Bankless

Celo is quietly powering real-world payments at global scale. In this episode, David and Ryan sit down with Marek Olszewski, CEO of cLabs, to unpack how Celo became a fast, low-cost payments layer used for remittances, savings, onchain FX, and identity across emerging markets.
They explore why Celo stayed focused on peer-to-peer payments while others chased trends, how Opera’s MiniPay onboarded hundreds of thousands of daily users, and why stablecoins are reshaping global finance from the ground up. The conversation spans onchain FX, proof of personhood with Self.xyz, Ethereum’s L2 future, and why fast, cheap payments, not hype, may be crypto’s real unlock.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Celo’s Origin Story and Design Philosophy
5:18 The Long Bet on P2P Payments
17:19 700,000 Daily Users: The Data Behind the Narrative
22:11 MiniPay: Global Venmo Built on Celo
30:28 Solving the Last-Mile Banking Problem
37:36 Celo x Opera partnership
40:37 Stablecoins, FX, and the Rise of Onchain Forex
46:53 Perpetuals for FX: UpDown.xyz
49:37 Open Finance vs. Governments and the Battle for the Payments Stack
59:13 Why Celo Chose Ethereum L2 Over an L1 Path
1:06:02 Self.xyz and Proof of Personhood
1:14:06 Putting It All Together: Celo’s Endgame

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RESOURCES

Marek Olszewski
https://x.com/marek_

Celo
https://celo.org/

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Iran is a real-world stress test of freedom: the Islamic Republic is built to outlast dissent. In this special Iran Unchained episode, David talks with Sana Ebrahimi and Amin Soleimani about the regime’s control stack, including unelected theocracy, street-level coercion, corruption as governance, and propaganda that reaches far beyond Iran’s borders.
They unpack gender apartheid, internet blackouts during uprisings, why protests keep returning, and what the West gets wrong about “intervention” and regional stability.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:21 “How does it feel to be Iranian right now?”
3:39 Sana’s background: Tehran → U.S., and a life shaped by protests
4:38 What is the Iranian regime and what does it want?
9:51 What an Ayatollah is and how that status concentrates power
16:46 Promises vs reality: revolutionary slogans, economic collapse, and control loops
24:15 1979’s alliance, the Marxists, and the purge that followed
34:53 Repression as a system: arrests, torture, and fear as governance
39:15 “Let this land burn”: why the regime doesn’t step down
41:23 Gender apartheid, Mahsa Amini and the spark that keeps reigniting protests
51:58 Protest math: why people still return to the streets
55:18 The internet blackout playbook
1:02:52 “Regime apologists” abroad: media, think tanks, and narrative capture
1:07:17 Why the West gets confused: Palestine politics and cognitive dissonance
1:17:56 Western intervention: “Not Iraq, not Afghanistan”
1:28:57 The diaspora, brain drain, and what a free Iran could unlock
1:31:40 What they’re hoping for next and how to help

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RESOURCES

Ameen Soleimani
https://x.com/ameensol

Sana Ebrahimi
https://x.com/__Injaneb96

Iran Unchained fundraiser
https://www.iranunchained.com/

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox joins Bankless to argue that privacy is back on the critical path—because AI turns chain surveillance into pattern-recognition at scale—and that the real bottleneck for cypherpunk tools has always been UX and onboarding.

We dig into Zcash’s “encrypted Bitcoin” meme, the dev fund’s evolving design (and why it helped Zcash survive), recent ZEC momentum, and the wallet/intents stack that makes private spending actually usable.

Plus: why “value at rest” beats “value in flight,” what it would take for Ethereum to get meaningful privacy, and the debate over strengthening the 21M cap (and whether Zcash should add new security mechanisms without losing the meme).

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:46 What Failed

3:58 What Succeeded

5:04 Institutional Adoption

6:53 Areas Neglected

10:51 The Cypherpunk Vision

18:53 Can The Cypherpunks Win?

23:19 Crypto’s Path to Success

27:44 Crypto vs Linux

30:39 AI Cypherpunks?

33:05 Optimism

35:49 AI Surveillance

37:10 Zcash

43:02 Zcash Dev Fund

51:45 Zashi Governance Drama

56:32 Zcash Privacy Practices

1:15:56 AI Privacy Consequences

1:22:31 Is Zec a Store of Value

1:26:01 Encrypted Bitcoin?

1:29:01 Ethereum Privacy & Anoma

1:33:14 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Zooko

https://x.com/zooko 

Zcash

https://z.cash/ 

Zashi

https://z.cash/ecosystem/zashi-wallet/ 

Anoma

https://anoma.net/ 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Markets slide this week as Trump floats taking Greenland and tariff threats resurface, pushing investors toward gold. Ryan and David break down what Davos revealed about a shifting world order, why crypto finally had a real seat at the table, and the moments from Brian Armstrong and Larry Fink that framed Crypto versus Central Banks. Plus: the NYSE unveils a tokenized trading platform and whether it validates or co-opts DeFi, Farcaster and Lens are acquired as on-chain social hits a crossroads, and a Jefferies strategist drops Bitcoin over quantum fears. Finally, an update on the Clarity Act delay and the race for the next Fed chair.

