Does Decentralization Matter? | Kevin Owocki & Cooper Turley
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is most important in crypto? What wins out in the end? Today, we find out if user experience is more important than decentralization. As we progress through crypto's cambrian explosion, we often observe the tradeoff between immediate product viability and a 'no cutting corners' approach.
Taking the side of UX & a product-first mentality is Cooper Turley, a champion of the creator economy. Kevin Owocki—himself a schelling point for public goods—is defending decentralization and the merits of a values-first approach.
While exploring the roots of this tradeoff, we'll learn more about where we are as an ecosystem and where we are inevitably heading.
------
📣 ZERION | Trade Across 7 Networks and 500+ protocols
https://bankless.cc/Zerion
------
🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/
🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
👀 POLYGON | LAYER 2 DEFI
https://bankless.cc/Polygon
❎ ACROSS | BRIDGE TO LAYER 2
https://bankless.cc/Across
🦊 METAMASK | THE CRYPTO WALLET
https://bankless.cc/metamask
💳 LEDGER | THE CRYPTO LIFE CARD
https://bankless.cc/Ledger
🧙♂️ ALCHEMIX | SELF REPAYING LOANS
https://bankless.cc/Alchemix
🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED FUNDING
https://bankless.cc/UniGrants
------
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
5:45 Decentralization vs. Usability
10:15 Learnings with New Users
19:19 How Will Crypto Change the World?
25:10 Not Compromising on Values
32:25 Do Users Care About Values?
36:00 Where/When to Compromise
39:13 The Importance of DevTooling
41:00 Crypto's Trojan Horse
43:36 What Good UX Looks Like
48:55 Lowest Hanging UX-Fruit
50:39 How This All Comes to Fruition
53:11 2022 Crypto W Wishlist
------
Resources:
Cooper on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Cooopahtroopa
Kevin on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/owocki
Foundation:
https://foundation.app/
Soundxyz:
https://www.sound.xyz/
Mirror:
https://twitter.com/viamirror
Snapshot:
https://snapshot.org/#/
Gnosis Safe:
https://gnosis-safe.io/
-----
Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here:
https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this special episode that we are going to bring you here live on the |
| 0:13.0 | bankless YouTube and later on the bankless podcast today. |
| 0:16.3 | We are talking about the conversation of do users care about decentralization. |
| 0:21.6 | How do we onboard 8 billion people into crypto while also preserving our crypto values? |
| 0:28.3 | Is that even possible? |
| 0:29.9 | Is that a thing? |
| 0:30.9 | And so today I'm excited to bring Kevin Awaki and Cooper Terri Lee to people who are on |
| 0:37.7 | differing ends of the spectrum where Cooper is really on the frontier of how crypto is |
| 0:42.6 | getting adopted in new novel use cases. |
| 0:46.0 | And then Kevin Awaki is a builder's builder building out these systems that can scale |
| 0:50.8 | up crypto values to hopefully scale to the whole entire world. |
| 0:54.1 | And I think these two individuals have very unique perspectives as to how to actually |
| 0:59.5 | adopt get the world onto crypto systems in ways that satisfy the needs of the users but |
| 1:06.5 | also while doing things the crypto way. |
| 1:09.7 | And I want to have this conversation about what does it take to onboard the world and |
| 1:14.2 | how much do we have to compromise along the way and do we actually have to compromise? |
| 1:18.0 | So we are going to unpack the question of do users care about decentralization here on |
| 1:22.7 | this bankless live stream panel coming up next we will bring that conversation right |
| 1:27.7 | to you. |
| 1:28.7 | But first we got to let you know about Xerion and I would be sharing my screen but you |
| 1:32.7 | might notice that Ryan Sean Adams the AI has a bug in the system today so the AI is down |
| 1:37.9 | so just me today on this bankless panel. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bankless, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bankless and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.