#507: Carlos Lei, CEO of Uplink, on The Future of Connectivity, Mesh Networks, Building on Avalanche, and DePIN in 2026

Carlos Lei, CEO of Uplink, one of the leading DePIN players, operates as a connectivity marketplace using existing Wi-Fi routers to help telecom companies save millions of dollars. In this conversation, we discuss:- 2026 will be the year of DePIN - Insights from building in connectivity since 2015 - The future of connectivity - Mesh networks - Sharing connectivity using existing infrastructure - There isn’t enough infra to connect devices in the future - The connectivity incentive layer - How ULX and Network Credits work together - Building on Avalanche - Network effects in crypto UplinkX: @uplink_xyzWebsite: www.uplink.xyzLinkedIn: UplinkCarlos LeiX: @CarlosLeiSantosLinkedIn: Carlos Lei Santos---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

A treasury company pioneer, Marco launched the very first altcoin treasury on the Nasdaq. Prior to joining Solmate as CEO he was a partner at Pantera Capital, where he helped to structure some of the industry’s best-performing treasuries. A trained attorney, Marco was once dubbed the "Dean of Digital Currency Lawyers" by the Editor-in-Chief of American Banker. He was the Chief Legal Officer at Kraken, one of the world's largest digital asset exchanges, for five years.Prior to Kraken, Marco was the President of Blockchain.com, as well as a Partner at Cooley LLP, where he led the firm’s global financial technology team. At Cooley, he invented the SAFT Framework and co-authored the SAFT Project Whitepaper, which became a market standard for crypto capital formation. He was an advisor to the International Monetary Fund and an IMF delegate speaker on financial technology in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.In this conversation, we discuss:- Inventing the SAFT Framework - Stories from being Chief Legal Officer at Kraken - Crypto in Abu Dhabi and UAE - The geographical importance of the UAE - Why Solana - Solana in 2026 - Raising $300 million - Planned Acquisition of RockawayX - The Infrastructure Flywheel Strategy SolmateX: @SolmateWebsite: www.solmate.comLinkedIn: Solmate $SLMTMarco SantoriX: @msantoriESQLinkedIn: Marco Santori---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Kyle Okamoto is the Chief Technology Officer at Aethir: the leading decentralized enterprise-grade cloud computing network. With over 20 years of experience in cloud and edge computing, digital media, IoT and AI, Kyle's leadership has been pivotal in scaling growth businesses and driving technological innovation at Aethir.Before joining Aethir, Kyle served as the General Manager of Aeris Communications and Ericsson’s enterprise businesses, overseeing Internet of Things, Security, and Connected Vehicle portfolio companies. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of Edge Gravity, a global edge cloud platform facilitating cloud gaming, AI, and media and entertainment applications. Kyle's extensive experience also includes his tenure as Chief Network Officer of Verizon Media and his role as a founding member of Verizon Digital Media Services, which grew to a multi-billion dollar business before its acquisition by Private Equity.In addition to his work with Aethir, Kyle is an early investor and advisor to Theta Labs, holds board positions in various technology companies and non-profit organizations, and is an active angel investor and advisor in the venture capital and private equity spaces. Kyle holds a Master of Business Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.In this conversation, we discuss:- AI’s growth is now gated by access to compute rather than model quality - Compute is becoming a financial asset class - AI demand continues to outpace supply - GPUs - Investors are starting to treat compute like infrastructure, not software - Financial structures are becoming essential to scaling AI infrastructure - Decentralized compute offers an alternative path during the global GPU shortage- Enterprises are moving toward multi-source compute strategies - Financing compute - The financing of compute is as important as the tech side AethirX: @AethirCloudWebsite: www.aethir.comLinkedIn: AethirKyle OkamotoLinkedIn: Kyle Okamoto---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Tom Trowbridge is an entrepreneur and business builder; he is a co-founder of Fluence Labs, and Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) where he was President from Inception. He hosts the DePIN Day conference series and the DePINed podcast and is an investor in leading DePIN projects and crypto funds. Tom is an advocate for decentralized systems and distributed ledger/blockchain technology and believes these open source tools provide the best opportunity to build fairer, more transparent, and higher-functioning societies, government, and business ecosystems. He is passionate about driving education regarding blockchain, Bitcoin and the great promise of distributed systems. In this conversation, we discuss:- The early days of HBAR - Decentralized storage/compute - Difference between decentralized compute vs centralized cloud - DePIN - DeAI - Crypto economic models - Fiat-linked rewards address crypto reward volatility - Staking models for cloud DePINs - DePIN offers a new, sustainable model for value creation Fluence LabsX: @fluence_projectWebsite: www.fluence.networkTelegram: t.me/fluence_projectTom TrowbridgeX: @TheTomTrowLinkedIn: Tom Trowbridge---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Austin King, Founder of Nomina, is a Harvard-trained computer scientist, is a proven entrepreneur with a record of building and scaling high-impact ventures. He sold his first company to Ripple, where he co-authored a new payment protocol with CTO David Schwartz and led its go-to-market strategy. Today, Austin draws on his combined expertise in engineering and business development to drive growth and innovation in the next generation of financial infrastructure. In this conversation, we discuss:- What’s going on with Ripple and XRP? - Why the pivot to Nomina? - Perp DEXs - Being delta neutral - Funding rate arbitrage - How