This Week on Unchained: Modular Blockchains, Bitcoin's Future, and More!
Don't miss this week's interviews with Celestia co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam and COO Nick White, and Stacks' co-creator Muneeb Ali. Plus, a premium interview about ETH Denver.
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Fifteen years after the birth of Bitcoin, the network is now entering an era of remarkable innovation and change, according to Stacks’ co-creator Muneeb Ali.
On this episode of Unchained recorded at the Bitcoin Builders conference, Muneeb explores the complexities and advancements within Bitcoin’s layer 1 and layer 2. He shares his perspectives on what’s fueling innovation in Bitcoin’s layer 1 and discusses the implications of Ordinal Inscriptions amid criticism of it by core developers.
He delves into the various scaling solutions within Bitcoin, highlighting how trust assumptions vary among them, and how BitVM could be a ‘game changer’. He goes over the advantages of integrating smart contracts on Bitcoin, and why he considers bitcoin (BTC) the only true form of monetary asset.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Celestia, a data availability layer for blockchains, was launched last October to much fanfare. The platform takes a modular approach to blockchains, allowing developers to post data onto it without the need for smart contracts or execution. This makes it extremely useful for scaling roll-ups and other layer two technologies.
Celestia co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam and COO Nick White join Unchained to discuss what Celestia is and how it works, how data availability sampling allows for more scalability, how Celestia compares with other data availability layers, whether Celestia could become a data availability layer for Bitcoin, and comparisons between Celestia and Solana.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
This week the boys dive deep into Starknet’s airdrop controversies, the psychological toll of internet backlash on founders, and the groundbreaking Ethena project inspired by Arthur Hayes. This episode questions the effectiveness of airdrop strategies in user engagement, the resilience founders must muster against online criticism, and Ethena’s potential to revolutionize crypto finance with its tokenized cash and carry trade. They also tackle the security threats on platforms like GitHub, the balance between egalitarian distribution versus market dynamics, and the transparency required in token economics. What legal challenges arise from token vesting schedules, and how does Ethena innovate in crypto finance inspired by traditional models?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
In Case You Missed It 👀
Here are some of the most important news of this week:
Starknet Token Distribution Goes Live
Starknet’s token (STRK) goes live and its fully diluted valuation (FDV) has already surpassed those of long-standing blockchain networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism and Avalanche, all of which have more locked value in their smart contracts than the zero-knowledge rollup.
Terraform Labs Founder Do Kwon to Be Extradited to U.S. From Montenegro
Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon is facing fraud charges related to the collapse of the UST stablecoin.
Circle to Stop Minting USDC on TRON Blockchain
Circle will cease minting of USDC on TRON effective immediately, and will discontinue support in a phased manner, as part of an effort to ensure USDC “remains trusted, transparent, and safe.”
Reddit Reveals It Invested in Bitcoin and Ether in SEC Filing To Go Public
Reddit’s S-1 filing, which also revealed that the social media giant acquired some MATIC, is a step forward for the company’s plans to become a publicly traded company.
StarkWare Revises Token Unlock Schedule Amid Controversy
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said the shift to a “more gradual” STRK token release schedule for early contributors and investors came after listening to concerns from the community about the team’s long-term alignment with the Starknet ecosystem.
Kraken Files to Dismiss SEC Lawsuit
Crypto exchange Kraken seeks to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the SEC last year, which alleged the crypto exchange operated as an unregistered broker, and commingled customer and corporate funds.
3AC and FTX Creditors Gain on Worldcoin’s WLD Surge
The 3AC liquidators and FTX’s bankruptcy estate hold $533 million and $177 million worth of Worldcoin’s WLD token respectively, making them some of the largest independent entities to benefit from the token’s 200% surge this week.
Read the Weekly Recap!
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