**Welcome back to episode 279 of The Block Runner Podcast. As always, we have your host William talking with your cohost I-man as we discuss cryptocurrency developments while we make this new technology relatable to you. You can watch the full episode on YouTube AND stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter at TheBlockRunner.com.
Here are some of the topics they discuss today:**
First up, revisit Bitcoin DeFi through the lens of this cycle’s emerging “industry cook”: digital-asset treasury companies.
Next, Do we really need native Bitcoin primitives, or will off-chain/custodial routes—UTXO time-locks and loan products be enough to make BTC productive?
and Finally, we pressure-test trench metas like Pokémon “phygital” and map where the music could stop.
Alright, let’s listen in!
The Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem is in its infancy stage as the technical infrastructure for DeFi functionality are only being discovered and brought to market. However, the potential value this industry can bring to the Bitcoin and broader web3 ecosystem is tremendous. We speak with the Founder and CEO of Hermetica who is building a stablecoin primitive on Bitcoin using the value of Bitcoin itself in the stability mechanism. This is a dream in the eyes of Bitcoin believers since it marks a separation away from the dependencies of the fiat system to introduce stability for synthetic versions of the dollar. Also, a stablecoin native to the Bitccoin ecosystem will introduce tremendous support for Bitcoin DeFi and act as a catalyst for an ecosystem of development to build on top of this foundational pillar. How Hermetica achieves stability through Bitcoin is discussed with the introduction of their perpetuals futures balancing mechanism that ensures no matter what side Bitcoin trades value wise, the pegged USDh will always remain valued at a dollar.
We interview one of the pioneer builders in the Bitmap ecosystem FOXXI, who is working on developing the Foxiverse. Within the Foxiverse, users will be able to participate in a wide variety of activities ranging from social, gaming, clan building, and even resource commodity excavation. Foxiverse is poised to introduce many new vectors of interesting market exploits to the broader Ordinals ecosystem, which have the potential to demonstrate the overall value premise metaverse has to offer. It has been over a year since the initial launch of the Bitmap experiment, and since then not much has been developed resembling a high value producing 3D environment. We discuss with the Foxxi team how they intend to deliver on these very high expectations and how they plan to incorporate DMT UNATs into their ecosystem design. Soon they will be launching a Bit Miner which operates in their world so users who own of the UNATs can have the ability to mine non-arbitrary resources and commodities throughout the Foxiverse. With the Ordinals market in such a downturn, is this level of metaverse experimentation exactly what the market needs in order discover the next spark of interst? Can Bitmap, DMT, NATs, and the metaverse on Bitcoin be the next paradigm for builders and web3 journeyman?
We interview one of the key contributors and developers to ICP and dive deep into the weeds of the Internet Computer. We discuss the need for meta protocol assistance to make assets native to Bitcoin Layer 1 more functional. By using technology native to the ICP stack, developers on Bitcoin L1 can write container functions that call to the Bitcoin side to manipulate UTXO’s without having to bridge assets over. This is a major development for the TAP ecosystem which has recently announced an integration with ICP. Once developers building on TAP begin to use the tools available to leverage ICP for their apps, a new season of interesting opportunity will emerge for Bitcoin and ICP.
Recent events have caused a tremendous rift in Bitcoin’s macro economic position in time. With Donald Trump’s failed assassination attempt came a tremendous uprise in Bitcoin price which is a result of sentiment growth due to a Trump second term increasing in likelihood. We discuss the speculation around Bitcoin becoming a reserve asset for the United States and how this will impact the future of the crypto industry. Also, will the ideas discussed in SoftWar apply after an official government endorsement from the Trump cabinet furthering the demand to acquire and position positively within the Bitcoin network from a nation state perspective. We then react to Casey Rodarmor’s latest mention of DMT protocol and the negative statements his team has to it.
We spent some time with Stan and Chris from the DMT-Natfrogs team to discuss the origins of the collection and re-explore the chaotic early days of UNAT minting. They explain how NatFrogs started as a dead mint but transitioned into a community takeover which has made it one of the more appreciated and valued collections in the DMT UNAT market. We explore what makes DMT truly unique for artists and creators and how the Natfrog team intends to expand their ecosystem moving forward. Also, we dive into the next project of focus in NatFlyers, which aims to bring physical products to UNAT holders. In this case, a variety of UNIQUE pepe themed sneakers will be distributed in an upcoming Mscribe BlockPad on July 10th. Holders of this asset will have the ability to purchase a real world version of the sneaker unique to the parent digital version they own. This can open a massive new market for DMT phygitial products into the future.