Unblock'd

Why TradFi Has to Come to Crypto, Not the Other Way Around, with Richard Brown from R3 Labs

Richard Brown is the CEO of R3, the company behind the Corda blockchain, one of the most widely deployed permissioned blockchains in institutional finance. In this episode, Richard explains why R3 has pivoted from private enterprise blockchain to building on-chain distribution infrastructure for real-world assets, and why Solana is where that bet is being placed. We cover: * Why $300 billion in stablecoins are earning near-zero yield, and what's actually blocking the fix * How Corda enables private institutional networks to connect to permissionless chains * The Corda protocol: what "packaging off-chain yield for on-chain investors" actually means in practice * Why Solana has overtaken Ethereum in RWA growth rate * The compliance-first approach to RWA distribution, and why the gray-area strategy doesn't work for R3 * The "mustard problem": how curation, not choice, will decide who wins RWA distribution * Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), what MicroStrategy-style vehicles actually are, and where the model breaks What it means that banks are finally treating crypto as a normal business line Richard has been in this space since before most institutions were allowed to say the word Bitcoin in a meeting. His perspective on how much has changed, and how much hasn't, is one of the most grounded takes you'll hear. R3: https://r3.com [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa0RYM1RYbHFaVkZYZ1c5aEY5bzhwYjVtc1VYUXxBQ3Jtc0tsTERZQ25LWDNvY3VodHhzUFNNTTZyUzVtMlRsOG01UjNzb08wZEVwem9VcEh0eEMxWThMdHkwRFhyLW83RHZ1UF9GUTJlUVYtcVY2bnZZQWdUeUhzeXlBOWRMQ0U3UDJDSWZRR3hQYWdSVmY1QWo5MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fr3.com%2F&v=Mpt1_xb9OYQ] Unblock'd podcast with Dr. Jemma Green Unblock'd is hosted by Dr. Jemma Green, founder of Powerledger, one of the world's leading blockchain-based energy trading platforms. Subscribe for conversations at the intersection of Web3, crypto, AI, and the real economy. For more information: Visit: https://www.powerledger.io/ [https://www.powerledger.io/] Or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/]

What is the point of this technology? | Arnold Lee, CEO of Sphere Labs

In 2022, Terra Luna collapsed and billions left the crypto ecosystem overnight. For most builders, it was the end. For Arnold Lee, it was a forcing function: if this technology has a point, what is it? His answer was Sphere Labs, a B2B cross-border payments platform that uses stablecoins as internal settlement infrastructure while keeping the experience invisible to end users. Today Sphere processes billions in annual volume across 60 people, serving fintechs and trade finance companies in markets where traditional correspondent banking fails. In this conversation with Jemma Green, Arnold covers: * Finding Bitcoin in middle school, farming online surveys for gift cards, and why he thought it was a loyalty points system tied to a website * How Sphere differs from Stripe, Circle, and every other stablecoin payments company, and why the distinction matters for the $40 trillion B2B cross-border market * Why stablecoins are not a crypto product, they are a payments product that happens to use crypto rails * The systemic risk nobody is modeling: dollar-denominated stablecoins expanding globally as a vampire attack on local monetary sovereignty * Why AI agents exploiting each other in adversarial onchain environments is not a hypothetical, it is an engineering problem happening now * What the GENIUS Act actually changes versus what the industry thinks it changes * The "slowly then all at once" dynamic in frontier payments markets that will be obvious in twelve months and is invisible today Arnold Lee [https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoldhlee] is a CEO of Sphere Labs [https://spherelabs.co/], a fintech infrastructure company building stablecoin‑powered global payments rails for institutions and fintechs. Unblock'd is hosted by Dr. Jemma Green, co-founder and CEO of Powerledger. For more information, visit: https://www.powerledger.io/ [https://www.powerledger.io/] Or connect the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/]

Money Is a Collective Choice | Ryne Saxe on Stablecoin Infrastructure, Currency Access and Building for Optimism

