ZEROPOD S2E14: "Taming the Wild West" with Ethos founder Serpin Taxt

Welcome back to another episode of ZEROPOD, featuring Serpin Taxt, the ambitious young founder of a new protocol called Ethos, which aims to help solve the age-old problem of who to trust, and who not to, in the onchain space. Host Toady Hawk talks about his childhood, his career in web 2, and his goals for Ethos, namely, to tame the wild, wild west of the crypto space… just a bit. So without further ado, let’s go learn about the mythos behind the Ethos.—-Timestamps:00:00 - The $9B Problem: Scams, Trust, and the Wild West of Crypto02:25 - Welcome to ZEROPOD: Meet Serpin Taxt, Founder of Ethos05:00 - Inventor Dreams and Web2 Career08:00 - Escaping B2B SaaS11:00 - Discovering Ethereum: Interoperability and Smart Contracts13:30 - When Crypto Finally Clicked15:00 - Inspiration from Friend.Tech and the Birth of Ethos17:00 - Reputation is Everything: Why Trust Signals Matter19:10 - Realizing a Bigger Vision21:00 - A Wild West Without Accountability24:00 - Proof-of-Stake for People: Ethos’s Core Mechanism26:30 - Avoiding Mob Rule: Risk, Reputation, and Social Slashing29:00 - Open Moderation and Algorithmic Challenges31:00 - Reviewing ETH Wallets, Twitter Accounts, and Beyond33:30 - Identity, Anonymity, and the Risk of Sockpuppets36:00 - Using Ethos in the Wild: Kaito, Bots, and Reputation vs. Attention39:00 - Why It's Hard to Call Out Scammers (but Why We Must)42:00 - The Power of Named Reviews vs. Anonymous Drama44:00 - NFT Ethics, Gotcha Culture, and the Chaos Incentive46:00 - Social Slashing 101: How It Works in Ethos49:00 - Toward Financial Slashing: The Next Big Risk Layer51:00 - Onboarding: Slow Growth53:00 - Staying Power: What Keeps Users Coming Back Daily56:00 - Finding People to Vouch For (and How to Ask for Vouches)58:30 - Using the Chrome Extension for Discovery and Reviews1:00:00 - Integrations 1:02:00 - Building Influence Onchain: Ratings for Businesses, Not Just People1:04:00 - Alpha Drop? Business Leaderboards Are Coming1:06:30 - Why Ethos Launched on Base1:12:00 - The Token Question: Contributor XP, Incentives, and Future Possibilities1:14:25 - Wrap-Up---Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. Produced by Zero Rights Media. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like!