The Pirate Pod

Chandra Duggirala, founder of Portal to Bitcoin, sits down with Keli Callaghan to discuss the advancements in Bitcoin’s utility through Portal, a cross-chain decentralized exchange. Chandra shares his journey from medicine(?!) to crypto, going back to his realization of the importance of eliminating custodial risks in trading. The conversation explores the evolution of custody in the crypto space, innovations within the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the potential for DeFi on Bitcoin (currently sitting at a mere fraction of others such as Ethereal and Solana). With a recent publicly available TestNet, topics covered also include organic community growth, community-driven product development, and what comes next for Bitcoin’s utility being enhanced through cross-chain swaps (without the need for third-party custody).

Portal to Bitcoin on
Twitter: https://x.com/PortaltoBitcoin
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/portaltobitcoin
Website / TestNet: https://nodes.portaltobitcoin.com/

Shady El Damaty, one of Holonym’s co founders, sits down with Keli to explore what privacy-preserving identity means – where every person is empowered with a key that only they can control to unlock rights to their digital person. Shady shares his journey from academia to deep decentralized tech, discussing the challenges of data sharing in scientific research and how it led to the creation of Holonym (spoiler alert: hackathon blind dating). The conversation delves into the innovative technology behind Holonym, including the Mishti network for generating human keys, wallet as a protocol, and the implications for security, privacy, and decentralized identity in a way that is elegant and simple. Shady emphasizes the importance of balancing identity verification with anonymity and shares future plans for growth and user engagement. Holonym is “making digital human rights real” with @silkysignon, @mishtinetwork and @zer0nym.

Website: holonym.id
X: @0xholonym

In this episode of the Pirate Pod, Michael Arrington and Ron Palmeri discuss TrainSpot, a new data marketplace focused on AI-related content. They explore the implications of data ownership, the legal landscape surrounding content usage, and the challenges faced by content creators in monetizing their work. The discussion also touches on the future of copyright law and the need for a cultural movement to support content creators in the evolving digital landscape.

Topics covered include:
TrainSpot’s approach with a two-sided marketplace for AI-related content and data
Content creators’ control over how their data is used – and how they could be empowered
Legal issues surrounding data scraping and copyright
Monetization opportunities for content creators in the AI space
Transparency in data value and the facilitation of fair compensation
The uncertain future of content rights and AI integration
For more information, visit trainspot.ai.

Konstantin Tkachuk chats with Keli Callaghan about the new startup he has recently co-founded: Titan Network, a new incentive layer for global idle resources. The Titan Network team has a vision for being the one-stop show for DePIN cloud services and joins the podcast to outline how they are making it a reality for people to take available resources they own and put them to work and be rewarded for it.

Konstantin shares his unique background in Web3 and the evolution of Titan Network and how it is overcoming the barriers of entering the infrastructure system. The discussion covers a range of topics that include:

• Technological advancements that enable Titan’s operations, including why this advanced level of edge and cloud computing was not technically feasible in the past.
• The potential future of decentralized cloud services as the world becomes more decentralized.
• How Titan Network is able to tailor to use cases on edge devices.
• Economic benefits for participants in the infrastructure systems of the future.
• Uptime, service level agreements for mission critical items, flexibility, and 50-80% cost savings.
• The discussion also covers running nodes in outer space, early use cases, the current status of Titan Network, and how to get involved in Titan’s TestNet and upcoming MainNet.

Learn more about Titan from their website and give them a follow on X.

In this episode of the Pirate Pod, Keli Callaghan sits down with Jacob, the founder of Glacis Labs, a company pioneering cross-chain communication to facilitate the seamless exchange of data. Jacob shares his journey into Web3 (via JP Morgan, Lido, Near, and more), the challenges faced in cross-chain messaging, and the security issues that arise from current systems – including those driven by fragmented liquidity. As our industry matures and billions are at risk, making sure those assets are protected and have enterprise grade uptime is critical. Glacis’ viewpoint is that security will move towards a more prominent focus and what Glacis brings will minimize fire drills and create better liveness and uptime. The conversation also covers the current fundraising landscape, building for developers, the proliferation of incompatible standards, and more.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.

In this episode of the Pirate Pod, we sit down with Amir Sarhangi and Craig DeWitt from SkyFire, a payment network for AI agents to make autonomous transactions. The team sits down with Keli Callaghan as they announce their fundraise and what they plan to do as the main driver of a fundamental shift in how the internet and technology transacts. Having worked together previously (Ripple), Craig and Amir are well versed and knowledgeable in payments and talk at length about their new venture, SkyFire, which is building an entirely new category and envisions a world where transactions are initiated and executed by AI – not humans.

