In this special episode, we revisit a fireside conversation between Vitalik Buterin and Friederike Ernst at DappCon 2026 in Berlin. They explore the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ), a new vision for Ethereum built around synchronous composability, app chains, and real-time proving.

Following the fireside, Sebastien and Friederike break down the ideas behind the EEZ and discuss what this new paradigm could mean for Ethereum's future.

Topics covered include:

• The Ethereum Economic Zone and synchronous composability

• App chains, privacy networks, and prediction markets

• Ethereum as an economic operating system for the internet

• Sequencing, MEV, and shared liquidity across chains

• Enterprise, government, and institutional use cases

• Why this approach differs from Cosmos, Polkadot, and other ecosystem visions

• The future of Ethereum beyond rollup fragmentation

Links:

Lido: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

Sponsors:

Lido V3 introduces stVaults: a modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer.

Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

Block Space Forum: https://blockspace.forum/

NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Kubi Mensah, CEO and co-founder of Gattaca, the company behind Titan Builder. Kubi sheds light on the highly competitive and often opaque world of Ethereum block building, explaining how Gattaca evolved from a centralized exchange proprietary trading firm to one of the three dominant builders responsible for constructing the vast majority of Ethereum blocks today .
 

 
They dissect the true "journey of a transaction," revealing why over half of all Ethereum transaction value bypasses the public mempool in favor of private order flow auctions and MEV-protection services . Kubi explains the intricate mechanics of top-of-block bidding by high-frequency DeFi arbitrageurs, the necessity of extreme latency optimization, and the "flywheel effect" that makes block building a natural oligopoly . Finally, the discussion turns to the future of the Ethereum roadmap, unpacking how upcoming upgrades like ePBS (enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) and FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists) aim to permanently alter the power dynamics between block builders, validators, and originators .
 
 
Topics

• 04:15 Transitioning from TradFi Trading to Ethereum Block Building
• 09:30 Redefining the Builder: Relays and Order Flow Auctions
• 15:00 Unpacking the Mempool: Public vs. Private Transactions
• 21:45 The Anatomy of a Block & "Top-of-Block" Arbitrage
• 27:10 How Builders Pay Proposers to Win Auctions
• 35:20 The Oligopoly: Why Only 3 Builders Dominate Ethereum
• 42:15 Trust in the Dark Forest: Handling Searcher Bundles
• 49:00 The Convergence of Builders and Solvers
• 55:30 The Impact of ePBS, FOCIL, and Pre-confirmations

Sponsors:

Lido V3 introduces stVaults: a modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer.Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenterBlock Space Forum: https://blockspace.forum/

In this episode, host Sebastian Couture is joined by Torab, CEO of Move Industries, to discuss the tension of radical transparency and the decision to scrap Movement's complex L2 architecture in favor of a sovereign L1 powered by the Move VM. He explains how this transition drastically reduced latency and AWS infrastructure costs while improving the builder experience.The conversation explores Movement's core thesis: "Move is for Money". Torab argues that general-purpose L1s are becoming saturated and that Movement's true product-market fit lies in the Global South, serving nations battling currency devaluation.

They discuss the implementation of AI agents for continuous security auditing, the "Move Alliance" for ecosystem financial alignment, and why the industry must move past "decentralization theater" to offer pragmatic, yield-bearing stablecoin products to users who actually need them.

Finally, Torab teases the upcoming roadmap, including institutional-grade yield on USD, BTC, and Gold. Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 The Movement Turnaround
• 09:30 Why Movement Pivoted
• 15:00 The Move VM & Overcoming Developer Friction
• 21:45 AI Agents for 24/7 Security Audits
• 27:10 The Global South
• 35:20 Currency Devaluation & The Demand for Stablecoins
• 42:15 The Move Alliance
• 49:00 Pragmatism vs. Decentralization
• 55:30 Roadmap: Bringing Yield to USD, BTC, and Gold

Episode Links

• Torab on X: https://x.com/utorabyou
• Movement: https://movementnetwork.xyz/
• NEAR: https://near.ai/

Sponsors:NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, to explore the platform's radical pivot from passive on-chain analytics to active, AI-driven agentic trading. Alex unpacks the technical hurdles of labeling over 500 million addresses, the transition from raw data into harmonized insights, and why true alpha now lies in attribution rather than raw data . He explains how Nansen uses ClickHouse databases and a mix of algorithmic heuristics, agentic teams, and human specialists to maintain the highest industry precision.

