Messari's Unqualified Opinions

The idea of Crypto x AI (or, decentralized AI) is great - build the infrastructure of AI tool in public, and incentivize its coordination via tokens.  But the reality is the Crypto x AI ecosystem as a whole is competing - directly - against Google,, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon at every step of the AI value chain. However, as Seth Bloomberg explains, there are a few fundamental features of Crypto x A...

We’re now more than halfway through 2024 - and on a macro level, to be honest, most of us at Messari research aren’t really sure what to make of crypto this year. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana all have reasons for optimism - and reasons for concern. So as Seth Bloomberg explains, we stepped back and took stock of where each of the 3 crypto “majors” are - and what narratives we think might drive cry...

Over the past year, Solana has been growing at a breakneck pace by any measure. But one vertical may be underperforming - liquid staking. As Kinji explains, one project, Sanctum, is setting out to change that - by trying to help the cold start liquidity problem for new liquid staked tokens. If they're successful, they could dramatically change how quickly these new LST's can scale. (00:00) - Hire...

For the past year, Messari's Kunal Goel has been consistently more accurate than most analysts at predicting Coinbase's Quarterly Earnings. Listen in as he discusses how he does it, and what his latest expected earnings tell him about the future of Coinbase. Declutter Your Inbox. Use Messari Lite as your Daily News Feed (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (01:49) - Mainnet is Coming! (02...

Since signing the Paris Agreement almost 10 years ago, carbon credit systems have emerged as the go-to method for reducing global CO2 emissions - but their adoption as been slowed by coordination challenges. As Dylan Bane explains, new crypto projects using DePIN principles are trying to more efficiently coordinate distributed resources - and may just be the catalyst the energy industry needs to r...

Stablecoins have proven to be one of crypto's strongest early killer apps. But as Kinji Steimitz explains, this utility has led to a massive number of new ways to earn yield on stablecoins - making it difficult to know what all the options are to do so, let alone compare them against each other. Join Kinji for his guide to finding stablecoin yield in Summer 2024. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:...

Historically, blockchain validators have been rewarded for their work with native tokens of the blockchain in question. But the ongoing revolution in smart contracts has created opportunities for blockchain validators to generate revenue outside of the protocol - which as Kunal Goel and Peter Horton explain has prompted a large-scale discssion on how to measure a chain's security, and what role ec...

When the crypto world turns its hype machine on one particular topic, like modularity, it can be rare to come across a truly unique approach. But as Seth Bloomberg explains, AO and Arweave have done just that, laying out an architecture that may inform the modular crypto infrastructure economy for many cycles to come. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (02:58) - Mainnet is Coming! (03:5...

Prediction markets always see an increase in activity in an election year - and this year is no different. But as Kunal Goel explains, for crypto-based prediction markets like Polymarket this increase in growth is an opportunity to explore what other uses besides betting these markets can serve. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (02:49) - Mainnet is Coming! (03:49) - The Future of Pred...

In this Special Episode, Ryan Selkis and Marvin Ammori of Uniswap Labs debate the best approach to advance crypto in today's political climate. This debate happened at Consensus 2024, and was moderated by Zack Seward of Coindesk. Credit: Coindesk Follow Messari on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MessariCrypto Follow Unqualified Opinions on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0uG5qpwFg67zTt0VQRTaZ7...

OpenAI's spring product updates may have underwhelmed those who were hoping for a GPT-5. But as Seth Bloomberg explains, the updates show OpenAI's commitment to the rapidly growing Consumer AI sector - and give a potential preview into how open-source projects in the crypto x AI space may respond. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (02:56) - Mainnet is Coming! (03:55) - Crypto x AI Host...

Industry fundraising data isn't a guarantee of future innovation - but as Patryk Krasnicki explains, an examination of the data can give some indication of what founders and investors think is most critical to build in the volatile crypto industry. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (03:26) - Mainnet is Coming! (04:26) - The Hidden Insights in Crytpo Fundraising Data Hosted by Ryan Selk...

