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Unchained

Is 'All of DeFi Unsafe'? What You Need to Know About Holding Assets Onchain

Unchained

Laura Shin

Tech News, Business News, News

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A co-founder of OpenZeppelin said he’s urging friends to exit blue chip DeFi. Isaac Patka and Mike Silagadze explain what he got right, what he got wrong, and what needs to change. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coinbase One⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠coinbase.com/unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ======================================================== A co-founder of OpenZeppelin set off a firestorm on Crypto Twitter this week by declaring that he now considers all of DeFi unsafe, citing superhuman AI coding agents and the asymmetry between attackers and defenders.  Isaac Patka, certifications lead at Security Alliance, and Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether.Fi, join Laura Shin to push back on that framing — and to make the case that the real problem isn’t AI finding sophisticated zero-days, it’s that 90% of hacks are still embarrassing opsec failures.  They cover the full threat taxonomy: opsec and parameter mistakes, contagion from bridge failures, AI-enabled social engineering, and the decentralization theater that leaves protocols unable to protect their own users.  Mike makes a pointed argument for why every serious DeFi protocol needs a hard pause button and a blacklist mechanism, while Isaac explains the three-multisig architecture that should be the minimum standard. Plus, both lay out the practical question every user should ask before putting money into any protocol. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Isaac Patka (@isaacpatka) — Certifications Lead at Security Alliance & Co-founder of Shield3 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Mike Silagadze (@MikeSilagadze) — CEO of Ether.Fi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I think this principle that code is law and you wrote the code wrong, so fuck you, it's just stupid.

0:06.2

Like, that's just not how human organizations operate.

0:08.7

So there needs to be an error correction mechanism.

0:11.1

And that is not necessarily incompatible with decentralization.

0:14.2

The standard should be different for an application versus a blockchain.

0:17.8

Code is not law.

0:19.2

Law is ambiguous by design. Ambiguity is built into legal

0:22.9

code for cases that are subjective. Code, yeah, it's just code is not law. Hi, everyone. Welcome to

0:28.8

Unchained. You're no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host, Laura Shin. Thanks for

0:33.8

joining this live stream. Today's topic is whether all of Defi is unsafe.

0:39.4

Here to discuss our Isaac Packett, Certifications Lead at Security Alliance, and Mike

0:44.4

Siligazzi, CEO of Etherfi.

0:47.0

Welcome, Isaac and Mike.

0:48.2

Thanks for having me.

0:48.8

Thank you to be here.

0:49.4

So if you're on crypto Twitter a lot, you probably know that this week, Manuel Aros, I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, a co-founder of Open Zeppelin, who I need to note left the company in 2019.

1:03.4

He set off a little firestorm in CT this week with a tweet saying, quote, I now consider all of defy unsafe. Coding agents are superhuman

1:13.0

at finding vulnerabilities, and smart contract security is too asymmetric. Defenders need to

1:19.1

fix every bug while attackers need just one exploit to steal funds. He even said that he had

1:24.7

urged friends and family to leave positions in blue chip defy protocols like Ave Maker Dow and compound.

1:31.3

And in response, Open Zeppelin tweeted, quote, recent posts do not reflect Open Zeppelin's physician.

1:38.5

Manuel left the company in 2019.

...

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