The Engine is a show about building business in crypto and with crypto.

So, whether you’re already building in the space or you’re trying to understand what the whole crypto, web3, blockchain, onchain fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week’s topic: Building in DeFi.

We talked about:

• the current state of DeFi, the role of institutional players, and the impact of memecoins.
• the challenges of harnessing Degen energy, and the importance of building partnerships for ecosystem growth.
• the importance of transparency, security, and education in creating a safe and user-friendly environment.
• the fragmentation in the crypto ecosystem and interoperability between different chains.
• both guests are excited about the potential of Ethereum pilling the Bitcoin community. So we talked about some opportunities and challenges around that.

The guests this week:

Yoshua Urioste, aka Tenzent, Head of Business Development at Silo - a lending protocol that allows you to borrow any crypto asset with another on isolated lending markets where risk is always siloed.

https://www.silo.finance/

Beachball is a core contributor at Synonym, which is a cross-chain money market.
https://www.synonym.finance/

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:

🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/

🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in crypto and with crypto.

Whether you’re already building in the space or you’re trying to understand what the whole crypto, web3, blockchain, onchain fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week’s guests:
Angelo Alessio is a co-founder of Build Cities, a global cooperative of startup cities.
Igor Lilic - ex-Consensys, ex-DFINITY, the founder of Blackcomb Software, and co-founder of BreakOut, a web3 community in Brazil.

We’re talking about Building Builder Communities.

We touch on the relationship between decentralization and community.

We get into the challenges of financial incentivization within communities.

We touch on the ethical considerations when introducing financial incentives, some of the potential pitfalls of tokenization, and the need for a strong culture and product-market fit.

We talk about the value of in-person interactions and the need for authenticity, creativity, boldness, and a long-term vision when building communities.

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:

🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/

🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in crypto and with crypto.

Whether you’re already building in the space or you’re trying to understand what the whole crypto, blockchain, web3, onchain fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week, we’re talking about stablecoins. The killer use case of crypto.

We talk about why stablecoins are so important.
We talk about different stable coins: USDT, USDC, DAI, thUSD. All pegged to US dollar and yet competing against each other.
We touch on the importance of user experience for onboarding new users.
We talk about possible futures for stablecoins and what role might CBDCs play in that future. And there are some hot takes there!

This week’s guests:

Evandro Saturnino - Threshold developer, responsible for spearheading the UI/UX of Threshold USD for the past two years.

Jack Vinijtrongjit Co-Founder and CEO of Saakuru Labs. Saakuru Protocol is consumer-centric L2 protocol with zero transaction fees.

Jack Landon, the sole developer of Taffy, a gas-less decentralized exchange that recently launched on the Saakuru.

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:

🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/

🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in web3 and with web3.
Whether you’re already building in crypto or you’re trying to understand what the whole web3 fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week’s guest:

Russel Castagnaro is a Venture Steward at Bufficorn Ventures. He is a digital transformation leader, he is passionate about blockchain & web3, eGovernment & eCommerce.
For many years he was in charge of building the digital side of the State Government in Hawaii. And in 2017 he caught the crypto bug and created Wampei, a startup that helped unbanked companies to do their business electronically, without a local bank. He then returned to State service but in the State of Colorado, working on digital identity. And then back to the private side to Bufficorn Ventures and SporkDAO. Most people who work in the space are familiar with ETHDenver - the flagship event of SporkDAO and one of the best builder festivals in the US.
Russel has a ton of experience both in the government and on the private side. And we talked about Crypto and Government.

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:

🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/

🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in web3 and with web3.

My guests are Nick Smoot and Chris Pennino.

Nick Smoot is an entrepreneur, investor, real estate developer, and ecosystem builder who has been executing on the community-first, real-estate second thesis for the last decade.
His work in startup ecosystems has been recognized by Google, Brookings, Milken Institute, and Bloomberg. He has spent time in over 200 cities in the last decade working with government, education, industry, and community members.
He is also the author of the book called Better - a guide How to build creative communities that transform the world.
Here's a link to a free PDF: https://www.flourishingpledge.com/better-book

Chris Pennino is an architectural scholar, designer, and consultant.
His personal research focuses on Special Economic Zones, and how technology developments impact our built environments.
He serves as the Head of Architecture and Urbanism at Vid Sertsya Budova, a startup city thats being built outside of Kyiv for internally displaced people.
He is also the Chief of Research and Development at build_cities.

