The Merkle

Heard of Dewi/Proof of physical work? I'm kickstarting the merkle series again with Sal from EV3, forerunner in the decentralized physical infra space. We talk: Why DePIN, DePIN markets + strategies, advice specific to DePIN founders, what it takes to succeed. And aliens! 👽 0:24 Sal’s journey into Web3 4:03 Escape Velocity’s core theses: Physical Infra Networks 7:13 Hard asset tokenisation is the real trillion dollar opportunity 9:29 How DePIN can take off, catalysts 12:15 DePIN market segmentation/sectors/strategies 16:24 What EV3 looks for in founders 18:45 Advice to founders 20:48 Sal’s Crystal Ball ask Sal's Twitter: https://twitter.com/DAnconia_Crypto EV3 Ventures: https://ev3.xyz/

Today we have Sam Bronstein and Jordan Stastny of Alastor, the ex-Qatalyst duo, talk about their experience in Mergers and Acquisitions and how the Web3 M&A landscape might evolve. We discuss Uniswap’s fee switch, NFT marketplaces, DAO accounting. 0:50 Introduction to Alastor 06:30 Overfunding precedes consolidation? 07:38 Sectors to look for M&A 11:45 The accounting and financial reporting problem in Web3 13:20 Directional trends and theses for M&A 20:23 Uniswap V3’s business strategy 29:19 NFT marketplace strategy 31:15 Will M&A in Web3 be like traditional markets? 35:12 Reaching out to Alastor

Lauren Stephanian is Partner at Pantera Capital, a 4.5 billion AUM fund that has been focused on digital assets since 2013. As one of the earliest institutional asset managers to establish a venture arm, Pantera has made over 100s of venture investments, including Alchemy, 1inch, Amber Group, Balancer, and more. Lauren is also the co-founder of TLC collective investment network. We discuss the dos and don’ts of tokenomics design, venture investing as a skillset, and the web3 gender gap. 0:34 Lauren’s crypto journey 2:20 Focus areas 2:45 Getting token distribution right 7:55 Investor’s take: token or equity deals? 9:10 Is venture capital a commoditized business? 10:43 What sort of founder Lauren looks out for 11:55 How can someone be a better venture investor? 14:33 Outlook for data sector in Web3 17:13 Encouraging female participation in Web3 20:07 What Lauren is excited about in Web3 21:06 Lauren’s crystal ball 22:30 Trading vs Venture Capital investing

Darryl Wang is the co-founder of tangent.xyz, the premiere Web3 Angel Collective. Darryl was previously a Principal at DeFiance Capital and has personally backed several notable crypto projects. If you’re curious about his journey from traditional Investment Banking into Crypto and how he evaluates his venture investments today, don’t miss this one out.  00:19 Introduction 02:24 Darryl’s Investing Framework 07:38 Determing when to sell 13:26 Assessing crypto narratives today 17:41 Transitioning to Tangent.xyz  21:52 What Tangent looks out for in projects 25:33 Assessing founder capability 30:43 White spaces in crypto 36:29 Darryl’s Crystal ball ask

The smartest people live on Crypto Twitter. Ever wondered how the anons do it? DCF talks about metrics based investing, finding value on discounted assets, trading narratives and more. He also walks us through specific examples of projects he’s invested in. Lots of alpha dropping on this one. My goal for @themerkle is to have in-depth conversations to learn from the people at the forefront of investing and building. If you like what you’re hearing, give us a sub.  00:35 DCF’s background 07:00 What’s interesting in the market 09:25 Investing in book value/ The RFV meme 14:20 Do your communities and network give you an edge? 17:02 Catching and trading narratives 22:52 DCF’s long term theses for Web3 27:42 How to pick winners/metrics-based investing 38:07 Evaluating teams 40:33 DCF’s crystal ball ask

Today we’re speaking with Kevin Zhou from Galois Capital, previously head of trading for Kraken Digital Asset Exchange. Kevin has been running Galois for over 5 years and has made inciting views over the possibility of an Ethereum fork during the merge, and was one of the few investors who called the LUNA collapse. In this episode, we dive deeper into his experiences and how he formulated his framework for trading and investing 00:21 Introduction 02:20 Kevin’s experience in Kraken 04:30 Starting Galois 09:38 Kevin on schooling 11:16 Kevin’s model for assessing crypto projects 17:53 Innovation cycles in crypto 20:12 Macro cycles in crypto 24:40 Learning from greco-roman history 32:51 Assessing incentives to forecast the future 37:12 What would Kevin want to know from a Crystal ball?