The Pirate Pod

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.

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.

Founders from Drosera (https://www.drosera.io/, https://x.com/DroseraNetwork) and Lockchain(https://lockchain.ai/ and https://x.com/lockchain_ai) join us for a conversation that should be paramount to all (though maybe not the most glamorous): how the web3 security landscape has evolved. These two experienced leaders discuss their unique approaches, being mindful of web2 operational security practices, cost models, the application security economy, addressing the risks associated with rapid speed of development and consolidation of capital. FDR from Drosera (https://x.com/FDRosera) brings a background from Groom Lake and the NSA, while Andrew Howard (https://x.com/__andrewhoward) brings a career of security from organizations like Kudelski and PwC for an insightful conversation about what is coming next – including predictions on what the next big hack will be.

Drosera: Building trustless and decentralized infrastructure for detecting exploits and mitigating financial loss in Web3 applications with the vision of being the Uniswap of security for Web3.
Lockchain: Empowering institutions (hedge funds, traders and asset managers) to avert catastrophic events by monitoring different events and providing risk notifications.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Drosera and Web3 Security
10:03 – The Evolution of Security in Web3
27:06 – Drosera: Creating an Application Security Economy
33:46 – Lockchain: Risk Monitoring and Due Diligence for Web3
40:29 – Cost Models: Drosera vs. Lockchain
46:29 – The Future of Security in Web3

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.

James Bayly from Subquery joins the Pirate Pod to discuss the journey of Subquery and its role in empowering developers in the Web3 ecosystem. Subquery provides a data indexing layer for developers to easily access and query blockchain data, improving the user experience of Web3 applications. The team has recently launched a decentralized network where individuals can run nodes and provide data indexing and RPC services. This episode dives into the importance of decentralization and sustainability in the Web3 space and advises founders to focus on building the right product and business rather than getting caught up in short-term token hype.

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.

MyPrize recently launched as the first online crypto casino that enables novel multiplayer experiences, bringing content creators and influencers closer to their communities. Second time founder (pirate) Zach Bruch brings his background in web3 to a new vision that allows creators to engage with their audiences. This interview comes on the heals of a massive fundraise and the onboarding of tens of thousands of users in the first few weeks of the platform going live. Learn from Zach about raising money in a down market, launching a new platform, and what the future of social gaming looks like.

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.

As if we needed another reason to be bullish on Bitcoin in 2024, QED is poised to catapult Bitcoin to a new level of utility. Carter Feldman joins the Pirate Pod to discuss QED and the promise it brings to the future of Bitcoin-based applications by supporting all dApps (such as AMMs, stable coins, and more) but also horizontally scalable applications and what that means. The conversation explores how QED is harnessing the magic of ZK Proofs, navigating the balancing act for Bitcoin developers who do not like ordinals and for the community to grown what is possible on Bitcoin, creating ability to write contracts in one language that are composable with a contract in another language, and more. QED has also launched the L20 Consortium alongside key players such as Starkware, ZKLink, Mina and more. The industry group is setting the standards for Bitcoin’s native execution layer that will make Bitcoin Layer 2s (and its dApps) as accessible as Ethereum dApps are for Ethereum users. Learn more about what is coming next – including TestNet and an abundance of opportunity.

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.