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:31 Why are markets down

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2013591373006676322

https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2013603538513863126

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/14/politics/greenland-trump-nato-denmark

https://x.com/CBSNews/status/2013983374549946581 

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2014089644288196691

https://polymarket.com/event/will-trump-acquire-greenland-before-2027

https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-us-acquire-any-part-of-greenland-in-2026

https://x.com/fejau_inc/status/2013610390698041805

https://x.com/thestalwart/status/2013580367123423518

https://x.com/Strategy/status/2013598056000725476

15:12 Davos power shifts

https://x.com/CommerceGov/status/2013638111977222213 

https://x.com/KanwalSibal/status/2013863207962845315

https://x.com/alreadydawn/status/2011855946298032188

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2013947391733342444

https://x.com/MSBIntel/status/2014311838092284200

https://x.com/gazza_jenks/status/2014316956787077193

https://x.com/RWAwatchlist_/status/2014302865515479322

25:45 Next Fed Chair

https://polymarket.com/event/who-will-trump-nominate-as-fed-chair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warsh

29:23 NYSE tokenization platform

https://ir.theice.com/press/news-details/2026/The-New-York-Stock-Exchange-Develops-Tokenized-Securities-Platform/default.aspx

https://x.com/sytaylor/status/2013248790988214418

https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2013273153544323438

https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2013302033286054109

https://x.com/malekanoms/status/2013597558413664443

37:10 Onchain social handover

https://farcaster.xyz/dwr/0x72aab3a5

https://x.com/neynarxyz/status/2014046158700659072

https://x.com/0xfoobar/status/2014169292736979296

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2013617272464580990

https://lens.xyz/news/mask-network-to-steward-the-next-chapter-of-lens

https://x.com/hishboy/status/2014050332675121169

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2013884907659944205

https://firefly.social/signup

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2014338767847354766

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2011325527567544393

45:57 Clarity Act delay

https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2014119477923705271

https://x.com/eleanorterrett/status/2014139061103907238

https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2012612712044573151

https://x.com/patrickjwitt/status/2013776653902614547

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

50:00 Stablecoin payroll

https://x.com/base/status/2013752842822038000

https://imgur.com/a/9kriKIV

51:42 Bitcoin & quantum

https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/2013266516112712139

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7414027710861045761/

https://x.com/bitcoinofficesv/status/1961564696856727947

https://x.com/batsoupyum/status/2013606402976293243

https://x.com/nic_carter/status/2013781321638695383

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-establishes-independent-advisory-board-on-quantum-computing-and-blockchain

59:40 Regulation & Trad

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2013626808474968164

https://x.com/felixprotocol/status/2011831820371828920

https://x.com/0xBroze/status/2011832444102561838

https://x.com/JupiterExchange/status/2013987873943334919

1:01:02 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto in 2026 is consolidating into a handful of high-stakes rivalries: 

Ethereum vs. Solana for the center of gravity, Coinbase vs. Robinhood for the finance super-app, and Polymarket vs. Kalshi for prediction markets. 

Arnav Pagidyala (Bankless Ventures) joins David and Ryan to map the investment implications, why incentives-driven L1s keep leaking liquidity, what makes Morpho’s institutional playbook work, and whether Hyperliquid, wallets, and onchain rails start eating the exchange business. 

We also dig into the comeback of ICOs, what it would take for tokens to become truly investable, and why proof-of-personhood and privacy-preserving KYC may become unavoidable infrastructure.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:12 Ethereum & Solana

7:33 Why Solana is Winning

9:27 L1 Valuations

13:13 Coinbase & Robinhood

17:16 Base Contentcoins

20:32 Kalshi & Polymarket

23:19 Prediction Market Tokens

24:45 Store of Value Duopoly

27:21 Tokens in 2026

29:41 Tokens & Equity Alignment

31:01 MetaDAO

32:42 ICOs

34:44 Morpho

39:17 Morpho & Aave

40:41 Perp Exchanges

44:28 Proof of Personhood

48:42 Fat Wallet Thesis

51:45 X & Crypto

53:27 AI & Vibecoding

55:28 Is Crypto Dead?

57:18 Capital Stack Moving Onchain

59:10 What About TradFi?

1:02:15 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Arnav Pagidyala

https://x.com/0xArnav 

Bankless Ventures

https://x.com/banklessvc 

Investing Trends for 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poes3EpAR5c

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