The conversation dives deep into the intersection of LLMs and blockchain, exploring how standard AI models lack domain-specific common sense and why Nansen augments them with real-time data and visual "artifacts". Alex introduces "Nansen Gym," a simulated historical replay environment for training trading agents and teases the upcoming release of "Smart Money 2.0", which aims to predict future profitable addresses with 2-3x uplift on precision. Finally, they discuss the existential risks of AI, the striking parallels between open-source AI and early DeFi, and why Alex believes agentic trading will be the absolute default by 2028.

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 Nansen's Evolution & Agentic Trading
• 09:30 Harmonizing Data & The Attribution Layer
• 15:00 Deterministic vs. Inferred Labeling (Uniswap vs. Binance)
• 21:45 Evaluating AI Agents: LLMs as Judges
• 27:10 User Privacy & Public Blockchain Realities
• 35:20 Building a Unified Trading OS
• 42:15 Smart Money 2.0: Predicting Which Wallets Win
• 49:00 The Limitations of Vanilla LLMs in Crypto
• 55:30 Nansen Gym & Time-Traveling AI Agents
• 59:45 The Open Source AI vs. DeFi Parallel

Links

• Alex Svanevik on X: https://x.com/ASvanevik
• Nansen: https://www.nansen.ai/
• NEAR: https://near.ai/

Sponsors:

NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by John Paller, founder of ETH Denver, to reflect on nine seasons of North America's largest Ethereum gathering and where the ecosystem goes next. John shares his "red pill" moment in 2016 and the subsequent realization that Ethereum was not just a corporate efficiency tool, but a way to rewire the global economic system. He discusses the evolution of the Biddle meme and how ETH Denver has become a market-driven aggregator for crypto's shifting narratives, from DeFi summer to the current era of institutional adoption.

They delve into a candid critique of the Ethereum Foundation’s "Infinite Garden" philosophy, with John arguing for more "structural vision" and actionable roadmaps to compete with the aggressive narratives of chains like Solana. The conversation highlights Agentic AI as the ultimate "Trojan Horse" for mass adoption, enabling a future where users interact with sovereign bots rather than complex private keys. Finally, John explains his Regulation Membership proposal to the US Congress, aiming to provide a federal securities exemption for on-chain cooperatives and restore true economic agency to the "little man."

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 Recruitment Tech to Ethereum: John’s Genesis Story
• 09:30 Inventing the "Biddle" Meme at Denver 2018
• 15:00 Is Ethereum a "Neo Casino" or a Settlement Layer?
• 21:45 Critiquing Idealism: The Infinite Garden vs. Reality
• 27:10 Why Solana is Not "Sufficiently Decentralized
• 35:20 Agentic AI: The End of signing Transactions manually
• 42:15 The Roman Catholic Church & Institutional Co-opting
• 49:00 German Cooperative Culture & On-Chain Credit Unions
• 55:30 Regulation Membership & The SEC Challenge
• 59:45 Zero Knowledge Identity & Privacy Rights

Links

• John Paller on X: https://x.com/PallerJohn
• ETH Denver: https://www.ethdenver.com/
• Opolis: https://opolis.co/
• Lido: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter
• NEAR: https://near.ai/

Sponsors:

1. Lido V3 introduces stVaults: modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer. Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

2. NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Sebastian Couture is joined by Chris Yin, CEO of Plume Network, to deconstruct the current state of Real World Assets (RWAs) and why the sector is at a pivotal inflection point. Chris argues that most RWA projects today are functionally "worse on-chain" because they lack liquidity, composability, and the "crypto-native" user experience that made stablecoins successful.

He details how Plume is solving this through a custom L1 stack and the Nest vault protocol, which tokenizes high-yield assets like Brazilian credit card receivables and oil production for a global market.

They explore the friction between traditional finance and DeFi, highlighting why private credit's long duration makes it unsuitable for the "looping" and leverage that drives crypto demand. Chris explains the significance of Plume’s SEC Transfer Agent license and its role in bridging the gap between regulated funds and permissionless rails.

Finally, the conversation tackles the "bleak" vs. "optimistic" future of crypto, asking whether the industry will maintain its core principles of self-custody and decentralization as it searches for a "new daddy" in institutional capital.

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 The Job of a Founder: Finding Change
• 09:30 Crypto Natives vs. TradFi Suites
• 15:00 Stablecoins: The Only RWA That Matters (Today)
• 21:45 The Bottleneck: It’s Not Tokenization, It’s Demand
• 27:10 Why Build an L1 for Assets?
• 35:20 SEC Transfer Agent License Explained
• 42:15 Nest Alpha: Blending Oil, Credit, and T-Bills
• 49:00 Is Leverage Sustainable for Institutions?
• 55:30 The Exodus: Will Crypto Values Survive?