Most people didn't choose their currency. They inherited it. In this episode of Unblock'd, Dr. Jemma Green sits down with Ryne Saxe [linkedin.com/in/rtsaxe], Founder of Eco [https://eco.com/], to talk about what stablecoin infrastructure actually looks like at scale, why currency choice could be the most underpriced idea in crypto, and what it means to build toward optimism. Eco started as the first full-featured stablecoin neobank, backed by a16z, Founders Fund and Pantera Capital. After getting choked out of the US banking system, Ryne rebuilt the company from the ground up as infrastructure for stablecoins. Today Eco runs on Solana, routing stablecoins across chains for fintechs, issuers and institutions. In this episode, we discuss: * How Eco built the first stablecoin neobank and why they shut it down * The technology they built but never got to use * Why stablecoin routing is the problem nobody talks about * What $32 trillion in settled volume still gets wrong * Why institutions are moving faster than anyone knows * Currency choice as a risk mitigator for emerging economies * What it means to build toward optimism when the system keeps saying no Key Quotes from the episode: "Money flows like fluid dynamics. If you give it the opportunity, it will choose the path of least resistance, lowest cost, fastest clearance." — Ryne Saxe "Money is a collective choice and clearly a lot of us are forced into the currency we chose at a young age because we live in a particular place." — Ryne Saxe "If you're an early crypto builder, you have an opportunity to build in a way that bends that outcome toward optimism." — Ryne Saxe About Ryne Saxe Ryne Saxe is the founder and CEO of Eco, a stablecoin infrastructure company routing digital dollars across chains and markets at scale. Eco is backed by a16z [https://a16z.com/], Founders Fund [https://foundersfund.com/] and Pantera Capital [https://panteracapital.com/]and is integrated with Solana [https://solana.com/], among other major chains. Before Eco's infrastructure pivot, Ryne built and launched the first full-featured stablecoin neobank in the US. He studied physics and law before going all in on crypto in 2018. Find Ryne: @rynesaxe on X | Learn more about Eco: eco.com ABOUT Unblock'd: Unblock'd is hosted by Dr. Jemma Green, co-founder of Powerledger and one of the leading voices at the intersection of energy, blockchain and Web3. Each episode goes deep with the builders, founders and thinkers shaping the decentralised future. .................................................................................................................................... For more information on Dr. Jemma Green Visit: https://www.powerledger.io/ [https://www.powerledger.io/] Or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/]

Life is a quest: Web3 gaming, crypto and financial inclusion in LATAM

In a world of AI-generated everything, Nico Del Pino is betting on people. Nico is co-founder and CEO of Ola GG, a Web3 gaming guild with over one million social followers and 100,000 registered users across Latin America. For five years, Ola GG has operated on a radical revenue model: nearly 70% of everything that comes in goes straight back to community members. Key highlights: - Why play-to-earn was a preview of universal basic income - What blockchain actually enables that nothing else can - Why community-first always outlasts product-first - The real reason Web3 gaming hasn't found its breakout hit yet - What stays uniquely human as AI takes over everything else ............................................................................................................................................................................................. Unblock'd podcast with Dr. Jemma Green For more information on Dr. Jemma Green Visit: https://www.powerledger.io/ [https://www.powerledger.io/] Or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen/]

Building the Financial Rails the World Actually Needs

Markets chase narratives, but ecosystems are built on infrastructure. What makes crypto work is not the token price but the systems that unlocks distribution, manage treasury and move capital seamlessly across borders. In this episode of Unblock’d, Jemma Green sits down with Malisha Stanojević [https://rs.linkedin.com/in/malisastanojevic], Founder and CEO of Streamflow [https://streamflow.finance/], a Solana [solana.com]-based platform powering token vesting, staking and onchain treasury operations for Web3 companies. What began as a hackathon project evolved into critical infrastructure used by teams managing token distribution and capital at scale. Along the way, Malisha developed a clear view of what truly matters in crypto and what does not. They discuss 1. Why token distribution is one of the most sensitive layers in Web3 2. The limits of buybacks and revenue share models 3. Yield bearing stablecoins and access to US Treasury returns 4. Why instant global payments and open financial access remain crypto’s strongest use cases 5. How leadership evolves from control to trust This is a thoughtful conversation about capital, alignment and the long-term architecture of decentralised finance. For founders, investors and builders working on Solana and beyond, it offers a grounded perspective on where real value is being created. ................................................................................................................................ Subscribe to Unblock'd. For information on Powerledger, visit: www.powerledger.io [www.powerledger.io] Connect with our host Dr. Jemma Green on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemmagreen ] or X. [https://x.com/msjemmagreen]