The Smart Economy Podcast: Real-World Blockchain Applications with Crypto, DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Paul Sztorc, CEO of LayerTwo Labs, a Bitcoin development company building Drivechain technology that enables opt-in sidechains designed to expand Bitcoin's functionality and generate additional transaction fees for miners.

Sztorc traces his path from mainstream economics to Bitcoin and explains how the global financial crisis, Austrian economics, and Bitcoin's early use in commerce shaped his thinking about money and decentralized systems. The conversation explores his early work on prediction markets through Truthcoin before turning to the problems he believes Bitcoin still needs to address.

What you'll learn:

• How Sztorc's economics background and the global financial crisis led him to Bitcoin
• Why his early work on Truthcoin anticipated today's renewed interest in prediction markets
• How Drivechain could enable specialized Bitcoin-style L2s while directing transaction fees to miners
• Why Sztorc believes Bitcoin's declining block subsidy makes transaction-fee revenue increasingly important
• Why he argues the Lightning Network has not delivered the scaling solution many Bitcoiners expected
• How Bitcoin's culture shifted from experimenting with new technology toward greater resistance to protocol changes
• Why years of attempting to bring Drivechain to Bitcoin ultimately led Sztorc toward eCash
• How eCash is intended to give developers another environment for building Drivechains and testing new use cases

Paul Sztorc is the founder and CEO of LayerTwo Labs and a longtime Bitcoin developer and researcher. He is the co-author of BIP300, which proposes Drivechain functionality for Bitcoin, and BIP301, which proposes blind merged mining. His work also includes Truthcoin, an early proposal for decentralized prediction markets. After more than a decade advocating for Bitcoin sidechains and Drivechain, Sztorc is now developing eCash as a new environment for putting those ideas into practice.

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Anthony Moro, CEO of Nuva Labs, a blockchain infrastructure company that specializes in the tokenization, management, and multi-chain distribution of RWAs for institutions and fintechs, to explore how blockchain technology is reshaping the infrastructure behind real-world assets and traditional financial markets. Drawing on more than two decades at BNY Mellon, Moro explains how financial products that once required numerous intermediaries and expensive back-office processes can increasingly be issued, managed, and distributed on-chain.

The conversation examines the transformation of the mortgage market, where digitally native loans can reduce costs, accelerate settlement, and provide greater transparency into underlying assets. Moro also explains Nuva's approach to blockchain-based vaults, which are designed to connect assets created on specialized networks with the liquidity and users found across broader crypto ecosystems.

What you'll learn:
How Moro's experience with American Depositary Receipts at BNY Mellon shaped his approach to tokenization

• Why blockchain can eliminate layers of intermediaries and fees from traditional financial markets
• How digitally native mortgages can reduce costs while improving speed and transparency
• Why Moro believes financial infrastructure must become cheaper, faster, and safer to drive institutional adoption
• How Nuva Labs approaches the full lifecycle of creating, managing, and distributing tokenized assets
• How blockchain-based vaults can connect real-world assets with crypto-native markets and liquidity
• Why alternative assets, such as private credit and mortgages, could become more accessible through tokenization
• How Nuva separates blockchain infrastructure for ownership and recordkeeping from networks used for trading and liquidity
• Why mortgages may be among the most difficult real-world assets to tokenize, and what their adoption could mean for other asset classes

Anthony Moro is the CEO of Nuva Labs, which is building infrastructure for issuers to tokenize, manage, and distribute digital assets. Before entering blockchain, Moro spent 22 years at BNY Mellon, where his work included the depositary receipts business across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. His experience navigating the intermediaries, custody systems, and regulatory structures behind global financial assets now informs his work at Nuva. Today, Moro and the Nuva team are focused on bringing alternative assets on-chain through infrastructure that connects digitally native issuance with blockchain-based distribution and liquidity.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3YWDKogLfvw

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Optimism Co-founder and OP Labs Chief Scientist Karl Floersch to discuss his path through the early Ethereum ecosystem and the evolution of Optimism from a scaling project into infrastructure for institutions building on-chain. Floersch discusses the origins of optimistic rollups, OP Labs' growing focus on enterprise use cases, the need for blockchain sovereignty and interoperability, and why he believes the broader market could eventually support millions of specialized chains.

