From Engineering at Microsoft, Lyft, Coinbase & Avalanche to CEO of Boundless

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For this week’s Tuesday episode, I interviewed Shiv Shankar, CEO of Boundless, a protocol for verifiable compute across any chain, powered by the RISC Zero zkVM technology.

From software engineering at companies like Coinbase, Lyft, Ava Labs, and Microsoft, to becoming CEO of Boundless, Shiv is pioneering blockchain research, while bringing the world of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to everyone. He explains how ZK unlocks privacy, app scaling, and true interoperability.

Tune in to learn why Boundless’ mainnet beta began on Base (with Ethereum Foundation support), how proof-of-verifiable-work compresses costs, and how ZK will make cross-chain apps and frictionless user experiences possible for the next wave of users.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:01 – Intro to Shiv and Boundless

00:34 – Shiv’s career journey

01:50 – Lessons from past jobs

03:38 – Talent flows in crypto

07:47 – Becoming CEO of Boundless

09:15 – From RISC Zero to Boundless

13:33 – ZK explained simply

16:56 – ZK’s power in blockchains

18:51 – zkVMs and real-world adoption

20:58 – Scaling with ZK (L1s/L2s)

24:06 – Future of privacy in apps

26:48 – Who wants ZK and why

28:45 – Compressing computation with ZK

29:19 – Mainnet Beta and zero dollar proofs

30:21 – Tokenomics and proof of verifiable work

32:24 – Boundless as blockchain compute layer

33:54 – ZK bridges and interoperability

34:18 – Developer opportunity and app focus

37:16 – Application building trends

38:58 – Lowering barriers for devs

40:39 – Abstractions for developers

41:28 – New ZK use cases ahead

43:42 – ZK as a bridge to Web3

44:44 – Ethereum Foundation’s ZK focus

48:05 – Faster than expected roadmap

48:27 – Shiv’s advice: Stay humble

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Money and people moves

1. Simon Taylor joins Stripe and Paradigm-incubated blockchain Tempo, moving to an advisor role with Sardine

   1. Liam Horne, who previously worked on ETHGlobal, Optimism and World Chain, also joined the team at Tempo

2. Sam Lehman, formerly of Symbolic, joins Pantera to help with its crypto and AI investing

3. Inversion Capital raises $26.5M in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital to bring GDP onchain

4. Bren Maciel joins August Digital to do business development

Talking points for the road

Crypto-focused headlines or research that caught my eye…and should catch yours, too.

1. Nasdaq makes push to launch trading of tokenized securities (Reuters)

2. Why SharpLink's CEO Thinks Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Will Return (Decrypt)

3. Euro stablecoin push runs into thin liquidity (Blockworks)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.