Empire

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito & Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Anatoly has spent over 20 years as an engineer working for companies such as Qualcomm & Dropbox whilst contributing to open source software development. After the recent success of Solana, we invited Anatoly onto Empire to discuss how Solana was founded, the current layer 1 wars...

In this episode of Empire Jason is joined by Alyse Killeen, Managing Partner of StillMark - the Bitcoin VC Firm investing in the frontier of Bitcoin innovation. As well as founding StillMark in 2019, Alyse sits on the board of directors at Blockstream as an Independent Director. Alyse shares her thoughts on the most exciting companies being founded in the industry, the future of earning Bitcoin vs...

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Qiao Wang, contributor to DeFi Alliance. As a former quant trader & now busy funding projects in the DeFi & Web 3.0 ecosystem, Qiao has a unique understanding of crypto's past and what new innovations lay in store for the crypto economy at large. While looking at the timeline of DeFi, they touch on the Layer 1 wars, DAOs, the 10 year supercycle and mor...

In this episode of Empire, Jason is joined by Marty Bent of Great American Mining and Harry Sudock of GRIID. Marty & Harry are focused on using stranded or otherwise wasted energy to mine Bitcoin whilst reducing flaring, methane and carbon emissions whilst doing so. Marty & Harry discuss the multi billion dollar opportunity in Bitcoin mining, the energy arbitrage opportunity, how the energy grid a...

In this episode of Empire Jason is joined by Sergey Nazarov. Sergey is the Co-founder of Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network provider for advanced smart contracts. Sergey and Jason discuss hybrid smart contracts, oracle networks, DeFi's total addressable market, how current business models will be forced to adapt and the challenges of developing Chainlink. ––– Empire is brought to you by Blo...

In this episode of Empire Jason is joined by Mike Jones. Mike is the CEO of Science, a studio that focuses on mobile, marketplaces and select e-commerce investments. Mike is highly regarded in the venture capital industry having been CEO of Myspace, investor in Dollar Shave Club successfully overseeing $2 billion in exits. Mike shares his thoughts on the negative effects of social media, entertain...

In this episode Jason sits down with Avik Roy. Avik is President of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, policy editor at Forbes, former analyst and portfolio manager at the investment firms Bain Capital, JPMorgan Chase & founder of the healthcare-focused hedge fund Mymensingh Partners. Avik shares his thoughts on CBDC's vs stable coins, the private sector's role within the economy, t...

In this episode of Empire Jason is joined by Matt Hougan the Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management. Jason and Matt discuss how an ETF would benefit financial advisors, DeFi innovation, future outlook for the space and incoming regulation. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Prime Pricing Data is the pricing sou...

Cynthia Lummis is a US Senator from Wyoming. On this episode of Empire, Senator Lummis speaks with Jason about the proposed Infrastructure Bill and the negative effects this could have for Bitcoin, digital assets and innovation. Cynthia also discusses the negative effects of inflation on the American population and the ever increasing national debt. This is a shorter episode than usual as Senator...

In this episode Jason is joined by Robert Breedlove. Robert is one of the most esteemed Bitcoin philosophers with a focus on exploring Freedom, Sovereignty, Philosophy, History, Economics and Bitcoin from first principles. When Robert isn't writing his captivating essays, he hosts the YouTube series 'What is Money?' featuring some of the top names in Technology, Finance & Bitcoin including previou...

Since buying his first bitcoin in 2011, Erik Voorhees has seen it all. Erik helped Charlie Shrem build BitInstant and then launched ShapeShift in 2014, just months after the Mt. Gox crash. In 2018, ShapeShift lost 95% of their business when they introduced KYC due to regulatory demands. In this episode, Erik shares how he got through this tough time, and why he recently took a bold leap to integra...

Christian Angermayer is one of the world’s leading investors in psychedelics. Christian invested in the seed round Compass Pathways and recently founded Atai, a multi-billion dollar publicly traded psychedelics company. Christian talks about his beginnings, and how they led him to his current project: Atai Medical. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards...

Chris Burniske is a co-founder of Placeholder, a New York venture firm that specializes in cryptoassets, and co-author of the book, Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond. He joins us to talk about crypto's past, and the implications that has for its future. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Pri...

Anil is the Chief Operating Officer at Delphi Digital, and joins us to talk about DeFi, crypto gaming, and how he got so bullish on NFTs. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Prime Pricing Data is the pricing source used by S&P Dow Jones Indices’ for their new cryptocurrency indices. Lukka Prime is the world’s first fair marke...

Dan Held is currently the director of growth marketing at Kraken. This is the long awaited part 2 of a 2 part series with Dan. If you haven't already, be sure to check out part 1! Dan's blog: https://danheld.substack.com/ ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Prime Pricing Data is the pricing source used by S&P Dow Jones Indice...

Peter Smith has been in the crypto space for a long time — and he's learned a thing or two about how the market ebbs and flows. He's come to the conclusion that Bitcoin's success — as well as the success of his own company — doesn't depend on other project's failures. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Prime Pricing Data is...

On this special episode of Empire, Blockworks co-founder Michael Ippolito tells us about today's biggest trends in crypto. ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like GAAP and IFRS. Lukka Prime Pricing Data is the pricing source used by S&P Dow Jones Indices’ for their new cryptocurrency indices. Lukka Prime is the world’s first fair market value pricing...

Empire is on pause this week. For now, enjoy Crypto Data 101 with Will Clemente. See you next week for part 2 with Dan! In this special episode, Will and I talk about why retail is buying when whales are selling, and how the 2021 bull run looks like 2013. Will built a steady following on Twitter this year with his market predictions and analytics, and predicts an eventual $300k Bitcoin. ––– LUKKA...

Dan Held is currently the director of growth marketing at Kraken. We talked about Elon's impact on the field, energy and the environment, and of course, the possible $500k Supercycle. This is part 1 of a 2 part series with Dan. Check out his Substack if you can't wait for part 2! https://danheld.substack.com/ ––– LUKKA Lukka Prime is crypto asset pricing data aligned to accounting standards like G...

Jeremy Allaire takes us deep into the world of $USDC, stablecoins, and the future of money. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hundreds of mapped file formats makes it easy to upload your transaction history. With no limits on exchanges or transaction count, file your 2020 taxes for just $19.95 whether you have 10 transa...

Colleen Sullivan is a founder at CMT — but before that, she spent her summers fighting for space in the pit in Chicago. We talked about how those experiences informed her career, and what her legal experience has taught her about the landscape today. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hundreds of mapped file formats make...

Nelly Chatue-Diop left her home in Cameroon to dive in to the tech world. Now she's bringing what she learned back to Africa with Ejara, which she hopes will soon let people on the continent invest in crypto. We talked about everything from Ejara's founding story, to what it could look like to tokenize a herd of cattle. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essen...

Michael Moro remembers when Bitcoin felt like it could go to $0. We talked about the transition from that to corporations buying $8 billion in BTC in a quarter, the time he was forced to spend a bitcoin on a case of wine, and the rise of Genesis. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hundreds of mapped file formats makes it...

After being Swatted, Jameson Lopp decided to burn down every trace of his identity. Even his own family members don't know where he lives. Now, he's using what he learned to build Casa — a secure storage for crypto that he hopes will ease users' transition into financial sovereignty. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hu...

Before Bill Barhydt started Abra, he build security systems for the CIA and NASA. We talked about his time working for the government, as well as his role getting banks online through Netscape, and what is looks like to come out of a debt cycle. ––– LUKKA Minimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hundreds of mapped file formats makes it...