The NGMI Podcast

Ex-Quant Trader Finn Hulse introduces Gambling 2.0: next-generation casino infrastructure that wins when its players do.In this episode, Finn introduces the Gambling 2.0 Initiative and breaks down how replacing the house’s bankroll with a huge player pool inverts predatory incentives and democratizes positive EV in exchange for variance. Gambling 2.0 refers broadly to a self-custodial, permissionless, and unfuckwithable system for provably fair gambling where the “house” always wants its players to win. Finn explains how he has created a permissionless, fair gambling system that doesn’t exploit its own users and breaks down the predatory incentives, practices, and misalignment at the core of “Gambling 1.0” as it exists today.Additionally, Finn explains how gambling can be understood as a “good” thing at a social level, and the problems that come from the rapid increase in chronic youth gambling, much of which is driven by a fear of escaping the "permanent underclass."Finn shows how Gambling 2.0 removes the house and re-aligns incentives in favor of users, how Variance Vault acts as a HIP-3/Shopify layer for building fair gambling at scale, and details the mechanics of limiting user downside while maintaining high variance upside.He shares why he thinks it's a good idea to pitch Gambling 2.0 to governments first and shares exactly what it would look like to build and deploy Gambling 2.0 at scale.Timestamps0:00 Freeroll & Gambling 2.004:30 Predatory gambling mechanics 09:00 Gambling: declining with boomers, increasing with youth11:30 Labor and capital12:50 Clavicular, influencers & deceptive (probably illegal) advertising13:46 The 3 Tenets of Gambling 2.019:41 Variance Vault: democratizing upside 23:07 Provably fair house mechanics 27:40 Randomness & decentralization 29:17 The HIP-3/Shopify of gambling 36:52 GTM strategy for Freeroll40:20 Pitching Freeroll to governments42:17 Shutdown Las Vegas, rewire into Gambling 2.046:00 How to create a fair high variance reward system51:30 A permissionless gambling layer53:50 Removing predatory inefficiency from markets58:10 Self-funding variance1:02:05 Build a game on Freeroll

Lauris is a financial economist, forward deployed philospher, a top graduate of the London School of Economics and a serial founder in the world of open-source finance.In this episode, Lauris and I discussed market and financial economics, specifically focused on his previous academic research on Arrow-Debreu securities, swaps, and event contracts outcomes, including the use of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket to create fast-feedback, information-dense "perfect" markets.We went into extensive detail on both the theory and praxis of these frameworks in the crypto industry today, focusing largely on the toxic effect of memecoins on the retail market in cryptocurrency, the case for prediction markets as a new asset class (not just sportsbook gambling), why blockchain-based perpetual futures venues like Hyperliquid and Tradexyz transcend the realm of pure crypto, why "web3" was always doomed to fail, Lucretius and evolutionary theoretical frameworks for financial and social applications, his new project 'Hedgebook', modern dating dynamics, media ecology, christianity , hypergamy, RWA's and the re-industrialization of the United States with artificial intelligence.

Clouted is the man responsible for ETH Strategy: the first Ethereum Strategy “company” to be built as a DeFi protocol on the Ethereum network. In this episode, Clouted and I discuss how Ethereum and crypto ‘Strategy’ companies like Bitmine and SBET actually work, how Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy model of offering cheap options to acquire more Bitcoin & crypto functions at a granular level, how ETH Strategy will go about acquiring as much ETH as possible, how ETH Strategy’s native STRAT token really works, and how investors can accurately value Strategy companies and protocols. Clouted also offered his thoughts on why Ethereum’s price action lagged the rest of the crypto market for so long, his take on what the future holds for Solana now that Ethereum is starting to reach escape velocity, why Ethereum remains the premier blockchain for DeFi builders and applications, as well as what inspired the birth of ETH Strategy and much more. Financial Disclosure: NGMI Media holds a position in ETH Strategy’s native token STRAT after participating in the STRAT presale. We believe ETH Strategy is the most important and logical next step in bringing the ‘Strategy’ playbook on-chain and introducing accretive dilution into the realm of crypto by way of a novel DeFi primitive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links Clouted: https://x.com/CloutedMind ETH Strategy: https://www.ethstrat.xyz/ ETH Strategy (Twitter): https://x.com/eth_strategy Tom Mitchelhill - https://x.com/thecryptojourno NGMI: https://x.com/ngmi_xyz NGMI Newsletter: https://ngminewsletter.substack.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timestamps 0:00 - How ETH Strategy / Treasury Companies Work 4:05 - How Does ETH Strategy Acquire More ETH? 11:40 - How ETH Strategy Will Be Deployed 15:24 - How To Accurately Value Strategy Companies / Protocols (Velocity) 23:10 - Thoughts on Tom Lee & Bitmine? 26:42 - Clouted’s Thoughts on ETH Price Action 30:55 - Clouted on the Future of Solana 36:52 - Why is ETH Better At DeFi? 40:55 - What Inspired ETH Strategy? 42:56 - (IMF Mentioned) 45:40 - Next Steps For Listeners

Matthew Quek is the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of GRVT, a decentralized crypto exchange that offers a centralized trading experience. In this episode, Matthew and I discussed how he discovered crypto, why he started GRVT, its key points of difference from other competitors in the market, why he opted to pursue a regulation-first approach with GRVT, and he explains in detail why blockchains are the superior technological operating system for the entire financial world. We also spoke at length about what Matthew sees as the most overlooked and important parts of the crypto industry today, and he broke down many of the biggest headline/news events in crypto through his own professional lens. Matthew shared that new users of GRVT can still participate in its points program, which will earn them a share of a 20% GRVT airdrop in the not-too-distant future.

Adrian Morris, a consultant and MicroStrategy expert, comes back on the NGMI Podcast to break down his laundry list of main reasons why he believes the crypto market won't witness an "altcoin season" this time around and offers his price prediction for Bitcoin in this current market cycle. Adrian explains how Bitcoin Treasury Companies and institutional investment into Bitcoin will fundamentally mute the capital rotation out of BTC and into the altcoin sector, and explores how Bitcoin Treasury Companies actually work at a high level. Adrian and I also discussed whether or not the Treasury Company model can work for other crypto assets, including Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), why it's harder for altcoins to run like they did in 2017 or 2021, reasonable price predictions for Bitcoin in this current cycle, how Adrian first discovered Bitcoin, and more.

Bernardo Bilotta, the founder of crypto payments app Stables Money, offers an industry insider's perspective on the future of stablecoins and how they will replace and revolutionize the financial services sector. In this episode, Bernie breaks down the primary use cases of stablecoins as they stand today and offers several key insights into the future utility of stablecoins in B2B services, international payments, and many other key sectors of finance. We went over why stablecoins are primed for major adoption, what this adoption will look like in practical terms, and discussed the kind of crypto tech that's likely to be picked up by both retail and institutions, and what the difference between the two looks like. Bernie also shared some alpha on his own company, Stables Money, and their upcoming points program, as well as breaking down the reasons behind his decision to incubate a fintech startup in Australia and the challenges he's faced as a result. A very strong episode with one of Australia's best crypto founders. Get Stables: https://stables.money/ Use the ref code for a bonus: Stables-HMFNB7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOCIALS Bernie: https://x.com/stablesbernie Stables: https://stables.money/ Tom Mitchelhill: https://x.com/thecryptojourno/ NGMI: https://x.com/ngmi_crypto/ NGMI Newsletter: https://ngminewsletter.substack.com/