Category: Podcasts

Podcast notes – Vitalik Buterin talking post-merge on Epicenter: “Core devs want role to be as technical as possible”

Podcast notes – Vitalik Buterin (After the ETH Merge) – Epicenter

Host: Friederike
Guest: Vitalik

50% of blocks are OFAC compliant – “it’s a concern…but important not to overstate it”
Means non compliant transactions have to wait 2 blocks instead of one (on average)
Near-term solution – MEV boost will have transaction inclusion lists added – similar to what MEV-Geth (?) did before
Social slashing is a meme that’s gone too far – shouldn’t hard fork to delete censoring validators
“Optimistic that things will improve quite a bit”

Should validators have agency?
General idea is to make validators as dumb as possible – just run code – maximally dumb pipe-y – more predictable and easier to run a validator
Argument for making validators smarter / opinionated – could serve as second line of defense

Doesn’t trust threshold encryption – requires 50% honesty assumption
Suspicious of honesty majority assumptions – should have paths to recovery if dishonest majorities occur

MEV smoothing – Justin Drake’s fave idea – treat non optimal bid acceptance as invalid / non availability condition

How much of a problem is MEV?
Many kinds of MEV – some is a problem, some isn’t
One class of problem – outright exploitation (eg, Uniswap ETH-USDC, sandwich attack)
Some MEV is unavoidable / benign – eg, arbitrage if prices change during block confirmation, keeps prices synchronized
Don’t want proposers to need to update software to keep pace with MEV algorithms
Can’t count on dapps to mitigate MEV – “always gonna be dumb devs somewhere”
There are MEV minimizing architectures – eg, off chain order matching before sending to Uniswap / onchain DEX

Some (eg, Paradigm) argue MEV inevitable – and thus building solutions to capture MEV in somewhat decentralized way is necessary (eg, Flashbots)
Flashbots has prevented centralization of layer under them (the stakers) – but has turned into centralization vector itself

The Surge – danksharding requires trusted setup, should we worry about it?
Low probability (1 of 1000s?), but important to move away from trusted setup over time
Other approaches have too many tradeoffs
KZG now, roadmap for removing it as better snark tech catches up

Phase 1 – Proto danksharding – could be early to mid next year
Phase 2 – go to 16mb, split up data load – will be gradual nodes transition

Core development bandwidth limited, prefer solutions that are more distributed / third party
Examples: Account abstraction strategy – 4337; Rollups
Danksharding – benefit is split off development effort, core devs have simpler problem / less work, rest of work is on community, can get something out much faster

Concept of in-protocol fees going to specific dev teams – has been discussed before and rejected – trying to minimize governance
Core devs want role to be as technical as possible, avoid social value judgments
If can go back 8 years, pre-mine 3M ETH for long-term fund for soul-bound governance, maybe — but need to live with ecosystem as it is today

Centralized chokepoints in L2? Sequencers are centralized
Decentralizing sequencer is very important – multiple approaches and tools, balance complicated constraints (security, legal)
-In-protocol auction to buy up sequencer rights for future slots
-In-protocol proposer mechanism

$3B in hacks in 2022 alone – how do we protect normies?
Defi hacks have been in applications he doesn’t use and would never endorse using
Some in community have more aggressive ideas of what they wanna do onchain and will overshoot
“Best we can do is slowly expand frontier of what can be done safely over time”
Uniswap safe for long time, MakerDao, better DAO governance contracts – this safe space will grow
“Do better job of communicating difference between safe zone and crazy zone”

What must we get right in 2023?
“I’d still say scalability…there’s a limited time window”
If we don’t solve by next bull market, overwhelming chance that forms of scaling that sacrifice trustlessness will dominate, will be hard to come back from it

Podcast notes – Palmer Luckey (founder of Oculus and Anduril) on the Good Time Show

Palmer – founded Oculus, Anduril

Elon’s “what did you get done this week” as a clear filter for who agrees / disagrees with you

“It’s time to build”

What helped him start Oculus
1. Started dissembling and assembling smartphones – funded a lot of his early R&D
2. PC gamer – after 8 monitor setup, he asked “what’s next from here?”
3. Mod retro – modding game systems like N64, adding screens, batteries, etc

Oculus was a community of people learning hardware + software – very collaborative, helping and sharing work
Bunch of teenagers
Early employees were moderators / participants on Mod Retro

Oculus was not just a headset – it was the engaged community and SDK that made it easy to build VR software

At 19yo, realized Oculus was not just cheaper but also better than VR headsets available in the market
Predistortion was a novel mainstream idea at that point

Met John Carmack – he was studying VR because he was posting on a different forum, and Palmer helped him
“John is one of top 10 most productive people in tech”
Absolutely brilliant; doesn’t care if he upsets you; tells you exactly what he thinks and will always do things the way he thinks is right; deeply understands hardware + software (not just assembly but also deep into each piece of hardware and how it operates)
Not only made Quake and Doom but started a rocket company well before Elon
Also would hot-rod cars and was world-class at this

AR vs VR is a spectrum
Eg, VR world but when you bring your own hands in
Eg, AR but you edit out elements of background
It’s all the same – “allow person to see or experience anything they can imagine”

Aarthi: Why start Anduril?