to make money on funding rate arbitrage - Hyperliquid changed the crypto narrative - Current state of bridging in crypto - The future of financial advisors - Altcoins will get crushed over the next 18 months NominaX: @NominaWebsite: www.nomina.ioTelegram: t.me/nominaannouncementsAustin KingX: @AustinKingLinkedIn: Austin King---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Dr. Rand Hindi is an entrepreneur and deeptech investor. He is the Founder and CEO at Zama and an investor in over 50 companies across privacy, AI, blockchain, and medtech. Rand started coding at the age of 10, founded a Social Network at 14, and started a PhD at 21. He then created Snips, a privacy-centric AI startup that was acquired by Sonos. Rand holds a BSc in Computer Science and a PhD in bioinformatics from UCL. In this conversation, we discuss:- Banks won’t use stablecoins if they are public - zcash is the beacon of crypto privacy - Privacy is the final boss of blockchain - The future of surveillance and privacy - Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) - Zama = confidentiality layer - TVS = Total Value Shielded - Zama is like HTTPS for blockchain - Confidentiality without sacrificing transparency - First-ever on-chain sealed-bid Dutch auction Zama X: @zamaWebsite: www.zama.orgTelegram: t.me/zama_on_telegramDr. Rand HindiX: @randhindiLinkedIn: Rand Hindi---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Ken Miyachi is the Co-founder of BitMind, a company at the forefront of developing pioneering deepfake detection technology and decentralized AI applications. Prior to founding BitMind, Ken served as a Senior Software Engineer at leading organisations such as NEAR Foundation, Amazon, and Polymer Labs, where he honed his expertise in scalable technology solutions. In this conversation, we discuss:- Bittensor - The escalation of AI-driven crypto scams - Deepfakes - Why crypto is the perfect target for AI fraud - The urgent need for real-time verification systems - Solving the trust problem in a trustless industry - What regulators are signalling - Education and user awareness - The future: AI vs AI BitMindX: @bitmindWebsite: www.bitmind.aiInstagram: instagram.com/bitmindlabsKen Jon MiyachiX: @kenjonmiyachiLinkedIn: Ken Jon Miyachi---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Anurag Arjun is the Co-founder of Avail, a unified foundation for rollups to scale horizontally, share liquidity, move assets trustlessly, communicate permissionlessly along with a multi-token economic security.He entered the blockchain industry in 2017, founding Matic Network, which evolved into Polygon Labs. By 2020, he launched Avail within the Polygon ecosystem, utilizing his background in research, economics, and engineering. In March 2023, he spun out Avail as an independent project.  Anurag is a seasoned entrepreneur who has founded several successful startups across diverse industries, ranging from cash flow lending to regulatory tech. His expertise and vision continue to drive Avail's success and position the company at the forefront of the blockchain revolution.In this conversation, we discuss:- Biggest misconceptions people have about interoperability and “multichain” today- UX is still the main pain point in crypto - Intent-based architecture - Liquidity unification - Creating a unified balance across chains - Quantum’s threat to crypto - Unlocking a multichain userbase - Liquidity fragmentation - Making Nexus chain-agnostic — including EVM, non-EVM, and eventually Solana - The future of crypto AvailX: @AvailProjectWebsite: www.availproject.orgTelegram: t.me/AvailCommunityAnurag ArjunX: @anuragarjunLinkedIn: Anurag Arjun---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Michael Sena is the CSO and Co-Founder of Recall, a decentralized skill market for AI where communities fund, rank, and discover the AI solutions they need. Michael started in crypto in 2016, helped scale ConsenSys from 30 to 1,800 people, co-founded uPort, the first decentralized identity protocol, and 3Box Labs where he led development of Ceramic Network. At Recall, Michael focuses on growing the world’s largest AI competitions and giving the community the power to shape and accelerate the future of AI. In this conversation, we discuss:- Google Gemini is elite - Present day AI - The best AI managed crypto strategies are private - How AI-driven reputation systems are reshaping crypto investing - What AI Agent trading competitions mean for the future of AI managed crypto strategies - How open arenas bring trust to AI selection - Why today’s AI benchmarks are failing and how decentralized validation could restore trust - Importance of making AI results visible onchain - How Recall is shaping AI discovery, validation, and adoption - Prediction Markets - Their recent NFL Prediction Arena on Thanksgiving and upcoming ones - How AI will impact crypto trading in 2026 RecallX: @recallnetWebsite: recall.networkDiscord: discord.gg/recallnetMichael SenaX: @dataliquidityLinkedIn: Michael Sena ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Arthur Breitman, the co-founder of Tezos, is a computer scientist and entrepreneur. Arthur has a background in mathematics and computer science, and prior to the Tezos project, he worked in quantitative finance at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and as a research engineer at Google and Waymo. Arthur graduated from the École Polytechnique and the Courant Institute of NYU where he studied applied mathematics. Arthur is a member of the Tezos Foundation Council and is also a director at Trilitech, a London-based adoption team for the Tezos blockchain. In this conversation, we discuss:- Tokenized uranium - Quantum’s threat to Bitcoin - Deep dive on Tezos blockchain - Proof-of-stake is the best consensus - There is no PMF for security on blockchains - The emergence of Tezos as the artists' blockchain - EVM compatibility layer - 19 upgrades without a hard fork - The Data Availability Layer deep dive - The future of Tezos TezosX: @tezosWebsite: tezos.comLinkedIn: TezosArthur BreitmanX: @ArthurBLinkedIn: Arthur Breitman---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All