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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And now for something (almost) completely different.

Welcome to Out of Scope, a new sub-series where Austin and Tori Pastore (aka Birb Bernake) riff with guests on hot takes from the frontiers of tech, finance, policy, and whatever else is the flavor of the week In this debut episode, they sit down with Austin Campbell to discuss... quite a few things: running stablecoin reserves, repealing the 17th Amendment, why banks resemble cartels, insider trading, market structure, why regulators should be paid more and held to higher standards, modernizing the BSA, and—most importantly—a definitive ranking of video conferencing tools.

00:00 - Introducing Tori

01:24 - Chinese Peptides Explained

02:45 - GLP 1 Hype Cycle

05:40 - Peptides and Food Science

10:49 - Enter Austin Campbell

16:11- Stablecoin Reserve Rules

20:35 - Gold Doom Scenarios

22:59 - Banks' Payment Monopoly

34:38 - AI Lobbying and EA critiques

38:20 - Prediction Markets Incentives

43:59 - Fixing Regulator Accountability

47:39 - Prediction Markets

48:47 - Market Manipulation Debate

59:54 - Perps Versus Futures

01:02:51 - Assassination Markets Debate

01:06:21 - Austin's Magic Wand Reforms

01:10:40 - Blooper Reel

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In this episode, Austin chats with Mert about why privacy is becoming essential for crypto and on-chain finance. They discuss how ZK-based privacy works via shielded pools, commitments, proofs, and nullifiers, contrasting it with Monero’s probabilistic obfuscation. Mert explains Zcash’s renewed adoption through improved usability, macro and regulatory shifts, and fairer historical distribution. He argues privacy layers fail when they lack tangible benefits, and outlines a new fully on-chain, composable, atomic privacy protocol for Solana built with Light Protocol’s compression approach, including permissionless and enterprise “zones” with configurable compliance features and reduced MEV via encrypted swaps.

00:00 - Why Privacy Matters

03:05 - Zcash And ZK Origins

06:26 - How Shielded Pools Work

09:56 - Why Zcash Broke Out

15:52 - Why Privacy Layers Fail

19:47 - Solana Privacy Protocol

22:57 - Composability Breakthrough

25:51 - Go-To-Market Plan

30:50 - Compliance And Zones

32:40 - Onchain Versus Off Chain

34:58 - Zcash And Solana’s Future

40:29 - Bitcoin Privacy And Quantum

43:48 - Closing And Where To Find

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In this episode, Austin chats with Seth (Cake Wallet) about why privacy is gaining traction after years of being niche, tracing Seth’s entry through Monero and other privacy-preserving products. They compare Zcash’s seemingly influencer-driven pump with Monero’s quieter but rising real-world usage, discuss Cake Wallet’s UX-driven approach (including enforced auto-shielding for Zcash), and debate how criminal adoption can actually validate that privacy tools work in adversarial settings while emphasizing legitimate use cases and storytelling. They explore why app-layer privacy on major L1s has weak adoption versus privacy-native L1s, the importance of defaults, and what’s next for privacy in DeFi and stablecoins.

00:00 - Seth’s Personal and Professional Privacy Journey

05:53 - Zcash vs Monero Adoption

09:51 - Crime Compliance and Privacy Ethics

15:25 - Why Privacy-Preserving Wallet UX Has Lagged

20:49 - Privacy L1s vs. App-Layer Privacy

27:30 - What’s Next Private DeFi

30:07 - Why Monero Has Survived CEX Delistings

32:35 - Privacy in the Age of AI Surveillance

41:51 - Conclusion

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In this episode, Austin chats with Emmett Hollyer about the evolution and future of Solana Mobile. They reflect on how the successes and missteps of the Saga phone informed the more refined Seeker, with a focus on improvements in design, pricing, and usability. Emmett discusses scaling production to meet over 100,000 preorders, strategies for attracting developers, and the rationale behind launching a token to align incentives across the ecosystem. The conversation also explores plans to expand beyond in-house devices through partnerships with Android manufacturers, positioning Solana Mobile as a broader crypto platform rather than just a hardware company.

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In this episode, Austin chats with Rahul Jain (Head of Trading at Ellipsis Labs) to explore the evolution of market making in crypto. Rahul discusses what gives crypto market makers an edge, why being early matters, and how crypto has created new challenges around MEV, transaction landing, and execution. They explore the future prospects of prop AMMs, perps, MCP, and what it will take for on-chain finance to scale beyond crypto-native users and compete with traditional markets.

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