What you'll learn:

• How Floersch's interest in peer-to-peer technology led him from Consensys to the Ethereum Foundation
• Why Ethereum's early limitations around scalability and transaction latency pushed Floersch toward L2 research
• How efforts to make Plasma compatible with Uniswap and the EVM contributed to the development of optimistic rollups
• Why OP Labs believes institutions increasingly need customizable chains that they can control
• How blockchain networks can maintain sovereignty while remaining interoperable with other chains and institutions
• Why Base's decision to leave the Superchain became a proof point for the flexibility of open-source blockchain infrastructure
• How OP Enterprise is helping exchanges, financial companies, and applications deploy specialized chains
• Why Floersch views successful competing L2 ecosystems as beneficial to the broader Ethereum market
• How Ethereum and the OP Stack are preparing for post-quantum cryptography and the challenge of migrating users to new signature schemes

Karl Floersch is the Co-founder of Optimism and Chief Scientist at OP Labs. His path to crypto began with an interest in peer-to-peer technology and experimentation with WebRTC before Ethereum introduced him to the broader possibilities of decentralized computing. Floersch later joined Consensys, where he worked on the decentralized music platform Ujo, before moving deeper into protocol development and contributing to early proof-of-stake research at the Ethereum Foundation. His work on Ethereum scalability eventually led him toward Plasma and L2 research, where efforts to create a design capable of supporting applications such as Uniswap helped produce the optimistic rollup architecture that became the foundation for Optimism. Today, Floersch is focused on the technical infrastructure needed to support institutional blockchain adoption, interoperable chains, and the transition toward post-quantum security.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3PCV-j_CXUU

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Nevin Freeman, co-founder of Reserve, an open protocol for creating asset-backed token portfolios. Freeman discusses Reserve's pursuit of a currency that could preserve purchasing power without depending entirely on fiat, along with the years of experimentation required to pursue that goal. The conversation examines Bitcoin's growing role as a store of value, Reserve's work in Latin America, decentralized token funds , tokenized securities, and the regulatory changes needed for on-chain finance to reach a global market.

What you'll learn:

• Why Freeman has become considerably more bullish on Bitcoin since founding Reserve
• How Reserve envisions a "flatcoin" designed around purchasing power rather than a fiat currency peg
• What Reserve learned after its stablecoin wallet reached significant adoption in Venezuela
• How DTFs use smart contracts to provide diversified exposure to baskets of tokenized assets
• Why Freeman believes DeFi has demonstrated the potential of globally accessible financial markets
• How securities laws complicate the creation of financial products that can move freely across borders
• Why regulatory modernization may progress incrementally as traditional financial institutions adopt tokenization
• How Reserve's community navigates token economics, market cycles, and disagreements over the project's direction
• Why Reserve recently launched thematic DTFs tied to different parts of the AI build-out
• And much more!

Nevin Freeman is the co-founder of Reserve. His path to crypto began well before the project's launch, starting with an interest in transportation engineering and later shifting toward AI and questions about how emerging technologies could affect society. Freeman first bought Bitcoin in 2011, sold his holdings the following year, and continued following crypto before becoming more deeply involved during the 2017 market cycle. That period helped lead to Reserve and a long-term effort to develop decentralized financial infrastructure around asset-backed money. Today, Freeman and the Reserve community are building DTF infrastructure while working through the technical, commercial, and regulatory requirements of making a globally accessible asset-backed currency possible.

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Maciej Cepnik, chief marketing officer at Aureo, a Bitcoin-focused financial services company serving individuals and businesses in Mexico. They discuss why Bitcoin investing and corporate adoption remain early in the country, how Aureo grew from a tool its founders built for themselves into a non-custodial brokerage, and why Mexico's regulatory and banking friction may create an advantage for teams that can successfully work through it.

