In this episode, Austin chats with David and Daniil Liberman of Gonka about the case for using crypto to build a permissionless, meritocratic AI compute network focused on inference rather than decentralized training. They argue that centralized AI infrastructure is rapidly concentrating both revenue and compute, and contrast Bitcoin’s immutable, open rules with corporate systems whose promises can change. With Bitcoin as their north star, Gonka’s protocol aims to verify inference outputs and validate the underlying hardware to guard against fraud, censorship, and model substitution, using proof-of-work-like measurements of real, always-on hardware rather than proof-of-stake incentives.

00:00 - Why Crypto for AI

03:10 - Inference Over Training

05:02 - Bitcoin as Compute Incentives

07:21 - OpenRouter Critiques

11:36 - Open Source and Safety

18:51 - How Gonka Works

20:14 - Verifiable Inference Proof

24:22 - Privacy and Encryption

29:07 - Decentralized Training Roadmap

34:16 - Keeping Frontier Labs Honest

42:44 - More on Why Bitcoin Provides an Ideal Compute Model

44:23 - Where to Learn More

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In this episode, Austin chats with Declan from Aurora Labs about building on NEAR’s Intents architecture. Declan explains why intents go beyond “a better bridge UI" and how Aurora Intents actually work, enabling one-click cross-chain journeys. They discuss how the protocol helps create liquidity, adoption metrics (over $21B lifetime volume, about $1B monthly), and use cases across wallets, neobanks, payments, RWAs, and more. The conversation also explores inherent cross-chain risks, as highlighted by a Litecoin reorg double-spend incident, and the need for insurance-like protections for onchain products.

0:00 - Aurora Intents Overview

02:57 - Intents vs Bridges

05:21- Solver Network Explained

06:23 - Aurora Intents’ Behind the Scenes Flow

07:43 - Liquidity and Market Making

08:55 - Real World Use Cases

11:25 - Confidential Intents

16:11 - Intents’ Speed Tradeoffs and Risks

17:30 - Litecoin Incident Earlier This Year

19:51 - Liability and Insurance

26:08 - Future Verticals for Intents

28:36 - Where to Learn More

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In this episode, Austin and Tori join David Hoffman (Bankless) to talk about "anything but crypto." Their conversation spans longevity and mind-uploading, the challenges of changing opinions in public, and how modern media incentives distort nuanced ideas. They also discuss social media, the future of long-form content, AI risk and alignment, what it means to “win” the AI race, regulatory uncertainty, and ... yes, David's ideas around fitness.

00:00 - Welcome and intro

01:46 - How Do You Want to Live?

06:17 - Changing Your Mind as a Public Figure

09:35 - Media Distortion Effects

14:34 - Quality of Content vs Virality

16:33 - Yudkowsky and AI Doom

24:58 - Base Models' Values

27:55 - China and AI's Moral Core

30:01 - What Winning the AI Race Means

36:46 - Why CLARITY Stalled

41:47 - Hypertrophy and Longevity

44:23 - Conclusion

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