David Phelps on DAOs, On-Chain Contests, and Web3 Entertainment

Exploring the AI Rainforest: Denis from Upscale and StormTrade

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of decentralized trading with Denis, founder of two innovative platforms reshaping Web3 finance. We explore how Upscale is revolutionizing the prop trading model by bringing it on-chain and making it accessible through Telegram and web platforms, while StormTrade continues to dominate as the leading perpetual DEX on the TON blockchain with over $4.6 billion in trading volume. Key Topics Discussed - Denis's Background & Journey into Crypto - Learning Solidity & Smart Contract Development - The Birth of StormTrade - The Upscale Vision - What is Prop Trading? - Upscale's Unique Value Proposition - AI Integration & Trading Tools - 2026 Roadmap - Zeru x Upscale Partnership Get started: Visit https://zpass.ai to mint your zPass and claim your promo code, then head to https://upscale.trade to activate your benefits. Key Quotes "Upscale is an alpha monetization platform. If you have trading alpha, you can monetize it." - Denis "You can never improve your existing processes with Web3. You need to reinvent how your core product works because blockchain wouldn't help you improve by just plugging it into your database." - Denis "The most important thing traders need is alpha-ness - having an edge over the market - and consistency in money management." - Denis Resources & Links Upscale - Website: https://upscale.trade - X: https://twitter.com/upscale_trade - Farcaster: Upscale official account StormTrade - Website: https://storm.trade Zeru / zPass - Website: https://zpass.ai - Mint your zPass and check your zScore for exclusive Upscale benefits Episode Timestamps - 0:00 - Intro & zPass sponsor message - 1:27 - Denis's background and journey into crypto - 5:43 - Learning Solidity and smart contract development - 11:30 - Building StormTrade - 22:42 - The problem Upscale solves - 27:02 - What is prop trading? - 34:54 - Upscale's unique approach - 40:03 - AI integration and trading tools - 48:35 - 2026 roadmap for both platforms - 51:08 - Zeru x Upscale partnership benefits - 53:40 - Closing thoughts

Building Community-Driven AGI with Oleg Golev from Sentient

Episode SummaryIn this episode, we dive deep into the world of decentralized AI with Oleg Golev, Technical Product Manager at Sentient. We explore how Sentient is building open infrastructure for community-driven AGI, challenging the centralized approach of companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.Key Topics DiscussedThe Mission: Decentralizing AI Development * Why AI development shouldn't be concentrated in closed labs * The extractive nature of current AI giants and their betrayal of open principles * Building sustainable incentive systems for open-source AI contributors Revolutionary Technology: Roma (Recursive Open Meta Agent) * Introduction to recursive agents vs. traditional iterative approaches * How Roma solves the "context rot" problem plaguing current AI systems * State-of-the-art performance beating Gemini 2.5 Pro, ChatGPT, and Perplexity * The potential for amplifying smaller language models through recursive structures The Grid Ecosystem * Sentient's core product: a protocol connecting developers, artifacts, and infrastructure * Open-source monetization models that reward contributors * Partnerships with major projects like Composio and ConfidentAI * How developers can build, fork, and monetize AI applications Dobby: The World's First Fingerprinted AI Model * Community-built model co-owned by 700,000+ people * Advanced AI alignment techniques without compromising safety or benchmarks * Fingerprinting technology for model verification and ownership * Vision for customizable AI personalities and beliefs Technical Deep Dives * Context rot and why iterative agents fail at long-horizon tasks * AI alignment as a solution to safety challenges * The infrastructure question: decentralized vs. centralized compute * Blockchain as a trust layer for sustainable AI development Looking Ahead * Upcoming partnerships with top-tier research labs * The formal launch of Sentient's blockchain protocol * Building the "Linux of AI" - open-source alternatives to closed AI products * Four papers accepted to NeurIPS, the premier AI research conference Notable Quotes"AI could not be contained, controlled, and densely concentrated within one entity. AI is so powerful of a technology that should not be the case."- Oleg Golev"We want to create an environment where people come and contribute and work on [AI artifacts] and get the ownership and contribution attribution that is fair."- Oleg Golev"The entire world runs on Linux... there is no open source product solutions for people to take, customize, build for local hosting, for customization, for privacy reasons."- Oleg GolevResources Mentioned- Roma Deep Research: Sentient's state-of-the-art recursive agent framework- Sentient Chat: Demo application showcasing Grid ecosystem capabilities - Dobby: Community-owned, fingerprinted AI model family- Grid Protocol: The core ecosystem connecting developers and AI artifactsConnect with Sentient - Website: https://sentient.xyz or https://sentient.foundation - Follow on X: https://x.com/SentientAGI or - Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sentientagi/ - Explore their research papers and latest releases---Take Action: Unlock Your On-Chain ReputationSpeaking of revolutionary AI and blockchain technology, your crypto wallet already has a reputation that protocols are tracking - but you're not getting credit for it. That's where zScore and zPass come in.zScore measures your on-chain reputation, while zPass turns it into real value - lower fees, higher yields, and better deals across DeFi. Mint once and unlock thousands in potential savings.If you're tired of being treated like a bot when you're a real user, visit https://zpass.ai to learn more about zScore and zPass, and get on the zPass whitelist today.Ready to get the credit you deserve for your on-chain activity? Your reputation is already being tracked - now make it work for you.

