Bell Curve X Empire | Prediction Markets, Crypto’s Mag 7 & Stablecoin Growth | Weekly Roundup
Join Michale, Mike, Yano and Santi on stage and LIVE from PERMISSIONLESS IV as they break down crypto's breakout moment for this week's roundup!
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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
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Get up to speed on the biggest stories in crypto each week. In five minutes. Get the Bitwise Weekly CIO Memo delivered directly to your inbox at bitwiseinvestments.com/ciomemo/empire
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Chapters:
(00:00) Intro
(01:25) The Growth of Prediction Markets
(04:11) Polymarket vs Kalshi's Business Models
(09:32) Ads (Geodnet, Bitwise)
(11:08) Is Crypto Forming Its Own Mag 7?
(19:16) Ads (Geodnet, Bitwise)
(20:53) Global Capital Pools and the State of Venture
(30:21) Bitcoin Dominance Is Up Only
(36:21) Ads (Ledger, Citrea)
(37:52) Verifiable Apps and the Effectiveness of the DAO
(40:56) How to Play the Stablecoin Boom
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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.
How Unichain and Geopolitics Are Redefining Crypto's Value | Avichal Garg & Michael Anderson
In this episode, Jason is live from Permissionless with Michael Anderson from Framework Ventures and Avichal Garg from Electric Capital. They delve into the implications of Uniswap's Unichain, exploring its potential impact on ETH, OP, and the broader DeFi ecosystem. The conversation shifts to the evolving landscape of crypto applications and infrastructure, touching on investment strategies in both public and private markets. Finally, they discuss the upcoming U.S. election's influence on crypto regulation and the surprising role of stablecoins in national security.
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Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from Katherine Ross and David Canellis.
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Follow Anoma at x.com/anoma and signup for the newsletter at anoma.net
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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.
199 - Are Crypto Games Making a Comeback?
Are crypto games making a comeback? Vance Spencer and his Co-Founder Michael Anderson join us today to answer that question.
We did a bunch of episode on crypto gaming last hype cycle – retrospectively, it was too early. But now we have cheap blockspace, better wallets, and games that are fun to play.
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------ TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 Intro 00:07:19 Intro To Crypto Gaming 00:14:00 How Has Crypto Gaming Evolved? 00:17:39 Casual Vs AAA Games 00:21:10 The Current Gaming Experience 00:26:00 What Benefits Come From Blockchain? 00:32:47 Best Argument Against Crypto Gaming? 00:45:29 How Far Can This Go? 00:50:47 IOS and Taxes 00:55:11 Dealing With Regulators 00:59:01 Choosing a Chain 01:04:50 Are Traditional Studios Coming? 01:07:27 What's An On Chain Game? 01:12:20 Blockspace 01:18:58 Can This Pump Our Assets? 01:21:44 Closings and Disclaimers
------ RESOURCES
Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism
Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Chainlink CCIP Bomb, UniswapX, & Synthetix upgrades explained | Roundup
In today's episode special edition cross-over episode Jason and Santi are joined by Michael, Co-founder at Framework Ventures and Co-host of the Bell Curve podcast. They cover EthCC Account Abstraction takeaways, Infinex, UniswapX, Chainlink CCIP & LayerZero, the VC landscape and MUCH much more.
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Resources
UniswapX
https://twitter.com/Uniswap/status/1680955621343129600
Infinex
https://twitter.com/DefiantNews/status/1679838219201028097
Chainlink CCIP
https://twitter.com/chainlink/status/1680970793331613697
Celo Move to L1
https://blockworks.co/news/celo-return-home-ethereum
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(00:00) EthCC
(03:46) Account Abstraction & Crypto UX
(06:48) Infinex: The CEX Killer?
(10:25) UniswapX Release
(17:19) Chainlink CCIP
(27:43) LayerZero vs Chainlink
(31:04) Policy Episode Takeaways
(36:23) Thales
(37:19) Kwenta
(38:15) CoinDesk Acquired
(41:25) Sequoia Shakes Up Crypto Arm
(48:24) Crypto VC Competitive Landscape
(52:16) Crypto VC Strategies & Investment Practices
(01:03:13) Most Important Factor for L1s
(01:12:43) Celo Transition to Ethereum L2
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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.