Links

• Chris Yin on X: https://x.com/chriseyin
• Plume Network: https://www.plumenetwork.com/
• Nest: https://nest.plumenetwork.com/
• NEAR: https://near.ai/

Sponsors:
NEAR AI Cloud now lets developers deploy OpenClaw—the rapidly growing open-source AI agent platform—inside Trusted Execution Environments, providing hardware-level encryption with cryptographic attestations. With OpenClaw on NEAR AI Cloud, you can run agents with cloud convenience, but without traditional cloud data exposure. No hardware to manage. No trust assumptions required. Learn more at near.ai.

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Michael Svoboda, CEO of Liquid AG, to discuss Liquity V2 and the launch of the BOLD stablecoin. Michael explains how Liquity maintains a governance-free, immutable architecture to provide "sovereign dollars" that are not dependent on human committees or centralized backstops. He introduces user-set interest rates, a novel DeFi primitive where borrowers determine their own rates to balance their cost of capital against the risk of being redeemed by stablecoin holders.

They explore the technical mechanics of the BOLD stablecoin, its multi-collateral backing of ETH and LSTs, and why the protocol funnels 100% of fees directly to users rather than extracting rent. Michael also shares his analogy of crypto-native stablecoins as "electric engines" that offer a fundamentally different risk profile from traditional banking rails. Finally, the conversation dives into the impact of global regulations like MiCA and why the future of finance belongs to peer-to-peer credit markets.

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 Why Banking is Under Pressure
• 09:30 From V1 to Liquity V2
• 15:00 User-Set Rates Explained21:45 Redemptions & Peg Stability
• 27:10 Collateral Risk: ETH & LSTs
• 35:20 Cefi vs. Defi Risk Spectrum
• 42:15 Is Immutability Dogmatic?
• 49:00 Revenue Distribution & Self-Sustainability
• 55:30 Non-USD Stables & Global Shifts

Links

• Michael on X: https://x.com/svobodamichael
• Liquity: https://www.liquity.org/
• Bluechip: https://bluechip.org/
• Lido: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

Sponsors:

• Lido V3 introduces stVaults: modular staking infrastructure that lets builders and institutions deploy custom staking vaults, while staying anchored to stETH as a shared liquidity layer. Get started building with Lido V3 today: https://lido.fi/stvaults?mtm_campaign=epicenter

In this episode, host Friederike Ernst is joined by Thomas Thiery, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, to discuss EIP-7805 and the implementation of FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists). Thomas explains how the rise of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) has created a centralized builder market where a few actors now control over 85% of Ethereum's block production, creating a dangerous bottleneck for censorship. FOCIL addresses this by empowering a decentralized committee of 16 validators to mandate transaction inclusion, making any block that ignores these lists invalid.

They explore the "Tornado Cash" moment and the risks of "silent censorship" for competitive or regulatory reasons. Thomas explains why FOCIL intentionally prioritizes the public mempool over MEV-heavy transactions to prevent the system from being co-opted. Finally, the conversation looks at the future of the Ethereum roadmap, including the Osaka fork and the technical trade-offs between inclusion lists and long-term privacy solutions like encrypted mempools.

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & FOCIL

• 04:15 MEV & Centralization

• 09:30 The Builder-Searcher Pipeline

• 15:00 Silent Censorship Risks

• 21:45 FOCIL Architecture & Committees

• 27:10 Validity Rules for Attestors

• 35:20 Spam Protection & Invalid TXs

• 42:15 FOCIL vs. Encrypted Mempools

• 49:00 EIP-7805 Status & Fork Timelines

• 55:30 Future: PQC & ZK EVM

Links

• Thomas Thiery on X: https://x.com/soispoke

• Ethereum Foundation: https://ethereum.foundation/

• EIP-7805 (FOCIL): https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7805

• Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

In this episode, we are joined by Zach Abrams, CEO of Bridge, to unpack the infrastructure behind the next generation of global payments. Zach discusses Bridge’s mission to move stablecoins beyond mere trading use cases and into core financial services, a vision that recently led to its landmark acquisition by Stripe . He explains how stablecoins function as an innovation at every layer of the money stack, enabling payments that are fundamentally faster and cheaper than legacy systems like ACH or SEPA.