Anduril is more successful than Oculus on any measurable metric – but everyone knows Oculus because it was consumer tech

Couldn’t retire – ego wouldn’t let him – it was partly spite (“they’re gonna regret it, and they’re gonna look like idiots”) – regarding Facebook firing him
All the criticisms – “there wasn’t a place for him”, “the company has grown past him” – a lot of passive aggressive takes, really dismissive of him

Settled on national security (Anduril) because it was the most important problem he could work on
Existing tech cos couldn’t work with US government because they were beholden to China, foreign governments and suppliers

Before Oculus, worked at army-funded VR research lab (military VR projects)
Saw how far behind DoD was on technology, made industry friends
Became concerned when he was in Silicon Valley and culturally everyone there thought working on defense was bad

Growing up, his favorite media characters were weapons manufacturers – big fan of Yu Gi Oh, Iron Man

“Did I have a choice in any of this?”

Wanted to punch above his weight, certain it would be / become important
Clear that Russia will invade Ukraine, China will invade Taiwan
We’re going to build tools to defend western democracy – and one day, everyone else will understand it

Most tech workers are pro military – but often not willing to say it
But very vocal minority who are anti-military – and executives use them to advance agendas
Google’s project Maven – working with military in small capacity – lots of protest, 1000s of Googlers signed petition against it – but that’s only 1% of Google’s workforce!

Most defense cos (the primes) work on cost-plus basis – doesn’t incentivize the best work

Before Anduril, only 2 unicorns who worked with military – Palantir and SpaceX – while there were 4 mattress unicorns, 100 gaming unicorns

Tech founders are turned off by this, hard to get scale, can’t recruit best people
Smart investors don’t invest in them either

When started Anduril, had more people on PR and government relations than engineering – you need it for defense

Core of early Anduril were ex-Oculus, ex-Palantir

ON RUSSIA – UKRAINE

Conflict headed in a bad direction – Anduril’s been involved since 2nd week of conflict

Met Zelensky shortly after he was elected – at that time US didn’t want to sell military tech to Ukraine because it was afraid of provoking Russia

Ukraine has re-built extraordinarily quickly – Kiev does not feel like a war zone

Russia has full control over media in their own nation – probably their most powerful weapon
Lots of Russian soldiers believed in invading they were actually helping liberate pro-Russian Ukrainians – thought it’d be over in a few days

See parallels with China – Taiwan
Russia able to convince their citizens of a crazy lie, what about China?
Not independent free thinking people

Putin very likely to use a tactical nuke
-US believes nukes are strategic weapons – huge bombs to take out large cities – dis-assembled all our tactical nukes
-Tactical nukes are smaller, more limited, used to win a battle, not a war
-Russia has tactical nukes, part of their military doctrine, way to even the odds with NATO
-thinks Putin will use it to blow up an airfield, or take out a heavily built up military area

Europe headed to winter – really need Russian gas
Anti-nuclear people – “what a disaster”

People unwilling to sacrifice like they did during WW2
Putin sees our resolve isn’t that strong

“There’s no easy button”

If Putin is killed, the one who replaces him probably isn’t better

CHINA – TAIWAN

Some of Taiwan’s weapons purchases are buying wrong things – trying to build large submarines that can’t fight in Strait; buying non-stealth jets that are easy to shoot down

Some Taiwanese politicians want to appear strong, but won’t actually deter Chinese aggression

Taiwanese billionaire committed to buying $100s of millions in small weaponized drones, other asymmetric weapons – “that’s worth noting”

Theory for how the conflict plays out
-China won’t do massive large scale invasion and raise the flag a week later
–Will launch trade blockade to block all harbors
-Have a narrative to justify to local Chinese – enforce customs, immigration, tax law
–Expel every merchant ship that comes to Taiwan
-This makes it less likely that Taiwan’s allies will start shooting war
-How many are willing to see US fire the first shot in a “trade dispute”?
-Will be devastating to US economy

US carrier group used to be unbeatable – but in war games, they’re increasingly vulnerable – China won’t fire 5 hypersonic missiles they’ll fire 300

