The Charlie Shrem Show

My buddy Chris Jenkins just got back from ETHDenver, and hes buzzing about the convergence of crypto and AI.

Hes the head of operations at the Pocket Network Foundation, and right now, theyre gearing up for their biggest protocol upgrade ever: Shannon. What theyre doing is wild opening up full permissionless access to decentralized data, from blockchain RPC calls to AI models, Tor nodes, and everything in between.

We talk about agentic systems, LLMs, censorship-resistant data delivery, and why the future of open infrastructure needs crypto tokens to work at all. We also get into what it takes to build B2B tools that feel like B2C, why content creators (like podcasters) should be thinking about data licensing, and why the days of centralized APIs and broken bridges may be numbered.

This ones nerdy, future-forward, and full of practical examples for how its all being built right now.

This episode contains strong language.

Mentioned:

Pocket Network Foundation pokt.network

ETHDenver 2025

Shannon Upgrade (Pocket Networks protocol upgrade)

fly.pieter.com Massive AI flight sim built with LLMs

Tornado Cash and Censorship Resistance

Decentralized RPC and Open Data Infrastructure

Drag-and-Drop LLM Interfaces

Thoughts? Guest suggestions?

Email Charlie directly and find more episodes at CharlieShrem.com

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Pete Rizzo Thinks We're Losing Bitcoin's History. I'm Helping Him Fix That.

Pete Rizzos been called Bitcoins historian and after this conversation, youll understand why.

Hes spent the past few years diving deep into the stories, people, and drama that built Bitcoin from nothing into a global force. We talk about that work the threads, the archives, the stories that never made it into the headlines and how much of our history is already at risk of being forgotten.

This one goes deep: early Mt. Gox days, the Silk Road fallout, Ross Ulbricht, Julian Assange, the Dragons Den Slack channel, Bitcoin IRC logs, and even a theory that maybe Satoshi was Julian himself. Theres a lot here from serious analysis to our own untold stories.

We also get personal: Rizzo opens up about why preserving this history became his mission, and I share how prison, books, and a Muslim roommate changed how I see the world and Bitcoin.

This episode contains strong language.

Mentioned:

Pete Rizzos Bitcoin Legends Twitter threads

The Genesis Book by Jonathan Bier

The Satoshi Affair by Andrew OHagan

Assanges RubberHose encryption protocol

Blockworks Supply Shock Podcast

Follow Pete:

Twitter/X: @pete_rizzo_

Podcast: Supply Shock

Quotes:

"Bitcoin is the only asset where history actually matters and yet were letting it disappear."

"We treated Ross like a pariah. Now hes a symbol. That didnt happen overnight."

"People think Bitcoin started with Satoshi. It didnt. It started with the people who kept it alive after Satoshi left."

"When I left prison, I was at zero actually, below zero. But I came out with the most valuable thing: stories."

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

Welcome back, everyone! I sat down with my new friend Daniel Wedman, the head of special situations at Sopris Capital. We delved into a variety of topics, focusing on the dynamic world of Bitcoin and crypto investments, and the evolving landscape of capital markets.

Daniel's Career Journey

Daniel shared his fascinating career trajectory, starting from his early days at Citigroup on a special situations team, to his roles at SL Green and Wheelock Street Capital. His journey into the crypto world began as a side hobby of mining Bitcoin, which eventually led him to join Galaxy Digital's Bitcoin mining team.

Sopris Capital and Investment Strategies

At Sopris Capital, Daniel initially joined to build out the real estate arm but soon found himself pitching innovative investment ideas to Andy Paul, the open-minded founder. One notable strategy involved an ASIC arbitrage, where they imported ASICs from Asia, mined Bitcoin while waiting for them to sell, and then sold them at a premium.

Bitcoin ATMs

We discussed the lucrative business of Bitcoin ATMs, which Daniel stumbled upon through a meetup in New York. Sopris Capital started with 50 machines in Canada and expanded to 200 in the U.S., with plans for further growth. Daniel highlighted the strong cash-on-cash returns and the significant market potential, especially among the underbanked.

Stranded Energy and Bitcoin Mining

Daniel explained the concept of stranded energy and how Bitcoin mining can utilize cheap, otherwise wasted energy sources. He shared an example of a curtailed wind energy project in West Texas, where they built a data center to mine Bitcoin using cheap wind energy.

