Deeply Intents

Zaki Manian In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Zaki Manian [Cosmos co-founder, Bootstrap board member, and Zcash contributor]. We start with Zaki's AI-native development workflow: he's running 7-8 projects simultaneously using Claude, Codex, and Gemini in parallel, burning through 500M tokens a day. He breaks down which model is best for what and why most developers he's hired in his career are now outperformed by Opus 4.6. From there, Zaki gives the first public podcast account of the Zcash governance crisis from a board member's perspective, how the team navigated it, what role AI played in the negotiations, and why Zcash is suddenly a credible store-of-value contender this cycle. We also get into what the privacy landscape looks like by end of year. We wrap up with the state of crypto startups post-Genius Act, why agentic finance is the only exciting build direction, and Zaki's new framework: two years of building is now two weekends, so why are founders still sending decks instead of TestFlights?

Timestamps

(00:00) - Cosmos, Zcash, enterprise blockchains origins

(01:45) - Sanctuary technology

(03:41) - Spicy AI takes

(06:22) - Ideas are scarce and software is cheap

(08:38) - Finding more ai forward teams to build with

(12:41) - AI reasoning ability vs. regurgitating training set

(15:37) - Specific use cases for each model

(21:02) - AI as a strategy advisor

(22:41) - From AI to Zcash, a story

(26:19) - Non-profit organizations created

(28:10) -From Zashi to ZODL

(31:45) - Challenges with valuing revenue

(33:09) - The era of super personal software

(36:07) - Changes in whale behavior this cycle

(37:27) - Zcash is the standard for the next era

(39:11) - Encrypted Bitcoin

(43:28) - The narrative is simple

(47:17) - Credible fundamentals around quantum

(53:24) - Privacy modalities of the future

(56:21) - Intents replacing smart contracts

(58:36) - How are you going to do growth?

(1:00:46) - New ways to build startups

(1:06:04) - No more pitch decks

(1:10:59) - New generation of AI native builders

(1:12:53) - We are going to have way more startups

Disclaimer
Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Gwart, host of The Gwart Show. We kick off with Gwart's knack for shitposting and the art of playing the anon game, then get into reflections on this cycle, including whether VC coins are actually dead or just suffering from massive token overhang. From there, we spend time on the craft of podcasting before pivoting to the big picture: the Ethereum roadmap, whether ETH works as a store of value, Bitcoin's quantum FUD, and what actually makes crypto useful in the long run.

Timestamps

(00:00) - pure shitposting and podcasting

(01:38) - social slashing with a machete

(03:21) - the anon game

(06:32) - reflections on this cycle

(10:22) - massive token overhang

(13:24) - the trenches were cutthroat  

(16:45) - the categorical imperative of tokens

(19:11) - Avalanche is not worth $15B

(20:43) - the demand might not come in the long run

(23:51) - on podcasting

(38:06) - skeptical on ETH as a store of value

(49:41) - bitcoin quantum FUD/ conviction

(56:32) - coordinating a post quantum upgrade

(59:17) - on bitcoin l2s

(1:03:52) - "anything useful will come to bitcoin"

(1:05:52) - you couldn't do it in a decentralized way

(1:12:58) - bitcoin is the cool thing

(1:20:38) - defi summer wasn't gonna last forever

(1:23:09) - this take time

Disclaimer
Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

Why are crypto options still so underdeveloped? In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Nick Foster, Co-founder of Derive (fka Lyra). We start by unpacking why options are worth pursuing in crypto and what drove Variant's recent investment in Derive. From there, we dig into Derive's institutional focus, how they think about the competitive options landscape, and what "10/10" means for the protocol. We also speed through Derive's portfolio margin and liquidation systems, plus how their tech stack shapes product decisions. We wrap up with the story behind the rebrand from Lyra to Derive and Nick's learnings from building through multiple market cycles.

