The Smart Economy Podcast: Real-World Blockchain Applications with Crypto, DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Reserve co-founder Nevin Freeman to discuss the project's long-term goal of creating an asset-backed currency capable of preserving purchasing power. They explore Bitcoin's evolution as a store of value, Reserve's experience bringing stablecoins to Venezuela, the potential for tokenized real-world assets to expand DeFi, and the regulatory barriers standing between today's financial system and globally accessible on-chain markets.

Maciej Cepnik, chief marketing officer at Aureo, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss what it takes to build Bitcoin financial infrastructure in Mexico. Cepnik explains how Aureo grew from a tool its founders built to spend their own Bitcoin into a non-custodial brokerage, why navigating Mexico's financial system can become a competitive advantage, and why the company's next opportunity may lie in serving businesses and larger Bitcoin holders.

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski sits down with Al Qureshi, CEO and co-founder of Black Lake Digital Markets, to discuss how blockchain infrastructure could modernize mortgage capital markets. They explore the role of tokenization, zero-knowledge proofs, and asset verification in improving transparency, reducing costs, and creating new opportunities for institutional finance while connecting traditional capital markets with blockchain networks.

Andrés Salcedo, head of business development at Etherfuse, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to explore how tokenized sovereign debt is expanding access to financial services across Latin America and beyond. Drawing from firsthand experience living through Venezuela's hyperinflation, Salcedo explains why stablecoins became a necessity, how blockchain is modernizing cross-border finance, and why yield-bearing stable assets may reshape the future of payments, savings, and financial infrastructure.

Christian St. Louis, partner at Ethereal Ventures, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss venture capital, crypto startup investing, AI-driven entrepreneurship, and the long-term future of blockchain adoption. St. Louis shares insights from evaluating hundreds of founders, explains why conviction and creativity matter more than ever in an AI-powered world, and explores how stablecoins, agentic commerce, and real-world adoption are quietly reshaping the crypto industry.

Anndy Lian, author of Web4: The Age of Autonomous Intelligence, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss the convergence of AI and blockchain, why he believes Web3 never fully delivered on decentralization, and how autonomous AI systems could reshape digital ownership, governance, and online coordination. Lian shares insights from more than a decade in crypto, his work advising governments worldwide, and his vision for a more decentralized and intelligent internet.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss AI operating systems, agent harnesses, chain abstraction, and the growing role of AI agents in blockchain ecosystems. Polosukhin explains how NEAR’s original vision emerged from AI infrastructure challenges, why AI harnesses are evolving into operating systems, and how NEAR Intents enables users and agents to interact across blockchains without dealing with backend complexity. The conversation also explores AI security, formal verification, confidential inference, and why blockchain infrastructure may increasingly operate behind the scenes as AI agents become primary users.

Alexis Sirkia, captain of Yellow, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss how decentralized clearing and settlement infrastructure could reshape crypto trading, AI agent economies, and institutional adoption. Sirkia shares his journey from early market making to building Yellow, explains how state channels are designed to remove counterparty risk, and why AI agents may become crypto’s biggest real-world use case.

Vivek Raman, co-founder and CEO of Etherealize, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss how Ethereum is moving from experimentation to real institutional use. Drawing on his time trading credit on Wall Street, Raman explains why banks are revisiting public blockchains, how tokenization is being implemented in practice, and why Ethereum’s structure continues to come up in those conversations.

Greg Osuri, founder of Akash Network and CEO of Overclock Labs, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss decentralized cloud infrastructure, the growing demand for AI compute, and why traditional cloud providers may struggle to keep up. Osuri explains how Akash is building a peer-to-peer marketplace for compute, why GPU shortages are just the beginning, and how distributed systems could play a bigger role as AI adoption accelerates.

George Zeng, chief product officer at the NEAR Protocol, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss the convergence of AI agents, crypto infrastructure, and user-owned intelligence. Zeng explains why decentralized AI matters, how agent-based systems could become the primary interface for the internet, and why combining crypto with AI may unlock new forms of ownership, privacy, and digital coordination.

David Johnston, OSS code maintainer at Morpheus, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss the convergence of AI agents, crypto infrastructure, and open-source intelligence. Johnston explains why owning your own AI agent may become essential in the coming wave of automation, how decentralized infrastructure could prevent Big Tech from dominating AI, and why networks like Morpheus aim to provide the rails for open and permissionless AI access.

Laszlo Szabo, co-founder and CEO of Kiln, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to explore how staking has evolved into institutional infrastructure and how on-chain vaults, DeFi, and tokenized RWAs are beginning to intersect. Szabo explains why staking often grows during bear markets, how institutions approach on-chain yield, and how Kiln’s Railnet initiative is aimed at connecting DeFi protocols with tokenized assets.

Olivia Vande Woude, head of tokenization at Ava Labs, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss RWAs, institutional adoption, distribution economics, and how Avalanche is bringing real assets on-chain.

Zeymer Montes, founder of MOCA, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to talk about building crypto products that real people can actually use. From gasless payments and QR-code POS systems to smart wallets and encrypted messaging, Montes shares how MOCA is rethinking crypto UX, onboarding merchants, and making on-chain payments feel as simple as Venmo, without giving up self-custody.

Tomasz Stańczak, Co-Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss Ethereum’s leadership evolution, L2 strategy, institutional adoption, and how the Foundation is preparing the protocol for its next phase.

Brian Smocovich, co-founder of PistachioFi, joins host Dylan Grabowski to explore the challenges facing everyday users in Web3 and how a smart wallet can remove friction through security, recovery, and gasless transactions. He shares his journey from TradFi to crypto, why UX remains Ethereum’s biggest bottleneck, and how PistachioFi aims to make safe, high-quality DeFi accessible to anyone.

Cian Breathnach, founder of Matariki Labs and contributor to Keel, joins host Dylan Grabowski to break down how Keel intends to become Solana’s capital engine. Breathnach explains the evolution of the Sky ecosystem, why Solana’s high-throughput environment works well with on-chain credit creation, and how RWAs and institutional liquidity are poised to unlock the next era of DeFi.

Alex Gluchowski, co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, joins host Dylan Grabowski for a deep dive into ZKsync, the rise of zero-knowledge technology, and the rapid evolution of Ethereum’s scaling landscape. He shares how personal experiences shaped his mission of economic freedom, why privacy must evolve for global adoption, and how the Elastic Network aims to unite consumer, enterprise, and institutional use cases under one ZK-powered ecosystem.

Sebastien Borget, co-founder and global ambassador of The Sandbox, joins host Dylan Grabowski to discuss the long road from mobile gaming startup to a leading voice in metaverse. Borget explains why SANDchain, the new L2 for creators, represents the next step in decentralizing digital ownership, how The Sandbox navigates market cycles, and what sustained building looks like after the hype fades.