Marc Boiron

Thank you to our sponsor, Figure! Ethereum scaling network Polygon is charting a new course. Polygon on Jan. 13 announced that it was becoming a “regulated U.S. payments platform” following the acquisition of Web3 services companies Coinme and Sequence. In this Unchained episode, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron reveals the motivations behind the pivot and what it means for the network and its native token POL. He says that despite the pivot, Polygon is not becoming an application chain. Can Polygon thrive in the stablecoin dominated space? And will POL benefit? Guests: Marc Boiron, Chief Executive Officer at Polygon Labs Links: Flutterwave and Polygon to Launch Africa-Wide Stablecoin Payments Why Wall Street Banks Need to Launch Their Own Stablecoins Stripe and Paradigm Announce New Layer 1 Blockchain ’Tempo’ Circle to Launch Layer 1 Blockchain ‘Arc’ Stablecoin Blockchains Are Coming. Here’s Why These Two Giants Should Be Nervous Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Boiron

Chief Executive Officer

Polygon Labs

This week, Marc Boiron (CEO, Polygon Labs) and Sandeep Nailwal (CEO, Polygon Foundation) joined Yano to dive into all the happenings at Polygon, their comeback plan, how the industry has shifted since last cycle, the best business models currently for chains and how Katana and the Agglayer will push not only the project, but crypto forward. -- Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire?utm_source=podcasts -- Follow Marc - https://x.com/0xMarcB Follow Sandeep - https://x.com/sandeepnailwal Follow Jason: https://x.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod -- Join the Empire Telegram: https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh -- SKALE is the next evolution in Layer 1 blockchains with a gas-free invisible user experience, instant finality, high speed, and robust security. SKALE is built different as it allows for limitless scalability and has already saved its 50 Million users over $11 Billion in gas fees. SKALE is high-performance and cost-effective, making it ideal for compute-intensive applications like AI, gaming, and consumer-facing dApps. Learn more at https://skale.space and stay up to date with the gas-free invisible blockchain on X at @skalenetwork -- Crypto never sleeps. So we built an Al analyst that never blinks.Meet Focal by FalconX: a GenAI insights engine built for institutional crypto.Already used by 80+ funds managing $10B+ in AUM.- Screen, chart, and analyze 1300+ tokens- Summarize market-moving news instantly- Integrates data from CoinGecko, Kaito, Token Terminal, Tokenomist, The TieGet started today: https://askfocal.com -- Ledn is the leading platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, offering a secure and transparent way to unlock liquidity without selling your Bitcoin. Ledn has issued over $9 billion in loans since 2018 and has never lost a single satoshi of client assets, earning a reputation as the name you can trust in the crypto space.Visit https://www.ledn.io to learn more. -- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:58 The Industry Today, As A Builder 06:45 Easier/More Difficult Than Last Cycle 15:36 Ads (Skale) 16:28 Sandeep + Polygon Foundation 21:52 2 Business Models For Chains 36:54 Ads (Skale) 37:47 Katana Explored 46:03 Why Katana 55:26 Ads (Falcon x,LEDN) 01:09:53 Polygon’s Future Vision — Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Marc Boiron

Chief Executive Officer

Polygon Labs

Sandeep Nailwal

Co-Founder

Polygon

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. Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and co-founder Brendan Farmer discussed everything about the AggLayer, a decentralized protocol built by Polygon that enables fast, secure cross-chain interactions and allows different chains to use the same native bridge. This allows users to seamlessly move assets across chains in the AggLayer ecosystem.  The AggLayer aims to unify blockspace so that it feels like a single chain, improving user experience. Boiron and Farmer also discussed the potential for Layer 2 solutions to scale Ethereum, the benefits of zero-knowledge technology, and the future of Polygon's proof-of-stake chain. Learn more: What Are Zero-Knowledge Proofs? Show highlights: Background of Brendan and Marc and how they joined Polygon A brief description of what Polygon is overall What the AggLayer is and how it aims to enable the best of monolithic and modular blockchains How Brendan differentiates the AggLayer from its competitors, such as Optimism's Superchain or Cosmos and why he believes that zk-technology is such a game changer How the interoperability experience gets better in such a system, according to Marc and Brendan, and what will become possible that's not now Which chains can use the AggLayer and how it works to improve security across chains The tradeoffs between the various types of zkEVM provers  How projects should decide their architecture and when it would make sense to tap the AggLayer Why projects should build on the AggLayer, including layer 1s, according to Marc How Layer 1s can still join the AggLayer and retain their own consensus and sovereignty  Why Polygon believes that zk-technology is the future of blockchain architecture Why the Polgyon zkEVM suffered an outage on March 30 Whether Layer 3s are needed to scale the Ethereum ecosystem Why Brendan believes that EigenLayer is not a good fit for rollups to use The transition of the Polygon PoS chain to become an Ethereum L2 using the AggLayer When EIP-4844/Dencun will go live on Polygon Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Guests: Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs Previous appearances on Unchained: Gary Gensler vs. Crypto: What Will the SEC Attack Next? The Chopping Block: The SEC Is Attacking Crypto – Will Gary Gensler Succeed? Brendan Farmer, co-founder of Polygon and co-lead of Polygon Zero Links AggLayer Polygon: Aggregated Blockchains: A New Thesis More technical Agglayer explainer CoinDesk:  Polygon Lands Astar Network as First User of New 'AggLayer’ Cosmos-Based Canto Blockchain Reverses Course on Polygon Layer-2 Plans, Unveils New Roadmap  Zaki on the comparisons with Cosmos zk-Technology Polygon: Upgrading Every EVM Chain to ZK: Introducing the Type 1 Prover The different types of ZK-EVMs by Vitalik Unchained: Why Zero-Knowledge Proofs Are Critical to Ethereum’s Future Polygon zkEVM Unchained: Polygon zkEVM Chain Goes Down for 10 Hours Blockworks: Polygon unpacks zkEVM outage and ‘emergency’ upgrade Layer 3s Unchained: Layer 3s Only Exist to Take Value Away From Ethereum: Polygon Labs CEO 0xCygaar on L3s and L2s Potuz on the benefit of L3s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Boiron

