The Edge Podcast

Samee Siddiqui is the CoFounder and CEO of Atlas. In this Quick Hit, we review Atlas and their new ChatGPT tool for writing smart contracts. Atlas is self-described as the fastest way to build on Ethereum, L2s, and any EVM chain. Samee gives us a live demo and talks about why it's so crucial that we radically lower the barrier to building protocols and dApps with tooling like Atlas. ------ 📺...

Alex Cutler and TaoWatts are Core Contributors at Velodrome Finance. In this episode, we discover how Velodrome defied all odds in the bear market to become a DeFi darling and recently shipped Velodrome V2. Launched in June 2022, just weeks after the Terra UST collapse, Velodrome has managed to not only survive, but gone on to thrive as the most popular DEX to deposit liquidity on Optimism. The fi...

Our guest today is the anonymous cofounder of Prisma Finance. In this Quick Hit, we spotlight a new LSTfi protocol called Prisma Finance. We discuss will Prisma ignite the LST Wars, referring to the Curve Wars among protocols competing to capture voting power to allocate Curve liquidity rewards and bootstrap early DeFi protocols. Self-described as "the end game for LSTs," Prisma will off...

Mike Silagadze is the Founder and CEO of EtherFi. In this Quick Hit, we review EtherFi's Ethereum staking loyalty program: Ether.fan. EtherFi is a newer ETH liquid staking protocol launched in 2023 with a novel twist called their Early Adopter Program, which led the protocol to quickly attract $40M in staked ETH within the first 2 months on Ethereum Mainnet. EtherFi is the only ETH liquid stak...

Amit Gajjala is the CoFounder of Stader Labs. In this Quick Hit, we review ETHx, Stader's new Ethereum LST just in time for its official launch today. Since 2021, Stader has developed 6 liquid staking solutions for Proof of Stake networks, including Polygon, BSC, Hedera, Fantom, and Near and once held just under $1B in staked LUNA prior to the collapse of UST. As a multichain liquid staking pr...

Muneeb Ali is the Co-Creator of Stacks. In this episode, we discuss whether Stacks can scale Bitcoin. Stacks can be thought of as a Bitcoin layer for smart contracts to build decentralized applications. Muneeb guides us through everything you need to know as a new DeFi user on Stacks, including the hot debate over whether Stacks is an L2 or not, how to earn BTC by stacking STX, and the massive Nak...

Rhett Shipp is the Founder of Gravita. In this episode, we discuss how to get started with LSTfi using Gravita Protocol. Gravita is a friendly fork of Liquity, designed to provide users with interest-free loans backed by ETH Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) such as rETH by Rocket Pool and stETH by Lido. Rhett guides us through the mechanics of Gravita including how to open a vessel, the GRAI stablecoi...

Austin Barack is a Partner in Venture & Liquid Investments at CoinFund. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview a crypto veteran and full-time investor about all the emerging sectors in DeFi and Web3 you need to know about next crypto bull run including Ethereum L2s, ETH LSTs, LSTfi, the ETH burn (EIP-1559 and its impact on the future ETH supply), Bitcoin DeFi, and the intersection o...

Bob Baxley is a Core Contributor at Maverick Protocol. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we cover a rising star among new AMMs on Ethereum Mainnet and zkSync Era--Maverick. Maverick has earned a spot as a top 5 DEX on Ethereum based on daily trading volume and the 2nd highest traded DEX on zkSync Era. Since launching in March 2023, Maverick has introduced new innovations to the AMM sector with...

Emad Mostaque is the Founder and CEO at Stability AI. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview one of the most sought after AI experts in the world! Emad's team at Stability AI is building the world’s leading open source generative AI company, which is known for their flagship Stable Diffusion, first released in August 2022. Stable Diffusion text-to-image model is widely used to gener...

Andrew Trudel is a Core Contributor at Kwenta. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we cover one of the top decentralized perps trading protocols in DeFi by trade volume. With over $3.7B in lifetime trade volume, Kwenta is on a path to realizing Synthetix Founder Kain Warwick's original vision for DeFi leverage trading to outcompete crypto centralized exchanges and legacy finance. Given the la...