What you'll learn:

• Why Aureo uses "direct to wallet" and "direct to bank" flows instead of holding customer assets
• How Mexico's regulatory environment creates significant barriers for Bitcoin startups
• Why Aureo is expanding its focus toward corporate accounts, APIs, and larger-volume clients
• How Mexico's preference for real estate as an investment shapes the challenge of Bitcoin adoption
• Why Cepnik sees Bitcoin primarily as independent, censorship-resistant money rather than a mainstream payment product
• How a $1.1 million pre-seed round helped Aureo rethink its retail-first strategy and positioning
• Why building resilient liquidity and banking relationships could unlock larger Bitcoin transactions in Mexico
• What Bitcoin's BIP 110 debate revealed about governance, network consensus, and Bitcoin culture
• And much more!

Maciej Cepnik is the chief marketing officer at Aureo and a longtime Bitcoin entrepreneur whose involvement with the industry began in Montreal in 2015. After initially approaching crypto as an investment, he became involved with Montreal's Bitcoin community, helped organize meetups, worked on Bitcoin mining and self-custody initiatives, and later joined Bitrefill. After relocating to Mexico, Cepnik and his co-founders encountered a practical problem firsthand: earning Bitcoin was easy, but converting it efficiently into Mexican pesos was not. That experience ultimately helped inspire what became Aureo. Today, the company is developing Bitcoin infrastructure around direct-to-wallet purchases, direct-to-bank sales, and an expanding suite of services for businesses and larger investors. Cepnik's experience as both a Bitcoin user and entrepreneur on the ground in Mexico offers a useful perspective on where Bitcoin's ideology meets the realities of regulation, financial infrastructure, and adoption in Latin America.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Nhg752zddqM

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Al Qureshi, CEO and co-founder of Black Lake Digital Markets, a company building blockchain infrastructure for institutional mortgage capital markets. Together, they examine how decades-old financial systems are beginning to adopt blockchain technology, why trust remains one of the biggest challenges in traditional finance, and how Black Lake Digital Markets is working to connect mortgage markets with public blockchain networks through verification, tokenization, and digital infrastructure. Qureshi also reflects on his journey from traditional finance into blockchain, explaining why mortgage servicing rights became the foundation for building new infrastructure rather than simply bringing existing assets on-chain.

What you'll learn:

• How zero-knowledge proofs can help verify financial assets while protecting sensitive borrower information
• Why mortgage capital markets present a strong use case for blockchain infrastructure
• How tokenization could improve liquidity, financing, and asset distribution across traditional finance
• Why stablecoins are creating new demand for real-world yield
• How Black Lake Digital Markets connects institutional mortgage assets with multiple blockchain networks
• Why infrastructure may become one of blockchain's most valuable roles in financial markets
• How regulatory clarity could accelerate institutional adoption of tokenized assets
• Why the next phase of blockchain adoption may happen behind the scenes rather than through consumer applications
• And much more!

Al Qureshi is the CEO and co-founder of Black Lake Digital Markets, a financial technology company focused on bringing institutional mortgage capital markets onto blockchain infrastructure. Before founding Black Lake Digital Markets, Qureshi spent decades working across banking, fixed income, mortgage servicing rights, and structured finance, giving him firsthand experience with the operational challenges facing traditional capital markets. Today, he works at the intersection of blockchain, cryptography, and institutional finance, developing technologies that verify asset quality, improve transparency, and help connect traditional financial markets with blockchain-based settlement and financing solutions.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WNG1i7m40WA

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Andrés Salcedo, head of business development at Etherfuse, a blockchain infrastructure company bringing tokenized sovereign debt and yield-bearing stable assets on-chain. Together, they explore how real-world financial challenges are accelerating blockchain adoption across Latin America, why stablecoins have become essential tools in countries facing inflation and currency instability, and how tokenized government bonds could modernize savings, payments, and cross-border finance. Salcedo also reflects on growing up during Venezuela's hyperinflation, explaining how those experiences shaped his conviction that crypto's greatest impact comes from solving real financial problems rather than fueling speculation.