In China the best companies are required by law to work with military
Only thing that could stop China would be economic collapse

People don’t build in China because it’s cheap – that’s old school thinking
Chinese are very competent, very smart, unmatched supply chain, government that gets stuff done even at expense of human rights

Apple only shifting out of China to extent that Chinese government allows it – eg 10% to Germany or 5% to Japan, “China would lose its minds”

During Oculus, critics weren’t upset at what he actually did – more upset at what media reported that he did
Biggest mistake was Facebook PR convinced him to not fight the criticism
Online editor of his college newspaper – understands how media works
He encourages entrepreneurs to confront haters, be aggressive – make yourself too prickly a target to lie about
If they lie about you, you’re going to punch back

“King of direct communication” – Trump

VR wasn’t popular when he started Oculus – was a joke technology when he first tried to raise money

After Oculus, looked at several other areas other than Anduril
1. petroleum food products to solve obesity epidemic
2. private prison reform – only charge governments after prisoners served sentence and remained out of prison for 5 years

See a lot of founders that think they’re better than they are – important to accurately assess your strengths

Job of executive is to make themselves obsolete

If you really love tech, do not start a tech company – start it if you want to work on nonstop bullshit – HR, fundraising, interpersonal employee issues, working with gov’t regulators

Podcast notes: Stanford prof Andrew Huberman on all things cannabis and weed (1000x more powerful than your body’s natural cannabinoids)

Contains # of psychoactive compounds, main one is THC, also CBD (cannabidiol), also CBN (cannabinol)

THC = largely responsible for psychoactive fx of cannabis
CBD / CBN = profound effects, but not same altered perceptions / moods

“High” = number of changes in brain and body, some of which are actually result of CBD but this is not widely known

Cannabis plant has 400+ biologically active compounds

1 Sativa
2 Indica
3 Ruderalis – not often consumed; not widely known
4 hybrids of all three

Sativa taller longer plant, Indica is shorter stouter, different morphologies

Sativa = more stimulant, invigorated and alert, not as sedative, reported heightened focus / creativity, less susceptible to pain / noxious stimuli, “head biased effect”

Indica = more full body effect, full body relaxation, sedative effect, state of sleep, relieve anxiety, less stimulant
**Indica = “in the couch”

Many hybrid strains
Growers are growing strains with very nuanced effects on brain and body

**Now there’s type 1, type 2, type 3 for any given eg indica, sativa, hybrid – differing THC/CBD ratios
Type 1 = THC>CBD
Type 2 = more balanced THC:CBD
Type 3 = CBD>THC

Why is there any effect (of weed) at all?

**Top 3 most used drugs – #1 alcohol, #2 nicotine (1-2B users), #3 cannabis
Caffeine would be above all 3 if it were considered a drug

**From early conception (still in womb), you have cannabinoid receptors – because body has endogenous cannabinoids (EC) which you make from conception to death
Cannabis has compounds that bind to those same cannabinoid receptors —> biological fx
**THC / CBD bind to those receptors with greater affinity, have greater fx than our endogenous (naturally made) chemicals – 1000x greater potency – your endogenous cannabinoids are out-competed
This is why dependence starts to emerge
This is also why you can experience worse mood, anxiety, etc when not consuming – because your own body’s compounds stop working as well

Similar to how our body makes its own testosterone, but you can take synthetic (artificial) testosterone that gives “super physiological effects” – much stronger than our own body-made testosterone
Same with nicotine + nicotinic receptors

Just because it’s from a plant / naturally occurring does not mean it’s safe or healthy for the human body – depends highly on the plant, compound, person, genetics, etc

Two main kinds of EC (endo cannabinoids)
Released from neurons (nerve cells) – pre-synaptic > post-synaptic – excitation and inhibition
ECs are post-synaptic – they’re a brake on system, adjusting levels
**While marijuana can disrupt short-term memory, these natural ECs can actually strengthen the neuronal connections
ECs work in number of ways, not straight-forward fx

Two kinds of EC receptors – CB1 is highly enriched in brain (found everywhere) / nervous system, CB2 is immune system / liver / genitals
ECs interact with both CB1 and CB2

Cannabis has THC / CBD that potently bind CB1 receptor – 1000x stronger than ECs – “essentially leave ECs dysfunctional”

**Cannabis is fast entering bloodstream = 30 seconds
Faster than alcohol and nicotine
After 30-60 min will have peak concentrations and biological fx
**Effects last 3-4 hours – can depend on familiarity / frequency of use

Lypophilic – affinity for fatty cells, can remain in those cells for long time
**After consumption, typically stay in those cells and can be detected for 80 days (!)