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:
🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/
🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ Join Skylab: The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in web3 and with web3.

Whether you’re already building in the space or you’re trying to understand what the whole web3 fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week, my guests are

Angelo Alessio, one of the founders of Build Cities, a global platform for startup cities.

The other guest Gerard aka Geebz is a principal at a web3 venture fund. Semi-anon, so we’ll keep it at that. Let’s just say he’s been around the crypto block. He is a member of Tribute Labs DAOs. He was early to NFTs, so he actually claimed his punks. In his free time he loves to tinker with new things on chain.

We started off with Bitcoin, touched on halving, ETFs, and building on Bitcoin. We dug into Ethereum staking and restaking (LRT, LST) and we of course touched on meme coins (Doge vs Pepe, Solana vs Base). This was recorded pre-Bitcoin halving and pre-Eigenlayer controversy, will have to cover that soon once the dust settles.

Core contributors of Season 1 of The Engine:

🔐Check out TACo by Threshold Network, your go-to for decentralized encryption and access control plugin. From seed phrase recovery to crypto-inheritance and beyond, TACo is revolutionizing how we manage private data in dApps. https://threshold.network/

🌍 Explore Build Cities, a global cooperative redefining how startup cities collaborate. It creates a digital infrastructure that connects local communities worldwide. https://www.buildcities.network/

🛰️ Join Skylab: https://www.skylab.xyz/

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in web3 and with web3.

Whether you’re already building in the space or you’re trying to understand what the whole web3 fuss is about, you’re in the right place.

This week, my guest is Matt Luongo. He is the CEO of Thesis, a crypto venture studio behind Fold, Keep that became part of Threshold Network, tBTC, Saddle, Tally Ho! And now also thUSC and Mezo.

Among their investors are such names as Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Draper Associates, and Dragonfly.

Matt has been building in the space for over ten years. And so it was amazing to have him on the show to talk about Bitcoin and Matt’s path as a builder.

We talk about why Bitcoin is important, not just as a speculative financial instrument, but as an alternative to a centralized economy.

We talk about the current cycle in crypto and the headwinds and tailwinds around Bitcoin. Matt has an interesting take on the ETFs.

We talk about how Bitcoin has changed and hasn’t changed, specifically how building on Bitcoin has become such a major narrative despite being counterintuitive in the context of the original vision of digital gold.

From there we touch on a very uncomfortable topic of Bitcoin security challenges. Where Matt is, in fact, optimistic.

We of course talk about Threshold, we talk about why bridges are important and how tBTC is unique. We talk about thUSD and crypto loans.

We also touched on Matt’s personal story as a builder, and he even shared some parenting tips.

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/

The Engine is a show about building business in web3 and with web3.

This week’s guests:

Angelo Alessio is a co-founder of Build Cities, a global cooperative of startup cities,

Sven Hermann, the founder of Incented, a protocol on a mission to help DAOs solve challenges of coordination and incentivization.

We talked about Balancing Innovation and Execution.

It’s something that every founder, every builder, every creative person has to deal with.

You have an ambitious vision, you have conviction and you start building your thing - and you have to work with reality. With limited resources. With the constraints of existing technology. With confusing feedback. With market conditions and changing trends.

And you have to adapt and keep your eyes on the prize, on your vision.

We talk about how in crypto the infrastructure for your vision sometimes is being built up at the same time as you’re building and how you need to stay flexible and adapt.

How crypto, being a new industry, allows builders take bigger leaps and innovate boldly, whereas legacy industries many paths have often explored back and forth leaving space only for minor upgrades.

We talk about the challenge of balancing conviction and commitment to a vision with the need to receive feedback and iterate. Sven shared his beef with the lean startup methodology and we came up with a new term, “conviction building.”

🛰️ SKYLAB
The Engine is an extension of the Skylab community of web3 builders. It aims to empower web3 leaders and educate the broader entrepreneur community about web3.
Check out Skylab’s website and consider applying: https://www.skylab.xyz/

FOLLOW THE ENGINE
Stay tuned for the conversations with leading minds in web3:
Website: https://www.theenginemedia.xyz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theenginemediaxyz
Substack: https://theenginemedia.substack.com/
Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/TheEngineMedia
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/theengine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theenginemedia/