What you'll learn:

• How yield-bearing stable assets differ from traditional stablecoins
• Why tokenized sovereign bonds could become the next evolution of digital cash
• How blockchain is reducing friction in cross-border payments and financial infrastructure
• Why Latin America presents unique opportunities, and unique challenges, for crypto builders
• How Etherfuse brings government bond yields on-chain through tokenization
• Why local currencies deserve a larger role in the future of on-chain finance
• How real-world assets are expanding blockchain's role beyond speculation
• And much more!

Andrés Salcedo is the head of business development at Etherfuse, a fintech company building yield-bearing stable assets backed by tokenized sovereign debt. Before joining Etherfuse, Salcedo held business development and ecosystem leadership roles across several blockchain organizations, bringing deep experience in crypto adoption throughout Latin America. Having witnessed Venezuela's financial crisis firsthand, he offers a unique perspective on how blockchain technology addresses real-world economic challenges, from preserving purchasing power to improving cross-border payments. Today, Salcedo works at the intersection of tokenization, stablecoins, and financial infrastructure, helping expand access to modern financial products while demonstrating how blockchain can serve as practical infrastructure for global markets rather than simply an investment asset.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/C34SNrVfL4o

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Christian St. Louis, partner at Ethereal Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in blockchain, crypto, and emerging technologies. Together, they explore the current state of crypto venture investing, the rise of AI-powered entrepreneurship, and why the most meaningful adoption of blockchain may be happening far from the headlines. St. Louis reflects on his journey from data science and machine learning into venture capital, discusses how AI is changing startup formation, and explains why founder quality remains one of the most important variables in building enduring companies.

What you'll learn:

• Why founder conviction matters more than ever in an AI-driven startup landscape
• How AI is changing venture capital, entrepreneurship, and product development
• Why stablecoins may be one of crypto's most important adoption stories
• How venture firms evaluate founders beyond pitch decks and narratives
• Why creativity remains a competitive advantage despite increasingly powerful AI tools
• How regulatory clarity could influence crypto innovation and investment
• Why blockchain adoption is becoming increasingly invisible to end users
• How crypto venture capital has evolved since the ICO era
• And much more!

Christian St. Louis is a partner at Ethereal Ventures, a crypto-focused venture capital firm that invests in founders building across blockchain infrastructure, financial services, decentralized applications, and emerging internet technologies. Before joining Ethereal Ventures, St. Louis built his career in data science, machine learning, and startup operations, including co-founding Component, a company focused on AI-powered data infrastructure. His background gives him a unique perspective on the convergence of crypto, artificial intelligence, and venture capital. As both a former founder and investor, St. Louis brings valuable insight into what separates enduring companies from short-lived narratives, making his perspective especially relevant as blockchain and AI continue to reshape how businesses are built and scaled.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6ffh9VoeGPg

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Anndy Lian, author of Web4: The Age of Autonomous Intelligence. Together, they explore why the next evolution of the internet may require more than simply combining AI with blockchain. Lian explains why he believes Web3 failed to achieve true decentralization, how AI agents could become a new layer of digital coordination, and why future systems must balance autonomy, transparency, privacy, and community governance. The conversation also dives into meme coin communities, government adoption of blockchain, decentralized AI, and what a genuinely user-owned internet might look like.

What you’ll learn:

• Why Anndy believes Web3 never fully achieved decentralization

• How AI agents could transform governance, coordination, and digital ownership

• Why decentralized AI may become as important as decentralized finance

• How governments evaluate blockchain technology behind closed doors

• Why meme coins continue to attract communities despite industry criticism

• How blockchain can serve as the trust layer for future AI systems

• Why digital sovereignty may become increasingly important in an AI-driven world

• What Web4 means and how it differs from Web1, Web2, and Web3

• Why open-source infrastructure may be critical for the future of AI

• And much more!