CB1 receptors present in many nerve cells / brain
Sativa acts on those receptors in pre-frontal cortex (PFC)
PFC = brake on amygdala (which detects threats)
**Sativa compounds eg, calm down the amygdala, and ramp up the PFC – seesaw effect – enables states of flow / focus / creativity / elevated mood
Except in some individuals – fx are opposite and can experience intense anxiety / paranoia
THC / CBD simply increase fx (“potentiate”) of your existing systems – thus likely to experience similar effect every time

**No good predictors of how an individual will respond to a given strain – lots of street lore but no scientific proof

**Indica also suppresses amygdala, but also shuts down hippocampus (memory) – indica can harm short and even long-term memory

Brain / body areas impacted
-deficits in memory (reductions in hippocampus activity)
-PFC – activated by sativa, indica turns off (=relaxation, promoting sleep)
-suppression of basal ganglia and cerebellum (action planning, balancing, motor planning and sequencing) – less physically mobile, reddening of eyes, drier mouth, etc
-increase in appetite – high density of CB1 receptors in hypothalamus – narrow focus to food, hypothalamus signaling to gut that regulate blood sugar leading to increases in appetite
-CB1 receptors in spinal cord – can provide some pain relief – big component of this is a perceptive shift of pain (qualitative)

Most studies detail THC amount, but don’t distinguish sativa vs indica strains

Does cannabis increase creativity?
“Depends”
Convergent (synthesis, analysis) vs divergent (brainstorming, exploration) thinking
**When dopamine is high, divergent thinking more likely = throw out lots of disconnected ideas
From review of scientific literature: in professions where creativity is required, find more manic depression (manic = elevated dopamine) and schizophrenia (also elevated dopamine)
**Creativity involves both – first divergent (high dopamine), then convergent (lower dopamine)
Creativity = process, not an event

Note: only 1/2 finished – will add more notes if I finish the rest

Podcast notes – George Yeo’s speech and Q&A at Bukit Timah dialogue

Theme: ASEAN adjusting to geopolitical tides
Talk given April 2022

**ASEAN is consequential because we’re weak, don’t threaten anybody – neighbors much bigger
Succeed by being neutral, soft, friendly to everybody
Most diverse region in world – ethnicity, religion, political systems, languages
Diversity result of geography

SEA is mishmash – find bit of China and India in every country
**Singapore is most ASEAN-ized – because it has more people from all of these countries
Singapore reflects ASEAN

**World going thru interesting period – sense that something big is happening, feeling uneasy, like background easy, like distant thunder

China threatening US dominance
When America talks rules-based order, it’s an American-dominated one

As Asia grows, do not want to be talked down to by Americans or Europeans
Increasing they’re hitting back – you’re not perfect either

When US criticizes China in Xinjiang, China shows what American settlers did to Native Americans

**China prepared for long period of struggle with US

China plays along, but don’t show weakness – dual circulation economy (internal economy robust against foreign interference)
Preparing internationally for de-coupling
Preparing solutions for each potential attack vector – financial system, technology, military

US discomfort that China is rising – non-whites are pushing back
A bit hypocritical – allowed to criticize China but won’t take criticism

India has unique reaction because of its own conflicts with China
1962 – India-China war
India will play its own game – even though US wants it as an ally
India is too big to wanna be dependent on anyone
**There’s no settled India-China border – British drew it with Tibet
Like to put pressure on each other

**Putin wrote thoughtful essay about Ukraine+Russian history – about how Russia begin in Kiev
Putin in KGB watched Soviet Union collapse, became taxi driver, saw how Yeltsin was manipulated by west and oligarchs
He wanted put stop to this
He knew America preferred Russia be broken up further
NATO keeps expanding eastward – Poland, Romania – for long time they’ve suffered under Soviet Union
Kissinger wrote long time ago, Ukraine must always be a buffer state
NATO can’t say they’re against Ukraine joining
Russians asking for formal agreement that Ukraine won’t join – but US / Europe reluctant to give

Both Russia and China expect some storm to come – so they’re making it clear where they can and can’t cooperate

You have situation – US-China which includes South China Sea, Taiwan; on other side Ukraine, future of Europe

ASEAN tries not to get involved
These are big player games
Don’t get involved – there’s no profit to get involved

**ASEAN has overtaken Europe as China’s #1 trading partner – much greater than even US-China trade
China per-capita is low, huge market – China GDP will be size of Europe + America combined
Sense of uneasiness when China is buying up properties, assets
**Suspicion of China is result of rapid change
China not very good at PR – new to them; don’t have facility with English (unlike India which was colonized by Britain)

