Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, to explore the platform's radical pivot from passive on-chain analytics to active, AI-driven agentic trading. Alex unpacks the technical hurdles of labeling over 500 million addresses, the transition from raw data into harmonized insights, and why true alpha now lies in attribution rather than raw data . He explains how Nansen uses ClickHouse databases and a mix of algorithmic heuristics, agentic teams, and human specialists to maintain the highest industry precision.
The conversation dives deep into the intersection of LLMs and blockchain, exploring how standard AI models lack domain-specific common sense and why Nansen augments them with real-time data and visual "artifacts". Alex introduces "Nansen Gym," a simulated historical replay environment for training trading agents and teases the upcoming release of "Smart Money 2.0", which aims to predict future profitable addresses with 2-3x uplift on precision. Finally, they discuss the existential risks of AI, the striking parallels between open-source AI and early DeFi, and why Alex believes agentic trading will be the absolute default by 2028.

Chapters
00:00 Intro & Context
04:15 Nansen's Evolution & Agentic Trading
09:30 Harmonizing Data & The Attribution Layer
15:00 Deterministic vs. Inferred Labeling (Uniswap vs. Binance)
21:45 Evaluating AI Agents: LLMs as Judges
27:10 User Privacy & Public Blockchain Realities
35:20 Building a Unified Trading OS
42:15 Smart Money 2.0: Predicting Which Wallets Win
49:00 The Limitations of Vanilla LLMs in Crypto
55:30 Nansen Gym & Time-Traveling AI Agents
59:45 The Open Source AI vs. DeFi Parallel
Links

Alex Svanevik on X: https://x.com/ASvanevik
Nansen: https://www.nansen.ai/
NEAR: https://near.ai/
Sponsors:
NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by John Paller, founder of ETH Denver, to reflect on nine seasons of North America's largest Ethereum gathering and where the ecosystem goes next. John shares his "red pill" moment in 2016 and the subsequent realization that Ethereum was not just a corporate efficiency tool, but a way to rewire the global economic system. He discusses the evolution of the Biddle meme and how ETH Denver has become a market-driven aggregator for crypto's shifting narratives, from DeFi summer to the current era of institutional adoption.

They delve into a candid critique of the Ethereum Foundation’s "Infinite Garden" philosophy, with John arguing for more "structural vision" and actionable roadmaps to compete with the aggressive narratives of chains like Solana. The conversation highlights Agentic AI as the ultimate "Trojan Horse" for mass adoption, enabling a future where users interact with sovereign bots rather than complex private keys. Finally, John explains his Regulation Membership proposal to the US Congress, aiming to provide a federal securities exemption for on-chain cooperatives and restore true economic agency to the "little man."

Topics
00:00 Intro & Context
04:15 Recruitment Tech to Ethereum: John’s Genesis Story
09:30 Inventing the "Biddle" Meme at Denver 2018
15:00 Is Ethereum a "Neo Casino" or a Settlement Layer?
21:45 Critiquing Idealism: The Infinite Garden vs. Reality
27:10 Why Solana is Not "Sufficiently Decentralized
35:20 Agentic AI: The End of signing Transactions manually
42:15 The Roman Catholic Church & Institutional Co-opting
49:00 German Cooperative Culture & On-Chain Credit Unions
55:30 Regulation Membership & The SEC Challenge
59:45 Zero Knowledge Identity & Privacy Rights

Links
John Paller on X: https://x.com/PallerJohn
ETH Denver: https://www.ethdenver.com/
Opolis: https://opolis.co/
Lido: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter
NEAR: https://near.ai/
Sponsors:

1. Lido V3 introduces stVaults: modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer. Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

2. NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Sebastian Couture is joined by Chris Yin, CEO of Plume Network, to deconstruct the current state of Real World Assets (RWAs) and why the sector is at a pivotal inflection point. Chris argues that most RWA projects today are functionally "worse on-chain" because they lack liquidity, composability, and the "crypto-native" user experience that made stablecoins successful.

He details how Plume is solving this through a custom L1 stack and the Nest vault protocol, which tokenizes high-yield assets like Brazilian credit card receivables and oil production for a global market.