Anndy Lian is an intergovernmental blockchain advisor, investor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author who has spent more than a decade working across blockchain, fintech, digital transformation, and emerging technologies. Since entering crypto in 2012, he has advised governments, regulators, enterprises, exchanges, and financial institutions on blockchain adoption and digital asset strategy. Lian is the author of Web4: The Age of Autonomous Intelligence, where he outlines his vision for a future internet powered by decentralized AI, autonomous agents, and community-owned infrastructure. Having worked at the intersection of public policy, business, and technology across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, he brings a unique perspective on how blockchain and AI may converge to shape the next generation of digital systems.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jDpIijUJsjs

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, a modular blockchain platform focused on AI infrastructure, chain abstraction, and agent-based systems. Together, they explore the evolution of AI harnesses into operating systems, how AI agents may reshape blockchain usage, and why blockchain infrastructure could increasingly disappear into the background for end users. Polosukhin explains how his background in machine learning and distributed systems led to the creation of NEAR, originally inspired by the need for a scalable global payments infrastructure to support AI data-labeling networks. The conversation traces how that early vision evolved into NEAR Intents, confidential AI infrastructure, and agent operating systems like IronClaw.

What you’ll learn:

• Why Illia Polosukhin believes AI harnesses are evolving into operating systems
• How IronClaw approaches memory, permissions, and agent workflows
• Why most mainstream AI usage still resembles “glorified Google” search
• How NEAR Intents aims to abstract away blockchain complexity for users and agents
• Why blockchain infrastructure may increasingly operate behind the scenes
• How AI agents are beginning to transact across crypto ecosystems
• Why bridge security remains one of crypto’s largest attack surfaces
• How formal verification could improve smart contract security
• Why businesses are beginning to adopt AI agents operationally
• How confidential AI inference helps preserve user privacy
• And much more!

Illia Polosukhin is the co-founder of NEAR Protocol and a longtime researcher in AI and distributed systems. Before launching NEAR, Polosukhin worked in machine learning and natural language processing, including contributions to the Transformer architecture that helped shape modern AI systems. His work at NEAR focuses on AI infrastructure, chain abstraction, confidential inference, and agent-based systems designed to support large-scale autonomous coordination. His perspective is especially relevant as AI agents increasingly intersect with blockchain networks, financial systems, and decentralized infrastructure.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HT5NzWIpQM4

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Alexis Sirkia, captain of Yellow, a decentralized clearing and settlement network designed to enable trustless trading and high-speed transactions across crypto markets. Together, they explore how Yellow lowers counterparty risk from centralized exchanges, why state channels are making a comeback, and how AI agents could drive the next major wave of blockchain adoption. Sirkia also shares insights from his early days building one of crypto’s first market-making firms and explains why institutions may finally have the infrastructure they need to participate at scale.

What you’ll learn:

• Why counterparty risk remains one of crypto’s biggest unsolved problems
• How state channels enable high-frequency, trustless trading
• Why centralized exchanges still dominate volume despite DeFi growth
• How Yellow allows users to access exchange liquidity with lower custody risk
• Why AI agents could become the primary users of crypto infrastructure
• How agent-to-agent payments create new demand for blockchain rails
• Why institutional adoption depends on better settlement and clearing systems
• How crypto may quietly power AI economies behind the scenes
• And much more!

Alexis Sirkia is the captain of Yellow and an early builder in the crypto industry. Prior to Yellow, he co-founded GSR, one of the first market-making firms in digital assets, helping establish liquidity for early networks like Ethereum and Ripple. With a background spanning software engineering, trading systems, and financial infrastructure, Sirkia brings a rare combination of technical and market expertise. His current work at Yellow focuses on building trustless trading infrastructure, enabling AI-driven economies, and bridging the gap between crypto-native systems and institutional finance. His perspective is especially relevant as crypto shifts from speculative cycles toward real infrastructure powering AI agents, trading systems, and global financial coordination.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sPDPfULVcBI

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski sits down with Vivek Raman, co-founder and CEO of Etherealize, an organization focused on helping institutions work with Ethereum and integrate blockchain-based systems into existing financial operations. The conversation centers on a shift that has taken years to build: institutions moving from internal pilots to actual deployment.

