On episode 27 of the Zero Rights Reserved podcast, host Toady Hawk from The Noun Square sits down with James Ross, founder of a modular OP Stack L2 called MODE Network, which is aiming to bring more defi energy to the Superchain. 

We hear about James' crypto and defi journey and find out why he wanted to build on Ethereum and on the Optimism stack. We chat about Eigen Layer (which he advised previous to founding MODE), some promising protocols on MODE, Farcaster, incentivizing builders and much more in this one hour conversation.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - How MODE fits into the Superchain
01:45 - ZeroPod intro
02:45 - James’ crypto and defi journey
04:31 - GTM consulting with Hype
05:31 - Why Ethereum? Why Optimism?
06:32 - Different models of builder funding
08:30 - The difficulty of measuring impact
11:36 - How MODE fits into the Superchain
13:56 - Renzo brings ETH staking to L2
16:24 - How EigenLayer is changing the game
19:00 - Is EigenLayer a systemic risk to ETH?
22:30 - How has MODE been going so far since launch?
25:00 - L2s as an unlock for defi strategies
28:00 - Points and airdrops meta, difficulty of incentivizing the right things
31:50 - $Degen and Farcaster. The power of “microbounties” and tipping
35:16 - Thoughts on Farcaster
38:00 - Devs will figure out novel ways to do things
41:50 - Builder culture at MODE: Building for the entire Superchain
43:00 - Some of James’ favourite projects on MODE
47:40 - Why build MODE on the Superchain?
51:20 - Where to go to learn more about MODE: docs.mode.network
52:36 - What is he most excited about for the next 6 months? (Some alpha maybe?)

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Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI.


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Produced by The Noun Square onchain media collective. Follow @ thenounsquare on Twitter for daily content about Nouns, NFTs, Ethereum and more or visit https://tns.wtf to learn more.