This podcast covers:
– Founders’ stories of their journeys in Web3.
– Recent fundraise announcement.
– Current landscape (including the teams’ estimated of a $46B market size) and why incumbents are unlikely to execute on this.
– Initial adoption, use cases and how quickly things will change.
– Developer enablement of the SkyFire network.
– Why Skyfire is going to be the Visa or Stripe for AI (ie, non human) transactions.
– What comes next, including how AI will be making requests to humans to do physical tasks.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.

Join us on the Pirate Pod for an exclusive deep dive with Luke Youngblood, founding contributor to Moonwell (https://moonwell.fi). In this episode, we explore the intricacies of Moonwell’s “lending made simple” approach that has propelled it to become one of the leading DeFi projects on Base, with a market size of nearly $400M.

Luke brings a unique perspective and wealth of experience from his tenure at Coinbase and involvement in the early days of DeFi. He shares insights into how Moonwell is building powerful onchain financial tools, making them accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical ability or geographic location.

With a vision to create a world where finance and governance are powered by Web3, Luke walks us through the Moonwell community’s mission to normalize being “onchain” and empower everyday individuals to do more with their digital assets. As one of the first applications on Base, and a day-one launch partner for Coinbase’s new Smart Wallet, Luke also delves into the network’s robust infrastructure and the promising future he envisions for the Base ecosystem.

Topics covered:
– Benefits of isolated markets.
– Programmable smart contract wallets.
– Removing points of friction for borrow / lend.
– USDC and EURC adoption and use cases.
– Web2 and Web3 security measures for Web3 founders.
– The future of Base and what it means to bring $350 billion worth of crypto assets onchain.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.

Arthur Hayes joins Michael Arrington for a discussion on the current geopolitical arrangement and his prediction on the coming shift to a new system. The episode covers the interconnectedness of volatility and Bitcoin, how the macro world revolves around this, fiscal dominance and central bank’s current decision making, the importance of energy costs, what these two leaders are doing about holding gold and the potential for massive inflation. Arthur teases an upcoming essay he is working on regarding dollar swap lines and what is going with Japanese Yen valuation and what that means for China, Japan and the rest of the world. With Arthur’s involvement in Ethena and Pendle, there is also a focus on investment trends, advice for entrepreneurs, hiring, and running organizations of different sizes.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.

Todd Hollow-Bist joins the Pirate Pod from Pathwise Leadership (https://pathwiseleadership.com/), a graduate-level psychology program for teams and business leaders. Todd joins Keli (Arrington Capital) to discuss the importance of understanding personality styles and how they impact business leadership and team dynamics. Personality styles are not disorders but rather patterns of behavior that develop from a combination of genetics and environment and is an important foundation for self-awareness. The session dives into why being present in the moment helps founders to overcome challenges and function at a higher level – and how building the muscle of presence requires effort and can significantly improve personal and professional relationships. Being present and grounded in the present moment is essential for personal growth and effective communication.

Todd explains how our sense of identification changes as we grow and develop, from being connected to our bodies as children to identifying with our emotions and thoughts as we get older. Todd emphasizes the need to be aware of our bodies and the information they provide to stay grounded in the present. He also explores the impact of thinking about the future instead of focusing on the present and the importance of being present in team dynamics. Todd highlights the significance of understanding different personality types and how they interact within a team, and the benefits of diverse teams.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.

The founders of Intensity Labs join the Pirate Pod to talk about Shogun, an intent-centric project that aims to provide a superior trading experience by focusing on user-friendly interfaces and cross-chain trading. Their approach includes a peer-to-peer matching system called Coincidence of Wants (COW), single-sided vaults and the use of existing pools and aggregation services. During this episode, Rahul and Brandon (first live bear guest on the show) share why they are developing Shogun, their plans to roll out the platform in phases, starting with the aggregator of aggregators solution and later introducing generalized intent processing, and also the creative and organic go to market approach. The discussion sheds light on the recent viral commercial the team released, including star actor, location, and the fact it was filmed on an iPhone. The team recently launched a closed beta (get on the waitlist today) and are deeply engaging with the trading community on feedback as they continue to iterate.

Disclaimer: The views discussed in this conversation are the views of the individuals, and not of Arrington Capital. This podcast is provided solely for informational purposes and is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice.

The participants of this podcast are not recommending any particular security, protocol, token, financial instrument, or other tradable asset or any investment strategy and is not offering to sell or soliciting to buy any security or asset.