Raman walks through his path from trading structured credit products at firms like Morgan Stanley and UBS to working in crypto. His entry point into Ethereum came from a practical angle. Traditional systems handle large volumes of value but rely on layers of intermediaries, delayed settlement, and siloed data. Ethereum offered a different model: a shared infrastructure where assets, payments, and logic can exist in the same environment.

What you’ll learn:

• Why financial institutions spent years running internal blockchain pilots before going public
• How regulatory clarity is affecting decisions around deployment
• Why Ethereum continues to come up in institutional discussions
• How tokenization is being used today, not just talked about
• What makes ETH different from other digital assets in terms of usage
• How stablecoins fit into existing financial systems
• Why decentralization can matter for institutions working with shared infrastructure
• How L1 and L2 design choices affect adoption paths
• And much more!

Vivek Raman is the co-founder and CEO of Etherealize, where he works with financial institutions exploring how to use Ethereum for settlement, tokenization, and on-chain products. Before that, he spent over a decade on Wall Street trading credit products at firms including Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Deutsche Bank. That background shapes how he evaluates blockchain systems today. Instead of approaching Ethereum as a purely technical system, he looks at how it fits into the existing market structure, where it reduces friction, and where it still falls short.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mlaLJDVrb6Q

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Greg Osuri, founder of Akash Network and CEO of Overclock Labs, a decentralized cloud platform designed to connect unused compute supply with growing global demand. Together, they explore how decentralized infrastructure could reshape the economics of cloud computing, why energy, not chips, may become the key constraint for AI growth, and how distributed networks could unlock new ways to train models, run inference, and scale intelligence globally. Osuri shares insights on using homes as energy nodes for AI, the shifting dynamics of the workforce in an AI-driven economy, and why decentralized training may reduce reliance on large tech companies.

What you’ll learn:

• Why decentralized cloud infrastructure may help address growing AI compute demand
• How Akash Network connects unused global compute supply with developers and enterprises
• Why energy availability could become a bigger bottleneck than hardware for AI
• How distributed training is evolving beyond large centralized data centers
• What AI adoption could mean for jobs, productivity, and economic growth
• Why AI literacy may become a key differentiator in the workforce
• How homes and local energy sources could contribute to AI networks
• And much more!

Greg Osuri is the founder of Akash Network, a decentralized cloud platform that enables developers to access compute resources through an open marketplace rather than centralized providers. He previously founded AngelHack, one of the world’s largest developer communities, where he worked closely with startups, enterprises, and engineers building across emerging technologies. Through Akash, Osuri is focused on expanding access to compute for AI and cloud applications while exploring how decentralized networks can make infrastructure more efficient, accessible, and resilient. His perspective is especially relevant as demand for AI continues to accelerate, offering a practical view on how compute, energy, and distributed systems may shape the next phase of both AI and crypto.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0fBYZPHOQds

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by George Zeng, chief product officer at the NEAR Protocol, a blockchain ecosystem building infrastructure for user-owned AI and decentralized applications.

What you’ll learn:
- Why AI agents could become the primary interface for interacting with the internet
- How enterprise AI is evolving around privacy, security, and multi-agent coordination
- Why interface design often determines which technologies reach mass adoption
- How crypto infrastructure can support payments, identity, and coordination for AI systems
- Why the next major crypto breakthrough may emerge outside current narratives
- How managing multiple AI agents introduces new UX and product challenges
- Why balancing usability, privacy, and control is critical for future AI systems
- And much more!

