Blockchain Episodes

This episode features a rundown of the 12 web3 founding teams that form the Techstars Web3 accelerator class of 2023, along with an intro to each of their CEOs.

Eoin and Pete riff on the latest US regulatory crackdown in crypto markets, how NBA Top Shot on the Apple app store is a leading indicator of our wider society’s digital asset adoption whether we realize it or not, trouble in Banking-as-a-Service land with Solaris, Nova Credit’s entry to the UK market, and Revolut’s Irish Trojan Horse.

In this special segment, we’re featuring web3 investors, founders and mentors such as Joey Krug from Pantera Capital, Matthew Graham from Sino Global Capital, Teana Baker-Taylor from Circle, Sam Williams from Arweave, John Wu from Ava Labs, Clarisse Hagege from Dfns, Sean Lee from Odsy, Tim Bos from ShareRing and Michelle Tsing from GRI.

Sam Williams is co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a blockchain protocol allowing us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. In this episode, Sam shares the inspirational story of how Arweave got started, their life-changing experience with Techstars Berlin in 2018, and how their long-term vision, hope, and resilience have been the foundation of their successes to date.

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on the latest on Sam Bankman-Fried before diving into a few of the fintech and web3 predictions for 2023 published recently, then we do an experimental walk-through of the AI bot ChatGPT. We finish up with a look at some of the January leadership changes in fintech and crypto and an update on the Techstars Web3 accelerator.

Clarisse Hagege, founder and CEO of Dfns, joins the show this week recorded recently as part of the Techstars Web3 Community Series events organized by the Techstars Web3 Accelerator. Dfns is a cybersecurity company providing wallet infrastructure for web3. From banks to gaming studios, developer teams rely on their decentralized custody network to build seamless applications and deliver smooth experiences for crypto.

Sean Lee, co-founder of Odsy Network, joins the show this week recorded recently as part of the Techstars Web3 Community Series events organized by the Techstars Web3 Accelerator. Sean is the former CEO of the Algorand Foundation, he is an accomplished executive in web3 innovation and fintech, and is a senior advisor for the Crypto Council for Innovation.

This week, Eoin and Pete take the inevitable plunge into what to make of the FTX mess and then resurface with some of the scenarios unfolding on what Elon Musk has in mind for the 250 million daily active users of Twitter.  The guys also look at the hubbub around the control of Tech Nation in the UK, a Digital Dollar pilot in the US, and how the Big Tech layoffs in Ireland may be short-term pain but long-term gain.

This week, Pete gives some insight into the new Techstars Web3 accelerator and goes on a quick rant on FTX before he and Eoin riff on Block’s flywheel and their ambitions with Cash App, then they go through a hall-of-fame list of fintech and crypto apps from Rex Salisbury, and finally dive into NFTs and VR through an Apple lens with a dash of Reddit.

Ollie Walsh is the co-founder and CEO of Pipit, who are bringing to market the new Konect network that is powering international cash transactions with DeFi and enabling migrants to support their families back home cheaper, safer, and now faster.

Alex Amartei is an Irish entrepreneur originally from Shannon and is also an investor, film writer, and producer. He recently won the Hollywood Icon award and the Monaco Streaming Film Festival Award alongside James Cameron and Mark Wahlberg. Alex is the producer of Antara - the first major DeFi Hollywood movie in history financed by NFTs and the power of web3.

This week, Eoin and Pete riff on crypto exchange FTX’s partnership with Visa enabling users to spend crypto anywhere Visa is accepted, Google Cloud enabling customers to pay in crypto in partnership with Coinbase, the state of ‘community fintech’ through the lens of Chetwood Financial’s deal with Mumsnet and their 8 million-strong community, NovaCredit’s big $10mn investment from HSBC as a rallying cry for public fintech utilities, the latest on Meta’s metaverse world, and how it’s backs-against-the-wall time for Goldman Sachs’ Marcus and Bank North.

Amor Sexton is Head of International Operations for Blockdaemon, the leading independent blockchain node infrastructure to stake, scale, and deploy nodes with institutional-grade security and monitoring. Amor is an experienced global leader with extensive commercial, legal and operational experience, and a diverse background that includes operations, strategy and commercialization, marketing and communications, regulatory and legal, and design and delivery of enterprise-grade products and solutions.

Eoin and Pete talk through the aftermath of the Ethereum Merge, some pandas and goofy songs, an early-morning Bankless livestream of the Merge, and critically, a 99% more energy-efficient blockchain. We also look at the new Revolut BNPL product live in Ireland, two new funding deals that a16z did on this side of the pond in Sequence and Sardine, opportunities for bored yacht owners, and how it feels like 2002 all over again with builders still building.

Founder and CEO of PlanDail, Owen O’Driscoll, riffs with Pete Townsend on PlanDail’s mission to build Europe’s premier cross-border, seamless, regulated crowdfunding platform, powered by carbon-neutral Algorand technology. PlanDail’s aim is to connect high-impact focused entrepreneurs with ESG/impact investors of all shapes and sizes who want to fund a better future for the planet.

Eoin and Pete dive into the shortcomings of Metaverse graphics through the lens of Metaverse deep-thinker Matthew Ball and his new book on the Metaverse, what’s up with the Ethereum Merge, the big fundraisings of Irish unicorn Wayflyer and Techstars grad Alloy, the death of ING’s Yolt, Block’s Cash App’s small-dollar lending milestone, and old friend Bradley Tusk takes his super-charged regulatory advisory into crypto and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations).

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend riff on Pete’s trip to the US last month with the sheer ridiculousness of the 8 different combinations of point-of-sale authorizations he experienced with a single Revolut card, Starling Bank’s re-prioritization of a presence in the Irish banking market, the hunt for crypto talent by EU regulators, Vitalik’s view on giving people what they want in the Metaverse, fintech micro-lender Umba’s deal for Daraja, and Tomo Credit’s big round to make credit scores obsolete.

This week, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend recap Techstars’ first-ever demo day in Dublin as part of the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator, look at crypto winter with FTX, BlockFi and Voyager, Klarna’s down round, Revolut’s new card reader, Algorand bringing Napster back to life, MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation in the EU, and open banking as a crossover from embedded finance into crypto and digital assets.

Michael Quartey and Lukas Bruell, founder and co-founder of Eczodex, join the show this week to riff on how Eczodex are enabling investors to unlock more returns with traditional investments through DeFi (decentralized finance).

Tim Goodman is the founder and CEO of Your Diamonds, an ecosystem enabling the diamond industry to solve old-world problems through digital technologies and Web3.

Luis Martinez and Martin Liebrich are the co-founders of Staxe. Staxe is enabling music and creative production economies on web3 so that anyone can become an owner of music and creative productions, support their favorite artists, and become a part of their success.

Jeff Donnelley and Colin Bracey are the co-founders of MegaFans, a mobile esports platform and community bridging web2 to web3 in a play-to-earn environment for gamers, collectors and developers.

On the show this week, we’ve got Will Martin and Laura Brkić from LiveDuel, a DeFi-powered digital sports market with live fan engagement. LiveDuel supports decentralized sports betting built on blockchain to give you a fairer deal than traditional sports betting sites.

On the show this week, we’ve got Victor and Lee and Alvin Foo, co-founders of Securo Finance (formerly DAOventures) who are building a compliant, secure and easy to use DeFi (decentralized finance) investment platform for regular investors.