Episodios
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Since 2020, CoinFund’s investment thesis in World – formerly Worldcoin – has been driven by the idea that biometric proof of personhood is critical for identity verification.
While World was met with criticism in the summer of 2023 for its iris-scanning orbs, today, it’s become clear that amid the rapid expansion of AI, identifying who’s human and who’s not will play an important role in payments, social media, elections, and more.
Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity – the company behind World – sat down with CoinFund CEO Jake Brukhman to discuss World’s approach to proof of personhood, its emerging ecosystem of projects, and why identity verification is an urgent problem to address. They discuss:
From Worldcoin to World (2:45) Building on World Chain (7:36) Distributing identity (24:08) Why proof of personhood (28:55) The underlying rails for adoption (41:58)Tune into the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund, available on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/9xpAnu0QRG8
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Web3 has attracted some of the most technical developers across the world, finding innovative ways to leverage blockchain framework. But often, builders tend to forget that crypto’s nomenclature problem can alienate consumers from seeing the true value of a decentralized technology. What gets lost in translation?
It’s just one of the challenges developers face in solving some of the hardest problems in web3, and this week on Mined with CoinFund, David and Jake dig into how different facets of the industry can address these concerns to usher in adoption. They cover:
L2s & ZK (10:22) Decentralized training (16:31)Scaling consumer crypto (25:39) Can AI automate coding? (33:17) Web3 adoption patterns (38:47)Don’t miss the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund, now available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
https://youtu.be/f-3obdfasow
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It’s commonly known in crypto that if you’re launching a Layer 1 blockchain, you should ensure it has absolutely zero bugs. To accomplish this, you need a thorough security audit that carefully combs through your code and pinpoints all vulnerabilities.
While there’s plenty of demand for these services, Zellic Co-Founder and CEO Luna Tong believes that in the age of AI and automation, only humans can scale web3 cybersecurity.
Luna joins CoinFund CEO and Managing Partner Jake Brukhman to chat about the day-to-day operations of a web3 cybersecurity auditor, the trajectory of growing these kinds of firms, and how AI lacks human ingenuity. They cover:
The business of web3 cybersecurity (4:16) AI’s role in security audits (11:18) Is web3 cybersecurity scalable? (17:17) The pre-mainnet auditing process (26:04) Web3 cybersecurity ≠ Web 2.0 (32:28)Be sure to download the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund where you get your podcasts, and subscribe to CoinFund’s YouTube channel for more.
https://youtu.be/OjgrCT0CWyg
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While crypto may be considered insular, AI is already a global phenomenon demonstrating Web 2.0-sized scale and implications. As large machine learning companies rapidly release new applications, their valuations have soared, partnering with legacy technology companies to distribute their tools to the masses.
What people aren’t talking enough about, according to Decentralized AI Society Chairman Michael Casey, are the dangers of these models being trained and controlled by one party.
Michael joins Mined with CoinFund hosts Jake Brukhman and David Pakman to chat about what decentralized AI might look like and how it can mitigate the current problems facing machine learning development. They cover:
DAIS & the argument for decentralized AI (4:32) DeAI’s threat to the ‘Magnificent Seven’ (18:58) Increasing the adoption of DeAI (25:09) AI’s impacts on media (28:16)Download the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund to get the hottest takes in crypto – you don’t want to miss this one.
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One of the core narratives around decentralization is that anyone in the world can create, contribute to, or interact with a protocol. But when looking at regional and vertical adoption, it’s clear that crypto is still too insular to truly be a global technology.
Coinbase Ventures Investor and CoinFund’s first employee Ryan Yi joins Mined with CoinFund hosts Alex Felix and Jake Brukhman to chat about the global adoption of web3, spotting killer apps, and how he thinks about investing. They cover:
CoinFund’s early days (2:55) Global in its mission, insular in practice (7:32) Cryptonativity and rails for adoption (16:02) How to spot a ‘killer app’ (23:06) Coinbase Ventures’ approach to investing (31:14)Don’t miss the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund. Be sure to check out the full video on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/9vf0e8CRdhI -
Institutional adoption is regarded as one of the most important milestones for crypto. Between ETF approvals, big banks being bullish, and wall street traders making bets on digital currency, it seems like those at the helm of the global financial system determine crypto’s fate.
For Jeremy Allaire, CEO and co-founder of Circle – the issuer of stablecoin USDC – crypto adoption is surprisingly driven from the bottom-up, and the future of web3 adoption is in the hands of users.
Jeremy joins Mined with CoinFund hosts David Pakman and Jake Brukhman to discuss stablecoin use cases, USDC adoption, and Circle’s path to regulatory clarity. They cover:
The unlock of public infrastructure (4:25) Blockchain adoption is actually driven from the bottom-up (10:07) Popular stablecoin use cases (18:08) EURC and European regulation (24:31) Onboarding to USDC (28:33) U.S. stablecoin regulation & the election (31:52) Circle’s future approach to stablecoins (38:05)Download the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund and watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xKo39idm_VQ?si=xZbWpnL49RTHKV63
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In order to have a sustainable economy onchain, you need takers – and makers – to be profitable over time. In the world of DeFi, Logan Jastremski, co-founder and Managing Partner of Frictionless Capital, thinks that long-term market maker profits will ultimately derive from order flows.
