The NEAR Future w/ Marieke Flament

In this episode, Lex interviews Justin Drake, researcher at the Ethereum foundation to talk about all-things-Merge. The Ethereum Merge is the conclusion of years of effort and coordination between a large group developers around the world, realizing the transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. From his position in the Ethereum foundation, Justin offers an insider perspective on the Ethereum ecosystem, the work that went into the Merge, what what we can expect for the future.

In this episode, Lex interviews Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, best known as the creators of the Arbitrum Rollup network, one of the leading scaling solutions for Ethereum and Web3. Lex and Steven discuss the foundational productivity of crypto networks, how they grow, how they scale, and how Arbitrum will grow in the future. Steven discusses his history in computer science, involvement with cryptography, and how he came to be involved with the web3 space. Arbitrum is a scaling solution for DeFi apps, and can scale any Ethereum contract.

In this episode, Lex is in conversation with Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation and enterprising fintech entrepreneur and operator. Lex and Marieke talk about Marieke's origin and motivations in her journey, and discuss business structure, fintech strategy, and web3 protocol strategy. Near foundation enables community-driven innovation to benefit people around the world. They are a non-profit foundation headquartered in Switzerland that is responsible for contracting protocol maintainers, funding ecosystem development, and shepherding core governance of the NEAR protocol.

In this episode, Lex welcomes Daniel Heyman, founder and CEO of Palm NFT Studio and prolific blockchain entrepreneur. Lex and Dan chat about his entry into entrepreneurship, which took him from MIT to East Africa, mobile payments, and microfinance, igniting an interest in technology that eventually lead Dan to helm one of the world's foremost NFT production studios.

In this episode, Lex interviews Mike Godsey, General Manager of Infura, one of the world-leading providers of the infrastructure powering Web3. In this discussion, Lex and Mike discuss some of the technical foundation of Web3, the evolution of the ecosystem, and what it means to create infrastructure for blockchain-based applications, finance, games, and services, along with Mike's personal journey through the space and how he's helped realize the modern vision of the decentralized internet.

Dan Finlay is the co-founder of MetaMask, the crypto wallet with more than 21 million monthly active users. In conversation with Lex Sokolin, Dan reveals the founding story of MetaMask and his journey as a developer and entrepreneur in the Web 3 world. Discover how the evolution of the ecosystem is reflected in the use of MetaMask from DeFi to NFTs and DAOs, and how Dan's ambition to develop social resilience and a sustainable future are shaping the next milestones of MetaMask.

In this episode, Lex Sokolin and Sergey Nazarov, Co-founder of Chainlink are discussing the strategic role of Oracles for Blockchain technology. Sergey is painting a beautiful vision of Web 3 and this new era where people and businesses will rely on cryptographic truth vs paper promises. His explanation on how smart contracts have the possibility to change how people relate to each other and to institutions. through a truth machine is fascinating. Decades of people tried to figure out how to make reliable agreements and solve how trust can fit in the dynamics of power. Smart contracts are the answer.

In this episode, Lex Sokolin and Sandeep, co-founder of Polygon (formerly Matic) discuss the genesis of the project and how Layer 2 solutions are really important for the next adoption phase of crypto, blockchain, and Ethereum. Sandeep reveals his learning as a technologist & entrepreneur in India and how his ambition & interest in scalable business led him to join the crypto adventure. The ability to see beyond the currency and understand that blockchain could apply for larger logic computation is definitely part of his secret recipe. You will also learn the genesis of Polygon and how the crytpokitties and game of throne stories fit in his journey. The co-founder of Polygon will also explain the overall spectrum of scaling platform from Layer 1 attributes to sidechains and optimistic rollups and share with conviction his core thesis around Ethereum as the global settlement & security layers. In this conversation, Sandeep is also vocal about how dynamic and attractive the Indian entrepreneur ecosystem can be and how it is to operate in India. He will reveal his enthusiasm for the recent Polygon projects around public goods in India sharing really interesting use cases.

In this conversation with Lex Sokolin, Gabriel Anderson, Managing Director of the Tachyon Accelerator, part of the ConsenSys family, explains why you always need a friend in the crypto space and how this helped him jump into this cutting edge tech ecosystem. He reveals how community and composability are at the core of crypto-economics and shares his view of web 3 as the current stage of the internet, from HTTP to social network to internet money. This episode also highlights the role of the Tachyon Accelerator in helping the most ambitious web 3 entrepreneurs find the right product-market fit to build high-growth companies. This conversation is also a glimpse into the key investable trends in the next 3 years and how to filter the excitement in this space and identify potentially successful companies.

In this episode, Lex Sokolin discusses with Erick Calderon, CEO of Art Blocks his fantastic journey in the NFT ecosystem. Erick relates his starting point in the creative world through projection mapping and color mapping and how immersive experiences became blockchain-based digital objects. He explains what is generative art and how Ethereum is an incredible catalyzer for innovation in this field, by helping with the limits of Instagram and create the scarcity for what was initially unlimited. Erick and Lex also cover the incredible power of the community dynamics and highlight how desirability and recognizability are at the core of this system.