Many "innovations" in social media turn out to be short-term fads. But as Toe Bautista explains, builders in the "SocialFi" industry are coming forward with products that change how apps are built and creators make money - changes to the underlying economics of the industry which historically, tend to be much more reliable indicators of long-term adoption. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - I...

Real World Assets, or putting the core pieces of the world's existing financial system like cash, treasuries, and real estate on-chain, have long been touted as a use case that would make these assets significantly more useful. But so far, stablecoins and cash substitutes have been the only RWA with any mass adoption. But as Kinji Steimetz explains, the category has seen rapid growth in the last 1...

Four years ago, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin laid out his vision for the network's scalability driven by rollups, and that vision has largely come to fruition. But as Seth Bloomberg explains, those rollups are now running into scalability problems of their own - and the Ethereum ecosystem once again finds itself at an inflection point. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (04:15) -...

Decentralized lending protocols like Aave and Compound drove explosive growth in DeFi. But as Kinji Steimetz explains, new entrants are ready to take the next step. (00:00) - Hire with Hirechain (00:40) - Intro (03:01) - Messari Mainnet is Coming! (04:01) - The Next Wave of DeFi Hosted by Ryan Selkis (https://twitter.com/twobitidiot) Written and Produced by Steve Bichimer Based on "A Lending Renai...

Nischal clears up misconceptions about India's regulatory landscape and shares what he's seeing that has him excited about the future of crypto in India. --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Choice by Kingdom Trust: Bitcoin, Stocks,...

Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier joins The Unqualified Opinions podcast to discuss self custody, and the user experience of being your own bank.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Choice by Kingdom Trust: Bitcoin, Stocks, ETFs, Gold and...

With the next major phase of Cardano's mainnet (Shelley) fast approaching, IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson provides a full project update as well his thoughts on the competitive outlook of the smart contracting landscape. --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Ea...

Skale is a middle-ware protocol that aims to allow dApps to run on a high-speed consensus layer above platforms like Ethereum and EOS. With Skale approaching its mainnet launch this summer, Ryan and Skale co-founder/CEO Jack O’Holleran discuss the project’s progress as well as how they’re approaching launch. --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "...

Nexus Mutual is an insurance protocol for DeFi that covers financial loss resulting from hacks and unintended code usage. Nexus paid out its first claim following one of the bZx hacks early this year. In this conversation, founder Hugh Karp details how he thinks about platform risk, particularly in the context of Ethereum’s migration to ETH 2.0, and sheds light on creating a decentralized alternat...

Security tokens have at times, been heralded as the next major phase of crypto adoption. Despite the surrounding hype, security tokens don’t have any actual trading volume to speak of. In this conversation, Tokensoft CEO Mason Borda discusses the hurdles that still remain for adoption and outlines the bullish case for security tokens over the next few years. Conservatively, he estimates that we co...

Tuur Demeester is one of Bitcoin’s longest standing research analysts who’s been through all three halvings. In this conversation, he recalls how his study of financial history and subsequent worry about our financial system’s inflationary risks led him to a 2010 post from Satoshi laying out bitcoin’s value proposition as digital gold. He describes his first bitcoin bubble from $1 to $30 and the f...

It doesn’t get much more OG than Charlie Shrem. Charlie’s been involved in bitcoin from the days where the community consisted of a couple hundred people on forum.bitcoin.org, created by Satoshi himself. In this conversion, we discuss both bitcoin and Charlie’s evolution throughout the years, from the first halving where many feared the protocol would break down, to Charlie’s imprisonment and even...

Layer 1 is focused on converting “electricity into money” via highly efficient bitcoin mining facilities. Where mining has historically been concentrated in places with cheap and sometimes subsidized energy, Layer 1’s operations are currently focused in America: West Texas to be precise. Also counter to historical trends, Layer 1 is focused on working with regulators and the institutionalization o...