EP14 - Yield from on-chain exotic options, financial ops, and reflections on building a DeFi company - a conversation with Winston Zhang at Cega Finance

In today's episode, we're taking a behind-the-scenes look into the complex world of crypto taxes. I welcome two talented tax professionals, both from Blockchain & Digital Assets groups at their respective firms. We have Han Xin Lim, Tax Manager at Deloitte, and Mario Enrique Sabatés, Senior Associate at RSM. We discuss crypto taxes (and how to do them) so that you are compliant and can avoid penalties. Show notes: Background Tax and business are inseparable Crypto accounting industry Guidance, or lack thereof Tax season Advice --- Learn more: ⁠LinkedIn: Han Xin Lim | Mario Enrique Sabatés⁠ Website: ⁠Deloitte Blockchain Resources | RSM US Blockchain and Digital Assets | RSM US Digital Assets: Latest Insights and Resources for Financial Services --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠@guocamole⁠ | ⁠@solirvine⁠ | ⁠@omodotso⁠ Website: ⁠https://omo.so⁠ Youtube: ⁠omo⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In today's episode, we welcome Winston Zhang, co-founder at Cega Finance. Cega Finance provides high-yield products for DeFi users, powered by exotic options. We reflect on Cega’s company building journey from late 2021, to today, and how they’ve navigated company financial operations along the way. Show notes: What is Cega? Who is it for? DoorDash, Orbiter, and Cega TradFi vs. DeFi User research vs. competitor research Company operations Cega's one year with omo! Reflection --- Learn more about Cega: Twitter: ⁠@cega_fi | ⁠@zhangwins⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/cega-fi/ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.cega.fi/ | Historic Performance of Cega Vaults | Supercharger Vault --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠omo ⁠⁠--- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In today's episode, we're talking about how to run crypto payroll, give people W2s, direct deposit fiat into employee bank accounts, and so much more. My co-founder Sol and I welcome Joshua Lapidus. He’s a Founding Steward at Opolis, a digital employment cooperative, ETHDenver Steward and recently, the Sr. Partnerships Lead at Mantle.xyz. Show notes: Background Politics Cooperatives Employment compliance How Opolis delivers employment compliance to members What is Opolis? What does Opolis enable? Who is Opolis’ customer? Where is Opolis available (geographically)? Processing $60-70m annual payroll --- Learn more about Opolis: Twitter: @opolis | @0xJoshuaSL⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/opolis/ Website: ⁠https://opolis.co/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠@guocamole⁠ | ⁠@solirvine⁠ | ⁠@omodotso⁠ Website: ⁠https://omo.so⁠ Youtube: ⁠omo⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, Sol and I welcome Anj Arrieta, our Executive Assistant from Athena. Athena connects high-achieving professionals all over the world with best-in-class Philippines-based executive assistants. We talk about our experience of getting an EA as our first full-time hire, and how, with the help of Athena, she’s given us a ton of leverage while running the company. Show notes: Delegation experiences Utilizing today’s technology More than calendar and inbox management Trusting and being trusted The Athena network How Tiktok brought Anj to Athena Executive assistants as partners Skip the waitlist and get your first month free: athenago.me/grace-guo --- Learn more about Athena: Twitter: @athenago Tiktok: @AthenaCareersPH LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/athenago/mycompany/ Website: https://www.athenago.com/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠omo⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only. We do work with Athena, but we are not being paid by Athena to do this podcast episode.