They delve into the technical "puzzle pieces" of payments, from the inefficiencies of FBO bank accounts to the "cheat code" of compounding growth in the stablecoin sector. Zach introduces the concept of Stablecoin Orchestration and details why the current USDC/USDT duopoly is unaligned with high-velocity payments due to rent-seeking burn fees and AUM-focused models . Finally, the conversation explores the future of consumer finance, where non-custodial wallets act as bank replacements and a pluralistic ecosystem of local, company-issued stablecoins challenges the dominance of the US dollar

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 Legacy Rails vs. Stablecoin Innovation
• 09:30 The "Cash App" Hack & Payments Creativity
• 15:00 Why Bridge Joined Stripe
• 21:45 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Startup Needs
• 27:10 Stablecoin Orchestration & Issuance Explained
• 35:20 The Duopoly Problem: Why USDC/USDT Isn't Enough
• 42:15 Orthogonal Competition: The "Europe" of Stablecoins
• 49:00 Wallets as the New Primary Bank Account
• 55:30 Regrets of a "Child of the Depression" Founder

Links

• Zach Abrams on X: https://x.com/ZCAbrams
• Bridge: https://bridge.xyz
• Stripe: https://stripe.com
• Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

In this episode, recorded live at Buidl Europe 2026, host Sebastian Couture leads a panel with Ben Lakoff (Bankless Ventures), Richard Muirhead (Fabric Ventures), Aurora Orellana (G20 Strategies), and Matthew Arrow (Dark Forest). Together, they tackle the existential question facing the industry: can Cypherpunk values like self-custody and permissionless survive as multi-billion dollar institutions become the primary drivers of adoption?

The discussion delves into the tension between individual sovereignty and the regulatory reach of organizations like the FATF, which they describe as a "Goliath" accountable to no one. They explore the concept of the "DeFi Mullet" a centralized user interfaces powered by decentralized backends and how privacy tech is becoming essential not for institutions seeking defensible competitive moats. Finally, the conversation looks at how global competition between jurisdictions will define the next decade of financial freedom and what it truly means to be a Cypherpunk in 2026. 

Topics

• 00:00 Intro & Context
• 04:15 Cypherpunk Values in an Institutional World
• 09:30 Permissionless Deployment & Self-Custody
• 15:00 The Regulatory Spectrum: KYC vs. Freedom
• 21:45 The FATF & Global Financial Surveillance
• 27:10 Jurisdictional Competition & Portability
• 35:20 Selling Privacy to Institutions vs. Individuals
• 42:15 The DeFi Mullet & Atomic Settlement
• 49:00 Barriers to Entry: Legacy Mainframes & Career Risk
• 55:30 What it Means to be a Cypherpunk in 2026

Links

• Ben Lakoff on X: https://x.com/benlakoff
• Richard Muirhead on X: https://x.com/RichardMuirhead
• Matthew Arrow on X: https://x.com/mattarrow 
• Bankless Ventures: https://bankless.ventures/
• Fabric Ventures: https://www.fabric.vc/
• Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/
  

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io

In this episode, host Brian Crain is joined by Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, to discuss the exchange's rapid ascent and its ambitious roadmap for 2026. Gracy shares her journey from a mathematics background and journalism into the C-suite of a top-tier exchange, detailing Bitget's growth from a team of 150 to over 2,200 employees. She outlines the concept of the "Universal Exchange" (UEX) a unified platform where the boundaries between crypto, tokenized equities, and commodities effectively disappear.

They explore how Bitget is leveraging Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI-driven advisory tools like Get Agent to redefine user acquisition and trading intelligence. Gracy also provides a candid outlook on the "altcoin fading" phenomenon, arguing that the market is shifting toward blue-chip assets and real-world utility. Finally, they discuss the immense challenges of global regulatory compliance, including Bitget’s priorities for securing MiCA licenses and navigating a potential entry into the complex US market.

Topics

- 00:00 Intro & Crypto Beginnings

- 05:45 The Origin of Bitget

- 10:15 The "Universal Exchange" (UEX) Vision

- 16:30 Tokenized Stocks vs. TradFi Brokers

- 22:00 Competition: CEX, DEX, & Robinhood

- 28:15 AI in Trading: Get Agent & GEO

- 34:40 The State of Altcoins in 2026

- 41:00 Global Compliance: MiCA & US Markets

- 55:30 2026 Market Predictions

Links

- Gracy Chen on X: https://x.com/GracyBitget

- Bitget: https://www.bitget.com/

- Bitget Wallet: https://web3.bitget.com/

- Gnosis: https://gnosis.io/

Sponsors: Gnosis: Gnosis has been building core decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem since 2015. With the launch of Gnosis Pay last year, we introduced the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Start leveraging its power today at http://gnosis.io