Economic Shifts and Investment Opportunities

We touched on the broader economic shifts and how they create opportunities for agile and flexible investors. Daniel emphasized the importance of reading the tea leaves and understanding the second and third-order consequences of policies aimed at helping working-class Americans.

Compliance and Industry Maturation

The conversation also covered the increasing compliance requirements in the Bitcoin ATM industry and how this is leading to consolidation, with smaller players being acquired or going dark. Daniel sees this as a positive development, signaling the maturation of the industry.

Future of Energy and Compute

Daniel shared insights from his time at Galaxy Digital, emphasizing the critical role of energy in the future of digital networks and compute. He expressed optimism about breakthroughs in energy technology, which could unlock a new era of innovation.

Closing Thoughts

It was a pleasure having Daniel Wedman on the show. His deep knowledge and innovative approach to crypto investments provided valuable insights for our listeners. As always, major changes in the world present opportunities for those who are prepared to adapt and innovate.

Thank you for tuning in to The Charlie Shrem Show. Stay tuned for more deep dives with influential leaders in the Bitcoin and crypto space.

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

In this episode, I sit down with Joe Flanagan, the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Maple Finance, a leading institutional lending platform in DeFi. With nearly $6 billion in loans issued, Maple is one of the few crypto companies bridging the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).

We cover some of the biggest trends in crypto right now:

• The real value of tokenized assets and why tokenization alone isn’t enough
• How Maple built a transparent, institutional-grade lending market on-chain
• Why crypto’s next big users won’t come from TradFi—but from meme coin traders evolving into DeFi investors
• How regulations are shifting in 2025 and what it means for institutional adoption
• Why DeFi UX is still broken—and how cross-chain strategies can fix it

If you're interested in real-world adoption, institutional DeFi, and where crypto finance is actually headed, this is an episode packed with insights from one of the builders making it happen.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Tokenization alone isn’t the game-changer—what matters is the new financial products that emerge from it.
✅ Institutional-grade DeFi lending is here, but it’s still mostly crypto-native capital participating.
✅ The next wave of DeFi adoption might come from meme coin traders learning how to deploy capital more effectively.
✅ With regulatory uncertainty easing, crypto builders finally have the freedom to innovate at full speed.
✅ Cross-chain user experience is still fragmented, but new infrastructure is emerging to unify ecosystems.

Listen & Subscribe:

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Us:

📢 Follow me on Twitter (@CharlieShrem) for more insights, behind-the-scenes content, and updates!

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.

In this episode, I sit down with Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Risk Labs, the team behind UMA and Across Protocol, two projects solving some of the biggest challenges in crypto—cross-chain interoperability and on-chain data verification.

Ethereum has scaled, but in the process, it’s fragmented into over 50 Layer 2s, creating a messy user experience. Hart and his team are pushing for a cross-chain intent standard (ERC-7683) to make blockchain transactions feel instant and seamless—because let’s be real, waiting minutes (or days) to move assets across chains is a joke.

We also dive deep into:

• The “two-second rule” for crypto UX and why speed is king
• How ERC-7683 enables cross-chain swaps without waiting for block confirmations
• Why Ethereum’s fragmentation problem could kill adoption if we don’t fix it
• The future of prediction markets and decentralized oracles
• How Chainlink maintained dominance in the Oracle space—and whether that’s changing
• Why AI-powered agents will need blockchain-based dispute resolution

If you're into DeFi, cross-chain tech, and the future of Ethereum, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Ethereum has scaled, but it now feels like 50 separate chains—interoperability must be solved.
✅ The two-second UX rule: If a transaction takes longer, users will lose focus and abandon it.
✅ ERC-7683 introduces cross-chain intents, allowing instant swaps by having solvers front transactions.
✅ Optimistic oracles (used by UMA) enable decentralized dispute resolution, powering prediction markets like PolyMarket.
✅ AI agents will need on-chain contract enforcement—blockchain oracles will play a crucial role.

Listen & Subscribe:

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Us:

📢 Follow me on Twitter (@CharlieShrem) for behind-the-scenes insights and updates!

Thank you for listening to The Charlie Shrem Show. For more free content and access to over 400 episodes, visit www.CharlieShrem.com.