Timestamps

(00:00) - Options are the most programmable financial primitive

(01:56) - Variant investment in Derive

(04:14) - The institutional focus

(09:10) - Having conversations with institutions

(10:20) - All of these ingredients fall into place

(12:53) - The competitive landscape

(14:41) - 10/10 & ADLs

(17:20) - How Portfolio Margin works

(19:09) - Liquidation system innovation

(21:57) - The Security Module

(25:07) - Derive Chain

(26:28) - Build a great product

(36:16) - Rebrand from Lyra to Derive

(40:55) - Synthetix's attempt to acquire derive

(46:43) - Learnings whilst building

(47:54) - Think carefully about incentives

(50:08) - Having a proactive mindset

(52:27) - Using AI to build

(54:44) - Encouraging side projects

(56:30) - Visions of agents trading options

Disclaimer
Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Alex Watts (ThogardPvP) from Fastlane. We begin the episode by discussing the concept of kingmaking in crypto ecosystems - why its important and the risks associated with king entrenching. Next we shift the conversation to the Monad central bank thesis as in the Monad Foundation using its treasury of MON to control yield via staking. Thereafter we shift the discussion towards risk curators and vaults exploring why they are popular. We finish the episode discussing enterprise adoption patterns and what is and what is not likely to work for institutions. 

Timestamps 

(00:00) - On Kingmakers 
(03:07) - Annie are you okay? 
(05:07) - VCs won't invest in 17 LSTs 
(05:57) - Paradigm is the best Kingmaker in the business 
(09:11) - Wealth creation event for native apps 
(16:18) - The Kingmaker and application incentives 
(21:29) - Preserve the ability for competition to disrupt incumbents 
(27:13) - The Monad Central Bank thesis 
(31:17) - This gonna sound really bad 
(37:57) - Central banks are centralized 
(45:02) - They're just professionals 
(48:21) - Loop it and leave it 
(52:24) - Programmatic interest rate policy 
(54:40) - Whats up with vaults and risk curators 
(57:07) - Glazing the curators 
(1:02:13) - Institutional adoption 
(1:03:11) - Prevailing view in crypto VC 
(1:07:17) - What's important in the institutional game 
(1:14:49) - Fast finality and short block times 
(1:16:14) - RWAs have oracles, its nuanced 
(1:22:53) - The island of misfit toys 
(1:24:42) - Ethereum is the silver of crypto

Disclaimer
Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.

In this episode of Deeply Intents, I chat with Alex Watts (ThogardPvP), Co-founder and CEO of Fastlane. We start by breaking down Fastlane's recent deal with Chainlink for their product Atlas—ThogardPvP walks through how it was structured and who actually got paid (spoiler: no one got rich). From there, we get into the emerging trend of acquihires and licensing deals in crypto and why they might be setting venture investing back. That leads us into a broader conversation about the two types of founders in tech: those who are genuinely mission-driven versus those treating "founder" as a career path for status and quick extraction. We also talk about why right now might be the best time for VCs to allocate to crypto, before closing out with a tour through Silicon Valley history—military-industrial spending, the case for a DARPA for crypto, and what it means to be a gardener in Ethereum's infinite garden.

Timestamps

(00:00) - Founder and CEO of Fastlane
(01:27) - Chainlink acquires Atlas
(06:32) - The way the deal was structured
(12:12) - No one got rich off the deal
(16:39) - Oppose the license and aquihire model
(21:53) - This is what regulations are for
(26:03) - Focused on Monad
(27:50) - Founders make a choice
(29:30) - A little bit of a tangent
(31:10) - Things startup founders say
(34:57) - Not all VCs are the same
(39:15) - The sociopaths are scamming in AI right now
(42:15) - Best time to allocate capital to crypto is now
(45:18) - It's difficult to not be dumb
(46:33) - Piero Scaruffi's "A History of Silicon Valley"
(49:00) - Internet Capital Markets
(51:31) - Garden Curator to King Maker

Disclaimer
Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as financial, technical, or legal advice. The host does contract work for Heliax, a public goods laboratory, focusing on Anoma.