Hardwired by AlphaWire

Will Crypto Exchanges Replace Banks and Bring Stock Markets to 24/7 Trading?  | ft. Vugar Usi, CEO of MEXC In this episode of Hardwired, Harry Crabtree is joined by Vugar Usi, CEO of MEXC, to explore whether crypto exchanges will replace banks—and whether global stock markets will finally move to 24/7 trading. From tokenised stocks and real-world assets to AI-powered financial assistants, stableco...

Hardwired: The State Of Risk In DeFi #03 | ft. Charles Holmes & Greg Bock Conference Scams, Police Impersonation & Why Crypto Recovery Is So Hard In this episode of Hardwired, Harry Crabtree is joined by Charles from Verdict and Bock from Fidesium to unpack the security threats facing crypto users at conferences, online, and even at home. From fake QR codes and spoofed Wi-Fi to AI-generate...

The State of Risk in DeFi, Part 2 |  ft. Charles Holmes (Verdict) & Greg Bock (Fidesium) In the second episode of The State of Risk in DeFi , I’m again joined by Charles Holmes of Verdict.finance and Greg Bock of Fidesium to explore the growing operational-security challenge facing crypto. Smart-contract security is improving, but attackers are adapting. The focus is shifting towards compromis...

Hardwired: The State of Risk in DeFi | ft. Charles Holmes (Verdict) & Greg Bock (Fidesium) In this episode, I sit down with Charles Holmes from Verdict.finance and Greg Bock from Fidesium to unpack the current state of risk in DeFi. We explore why 2026 has seen a surge in sophisticated attacks, how AI is reshaping both offensive and defensive security, and what protocols need to do to stay ahe...

In this episode of HardWired, Harry sits down with Abraham Polishchuk, founder and CTO of Fidesium, to explore how one of crypto’s most critical but often overlooked infrastructure layers, security auditing and developer tooling, is evolving as the industry matures. From Abraham’s early days mining Bitcoin on his laptop to building a Web3-native security firm, the conversation digs into why “code...

In this episode of HardWired , Harry sits down with Charles Holmes , founder of Verdict Finance , to explore how one of crypto’s most important emerging infrastructure plays is tackling the problem of risk in DeFi. From Charles’s early experience in crypto to the origin story behind Verdict Finance, the conversation digs into why institutions still struggle to deploy capital onchain and how better...

In this episode of HardWired , Harry sits down with Andrew Soper, co-founder of World Mobile , to unpack how one of crypto’s most ambitious infrastructure projects is tackling the real-world problem of connectivity. From Andrew’s background in East Africa to the origin story behind World Mobile, the conversation explores how telecom, energy, and blockchain can work together to build a more inclusi...

In this episode of HardWired, Harry sits down with Charlie Varley, founder of Bloom, to explore his journey into Web3, the vision behind Bloom, and how the product is rethinking market intelligence and on-chain trading. Charlie explains how Bloom is building a social layer for investing — where traders and signal producers can share ideas, prove conviction on chain, and help users make more inform...

In this episode of HardWired , Harry sits down with Bock from Fidesium to explore his background, the story behind the company, and why smart contract auditing has become such a critical part of crypto security. We discuss recent hacks, the realities of manual audits, and why operational security matters not just for teams building in Web3, but for anyone responsible for protecting capital, infras...