The Gwart Show | Bitcoin Tech & Culture

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! This week, Job Charbonneau of crypto venture fund DBA joins Gwart to discuss Ethereum's issuance debate, centralization of stake, roll-ups vs. Solana, the future of DeFi on Bitcoin, solving MEV, crypto's VC landscape shifts, and key insights from his recent Research Day event.  Follow our guest on Twitter: @jon_charb Follow our host: @gwartygwart 👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities. Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 00:45 Jon's background 01:19 Research Day 03:21 Favorite Research Day talk 06:07 Current VC crypto landscape 10:54 Wen Uncommon Core? 11:46 Why ETH issuance changes? 14:13 Why mess around with issuance? 17:43 Concentration of stake 19:05 Economic security 22:03 Appreciating proof of work 24:43 We knew this would happen! 27:46 Restaking 34:43 Restaking predictions 37:00 MEV & order-flow 40:52 Why does this taste like a sandwich? 45:32 Should we seek to fix MEV? 48:02 MEV proposals 51:06 Rollup problems 56:28 Rollup interoperability dreams 1:00:50 Solana 1:04:07 Defi  Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! This week, Colluding Node from the Celestia joins Gwart to unravel the mystery of memecoins, stablecoins, governance tokens, Ethereum scaling via grifters and how Celestia works under the hood. Gwart and C-Node talk about like 20+ blockchains in this podcast so it probably has something for everyone. Follow our guest on Twitter: @colludingnode Follow our host: @gwartygwart 👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities. Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Start 01:29:09 What are blockchains good for? 02:29:16 Evolving understanding of blockchains 05:34:17 Bullish ETH? 08:37:21 The future of DeFi 10:50:08 DeFi privacy 14:20:12 Are meme coins the final boss of stupid? 15:54:19 Permissionless 18:39:19 Are lobbyists focusing on the right things? 21:44:16 Are lobbyists serving plebs or companies? 24:03:17 Companies don't care about P2P tnxs 25:52:17 Centralized stablecoins 28:30:16 Stablecoins > Crypto? 30:06:02 Money separated from state 31:52:28 Maker DAI 34:12:29 Governance tokens 37:24:02 No governance not MORE governance 40:00:10 ETH scaling w/ grifters 41:45:11 Solution to confusing scaling? 43:54:01 Solana reservations 47:14:14 Solana nodes 48:50:25 Celestia light clients 50:51:19 Light clients & trust assumptions 52:27:21 Celestia's vision? 54:25:07 Sovereign roll ups on Celestia 56:34:11 Appchains? 57:28:08 Defi interoperability Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Dean Eigenmann, a Miner Extractable Value (MEV) searcher, joins The Gwart Show to give an insiders look into the MeV landscape, strategies, decentralization challenges, and regulatory concerns. He discusses key differences between Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, DeFi's future, L2 developments, and offers a critique of Bitcoin. 00:00 Start 01:23 Dean intro 02:16 MEV = Oligopoly 03:19 Builder centralization on ETH 04:36 PBS design 05:53 Enshrined PBS 07:32 Atomic strategies & inventory risk 09:02 Censorship 10:29 Censorship & geographic distribution 12:46 MEV on BSC 13:43 MEV developer crossover 13:59 What chains do they do? 14:49 MEV on Solana 15:42 Faster chain = less MEV? 16:46 MEV on L2's? 17:46 Shared sequencing 20:06 Intents 22:17 Operating at a loss 23:52 AMM execution 24:52 Define MEV? 25:13 Is sandwiching bad still? 26:57 Private relays 28:05 Can you prevent private relays? 29:11 Is there a way to promote geographic distribution? 30:48 Is MEV like High feq trading? 32:06 Timing games 33:12 SEP of BSC 33:38 MEV searchers on the downlow 35:39 Legal aspects of MEV 36:30 Sandwiching illegal? 39:49 Regulating builders 40:31 OFAC transactions 41:41 Encrypted mempools 43:11 Ideology 45:15 What's missing 45:58 Restaking 46:42 Rollups good? 47:39 Bullish L2's? 49:06 ETH L1 innovation 49:57 Thoughts on Solana? 50:56 BSC happenings? 52:31 Bitcoin sucks Follow our guest on Twitter: @DeanEigenmann Follow our host: @gwartygwart 👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities. Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Allen Farrington, co-founder of Axiom, discusses Bitcoin scaling, the role of venture capital in Bitcoin's ecosystem, his thoughts on DeFi, NFTs, and stablecoins, and the potential for Bitcoin to supplant fiat money. He also shares his insights on the ordinals debate and the future of Bitcoin infrastructure. 00:00:00 Start 00:00:32 Allen intro 00:01:22 Allen's background 00:06:30 Investing in public Bitcoin companies 00:10:44 Axiom 00:13:26 What wrong with DeFi 00:20:38 How does Axiom decide what to invest in 00:24:11 Lightning gaming 00:28:49 Criticisms of lightning 00:33:02 Do L2s have to have trust tradeoffs? 00:36:00 Will BTC kill fiat? 00:38:52 How is Axiom NOT like other VCs? 00:42:23 Are tokens always silly? 00:48:56 Stablecoins 00:53:06 Are stablecoins doomed? 00:57:56 People want centralized stablecoins 00:59:42 What is DLCVM? 01:06:25 Rollups 01:10:47 Companies must ROI 01:19:20 Ordinals 01:27:25 The circular logic of scams 01:38:56 Wrap up Follow our guest on Twitter: @allenf32 Follow our host: @gwartygwart 👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities. Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

