The Block Runner Logo

PodcasT

The Block Runner is your final source for cryptocurrency technology, explanations and news.

Listen to our latest podcast

February 7, 2025

Summary

We break down the state of the Meme economy and make comparisons to what we saw in the 2021 bull cycle. Memes on Solana have strong parallels to the NFT market on Ethereum from last cycle, especially when you compare revenue figures of the top marketplaces like pump.fun to Opensea. We give our thoughts on where we are on the timeline of meme mania and speak about the impacts memes are having on the broader crypto market. This includes methods of launching new projects by leveraging memes as a more user friendly go to market vehicle to onboard community and then adding complexity layers down the road to not off-put sentiment.

Also, when it comes to marketing narratives memes seem to be dominating the mind share so we discuss how we are approaching $NAT from a marketing perspective. Now that $NAT is weeks away from officially becoming Bitcoin’s second subsidy reward coin, how we classify this new coin is important for public perception. Some do not see $NAT as a candidate to fit within the existing market demographic of memes and rather see a new narrative formed around the coin that distinguishes it from the meme asset class due to its technical provenance to DMT and the broader mission of supplying Bitcoin miners with additional subsidy to sustain network security. We discuss our thoughts on this and also the liquidity dilemma when it comes to supporting Bitcoin assets. All sectors of the Bitcoin ecosystem are facing this problem and are actively working toward building solutions that can either bring more liquidity to Bitcoin from other chains or port Bitcoin native assets to other chains like Solana to benefit from those capital markets.

141

Summary

Decentraland has announced that DCL Worlds will no longer be constrained to a 4 parcel experience, rather it will allow DCL world owners to build without land limitation so long as they overall content experience being hosted doesn’t exceed 100MB. This move changes the game for Decentralands chances of gaining mass adoption due to lowering the barrier of entry and giving anyone the access to create value from within the metaverse. How does this affect the value of original land parcels in genesis city? Is it better to ignore the speculative risks to OG land if it means DCL worlds will bring in many more users and overall increasing the DCL ecosystem value? Also, how does AI play into all of this?

Listen to Podcast

140

Summary

Now that we are in a deep crypto winter, influencers and public figures are perpetuating a negative sentiment towards the crypto industry as a whole, labeling it as one giant scam operation. We take the liberty in explaining how not EVERYTHING in the crypto and web3 arena is being developed by scammers. A lot of what is interpreted to be scams are just projects that have good intentions looking to innovate and experiment, but simply are only able to prove a concept and not sustain their innovations for lengthy periods of time. This is due to the technologies of blockchain, NFTs, tokens, etc being so new, failure becomes a normal part of the growth and maturation of them. We also speak about AI and how it can be applied to spark a new crypto sector to evolve NFTs and DeFi.

Listen to Podcast

139

Summary

First podcast of 2023 we go over the last few weeks of 2022. We recover from the hot ones challenge where we eat a series of progressively spicy chicken wings. OpenAI takes humanity by storm and is now valued at $29 billion because Microsoft intends to invest $10B with a loan when paid back would give them 49% of OpenAI. We look into how the AI craze could have an influence on the crypto industry. We come up with theoretical applications of AI and the ethos of crypto where the community is incentivized to contribute data to an AI with rewarding them with a token. Listen in catch our take on the AI takeover!

Listen to Podcast

138

Summary

In this episode of the Block Runner podcast, the hosts are joined by Javier and TJ to sample various hot sauces from the YouTube series Hot Ones. They discuss the show's premise, which involves celebrities being interviewed while eating progressively hotter chicken wings, and talk about their own experiences with spicy food. The hosts also reflect on the past year and share personal highlights.

Listen to Podcast

137

Summary

The Block Runner podcast discussed various topics related to the blockchain, including play-to-earn gaming, marketing strategies, and the regulatory ecosystem towards crypto and web three. They also talked about Donald Trump's new NFT project, which involves collectible cards that offer access to exclusive events and experiences with Trump as prizes. The hosts debated the definition of utility and whether the project qualifies, ultimately agreeing that it is a low bar. They also briefly discussed the SEC's crackdown on utilities in the NFT space.

Listen to Podcast