Expanding the Frontier of Blockchains x AI, with Mike Hanono (Talus)

MacBrennan Peet is the Co-Founder @ marginfi. Backed by Multicoin, Pantera, Sino Global Capital, & Solana Ventures, marginfi is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Solana. In this episode we discuss the latest leadership adjustment at marginfi, all the interesting work they’re shipping over the coming year (and what it means for the ecosystem), challenges (from past, in present) and how their team thinks about solving those obstacles, and much more.Recorded Monday April 29, 2024.

Scott Dykstra is the Co-Founder & CTO @ Space and Time (https://www.spaceandtime.io). Backed by M12, Framework, & more, Space and Time is the first decentralized data warehouse that delivers sub-second ZK proofs against onchain and offchain data to power the future of AI x blockchain. In this episode we talk about why trust in analytics through cryptographic verification matters, possible surprises or future trajectories for the intersection of AI x crypto, insights from his founder journey that may be useful for new founders in the space, & much more.Recorded Wednesday April 24, 2024.

Alex Cort is the Co-Founder @ Superform (https://www.superform.xyz). Backed by Polychain, Maven 11 Capital, CMT Digital, & more, Superform is a universal yield marketplace—enabling users to access any vault, on any chain, using any token, as well as distribute your vaults instantly across chains. In this episode we chat through exciting trajectories for what they’re building (and expected second-order effects), common failure modes for building in crypto, how crypto’s changed since Alex’s beginnings in the space, & much more.Recorded Thursday April 11, 2024.

Yair Cleper is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Lava (https://www.lavanet.xyz). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Jump, Tribe Capital, & more, Lava is a modular network which rollups use to bootstrap a performant network of infrastructure providers. RPC requests are routed to the best available provider, giving developers and users optimal service. In this episode we talk about most exciting trajectories for the product vision, mistakes teams often make when building in crypto, what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, his best advice for building infra in crypto, & much more.Recorded Thursday April 11, 2024.

Alex Adelman is the Founder & CEO @ Lolli (https://www.lolli.com). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Founders Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Alexis Ohanian/776, Mr. Beast’s Night Ventures, & more, Lolli enables shoppers to get up to 30% back in cash or bitcoin across 25,000+ top stores with the free Lolli browser extension & mobile app. With partners like Nike, Chewy, Microsoft, Sephora, & Lowe’s, Lolli is building the category-defining company for bitcoin rewards. In this episode we talk about how to get partnerships right (in such a partnership-driven model), earliest challenges and earliest surprises that shaped the DNA of Lolli, how to avoid common mistakes of building in crypto (hint: survive!), what crypto’s getting right (and wrong) in 2024, and much more.

Clarisse Hagège is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Dfns (https://www.dfns.co). Backed by Coinbase, 6MV, Figment, & more, Dfns is the WaaS (wallets-as-a-service) platform chosen by leading organizations to streamline digital asset operations and onboard users into crypto, safely. With >1M wallets created, 0 wallets hacked,  and >$500M transactions secured, Dfns makes it easy to deploy feature-rich web3 wallets directly into your stack. In this episode we talk about how Dfns thinks about getting security right, what’s most exciting about their current trajectory, how the space has changed since Clarisse’s beginnings in web3, best advice for web3 founders, & much more.Recorded Monday April 1, 2024.

Adeniyi Abiodun is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer @ Mysten Labs (https://mystenlabs.com). Backed by a16z Crypto, Jump Capital, Binance Labs, Electric Capital, & more, Mysten Labs is all about building critical infrastructure to enable a more decentralized internet. They’re perhaps best known as the creators of Sui, a decentralized, proof of stake blockchain with horizontally scalable throughput and storage. In this episode we discuss Adeniyi’s crypto journey (with a focus on the jump from Meta to creating Mysten Labs), what Mysten Labs gets uniquely right as a team, early challenges (and solves) as well as exciting possibilities for the future, thoughts on the current moment in crypto (from a technology and maturation perspective), & much more.Recorded Thursday March 28, 2024.

Ben James is the Founder @ Atlas (https://atlas.design). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Square Enix, a16z Scout Fund, & Collab+Currency, Atlas’ vision is to become the market leader of 3D Generative AI for the next generation of immersive virtual worlds across gaming, web3, and entertainment. In this episode we talk about how virtual world design currently takes place, how what Atlas is building is such a stepwise change from status quo, what Atlas enables (now and in the future), how to build the right team to create something so remarkable, thoughts on the future of generative AI writ large, & much more.Recorded Wednesday March 27, 2024.

Chris Were is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Verida (https://www.verida.io). Backed by Launchub, Gate Labs, Qwerty Fund, & more, Verida is creating a new era of hyper-personalization, where user data is privately and consensually used to create new products and services. In this episode we discuss what becomes possible as Verida scales, thoughts on self-sovereign identity, Verida’s experience launching the first mobile crypto wallet supporting zero-knowledge credentials issued through Polygon ID, & much more.Recorded Monday March 25, 2024.

Mike Hanono is the Founder & CEO @ Talus (https://twitter.com/TalusNetwork). Backed by WAGMI Ventures, Polychain, dao5, & more, Talus is building at the intersection of crypto & AI. In this episode we discuss the current state of AI and blockchain technology, smart agents (and the corresponding usefulness of blockchains), Mike’s perspective on what wastes time during the early stages of a startup, what future possible trajectories could look like, & much more.Recorded Thursday March 7, 2024.