George Zeng is the chief product officer at the NEAR Protocol, where he focuses on advancing user-owned AI and decentralized infrastructure at the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence. His background spans Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Facebook, where he developed expertise across financial systems, platform ecosystems, and product strategy at scale. At NEAR, Zeng is helping shape how AI agents, open-source models, and blockchain infrastructure come together to enable more accessible and user-controlled digital systems. His perspective is particularly valuable as AI and crypto begin to converge, offering a grounded view on where real adoption may occur, what challenges remain around usability and security, and how the next generation of the internet could be defined less by platforms and more by agents acting on behalf of users.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pM0TNaTbyyg

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski sits down with David Johnston, OSS code maintainer at Morpheus, a peer-to-peer network designed to power decentralized smart agents and open access to AI infrastructure.

Johnston shares his journey from early internet startups and energy ventures into Bitcoin and eventually decentralized AI infrastructure, and what he believes is the next major technological shift: personal AI agents that individuals own and control.

What you’ll learn:

• Why owning your own AI agent may become as important as owning your smartphone
• How decentralized AI infrastructure could challenge Big Tech’s control of AI
• Why Johnston believes “everything that can be decentralized will be decentralized”
• How crypto networks may enable open access to AI models and computation
• Why AI agents may soon perform most on-chain transactions
• How early Bitcoin lessons shaped Johnston’s thinking about AI ownership
• Why personal AI agents could dramatically change productivity and work

David Johnston is the OSS code maintainer at Morpheus, a decentralized network focused on enabling open-source AI agents. Johnston previously helped launch BitAngels, one of the earliest decentralized angel investment groups in crypto, and has spent more than a decade building companies across technology, energy, and decentralized infrastructure.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/f8C9EnD_DAg

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski sits down with Laszlo Szabo, co-founder and CEO of Kiln, an institutional staking and on-chain yield platform powering validator infrastructure for exchanges, custodians, wallets, and asset managers across the crypto ecosystem.

Szabo shares how staking evolved from early retail validator activity into critical infrastructure for institutions exploring on-chain yield. The conversation examines how staking behaves across market cycles, why institutions increasingly view staking as foundational infrastructure, and how validator operations scale securely across multiple networks.

What you’ll learn:

• Why staking can continue growing during bear markets
• How institutional staking infrastructure differs from retail validators
• Why stablecoin and Bitcoin yield markets may be expanding
• How tokenized RWAs are entering on-chain finance
• What on-chain vaults are and how they resemble asset management funds
• How Railnet is aimed at connecting DeFi protocols and tokenized assets
• Why validator infrastructure matters for institutional security

Laszlo Szabo is the co-founder and CEO of Kiln, an institutional staking and on-chain yield platform supporting exchanges, custodians, wallets, and asset managers globally. Kiln provides validator infrastructure, staking access, and DeFi integrations across multiple blockchain networks. Prior to founding Kiln, Szabo worked in technology recruitment and began exploring crypto during Ethereum’s early ecosystem growth, eventually building infrastructure designed to meet the reliability, security, and compliance expectations of institutional participants.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wFjYO1B2mqU

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Olivia Vande Woude, head of tokenization at Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain, a platform built to support customized blockchain infrastructure for institutions, enterprises, and consumer applications.

Vande Woude discusses her transition from equity research and TradFi into crypto, and how that background informs Avalanche’s approach to tokenization, on-chain finance, and institutional adoption. The conversation explores Avalanche’s multi-chain architecture, why distribution economics matter more than product count, and how RWAs are being deployed in practice today.

They also dig into institutional metrics, regulatory clarity, private credit, stablecoins, and why real-world blockchain adoption often looks quieter than social media narratives.

What you’ll learn:
• Why tokenization is a distribution problem first
• How Avalanche enables purpose-built blockchains
• What institutions look for in blockchain infrastructure
• Why TVL can matter more than users for RWAs
• How private credit is being upgraded on-chain
• How adoption is impacted by regulatory clarity
• Avalanche’s approach to real-world scale

Olivia Vande Woude is head of tokenization at Ava Labs, where she works with global asset managers, fintechs, and institutions to bring financial products and RWAs onto the Avalanche blockchain. She previously worked in equity research at T. Rowe Price, covering banks and financial infrastructure, and brings a capital markets lens to blockchain adoption.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/3lfkv6ltMK4

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Zeymer Montes, founder of MOCA, a crypto payments ecosystem built to make on-chain transactions feel intuitive for users and merchants alike.

