Joining us, Riad Wahby, Co-founder and CEO of Cubist, delves into the risks of restaking, potential contagion effects on blockchain security, and the essential questions that the blockchain ecosystem must address.
In this installment of "The Protocol," hosts Brad Keoun, the founding editor of The Protocol Newsletter, and tech journalists Sam Kessler and Margaux Nijkerk, explore the following stories:
TOPICS |
Lido DAO Endorses Rivals
LayerZero launched a Lido stETH bridge last October without asking for Lido DAO's permission. The community responded this week by endorsing a pair of its biggest competitors.
"Blockchain protocols frequently pride themselves on their "permissionlessness" – the idea that anyone, anywhere can build on top of a protocol without asking for explicit approval. But in practice, it is sometimes wiser to ask for permission."
Blockchains and Decentralization
The goal of these "protocol councils,” sometimes called “security councils,” is to nudge these nascent networks toward increasing decentralization, by gradually removing them from under the control of their original developers. How are they different from boards of directors?
PROTOCOL VILLAGE INTERVIEW SEGMENT
Guest: Riad Wahby
Riad Wahby is the co-founder and CEO of Cubist, a developer of hardware-backed, non-custodial key storage and signing infrastructure that enables companies to protect staking keys and secure withdrawals.
Takeaways |
Keys are fundamental in blockchain interactions and require careful management to ensure security.
Restaking introduces risks and potential contagion effects that can impact the security of the underlying blockchain.
The restaking ecosystem offers opportunities for innovation and collaboration, but reputation and risk assessment are crucial for making informed decisions.
Building systems that can withstand non-compliant users and incentivize responsible behavior is essential for the long-term success of blockchain networks.
There is continued interest in blockchain and crypto among students, with a focus on computer security, cryptography, and the intersection of blockchain and AI.
Balancing entrepreneurship and academia requires efficient time management and leveraging the support of graduate students and teaching assistants.
The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) is an open-application awards program that draws on community input to support developers and startups building on Stellar and Soroban. Accelerate your web3 project today.
The Protocol has been produced and edited by senior producer Michele Musso and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Take Me Back” by Strength To Last.
Starting upbeat this week, engineer Teddy Tzanetos, team lead of NASA’s Ingenuity mission, talks on the Mars-based helicopter which defied all expectations.
Our big story this week is on the scientific papers and research databases which contain the DNA profile of thousands of people from persecuted ethnic minorities in China. This data is often collected in association with security forces. Computational biologist and campaigner Yves Moreau now leads the call for scrutiny and the retraction of these papers and databases, which lack evidence of free and informed consent.
We often cover the ever-growing threat of bird flu to mammalian populations on Science in Action. But how does the virus make the successful leap from bird to mammal cells? Virologist Wendy Barclay discusses the potential tricks the virus uses to adapt and grow.
And, finally, zoologist Sam Fabian has been trying to answer the question everyone thinks they already know: why are moths attracted to artificial light?
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Ella Hubber
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
(Image: Protest in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province on July 7, 2009. Credit: PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican Rep. Mary Miller joins Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss adjusting from farm life in Illinois to Congress, the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and American voters' top concerns heading into the 2024 election.
If you care about combatting the corrupt media that continues to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism that America needs.
Chicago becomes the largest city in the U.S. to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. With a narrow vote of 23 against and 23 in favor, Mayor Brandon Johnson cast a tie-breaking vote to pass the resolution. Reset checks in with WBEZ city government and politics reporter Mariah Woelfel to understand how the city’s ceasefire resolution fits into the larger picture.
Trump hasn't re-defamed E. Jean Carroll, so it basically takes about $83 million to get him to shut up. Plus, the big risk in the Georgia case, MAGA will be rooting for San Francisco, and Charlie talks about getting off the hamster wheel. Ben Wittes is back with Charlie Sykes for The Trump Trials.
There’s increasing concern that as scary as this period feels—between Russia’s two-year war in Ukraine and Hamas’s ongoing war with Israel—that all of this will come to be seen as the calm before the storm. Should China decide to move against Taiwan in some way, then we’ll have war in three regions, and U.S. involvement in all three. Or perhaps by then it will not seem like separate wars, but a single global one.
Most Americans in the last fifty years, and certainly since the end of the Cold War, have lived in the luxury of safety. We live in a place where peace and security—crime and riots aside—are generally taken for granted. But a lot of Americans had a serious wake-up call after October 7, when a country with a high-tech security fortress was overwhelmed by terrorists on motorcycles and trucks and paragliders.
Could this happen here? Who is actually coming over our border? If we had to fight for our country, who would actually show up?
Today’s Honestly guests had that wake-up call long before the wars in Ukraine or Gaza. They’re investing their time, money, and resources into building a better American defense. And in the past few months especially, their work has come to be seen as prescient.
Palmer Luckey is a 31-year-old software engineer and entrepreneur. At the age of 19, Palmer founded the virtual reality company Oculus, which was originally supposed to be sold on Kickstarter as a virtual reality prototype for VR nerds and enthusiasts. Instead, it was acquired by Facebook for more than $2 billion. Then, when he was 25, he founded Anduril Industries, an $8.5 billion company that develops drones, autonomous vehicles, submarines, rockets, and software for military use.
Katherine Boyle is a Washington Post reporter turned venture capitalist; she is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and the co-founder of the firm’s American Dynamism arm, which invests in companies that build to support the national interest.
Joe Lonsdale is a co-founder of Palantir (along with Peter Thiel and others) and founder and general partner of the firm 8VC, which backed Anduril in its early days.
They are each attempting to disrupt the defense marketplace, bring Silicon Valley’s speed, creativity, and innovation to defense, advance our national security, and, you know. . . save America.
Tensions and talk of war are escalating between North and South Korea. Our correspondent in Seoul explains why the temperature has increased and he takes us to an island near the maritime border between North and South Korea that has seen clashes in the past.
Presenter Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world talk to acclaimed Italian physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli about his runaway bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.
A compact and engaging exploration of some of the most fundamental ideas in modern physics this book takes readers on a captivating journey through seven concise chapters, each dedicated to a different topic. From the theory of relativity to quantum mechanics and the nature of time, Rovelli presents complex concepts with remarkable clarity, making them accessible to a wide audience.
Throughout the book, Rovelli weaves together the history of scientific discovery with his own personal reflections, creating a narrative that is both poetic and thought-provoking. Delving into the mysteries of the universe and examining our own place in the cosmos Rovelli invites readers to ponder the profound questions that physics raises about the nature of space, time, and existence itself.
In this episode, Amul Thapar joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book, “The People's Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him.”
Music by Jack Bauerlein.