They explore the friction between traditional finance and DeFi, highlighting why private credit's long duration makes it unsuitable for the "looping" and leverage that drives crypto demand. Chris explains the significance of Plume’s SEC Transfer Agent license and its role in bridging the gap between regulated funds and permissionless rails.

Finally, the conversation tackles the "bleak" vs. "optimistic" future of crypto, asking whether the industry will maintain its core principles of self-custody and decentralization as it searches for a "new daddy" in institutional capital.

Topics

00:00 Intro & Context
04:15 The Job of a Founder: Finding Change
09:30 Crypto Natives vs. TradFi Suites
15:00 Stablecoins: The Only RWA That Matters (Today)
21:45 The Bottleneck: It’s Not Tokenization, It’s Demand
27:10 Why Build an L1 for Assets?
35:20 SEC Transfer Agent License Explained
42:15 Nest Alpha: Blending Oil, Credit, and T-Bills
49:00 Is Leverage Sustainable for Institutions?
55:30 The Exodus: Will Crypto Values Survive?

Links
Chris Yin on X: https://x.com/chriseyin
Plume Network: https://www.plumenetwork.com/
Nest: https://nest.plumenetwork.com/
NEAR: https://near.ai/

Sponsors:
NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Michael Svoboda, CEO of Liquid AG, to discuss Liquity V2 and the launch of the BOLD stablecoin. Michael explains how Liquity maintains a governance-free, immutable architecture to provide "sovereign dollars" that are not dependent on human committees or centralized backstops. He introduces user-set interest rates, a novel DeFi primitive where borrowers determine their own rates to balance their cost of capital against the risk of being redeemed by stablecoin holders.

They explore the technical mechanics of the BOLD stablecoin, its multi-collateral backing of ETH and LSTs, and why the protocol funnels 100% of fees directly to users rather than extracting rent. Michael also shares his analogy of crypto-native stablecoins as "electric engines" that offer a fundamentally different risk profile from traditional banking rails. Finally, the conversation dives into the impact of global regulations like MiCA and why the future of finance belongs to peer-to-peer credit markets.

Topics

00:00 Intro & Context
04:15 Why Banking is Under Pressure
09:30 From V1 to Liquity V2
15:00 User-Set Rates Explained21:45 Redemptions & Peg Stability
27:10 Collateral Risk: ETH & LSTs
35:20 Cefi vs. Defi Risk Spectrum
42:15 Is Immutability Dogmatic?
49:00 Revenue Distribution & Self-Sustainability
55:30 Non-USD Stables & Global Shifts

Links

Michael on X: https://x.com/svobodamichael
Liquity: https://www.liquity.org/
Bluechip: https://bluechip.org/
Lido: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter
Sponsors:
Lido V3 introduces stVaults: modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer. Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Thomas Thiery, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, to discuss EIP-7805 and the implementation of FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists). Thomas explains how the rise of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) has created a centralized builder market where a few actors now control over 85% of Ethereum's block production, creating a dangerous bottleneck for censorship. FOCIL addresses this by empowering a decentralized committee of 16 validators to mandate transaction inclusion, making any block that ignores these lists invalid.
 
They explore the "Tornado Cash" moment and the risks of "silent censorship" for competitive or regulatory reasons. Thomas explains why FOCIL intentionally prioritizes the public mempool over MEV-heavy transactions to prevent the system from being co-opted. Finally, the conversation looks at the future of the Ethereum roadmap, including the Osaka fork and the technical trade-offs between inclusion lists and long-term privacy solutions like encrypted mempools.

 
Topics
00:00 Intro & FOCIL

04:15 MEV & Centralization

09:30 The Builder-Searcher Pipeline

15:00 Silent Censorship Risks

21:45 FOCIL Architecture & Committees

27:10 Validity Rules for Attestors

35:20 Spam Protection & Invalid TXs

42:15 FOCIL vs. Encrypted Mempools

49:00 EIP-7805 Status & Fork Timelines

55:30 Future: PQC & ZK EVM

Links
Thomas Thiery on X: https://x.com/soispoke

Ethereum Foundation: https://ethereum.foundation/

EIP-7805 (FOCIL): https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7805

Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io