Every Project Will Have Its Own L2 | Michael Anderson & Vance Spencer
Vance Spencer and Michael Anderson, co-founders of Framework Ventures, join Jason on today’s episode of “Empire.” The founders have grown Framework’s assets under management from $14 million to over $1.4 billion in just three years.
The co-founders share their thoughts on the layer-2 scaling thesis and why every project will eventually fork their own layer-2. Vance and Michael believe the shift to layer-2s is inevitable — it’s the endgame in maximizing token value.
They then dive into staking and staking derivatives and why the Ethereum merge will bring about the birth of a new industry. This might be the most alpha ever dropped in one podcast — don’t miss it!
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Subscribe To Our Podcast: apple.co/3srZf7M or sptfy.com/8bQc
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:21) Yuga Labs debacle and scaling solutions
(07:40) Application-specific L2s
(09:07) Are L2 tokens parasitic to L1 tokens?
(11:27)The multichain future
(15:58) $10B hack prediction
(17:57) Lido and Staking
(23:27) Is The ETH Merge Priced In?
(27:41) How To Outperform ETH
(30:24) Fundamental Analysis
(32:54) Institutional strategies and the ETH flippening
(38:56) Paraswap Ad
(40:05) Bearish AMMs, Bullish PFOF
(45:14) Are we just recreating TradFi?
(47:22) Revisiting the OG DeFi protocols
(50:50) Tokenomics
(55:14) Investing in GameFi
(1:04:58) Enterprise blockchains
(1:09:54) Super DAOs
(1:11:54) 2022 Outlook
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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.
Framework co-founders unpack their $400 million gaming fund's investment thesis
In this episode of The Scoop, Framework co-founders Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer sat down with host Frank Chaparro to explain their new fund’s investment thesis which centers around the idea that blockchain gaming is “getting to the point of mass-market appeal.”
As Anderson explained during the interview, the combination of AAA quality game design and in-game ‘play-to-earn’ economies is the key to mass adoption:
“That combinatorial effect is the transition that we predict will move from ‘play-to-earn’ into ‘play-and-earn’ where it’s more that you want to be playing the game because it’s a really fun and engaging game. You get to compete at the highest levels, and you get to play in the economy in the same ways that you get to with Axie.”
Despite surging in popularity in 2021, the ‘play-to-earn’ game Axie Infinity has recently seen declining activity, something exacerbated by a $600 million hack earlier this year.
According to the Framework co-founders, the remedy to the complexities and risks of blockchain gaming is in custodial solutions — another big theme of their new fund which the two co-founders hope will lead to mass adoption.
As Spencer explained:
“All of the game loops, all of the things that are super important to these game developers, break without these custodial experiences. And so this is going to be the kind of paradigm through which all of the people will initially come in.”
Framework Ventures isn’t the only VC firm that sees blockchain gaming as crypto’s next major development: South Korean VC firm Hashed also shared with The Scoop how they are betting big on gaming with their own $200 million fund deployed last December.
Episode 35 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Michael Anderson & Vance Spencer, cofounders of Framework Ventures.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross River
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DEX Progress to be a "Landmark Event" Over the Summer: Framework Ventures
This week’s interview is with Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer, co-founders of crypto venture fund Framework Ventures. Michael and Vance live and breathe crypto. The live together, work together, and spend all their time analyzing crypto startups, and actively participating in the protocols they fund. It’s how they’ve become some of the deepest thinkers in the space. They talked about how the emergence of token-based business models in the past year has been a breakthrough for crypto, legitimizing the space as a new asset class. they discussed how they determine whether a protocol will accrue value.
Vance believes new developments in decentralized exchanges this year will drive 10% of centralized exchanges’ liquidity. Michael believes the hot new thing, governance tokens, are akin to early startup equity. They also talked about why they love the philosophy driving SNX and discussed why the underdog mentality of LINK Marines is bullish for Chainlink. But first, we’ll start with how they got into crypto in the first place.