Chief Executive Officer

Polygon Labs

Brendan Farmer

Co-Founder

Polygon LabsPolygon

Two lawyers, Josh Klayman, head of digital assets at Linklaters, and Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Labs, offer their takes on the SEC’s recent crypto crackdown. They share what they heard from SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Congressional testimony, whether this crackdown was inevitable or sparked by FTX, and why a proposed change to the definition of an exchange could be an existential threat for DeFi in the U.S. Show highlights: what Gary Gensler’s approach to crypto was when he took office whether the FTX collapse had any impact at all on the SEC’s recent actions whether the actions against Coinbase are “inappropriate” what the differences between Coinbase and Kraken staking services are why the concept of “exemptive relief” is important for exchanges whether the SEC is looking to go after AMM-based decentralized exchanges why SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce says that complying with a new proposal wouldn’t be possible for much of DeFi why, according to Marc, the industry should be “pushing very hard” against the newly proposed definition of an exchange whether the SEC’s ability to pursue enforcement actions against ETH is diminished by the statements of the previous SEC chair Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Halborn Guests: Josh Klayman, head of blockchain and digital assets at Linklaters,  Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Labs. Sufficient Decentralization Previous coverage of Unchained on the SEC’s actions:  ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’ Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US? Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ SEC Chair Gary Gensler Avoids Question: ‘Is Ethereum a Security?’ SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’ Links CoinDesk: U.S. SEC Moves Toward DeFi Oversight as It Reopens Proposed Regulations Proposed rule: Amendments Regarding the Definition of “Exchange” and Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) Rendering Innovation Kaput: Statement on Amending the Definition of Exchange POLITICO: McHenry clashes with SEC’s Gensler over crypto crackdown Forbes: Crypto Exchange Beaxy Shuts Down Amid SEC Charges Treasury Releases 2023 DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Klayman

Head of Digital Assets

Linklaters

Marc Boiron

Chief Executive Officer

Polygon Labs

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, Polygon Chief Legal Officer Marc Boiron joins the show to examine the SEC’s recent enforcement ramp-up. why Marc thinks NYDFS coming after Paxos is the most interesting thing to analyze in the SEC-BUSD spat whether the SEC and NYDFS actions against Paxos were coordinated  whether a stablecoin is a security and why the SEC might be inclined to go after Paxos how a stablecoin could resemble a money market fund whether the SEC action against BUSD consolidates Tether's dominance why Robert is nervous about the ramifications of the Paxos situation for all of crypto the unique characteristics of Kraken's staking services that led to settlement with the SEC the meaning of the settlement for other custodial staking services and staking in general why Robert voted in favor of the Uniswap governance proposal why Haseeb is fine with how a16z voted in the proposal how on-chain governance should be approached  Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital Robert Leshner, founder of Compound  Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital Guest Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Links Disclosures BUSD shutdown WSJ: Crypto Firm Paxos Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Binance USD Token Regulator Orders Crypto Firm Paxos to Stop Issuing Binance Stablecoin The Block: Gensler: SEC has been 'clear' on cryptocurrencies Unchained: Circle Told NYDFS That Paxos-Issued BUSD Wasn’t Fully Backed SEC vs. Staking Ethereum ETH Staking Deposits Kraken to Discontinue Unregistered Offer and Sale of Crypto Asset Staking-As-A-Service Program and Pay $30 Million to Settle SEC Charges Coinbase’s staking services are not securities. And here's why. - Blog Uniswap governance drama Unchained episode on the topic: Chris Blec on Why He Believes a16z’s Uniswap Vote Exposes DeFi as a Farce - Ep. 454  Wormhole vs. LayerZero posts Wormhole  LayerZero Explanation video from Unchained  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Boiron

Chief Executive Officer

Polygon Labs