In this episode, we are joined by AJ Warner, the Chief Strategic Officer of Offchain Labs, the main contributors to the Arbitrum ecosystem. AJ is a gigabrain chad who joined the Offchain Labs in November 2020 and has been their CSO since January 2022.
We dive into AJ’s crypto origin story, how he joined Offchain Labs, the technical and ideological differences between Arbitrum and other scaling solutions, how the scaling solution business model works, the biggest blockers in crypto as investors and builders, and so much more.
We share some massive news in this episode as well, announcing that Arbitrum is our presenting sponsor for Season 4 of the Pod! Season Four is officially powered by Arbitrum and our content will be redistributed across Rug Radio and Decrypt’s platforms.
Andy and I have been massive fans of Arbitrum since they launched, and both of us invested in Offchain Labs Series B back in 2021. This is a full circle moment for us and we couldn’t be happier to partner with Arbitrum for this season.
If you’ve never felt the frictionless transactions at lightning speeds on the world’s most decentralized L2, what are you waiting for?
Head on over to portal.arbitrum.io to check out their growing ecosystem where you can explore 600+ apps and even participate in missions to earn points.
Show Notes
0:00 Intro
2:00 Crypto Origin Story + Joining Offchain Labs
12:25 First Day at Offchain Labs and early days at Arbitrum
19:15 How is Arbitrum differentiated in the scaling ecosystem?
27:00 What’s the rationale for having Offchain Labs separate from Arbitrum DAO?
31:55 How did Arbitrum Nova come to be? (Layer 3s)
42:45 How is this a feasible business?
46:49 Getting permission to launch an L2 License from the Arbitrum DAO
51:10 How does the governance of Layer 3s work?
59:25 Getting stablecoins onto L3s safely and quickly
1:02:30 Superchains vs. Chain Clusters
1:04:30 The Biggest Blocker in Crypto, misaligned incentives towards launching L1/L2s vs. Apps
1:20:40 What are you excited about over the next few years?
1:35:30 Slowing down sybil attacks on airdrop farming
1:45:50 Coinbase Fees are insane
1:57:20 Donor advised fund alpha
2:05:57 Passions outside of work
2:13:40 How Offchain Labs is building outside of Arbitrum
2:16:20 How many people work for Arbitrum?
2:24:58 What would the title of your autobiography be?
More WDAL
X: https://twitter.com/wedoalittlepod
Discord: https://discord.gg/AStUCwXERh
More AJ
X: https://x.com/ajwarner90?s=20
More Arbitrum
X: https://twitter.com/arbitrum
More Offchain Labs
X: https: https://twitter.com/OffchainLabs
More Andy8052
X: https://twitter.com/andy8052
More Deeze
X: https://twitter.com/DeeZe
More Rug Radio
website: https://www.rug.fm/
x: https://twitter.com/RugRadio
More Decrypt
website: https://decrypt.co/
x: https://twitter.com/decryptmedia
More h0m3w0rk (creators of our theme song)
X: https://twitter.com/homeworkNFT
Production by Weesh
X: https://twitter.com/__weesh__
DISCLAIMER: Nothing contained within this podcast is financial or investment advice, a solicitation to buy or sell any token, or to be relied upon to make any financial decisions. The podcast hosts or guests may own tokens or art that is discussed. All opinions shared on this podcast are those of the respective individuals only and provided for information and entertainment purposes only.
We does not condone or support the creation, buying, or selling of NFTs as a means of investment. Please consult and work directly with qualified professionals before making any decisions related to NFTs.