In this podcast, Tarun shares his insights on ZK technology, DeFi governance, PoW vs PoS, Bitcoin L2s, and more. He discusses the challenges of marketing ZK tech, the importance of dynamic availability in PoW, and the potential for Bitcoin to adopt new opcodes. Tarun also shares his thoughts on the future of DeFi and the crypto industry as a whole. Follow our guest on Twitter: @tarunchitra Follow our host: @gwartygwart 👋The Gwart Show is proudly presented by Ellipsis Labs! Ellipsis Labs is building foundational products in DeFi. Their first product @PhoenixTrade is the leading orderbook DEX on Solana. The team is growing—visit ellipsislabs.xyz for engineering opportunities. Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 Start 00:01:44 Tarun's background 00:02:04 Uniswap SEC case 00:04:47 Tarun's current focus 00:09:17 ZK tech's appeal 00:14:38 ZK tech applications 00:18:48 Solana fees & networking 00:25:44 State of DeFi governance 00:30:32 PoW vs PoS debate 00:40:31 Token voting & centralization 00:44:55 Token governance issues 00:49:55 PoW as better money 00:57:58 PoS issuance & staking 01:03:40 PoS & rational agents 01:09:11 ETF impact on staking 01:15:59 Tarun on Bitcoin L2 Alpen 01:18:54 Bitcoin ready for L2 tech? 01:21:03 OP_CTV & political will 01:22:46 Ideal Bitcoin L2 tech 01:25:02 Bitcoin Covenants (OP_CAT) Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Welcome back! In Part 2 of The Gwart Show, Alex B shares his insights on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the broader crypto landscape. He discusses the flaws in Ethereum's proof of stake model, the cult-like phenomena in crypto, the reality of the Lightning Network, and the centralization concerns in DeFi. Alex also touches on the necessity of stablecoins and the constant innovation in crypto tech. Published weekly on Sunday afternoons, "The Gwart Show” gets to the bottom of crypto’s toughest topics. Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 Start 00:00:03 Intro 00:02:44 Anything interesting in crypto? 00:15:50 Ethereum's proof of stake 00:23:48 Alex's Ethereum predictions 00:34:33 Ethereum staking derivatives 00:38:50 Bitcoin DLCs & lending 00:44:27 Decentralized finance challenges 00:48:30 Open source vs liquidity 00:53:42 Lightning Network marketing 00:59:27 Lightning elegant but limited 01:03:39 Stablecoins on Lightning This show is produced by Blockspace.media