Montes discusses his path from early Bitcoin curiosity to years in Web2 software development, where he learned that great products depend as much on UX and communication as they do on technical execution. The conversation explores MOCA’s smart wallet, point-of-sale system, encrypted messenger, and how these pieces work together to support gasless payments, cross-chain settlement, and merchant adoption.

They also dig into onboarding challenges, why language choices matter in crypto UX, how MOCA handles behind-the-scenes token swaps, and why simplicity is essential if crypto payments are going to work in the real world.

What you’ll learn:
• Why UX remains crypto’s biggest barrier
• How MOCA enables crypto payments via QR codes
• What “pay with any wallet” looks like in practice
• How merchants receive stablecoins regardless of payment token
• Why messaging and payments belong together
• How referral-driven revenue supports long-term growth
• What’s next for MOCA’s wallet, POS, and messenger

Zeymer Montes is the founder of MOCA, a crypto payments and wallet ecosystem focused on usability, self-custody, and merchant adoption. With a background in Web2 software development and product leadership, Montes brings a user-first mindset to building crypto infrastructure that works across chains, devices, and experience levels.

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Tomasz Stańczak, Co-Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the development and long-term health of the Ethereum blockchain.

Stańczak discusses his path from traditional finance to Ethereum and how those experiences prepared him to help steward Ethereum during a period of rapid growth. The conversation explores Ethereum Foundation restructuring, builder support, L2 interoperability, and why multiple rollup designs are expected to coexist as the ecosystem scales.

They also examine institutional adoption, tokenization, ETH economics, privacy, and how the Foundation balances research, infrastructure, and application-level growth as it plans for the years ahead.

What you’ll learn

• How Ethereum Foundation leadership operates at scale
• Why L2 diversity and interoperability matter for Ethereum’s future
• How builder-focused teams are supporting applications and founders
• What institutions need to adopt Ethereum infrastructure
• How ETH economics tie into security and incentives
• Why privacy and censorship resistance remain core priorities
• What’s top of mind for the Foundation heading into 2026

Tomasz Stańczak is the Co-Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation and the founder of Nethermind, one of Ethereum’s leading client teams. Prior to building core blockchain infrastructure, Tomasz worked in traditional finance, including roles at Citi and CME Group, where he gained experience in market structure, risk, and large-scale systems. His background continues to inform his approach to Ethereum stewardship, with a focus on security, open-source development, privacy, and long-term protocol sustainability.

Watch on YouTube: YouTube: https://youtu.be/b_M_gqgHfVg

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Brian Smocovich, co-founder of PistachioFi, a blockchain finance mobile app designed to make DeFi more accessible. Together, they explore how Ethereum’s scaling journey has shaped product decisions, why L1 and L2 tradeoffs matter for consumer-facing apps, and how smart wallets may help reduce friction without sacrificing self-custody.

What you’ll learn:

• Why Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap introduced short-term complexity alongside long-term scaling benefits
• How liquidity fragmentation and gas costs influence real user behavior
• Why UX challenges like seed phrases, approvals, and gas remain barriers for non-technical users
• How PistachioFi approaches mobile-first, gasless wallet design
• Why cryptographic recovery can improve safety without custodial risk
• How L1 and L2 architecture decisions affect consumer financial products
• What gasless, cross-border transfers could mean for more accessible on-chain finance
• And much more!

Brian Smocovich is the co-founder of PistachioFi, a smart wallet focused on making on-chain finance safer and easier for everyday users. Prior to building in crypto, Brian worked in financial advising and management consulting, where he developed a deep understanding of risk management, financial infrastructure, and user trust. His background continues to shape PistachioFi’s focus on security-first design, intuitive UX, and practical pathways for broader on-chain participation.

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:

• Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
• David Hoffman - Bankless
• Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
• Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
• Sid Powell - Maple Finance

And many others!

ATTENTION all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://bit.ly/SEP-guest