The Chopping Block: Solana’s Ad Disaster, AI Takes Over & the Great Blockchain Pivot - Ep. 803

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the crew unpacks Ethereum’s existential crisis and whether the rollup-centric roadmap is backfiring. Plus, AI is rapidly changing how crypto is built, traded, and secured—so what happens when blockchain and AI collide? We also dig into Solana’s controversial ad, Ethereum Foundation’s leadership shake-up, and why macro forces are still running the show. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹 AI’s Invasion of Software Engineering – Why AI is replacing developers & what it means for crypto startups 🔹 Ethereum’s Rollup Reckoning – The “rollup-centric roadmap” was supposed to save Ethereum, but is it actually weakening it? 🔹 The Solana Ad Disaster – How Solana’s political ad backfired & alienated both sides of the aisle 🔹 Is Ethereum Becoming IBM? – Why Ethereum risks getting stuck as the slow-moving corporate giant of crypto 🔹 The Great AI Pivot – Why top engineers are abandoning language models for robotics & what it means for the future 🔹 AI Trading Bots & Crypto Security Risks – How prompt injections could turn AI-powered wallets into honeypots 🔹 Ethereum’s New Leadership – Does the Ethereum Foundation finally have a plan to fix its credibility problem? 🔹 The XRP Bartender Index – The unexpected bar tab metric that tracks XRP market sentiment 🔹 Will AI Replace VCs? – The case for AI-led investment strategies & automated due diligence Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Disclosures Links Solana Ad repost by @basedkarbon: https://x.com/basedkarbon/status/1901809992514052319 Timestamps - 00:00 Intro 01:48 Solana's Controversial Ad Campaign 08:14 Memorable Crypto Ads 11:27 AI's Impact on Research & Crypto 18:33 Future of AI in Crypto and Beyond 29:29 Security Concerns with AI 36:49 EF's Leadership Changes 40:20 The Future of Ethereum and Rollups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We always love seeing companies fall flat-footed on their face.
0:03.9	Why does my blockchain need to have a political orientation?
0:07.3	Like, you know, it's not necessary.
0:10.1	I will say as someone who is currently undergoing the existential crisis of realizing I'm going to be replaced by AI very soon.
0:17.8	Startups in crypto that are sort of like quiet firing in the sense of when they have attrition,
0:22.9	they're just not backfilling.
0:23.9	To me, the biggest failure of Ethereum is that people have now increasingly come to believe
0:30.4	that the roll-up-centric roadmap was a mistake.
0:32.8	Not a dividend.
0:33.8	It's a tale of two pawn.
0:34.9	Now, your losses are on someone else's balance.
0:40.3	Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways. I'm into trading firms who are very involved.
0:43.3	I like that ETH is the ultimate possible.
0:45.3	D5 protocols are the antidote to this problem.
0:48.3	Hello everyone.
0:50.3	Welcome to the chopping block.
0:52.3	Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider's perspective on the crypto topics of the day. So quick intros, first you're going to Tom, the Defy Maven, and Master of Mains.
1:06.0	Hello, everyone. Next to you got Robert, the Cryptoconosaur and star of Super State.
1:12.1	GM, everybody. GM.
1:15.7	Next you got Turun, the geek of brain, and grand poohpah, and Conlin.
1:19.8	Hello.
1:21.3	And finally, I'm a Cive of the head hype man to drive and fly.
	...

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