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

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 

DisclosuresLinks

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

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