent artists to transition into this model where you can actually get money for your music in a much more direct way. It’s going to disrupt a lot of things.”

Building a relationship between artists and fans

One thing both Levy and Jay Kila wholeheartedly agree on is the power that music NFTs have to better connect creators directly with their fans. The Mint podcast itself practices what it promotes and issues free NFTs to its fans as a way to reward its loyal listeners, grow its audience and generate excitement.

“When I issue those free NFTs, there’s a ripple effect, and I get thousands upon thousands of hits to my website,” said Levy. “I get so many new subscribers, I get new listeners, and the ecosystem just kind of grows every single season.”

Jay Kila’s OTP project, meanwhile, seeks to build a Web3 community for the Indian hip hop scene centered around collectible digital trading cards, and it’s important for him that this community is accessible to everyone. “Each artist card we’re pricing at $27 because we wanted it to be affordable to the average person,” he said. “It’s not really about getting the money, but it’s about creating that bond between fan and artist, and then building the community.”

In the words of Levy:

“There’s never been a way for you to support an artist directly like you can through music NFTs and buying their collectible and being able to have aligned incentives with watching them grow as an artist as they develop over time.”

To learn more about music NFTs and how Levy and Jay Kila are using blockchain to build community and monetize content, tune into the full episode of The Agenda on Cointelegraph’s new podcasts page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

The Agenda is a new podcast from Cointelegraph that explores the promises of crypto, blockchain and Web3, and how regular people level up and improve their lives with technology. Be sure to check out Cointelegraph’s other new shows by heading over to the new Cointelegraph Podcast section.

Nebraskangooner gives his opinions on whether news affects BTC price

Nebraskangooner gave his thoughts on multiple topics in the latest episode of the Crypto Trading Secrets podcast, including his opinions on Bitcoin in the bear market.

On Dec. 28, Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast interviewed trader Nebraskangooner, gathering his opinions on several topics. “Flat and completely sideways and uneventful,” Nebraskangooner said when asked about his thoughts on Bitcoin’s (BTC) price lately.

The crypto bear market saw the price of Bitcoin struggle throughout 2022, falling significantly from its all-time high above $60,000 seen in 2021. Nebraskangooner gave a few thoughts on Bitcoin’s possible location within the bear market and a potential bottom for the asset.

Regarding his view on Bitcoin’s price, Nebraskangooner said he primarily looks to price charts for evaluation rather than mainstream news events. “I’ve never really been a believer in too much news affecting anything,” he explained, continuing:

“I think news, more so, just accelerates price action. I’ve always been a believer in ‘tell me the news, and I’ll show you the chart.’ Basically, good news always seems to happen at support, and bad news always seems to happen at resistance. More bad news obviously comes out in bear markets, and more good news obviously comes out in bull markets.”

“I don’t really see the news as, like, changing the tide on anything,” he added. “I more so just trade the charts.” Nebraskangooner also shared further thoughts regarding what he thinks has been affecting Bitcoin’s price the most.

In the episode, Nebraskangooner and host Benjamin Pirus discuss several other points, including his early interest in the medical field and how he transitioned from a career in nursing to crypto trading.

Cointelegraph’s Crypto Trading Secrets podcast interviews crypto traders, investors and analysts on topics related to crypto trading and investing. Each episode generally comprises three segments: finding the bottom, trade secrets and the next bull run.

Listen to the episode on Cointelegraph’s podcast page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

MyEtherWallet CEO talks about the future of crypto self-custody

Tune in to the third episode of Hashing It Out as Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw discusses the future of noncustodial cryptocurrency wallets with Kosala Hemachandra, CEO of MyEtherWallet.

In the third episode of the Hashing It Out podcast, Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw discusses the future of noncustodial cryptocurrency wallets with Kosala Hemachandra, CEO of MyEtherWallet.

Recent issues with centralized platforms have put the spotlight on decentralized applications (DApps), and self-custody — where users keep their funds completely under their responsibility — has become a major trend.

Check the whole library of Cointelegraph podcasts here.

MyEtherWallet is one of the oldest noncustodial wallets with a focus on the Ethereum blockchain. According to Kosala Hemachandra, the wallet went live just two weeks after the Ethereum mainnet launch. The CEO of MyEtherWallet explained that the company chose to make a decentralized wallet because it believed it was the only proper way to interact with blockchain technology.

“Blockchain, at its core, is a decentralized solution, so why would we create products that are centralized? Because we are defeating the whole purpose of using blockchain.”

Hemachandra explains that MyEtherWallet started as a hobby project that became more demanding since there were no examples to look at during its development. The developer had to write new Ethereum libraries in Javascript.

The need to build a foundation of codebases that could accelerate growth in the Ethereum landscape was the reason the team opted to make the code open source. What’s more, the open-source nature of the code allows the platform to have more eyes on its codebase to prevent potential vulnerabilities.

Despite growing competition, MyEtherWallet has over 3 million monthly users, mainly from the United States and Japan. To catch up with the likes of MetaMask, the decentralized wallet is adding support for more blockchain networks and recently launched a multichain browser extension. Hemachandra also pointed out that the first two weeks after the FTX saga brought in many new users looking for decentralized alternatives to store their crypto.

On trends in the industry, Hemachandra mentioned that MyEtherWallet has yet to make plans to do an airdrop for its users despite rumors that some of its competitors may launch their own tokens soon. According to the CEO, MyEtherWallet doesn’t see any use cases for tokens released by wallet applications at the moment.

In the episode, Elisha and Hemachandra also cover:

New features for decentralized wallets.
The Ethereum ecosystem and the popularity of layer-2 platforms.
A multichain future in the blockchain ecosystem.

Hashing It Out is a new Cointelegraph podcast series covering innovations and important stories in the blockchain industry, featuring interviews with thought leaders in the space hosted by Elisha (GhCryptoGuy).

For more discussion with Hemachandra, listen to the full episode of Hashing It Out on the new Cointelegraph Podcasts page or Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Amazon Music.