Into the Bytecode

Pedro Gomes: WalletConnect v2, account abstraction, and building a communications protocol

Pedro Gomes is the cofounder of WalletConnect, a communications protocol that enables wallets and apps to securely connect and interact.In this conversation, We talked about WalletConnect v2 and its architecture, account abstraction, potential downstream effects of a crypto-native chat protocol, and other topics.Timestamps:(00:00:00) - intro(00:08:00) - developing the user experience before creating the product (00:10:23) - account abstraction and the spectrum of security and convenience(00:20:39) - WalletConnect APIs and “Log in with Ethereum”(00:28:55) - how WalletConnect works(00:37:45) - light clients and generalized messaging protocols(00:45:36) - the politics of making big changes to the Ethereum protocol(00:50:14) - connecting wallets with WalletConnect ChatLinks:WalletConnect - https://walletconnect.com/EIP2938 (account abstraction) - https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2938WalletConnect APIs - https://docs.walletconnect.com/2.0Into the Bytecode:- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.comDisclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed. 

Josh Stark: the Ethereum Foundation & Atoms, Institutions, Blockchains

Here is my conversation with Josh Stark.Josh has a long history in the Ethereum ecosystem going back to the early days of the community. He cofounded one of the first L2 scaling protocols with Counterfactual. He also cofounded ETHGlobal which is a much-loved series of hackathons/events that brings the community together and which acts as an entry point into the ecosystem for many people. And nowadays and most relevant to our conversation, he works in a leadership capacity at the Ethereum Foundation.In this conversation, we talked about two topics: one being the Ethereum Foundation, and two being the question of why blockchain is matter — this being something that Josh has spent a lot of time thinking about and which he's written about in a long form piece titled Atoms Institutions Blockchains.Timestamps:(00:00:00) - intro(00:03:50) - subtraction(00:07:22) - creating a self-sufficient crypto ecosystem(00:12:33) - the property of ‘hardness’ for blockchains(00:17:47) - understanding decentralization(00:23:11) - Atoms, Institutions, Blockchains(00:26:00) - blind men and an elephant(00:33:06) - our civilization’s infrastructure(00:43:33) - digitally-native hardness(00:59:38) - how the EF operates(01:06:21) - challenges with decentralized coordination(01:12:08) - infinite players have nothing but their namesLinks:Atoms, Institutions, Blockchains: https://stark.mirror.xyz/n2UpRqwdf7yjuiPKVICPpGoUNeDhlWxGqjulrlpyYi0Into the Bytecode:- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.comDisclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed. 

0age: Seaport, and protocol development with OpenSea

0age is the Head of Protocol Development at OpenSea, and this was a conversation about Seaport, the new marketplace protocol for buying and selling NFTs.0age takes us through a tour of the Seaport protocol, talking about how it's architected; how conduits and zones work; and we even get into the low level gas optimization work they've done on the contracts. I hope this can be a helpful resource for anyone looking to understand the Seaport protocol or anyone who's building with NFTs more broadly. I also consider 0age to be a true veteran of the space, and hearing him talk through the design of the protocol can be an educational experience in its own rights.Timestamps:(00:01:42) - why build Seaport(00:10:20) - the Seaport architecture(00:12:44) - EIP712 signatures(00:14:17) - the global concept of a nonce(00:16:02) - EIP1271 and bulk listings(00:17:18) - the Executor and conduits(00:25:08) - zones, additional rules that can be applied on top of an order(00:29:47) - implementing English auctions via zones(00:32:17) - layers of the stack(00:36:05) - fulfillment(00:40:42) - gas optimizations and understanding the low-level behavior of the EVM(00:58:40) - the interaction between OpenSea the product and Seaport the protocol(01:07:06) - criteria based items, and partial fills(01:17:50) - ideas to build on top of SeaportInto the Bytecode:- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.comDisclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed. 

Charles St.Louis: Element Finance, and voting vaults as a primitive

Charles St.Louis is the COO at Element Finance, a protocol for fixed and variable rate yield markets and previously the governance architect at MakerDAO. In this conversation, we talked about Element’s governance system - with a particular focus on voting vaults, a powerful new primitive that decouple the relationship between capital and voting power and allow much more expressiveness in how users are given a governance voice in the ecosystem.Timestamps:(00:02:54) - MakerDAO’s arc of decentralization(00:07:51) - how Maker influenced Element’s design(00:10:22) - the Governance Steering Council(00:21:25) - voting vaults(00:29:10) - L1 and L2 for governance(00:33:23) - qualitative evaluation for contributions(00:37:50) - the ElFiverse and NFTs in the Element community(00:42:24) - on being a protocol delegateLinks: The Governance Steering Council - https://medium.com/element-finance/the-governance-steering-council-63aea7732262 Voting Vaults - https://docs.element.fi/governance-council/council-protocol-smart-contracts/voting-vaults The Elfiverse - https://elfiverse.element.fi/Into the Bytecode:- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.comDisclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed. 

Henri Stern: Privy, building for data privacy and security

Here is my conversation with Henri Stern who is building Privy.Henri was previously a research scientist at Protocol Labs and worked on Filecoin’s consensus protocol. And after many years of thinking through problems related to data privacy and security, he recently co-founded a new company called Privy where they provide a suite of API tools to store and manage user data off chain.In this conversation, we talked through a set of topics that Henri has a unique point of view on — starting with the question around the seeming trade-off between privacy/security on the one hand and UX/convenience on the other. We talked about principles he has in mind in designing an off-chain data system; how privy does encryption and key management; how they do permissioning; and how they think about data storage.Timestamps:(00:02:30) - designing the product/protocol roadmap(00:10:30) - privacy/security vs. convenience(00:19:27) - building an web3 application(00:23:20) - decentralizing Privy(00:32:09) - key management architecture(00:46:11) - verifiability, transparency as a disinfectant(00:59:02) - building a product with private data(01:07:08) - cofounder relationshipInto the Bytecode:- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.comDisclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed.