The Defiant

The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.

The Defiant is a technology podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 339 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts The Defiant, a technology show with 339 episodes published.

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  The Defiant

  The EIP That Wants to Cap ETH Staking at 50%

  Aug 11, 202621 min

  About a third of all ETH — over 41 million coins across nearly 900,000 validators — is already locked into staking. A new Ethereum proposal, EIP-8363, wants to make sure it never crosses 50%, by tapering staking rewards down to almost nothing as that threshold approaches.The proposal landed just 48 hours before the deadline to be considered for Ethereum's next upgrade, and it immediately set off one of the most heated governance fights the ecosystem has seen in years.We brought on both sides. Jérôme de Tychey, one of the EIP's co-authors and a solo staker since Ethereum's genesis, makes the case that an unchecked staking ratio threatens the network's neutrality and security. Mike Silagadze, CEO of ether.fi, argues the fix is worse than the disease — that it would push out solo stakers, gut DeFi, and hand more power to the biggest institutional players it claims to guard against.At the center of it all: does Ethereum have a real problem with how much ETH is staked, or is this a solution in search of a crisis?Jérôme has a public bet on the table with a co-author. Mike has one of his own, worth a million dollars. Neither is backing down.Guests: Jérôme de Tychey (EIP-8363 co-author) | Mike Silagadze (CEO, ether.fi) Topics: Ethereum, EIP-8363, staking, issuance, solo stakers, DeFi, liquid staking tokens, ether.fi, Lido, Ethereum governance

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  The Defiant

  The $114 Trillion Question: How DTCC Is Tokenizing the Entire U.S. Market

  Aug 3, 202630 min

  DTCC holds $114 trillion in assets. On July 15th, it showed the world how those assets can be converted into digital tokens, traded in real production conditions, and converted back — without disrupting anything. Nadine Chakar joins The Defiant to explain the digital twin model, why they chose Besu and Canton, what the Russell 1000 SEC authorization covers, and what realistic demand will look like at October's launch. She also confronts the big philosophical question: did blockchain disrupt Wall Street, or did Wall Street absorb blockchain? The answer might surprise you.Explore The Defiant ✨ Websitehttps://thedefiant.io/✉️ Free Daily Newsletter https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi... Weekly Premium Newsletter https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi...✊ Follow The DefiantX/Twitter: https://x.com/DefiantNews Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

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  The Defiant

  Now or Never: Inside the Fight to Pass the CLARITY Act

  Jul 29, 202618 min

  Fourteen days. That's the window the crypto industry has to get the CLARITY Act through the Senate — or wait until the 2030s for another shot.The combined draft dropped last week for the first time, merging the Senate Banking and Agriculture committee text into one bill. It added a law enforcement title (the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed it the same day). It added an ethics provision. And Democrats are rejecting that provision outright.This week on The Defiant, we're bringing three people living this fight from the inside: Miller Whitehouse-Levine (Solana Policy Institute), Amanda Tuminelli (DeFi Education Fund), and Adrian Wall (Digital Sovereignty Alliance). They don't all agree on how close we are — and one of them drops what might be the most explosive political take of the year: that Republicans, Democrats, financial institutions, and Coinbase may none of them actually want this bill to pass.The Polymarket odds: down from 80% in February to 37% this week. The stakes: if it fails, the next administration can undo anything the agencies do by rulemaking. Without a law, there's no floor. And innovation goes abroad.Guests: Miller Whitehouse-Levine (Solana Policy Institute) | Amanda Tuminelli (DeFi Education Fund) | Adrian Wall (Digital Sovereignty Alliance / Tron DAO US Policy) Topics: CLARITY Act, crypto regulation, SEC, CFTC, DeFi, stablecoins, blockchain policy, US Congress, ethics provision, RWAs

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  The Defiant

  Saylor Selling BTC: Strategy Lifeline or Betrayal?

  Jul 7, 202610 min

  Michael Saylor built his entire identity around one promise: he would never sell Bitcoin. Last week, that promise ended. Strategy's board voted to authorize selling Bitcoin to cover dividend payments and build cash reserves — in the middle of MSTR and STRC crashing to record lows, the yield blowing up, and confidence in the whole experiment starting to crack. Is this a rational pivot? Or the beginning of the end for the world's largest corporate Bitcoin treasury? This week on The Defiant, I sat down with Scott Melker and Kaleo to get into all of it: the hollow signaling, the STRC question, whether Saylor should rip the Band-Aid and sell billions now — and what any of this actually means for Bitcoin. Spoiler: they disagree. Strongly. Guests: Scott Melker | Kaleo (CryptoKaleo) Topics: Strategy, Michael Saylor, Bitcoin, MSTR, STRC, corporate Bitcoin treasury, convertible debt

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  The Defiant

  "Bazooka in Every Hand" Do We Really Want Unstoppable AI? w/ Jake Brukhman, Haseeb Qureshi, Jesus Rodriguez

  Jun 19, 202626 min

  Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce forced Anthropic to shut down Fable V for the entire world. One government, one decision, zero global access. Is this the definitive case for decentralized AI? Jake Brukhman (Coin Fund), Jesus Rodriguez (Sentora), and Haseeb Qureshi (Dragonfly) debate the hottest topic at the intersection of crypto and AI: whether frontier AI can and should be decentralized — or whether we're repeating the same mistakes as decentralized storage.What you'll hear: why the government hand-picked who gets access to Mythos (and it wasn't Anthropic's call), whether consumer GPU swarms can realistically compete with data centers, what's really happening with on-chain hacks in 2026, and Haseeb's most controversial take: the world's most powerful AI should be treated like a nuclear weapon, not a public good.No easy answers. No consensus. Just the most important debate of 2026.

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