Alex B, writer at Bitcoin Magazine and longtime Bitcoin Twitter user, joins The Gwart Show in this two part series on the heart and soul of Bitcoin maximalism, why it matters, if Bitcoin Season 2 is a sham and, of course, if Ethereum is a scam. Follow our guest on Twitter: @bergealex4 Follow our host: @gwartygwart Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 Start 00:00:18 Introducing Alex Be  00:05:41 Bitcoin scaling discussion 00:17:44 Necessary Bitcoin primitives 00:36:02 Protocols & Bitcoin economy 00:38:18 Incremental vs risky changes 00:48:30 Eric & Rudy's views 00:49:44 Bitcoiners' concerns 00:50:50 Defi's degeneracy 01:00:31 MEV on Bitcoin 01:02:03 Miners & economies of scale 01:09:55 Drive chains & merged mining 01:14:21 Meta protocols & centralization 01:18:55 Miners & meme coins 01:20:21 Ordinals' impact on Bitcoin Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Eugene Chen, co-founder of Ellipsis Labs, discusses the future of decentralized finance, Solana's vision for transforming traditional finance, and how Phenix aims to redefine on-chain trading. He also shares insights on the Ethereum vs. Solana debate and the challenges of optimizing blockchains for Defi applications. Published randomly, "The Gwart Show” gets to the bottom of crypto’s toughest topics. 00:00:00 Start 00:00:18 Eugene's background  00:01:17 Defi work before Ellipsis 00:02:21 From HFT to Defi 00:05:25 Competing with TradFi 00:08:07 Phenix as proof of concept 00:10:18 Providing better liquidity 00:13:48 Solana's issues & progress 00:16:47 Solana's research focus 00:19:24 Gita removes mempool  00:20:28 MEV: AMMs vs order books 00:23:43 Ethereum MEV direction 00:25:13 Solana's speed & MEV 00:29:07 Ellipsis' 5-15yr vision 00:35:09 Ideal decentralization  00:35:50 Solana token & platform 00:38:16 Economic security as meme 00:41:33 Defi's on-chain strengths 00:44:47 Rollups & interoperability 00:48:30 Valid Solana criticisms 00:51:31 Solana vs new fast chains This show is produced by Blockspace.media

Mechanism this, mechanism that. Why does crypto infrastructure even matter? Gwart tunes in with Alex Nezlobin to discuss the history and importance of AMMs like Uniswap. Published randomly, "The Gwart Show” gets to the bottom of crypto’s toughest topics. Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 Start 00:01:11 Alex's Background 00:04:21 Problems in TradFi 00:06:29 Alex's Interest in AMMs 00:17:16 Robinhood & Payment for Order Flow 00:22:52 The Future of AMMs 00:27:31 Frontrunning & Insider Trading 00:37:31 AMM Landscape on Ethereum 00:46:46 Colocation & Latency 00:52:28 Builder Centralization 01:08:18 Fast Chains & AMM Losses 01:25:13 AMMs in 20 Years 01:34:36 Wrap-up

Rjindael of the the Taproot Wizards joins Gwart to get to the bottom of Bitcoin’s soul search. Does Bitcoin need a revival? Are the Wizards going to hard? Is Lightning really broken? Who will stop the impending flood of Bitcoin MEV? Published randomly, "The Gwart Show” gets to the bottom of crypto’s toughest topics. Check out our other shows and content by going to https://blockspace.beehiiv.com/subscribe today. Follow our host on Twitter, @gwartygwart.

Mike Neuder of the EF and Max Resnick of SMG join Gwart to fix Ethereum MEV in one podcast. Mike, Max and Gwart talk MEV, Bitcoin and more. Published randomly, "The Gwart Show” gets to the bottom of crypto’s toughest topics. Check out our other shows and content by going to https://blockspace.beehiiv.com/subscribe today. Follow our host on Twitter, @gwartygwart.

Gwart interviews Solana Phone CEO Anatoly Yakovenko to talk Eth, monolithic architecture and more. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://blockspace.media/

We are joined by Eric Wall, someone with too much time and tokens on their hands, to talk about Bitcoin Ordinals, smart critiques of Ethereum and Bitcoin MEV.