Philippines has love-hate relationship with America
Many Filipinos have wish to go to America

**Vietnam has love-hate relationship with America and China – 1000 year history with China, have been tributary state
Vietnam language is romanized, but its history is Chinese
Chinese and Vietnamese communist parties have historically had good relationship – settled land border, but quarrel over South China Sea

Thailand – has been successful at balancing external parties
Indonesia – great sense of self, independence

Podcast notes – Ameen Soleimani on RAI and Maker – Epicenter

Guest: Ameen Soleimani – Reflexer Lab; RAI; Spankchain; MolochDao
Podcast: Epicenter

Got into crypto buying mushrooms on Silk Road
Lost money in Mt Gox
Worked at Consensys
Started Spankchain
Started MolochDao
Started Reflexer / RAI

Moloch gave Tornado its first grant – this issue is personal for him

Big Maker / DAI fan through 2018, 2019 – Spankchain couldn’t get bank accounts; cypherpunk money
Wanted to fork it when Maker added USDC (went multicollateral), more centralized governance (to set stability fees)
-right now it’s 20% ETH collateral, 80% USDC
-governance – vote to set interest rates (stability fee)
-DAI was first stablecoin that Ethereum could use that wasn’t volatile
-Nikolai the cofounder didn’t want to peg it, but lost political battle – pragmatists wanted dollar peg to help growth
-Black Thursday (March 2020) – ETH crashed 2x% in 24 hours, added peg stability module to allow minting of DAI for USDC
-Ameen believes USDC is Trojan horse for Ethereum – now USDC is 80%

Now there’s governance proposals to make DAI free floating

RAI is single collateral, only ETH
RAI allows negative interest rates – just changes peg price to incentivize sellers
Transparent rules based engine to stabilize itself, not dependent on peoples’ votes

RAI peg started as pi dollars ($3.14)
When loses peg, say there’s demand for RAI and it goes up 5%, the peg starts to drop at a specified rate; creates incentive for holders to sell RAI to bring the price back to peg
“Money god always wins”

If you’re trying to manipulate price of RAI, it should be expensive for you
Those who are aligned with stabilizing price of RAI stand to make money

RAI referencing dollar still makes it a dollar-denominated asset, subject to dollar strength / weakness

Big RAI price change happened in first 3 weeks – sponsored attack on own system, offered incentives to LP RAI, pumped up price 10-12%
Took 3 weeks to fix it
Rates got to -70% to adjust the RAI price back

Currently you have to pay 14% to hold RAI – so why hold it?
~$15m RAI outstanding – DxDAO was one of holders but negative rates caused them to sell
If you care about decentralization / not being blacklisted, RAI might be for you

RAI can only ever be backed by ETH – can’t change that anymore
Even stETH depends somewhat on Lido governance

A better opportunity is to make more RAI-like things – stable coins that aren’t pegged to dollar; mechanisms to stabilize themselves

RAI price started at $3.14 (pi), now it’s around $2.92
RAI isn’t mean reverting – doesn’t matter what starting point was
“Stability is in eye of beholder”

In hyperinflation scenario, RAI should be in equilibrium with rates to borrow DAI, etc

RAI’s controller response time is ~a few months

Ungovernance meme – progressively remove governance over aspects of protocol
Want to automate controller – still figuring it out
System has been in production for 1.5 years
Re: price oracles, system depends on Chainlink – which isn’t ideal

FLX – same as Maker – buyback and burn revenue model; protocol makes money from stability fee and liquidations
Stability fee is 2% – may be locked in forever – Maker uses SF as monetary policy tool, but it’s supposed to reflect price of collateral

Tornado cash OFAC sanction – USDC froze all USDC in those contracts
DAI has $6B USDC
Rune realized need to reduce exposure to USDC
Most effective knob is to reduce redemption price over time, make it progressively less attractive to mint DAI for USDC – RAI has already proven negative rates can work
He wants Maker to reclaim monetary sovereignty for DAI – doesn’t need to be pegged to USD

End game isn’t dollar-denom assets – in time crypto will have own price indexes other than fiats
USD reference for now is easy, liquid, stable

Brian — USDC is obvious target to control / regulate crypto

Vitalik article on Terra — if stablecoin can’t unwind in a down market, it’s basically a Ponzi scheme

Friederike – feels like mainly an oracle issue – main reason we don’t have real world assets – no good price feeds

Ameen – When ETH hits $75K, decentralized stable coins can scale – maybe we’re still in experiment stage, it’s a good reason why stable coins should be sub-$100M dollars

Wants to work with devs that can fork RAI and improve / change it