David Phelps on DAOs, On-Chain Contests, and Web3 Entertainment

In this episode, we sit down with David Phelps, co-founder of JokeRace, to discuss his unique approach to solving community engagement problems in Web3. David shares insights from his previous company Forum, which revolutionized tutoring through technology, and how those lessons informed his work in the crypto space. Episode Highlights: * DAO Failures & Solutions: David explains why traditional DAO voting fails (using CryptoTheGame as a counter-example) and how JokeRace's gamified approach drives participation through friendly competition * Vote and Earn Mechanics: Deep dive into JokeRace's on-chain voting system where participants buy votes, contribute to reward pools, and earn based on backing winners - generating nearly $2M in volume in 5 weeks * Reputation Systems: Discussion of how on-chain voting data creates permissionless reputation building, with examples like MegaETH using JokeRace participation data for NFT drops * AI Perspectives: David's nuanced take on AI as a democratizing force (comparing it to cars vs. horseback riding) while highlighting surveillance concerns and creative applications Guest: David Phelps, Co-founder of JokeRace Social: @divine_economy | @jokerace_io

Nikhil Raghuveera on Building the Compliance Layer for DeFi

In this episode, Derek sits down with Nikhil Raghuvira, co-founder and CEO of Predicate, to explore how policy infrastructure is being built for blockchain applications. Coming from a background in public policy at institutions like the Atlantic Council and the Celo Foundation, Nikhil brings a unique perspective on encoding values into code. Predicate is developing a framework that allows developers to define and enforce compliance rules on-chain—including AML checks, geo-restrictions, and behavioral limits—in a composable way. The conversation covers Nikhil's journey from policy to protocol, how Predicate enables sub-second transaction-level policy enforcement, and their partnerships with data providers like TRM Labs and Chainalysis. Key topics include: - Building policy infrastructure for DeFi, RWAs, and privacy applications - How on-chain compliance differs from traditional blockchain analytics - The technical architecture behind programmable transaction rules - Why transactions themselves express values and choices - The future of privacy-preserving financial products on public blockchains Whether you're building on-chain applications or interested in the intersection of policy and blockchain technology, this episode offers valuable insights into the infrastructure enabling compliant Web3 financial products.

Saushank on How AI is Making Blockchain Relevant

In this episode of "Exploring the AI Rainforest," host Derek speaks with Saushank, founder of PitchPilot, an AI-driven platform helping founders refine their investor pitches. Saushank shares his journey discovering AI tools years before ChatGPT's public release and explains how he sees AI and blockchain technologies converging. He discusses how PitchPilot uses smart contracts to create agent personas that give feedback to founders, including verified personas of actual investors. Saushank also explores his involvement with GigaBrain, an AI-powered crypto trading platform using agent architecture to replicate hedge fund operations. Throughout the conversation, they discuss the cooling hype around crypto and AI, why smaller teams can now build powerful products, and how AI is making it harder for projects without real value to succeed in the market. * Website: https://myzscore.ai * Get your zScore: https://app.myzscore.ai * Learn how to build with zScore: https://zpass.myzscore.ai * Saushank: https://x.com/saushank_ ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.