ZEROPOD #27 - "Bringing Defi to the Superchain" with MODE Network Founder James Ross

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. If you want to check out MODE, here is an invite code that should work:https://ref.mode.network/AgNTDx If you enjoy this pod, please Rate our podcast 5 stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, it helps us a lot! --- 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?) --- Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI. Zero Rights Reserved, please remix and reuse our content in any way you like! 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.