Logan joins Mined with CoinFund hosts Jake Brukhman and David Pakman to discuss these nuances within trading, and the case for highly-scalable blockchains. They cover:
Implications of MEV (4:38) Logan’s journey to starting Frictionless (6:39) Defining highly scalable blockchains and their applications (11:01)Scaling blockchains for market making (21:21) From improved infra to improved consumer products (30:06)Don’t miss the latest episode of Mined with CoinFund. Download on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mined-with-coinfund/id1758988850
https://open.spotify.com/show/1ZxUQqsbsjLvtjyyTxHoNR
Watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VH8Ngm4U0Qo -
It’s our most controversial episode yet. The tokens are broken and have destroyed the consumer playbook too, according to Icebreaker co-founders Dan Stone and Jack Dillé. What if we put less things onchain and leveraged crypto to build trust and serendipity where it really matters?
Dan and Jack join Mined with CoinFund hosts Jake Brukhman and Alex Felix to discuss the current problems facing social networking platforms, and how Icebreaker brings trust back online through cryptography and privacy onchain. They cover:
Why tokens can’t create incentive mechanisms (04:35) Current social data landscape & Icebreaker’s vision (10:07)How do we get off of LinkedIn? (20:40)Assigning value to data ownership (31:07) The future of cryptographic attestations (35:08)Subscribe where you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out coinfund.io to learn more.
https://minedwithcoinfund.buzzsprout.com/
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Crypto is plagued by incomprehensible buzzwords. Does anyone really know what ‘non-fungible’ means in the context of NFTs?
Ridhima Kahn, VP at Dapper Labs, argues that the crypto industry must cater to the audience it's trying to reach – we need to drop the jargon.
Ridhima joins Mined with CoinFund hosts David Pakman and Jake Brukhman to discuss NFT development amid quieter markets, leveraging IP on the blockchain, and how we can onboard more users. They cover:
The current state of NFTs & their user experience (3:36)IP onchain (19:18)The web3 nomenclature problem (28:26)Interoperability & Flow blockchain (31:39)The future of financializing NFTs (38:19)Subscribe where you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out coinfund.io to learn more.
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It’s no secret that zero knowledge is a highly technical realm of the web3 space. How do you deliver novel value while working to onboard the masses?
That’s the biggest issue in ZK right now, according to Stasia Carson (@etainos), co-founder of Sindri.
Stasia joins Mined with CoinFund hosts David Pakman (@pakman) and Jake Brukhman (@jbrukh) to discuss the usability problem, and how ZK must foster adoption in order to play a critical role in the future of decentralization and digital trust. They cover:
Crash course: what is ZK? (4:01) Does ZK improve decentralization? (13:34)The road to ZK adoption (21:44) The future of ZK’s user experience (36:12)Subscribe where you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out coinfund.io to learn more.
https://minedwithcoinfund.buzzsprout.com/
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What’s that one thing in crypto that not enough people are talking about?
For Marvin Ammori (@ammori), most recent Chief Legal Officer at Uniswap Labs, it’s that progressives have yet to embrace crypto.
In this episode, Marvin joins Mined with CoinFund hosts David Pakman (@pakman) and Jake Brukhman (@jbrukh) to discuss crypto’s policy narrative in the summer ahead of the November’s Presidential election. They cover:
How the political rift in crypto came to be (4:06)Crypto’s potential to sway the election (17:31) Trump’s crypto platform (21:32) Catalysts to help push crypto adoption (31:14)This episode was filmed before President Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris announced her run, as well as the Bitcoin 2024 conference.
Subscribe where you get your podcasts, and be sure to check out coinfund.io to learn more.
https://linktr.ee/coinfund
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What’s one big idea in crypto that everyone is missing?
Time to dig in: Introducing Mined with CoinFund.
Mined is a weekly show that explores the unearthed narratives within the crypto space. There’s so much noise across the echo chamber of crypto culture. What’s something people aren’t talking enough about?
At CoinFund, we pride ourselves on being early with precision. As a team of early stage investors and operators, our business is built on idea-spotting: catching a glimmer of one intriguing idea that could become a market-shaping opportunity. Mining is a cryptographic process, but in the physical world, it is digging through boulders to find gems. We aim to uncover unpopular truths and unspoken perspectives that deserve to be debated.
In our first episode, CoinFund CEO Jake Brukhman and Head of Venture Investments, David Pakman, speak with Chief Experience Officer at Ledger, Ian Rogers, about how inconsistency in wallet security is one of the biggest blockers of crypto adoption.
Make sure you subscribe to Mined on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Youtube, and leave us some feedback on the first episode. Let’s kick this show off!