Imran Mohamad is the Head of Marketing at KyberSwap. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we cover Kyber's newest supertool for DeFi traders, built on a lifetime trading volume of $19B in data--KyberAI. Using AI, machine learning, and on-chain data, KyberAI assigns a score to how bullish or bearish a token might be over the short term (hours or days). It's an excellent example of the DeFi...

Stani Kulechov is the Founder of Aave and Lens protocols. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview this legendary DeFi founder. Having built Aave into one of the world's largest DeFi protocols with an all-time high of $30B TVL, Stani made the bold move in 2021 to jumpstart another wildly challenging Web3 startup that would deliver a self-sovereign alternative to social media–called Le...

Roby John is the CoFounder and CEO of SuperGaming. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview the founder of the "Epic Games of India," SuperGaming. Roby explains how India's population of 1.4 billion with 450 million gamers playing battle royale games, and the most accessible cheap internet in the world has delivered the perfect storm for India to be the epicenter of the next...

Samyak Jain is the CoFounder of Instadapp. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview one of the earliest and most respected builders in DeFi. Sam and his brother Sowmay Jain have an epic story to tell going back to 2019, when they won an ETHGlobal hackathon building what is now known as Instadapp. Instadapp is a rich platform for both users and developers to leverage the full potential of...

Brooks Brown is the Founder and CEO of NOR. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview a creative with 18 years of experience working on some of the most iconic brands and franchises in the world, including Avatar and Star Wars. After an illustrious career at places like LucasArts and James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment working with AAA console and mobile game studios, Brooks has s...

Samantha Yap is the Founder and CEO of YAP Global. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we speak with one of leading experts on PR (public relations) specific to the the crypto industry. Samantha Yap is a former journalist who started the crypto PR firm YAP Global in 2016. She has worked with clients from teams such as Frax Finance, Gitcoin, ETHDenver, and The Ethereum Foundation. We'll apply...

DeFi Devin is CoFounder of GammaSwap. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we do our first Quick Hit! Quick Hits will often be shorter episodes to spotlight up-and-coming DeFi and Web3 teams. DeFi Devin shares the alpha on their oracle-free decentralized perpetual trading platform preparing to launch. With GammaSwap, LPs on AMMs who often are burdened with impermanent loss, can use this new primit...

John Ennis is the Founder and CEO of NeoSwap. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we meet with one of the top founders building Web3 applications on top of AI. Having made the leap to building hybrid applications of crypto and AI, John shares why he believes the centralized computation of AI can benefit from the decentralized public database of Web3, as well as how AI can benefit from the permiss...

Seb is the anonymous Founder of Gains Network protocol and its decentralized leverage trading platform, gTrade. In this episode of The Edge Podcast, we interview the increasingly popular anonymous DeFi founder behind gTrade, which grew in 2022 despite the market headwinds in the crypto space. Seb isn't one to seek media attention and has done few interviews outside of the Gains Network Discord...

Marco Cora is the Head of Business Development at Matter Labs (zkSync). In this episode, we talk about the imminent launch of zkSync's zkEVM! This Ethereum L2 will significantly increase the throughput of the Ethereum network, reduce transaction costs, and improve overall efficiency. We talk with Marco about why they believe an EVM-compatible zkRollup-based L2 is better technology for scaling...

Sam Kazemian is the Founder of Frax Finance. In this episode, we go deep with one of DeFi's most accomplished builders. Sam launched Frax Finance in 2020, being one of the earliest stablecoins to launch in the new era following DeFi Summer. We talk with Sam about how Frax has managed to thrive in such a competitive sector of DeFi, while leveraging a positive-sum strategy to not only grow Frax...

Sreeram Kannan is the Founder of EigenLayer. He is also an associate professor at University of Washington Seattle, where he runs the UW Blockchain Lab. In this episode, we cover everything you need to know about one of the most talked about projects in crypto. Getting to know EigenLayer in 2023 will be like getting a head start on liquid staking back in 2020. Sreeram walks us through how he came...

Jasper is a prominent member of the Rocket Pool community, as the former Treasurer of the Protocol DAO and currently known as the Community Advocate, serving on the Incentives Management Committee and as a member of the oDAO. In this episode, Jasper walks through why Rocket Pool is poised to take over in 2023. He breaks down Rocket Pool's edge as a decentralized liquid staking protocol for ETH...