In this episode, I welcome Kevin Leuthardt, Head of Finance at Safe. We talk about what it's like to be a crypto CFO, his experience at three impressive crypto projects, finance recruitment, and hiring. Show notes: Arweave, KYVE, and Safe Risk management 30, 60, 90-day plan Day in the life of a crypto CFO Hiring and recruitment Safe, previously called Gnosis Safe, is a smart contract wallet on Ethereum and EVM chains. They offer multisig controls (ex. multiple owners of the wallet, M out of N signatures needed to complete a transaction) and more for on-chain self-custody. There are $70bn USD value of assets secured through Safe today. Arweave is a decentralized data storage and archiving platform. KYVE is a decentralized data validation and indexing platform. --- Learn more about Safe: Twitter: @KLeuthardt | @safe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-leuthardt-b2461379/ Website: https://safe.global/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, Sol and I welcome Derek Hsue, cofounder of Reverie. Reverie's goal is to help DAOs grow. Derek is also the host of the popular crypto podcast, I Pledge Allegiance. We dig into the history of decentralized governance, the state of DAO governance today, and the organizational problems we need to solve. Show notes: From Reddit to Reverie Onchain vs offchain governance experiments Streamlining processes - friend or foe when it comes to governance? The most important thing DAOs need Participation vs contribution DAOs and VC? TLDR on Cosmos The best way to learn is by doing --- Learn more about Reverie: Twitter: @derek_hsue | @hi_reverie Website: https://www.reverie.ooo Podcast: https://www.reverie.ooo/podcasts --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, I welcome Brandon Ferrick, co-founder and GC at B+J Studios, formerly Sullivan and Cromwell attorney, and former GC of Injective Labs. We have a down-to-earth chat about what it actually means for teams to work with lawyers in web3. Show notes: What do general counsels do? Why do teams need one and when should they hire one? Fundraising for a web3 startup An open-source, one-page SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) What legal questions have we yet to answer as an industry? Biggest legal pitfalls you've seen in web3 What's it like to work with a lawyer and how do you make sure it's a good fit? "Air cover" and token memos How do you stay up-to-date on crypto legal and regulatory topics? If you're a lawyer and you want to get into web3, people are really nice - keep asking them how you can get involved and help ---Learn more about B+J Studios: Twitter: @BrandonFerrickhttps://www.sec.gov/finhubhttps://www.lexdao.coop/https://www.lexpunk.army/https://github.com/saft-projecthttps://github.com/BranDAOn/OP-SAFThttps://cupcake.com/ ---Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ EP05 - Taxes, Corporate Structures, and Business Impact - a conversation with Linda Pfatteicher, Tax Partner at Dentons --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, I welcome Alan Scott, co-founder of Railgun, a privacy and anonymity system built directly on-chain on Ethereum from which you can interact directly with decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, and popular smart contract applications. Show notes: What is privacy, why is it important, and why should people care about it? How do we think about the trade-offs that come with privacy? The role of public servants, regulators, and law enforcement in the fight for privacy Cash vs Crypto Zero Knowledge and Privacy Monero, Zcash, Hermes, Aztec, Mina Apple, encryption, the crypto wars Is a person one or many identities? "I didn't want people to see that I had been rugged" Railgun and privacy -- Learn more about Railgun: Twitter: @RAILGUN_Project | @tsu_kareta Telegram: Church of Railgun - @railgun_privacy Website: https://railgun.org/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, I welcome Lucas Baker, Research and Investments at Jump Crypto. Lucas thinks deeply about what people are building, what needs to be built, and how we navigate the technology development that drives society's transition to its next phase. Show notes: DAO Tooling - fleeting or here to stay? Does a DAO have to be a business? Bespoke services vs SaaS for today's crypto finance and operations challenges What level of process should a team have? Best examples of a crypto team solving their finance and operations? What are the most common bad habits? What is most surprising about crypto finance and operations? Transparency, privacy in operations Legal entities and structuring a global crypto organization --- Learn more about Jump Crypto: Twitter: @jump_ | @SansGravitas Website: https://jumpcrypto.com/ | https://jumpcrypto.com/writing/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.

In this episode, I welcome John Kelleher, Development Coordinator at DXdao, a highly scalable (and decentralized) collective focused on the DeFi ecosystem. As one of the earliest contributors at DXdao, John has both a comprehensive view on the evolution of DXdao since Day 1, and steady views on why we should / how we can build a decentralized economy. Show notes: DAO and reputation first, token and money later Voting with reputation, not token Governance 2.0 means voting power from both reputation and token DXdao's decentralized products: Swapr, Carrot, and Governance Finding PMF (product-market fit) Similarities and differences working at a company vs a DAO Hardcore decentralization philosophy No legal entity vs internet-native entity standards --- Learn more about DXdao: Twitter: @DXdao | @jpkcambridge Website: https://dxdao.eth.limo/ --- Learn more about WEB2.5 and omo: Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@guocamole⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@solirvine⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠@omodotso⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://omo.so⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠omo⁠⁠⁠ --- The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, financial, or tax advice; all information, content, and materials made available by this podcast are for general informational purposes only.