TezTalks Radio - Tezos Ecosystem Podcast

Hosted by Tezos Commons

TechnologyInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

125

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Delivering news and updates across the Tezos Ecosystem. Join us for a conversation about Tezos and humanizing the people behind the Tezos Ecosystem

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 21, 202633 min

124: Why Ryan G. Tanaka Keeps Building Differently on Tezos

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Live , we welcome back musician and TEIA core team member Ryan G. Tanaka for a conversation about what years of creating, experimenting, and maintaining community-built infrastructure on Tezos have taught him. From putting everyday objects inside a grand piano at TezCon to building tools because of problems he encountered himself, Ryan shares the stories behind TEIA, teia.cafe, and the decisions that come with keeping open-source projects useful without losing what made them worth building in the first place. The conversation gets into the less visible side of community infrastructure too: changing your mind when new information emerges, cleaning up systems maintained by many people over many years, deciding when funding helps or hurts, and figuring out what should be preserved as a project grows. It is a look at Tezos from someone who has spent years not only using the ecosystem, but helping maintain the spaces where its culture lives.

July 29, 202651 min

124: TezTalks DeFi Series | Monarch Lets You Lend Directly Without Curators

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! The fastest way to lose money in DeFi is to outsource understanding. We sit down with Anton, founder of Monarch, to unpack a deceptively simple question: when you deposit into a “yield” product, do you actually know what you’re exposed to, and who can change it after you click deposit? We get concrete about Morpho lending markets, why vaults and curators can introduce hidden risk for suppliers, and how Monarch is built to offer permissionless direct access instead. Anton walks through Monarch’s Etherlink integration (Tezos EVM), what the live markets look like today, and how users can supply, track flows, and manage positions with better visibility than a single APY number on a button. From there, we dig into the tools that matter when conditions turn chaotic: smart rebalance across markets with the same loan asset, auto vaults that let you set your own exposure caps, and the bigger idea of agents that help you monitor and de-risk instead of “manage your whole wallet.” We also get into the details most interfaces hide, especially oracle assumptions, hard-coded paths, backup oracle designs, and why RWA and private credit assets can be harder to evaluate when part of the story lives off-chain. Anton shares a monitoring tool he likes for RWAs and stablecoins and how that kind of data could plug into safer DeFi UX. If you care about DeFi risk management, Morpho, on-chain lending, yield optimization, and the real tradeoffs behind vaults, this is a practical listen. Subscribe, share this with a friend who farms yield, and leave a review with the one risk metric you wish every app showed.

June 9, 202628 min

123: How Metals.io Is Bringing Real Assets Onchain

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , host Brandon Langston welcomes back Ben Elvidge to discuss the next evolution beyond Uranium.io: **Metals.io>. Last time, the conversation focused on uranium and the challenge of making a difficult physical commodity accessible through modern financial infrastructure. This time, the lens gets much wider. Metals.io expands that vision into a broader universe of materials including gold, uranium, strategic metals, and upcoming additions like cobalt, silver, palladium, and nickel. At the heart of the discussion is a simple question: Why are some of the world's most important materials still so difficult for ordinary investors to access directly?

May 20, 202634 min

122: Inside TzEL and the Future of Private Payments on Tezos

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , we’re joined by Arthur Breitman , co-founder of Tezos, for a deep conversation about TzEL , an experimental project exploring private, post-quantum payments on Tezos testnet. At the center of the discussion is a deceptively simple question: If blockchain data can remain public forever, what does privacy actually mean over time? Rather than treating privacy as a momentary concern, this episode looks at the long-term reality of encrypted transaction data that may still exist decades from now — and what happens if future cryptographic assumptions change. 🎙️ The conversation moves through private payments, post-quantum cryptography, rollups, the DAL, and the engineering realities of turning research ideas into working systems. 🔍 In this episode, we explore: Why blockchain privacy has a “time problem” What kinds of transaction data remain exposed long term Why Arthur became interested in private post-quantum payments specifically What TzEL is actually testing — and what it is not claiming yet How Tezos’ long-term adaptability connects back to post-quantum design The difference between a research prototype and production infrastructure What had to be built to make TzEL function end to end Why proof size becomes a major constraint for private systems How the Tezos DAL changes what becomes practical Why heavier cryptographic systems may naturally live in rollups How viewing keys, detector keys, and selective disclosure work in practice What this experiment reveals about the future design space for Tezos This is one of the clearest conversations yet on how Tezos infrastructure, rollups, governance, and long-term adaptability connect together underneath the surface.

May 12, 202639 min

121: How Ushuaia Prepares Tezos for Shared Applications

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , we’re joined by Yann Régis-Gianas to unpack Ushuaia , a new Tezos protocol proposal that sits directly in the path toward Tezos X . From the outside, Tezos X promises something simple: a more unified Tezos experience where EVM and Michelson applications can interact more directly without the awkward fragmentation users are used to across chains, rollups, wallets, and app environments. Ushuaia is part of the infrastructure underneath that promise. This episode focuses on what Ushuaia actually unlocks, what becomes harder without it, and how the clean roadmap for Tezos X meets the reality of engineering constraints.

April 18, 202644 min

120: The Story Behind Tezzardz and Everything Around It

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , we sit down with George Goodwin , better known as OMGiDRAWEDit , one of the most recognizable artists in the Tezos ecosystem. If you’ve spent time in Tezos art, you’ve likely seen his work — bold colors, strange characters, chaotic scenes that somehow hold together the longer you look. But this conversation goes deeper than style. 🎙️ It starts before Tezzardz, before Tezos — back when George was still trying to figure out what kind of artist he wanted to be, and what was missing from his work. 🔍 In this episode, we explore: The shift from darker, monochrome work to vibrant, character-driven worlds What it really means to “find your voice” as an artist Why NFTs felt different from the start — and why they mattered How Tezos became more than a platform and started to feel like home What stayed true through every phase of the Tezos art scene The real story behind Tezzardz and what it was responding to How success changed George’s perspective as an artist Why projects like Bedroom Nostalgia and Disordurance reveal a deeper side of his work The tension between being an artist and becoming a content creator What it takes to keep going when attention fades At its core, this is a conversation about something most artists wrestle with quietly: how to grow without losing the thing that made your work yours in the first place.

March 29, 202638 min

119: How TEIA Was Rebuilt After Hic et Nunc

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio, host Brandon Langston sits down with Ryan Tanaka, a longtime builder in the Tezos art ecosystem behind projects like TEIA, teia.cafe, and Tezcon. The conversation starts with a moment many remember, when Hic et Nunc shut down. For some, that was the end. For others, including Ryan, it became the reason to rebuild. 🎙️ This episode explores what it actually takes to keep a creative ecosystem alive when the platform disappears. 🔍 In this episode, we explore: Why Ryan chose to rebuild after Hic et Nunc instead of moving on How fragmentation across tools like teia.cafe created real friction for users Why music and on-chain media remain under-discovered on Tezos What it’s like to build and ship features inside a DAO Why simple ideas like wallet-to-wallet messaging are harder than they seem What’s still missing for artists in the space today How builders stay motivated through quieter market cycles Whether decentralized platforms can avoid the same patterns as Web2 Why the Tezos art community has endured while others faded

March 23, 202630 min

118: Inside the Role of Chief Baker at Tezos Foundation, Chris Pinnock

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio, host Brandon Langston is joined by Chris Pinnock, Chief Baker at the Tezos Foundation. Baking is often described simply, but in practice it sits at the center of everything: consensus, signing, security, coordination, and infrastructure. 🔍 In this episode, we explore: What a Chief Baker actually does beyond the title Where pressure shows up first in the baking layer The kinds of risks and failure modes that matter most What separates a smooth week from a difficult one How BLS signature aggregation works in practice What changed when BLS moved from theory to live infrastructure How the Tezos Foundation structures and operates multiple bakeries The trade-offs between simplicity and resilience Real moments where the system was under pressure and what was learned How incident response works when speed and caution both matter The biggest shifts in baking over the past few years What challenges lie ahead as Tezos continues to scale

March 18, 202620 min

117: The 5.5 Million Tez Decision Explained

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , we’re joined by Mat Cybula , CEO of TenX Protocols , following the announcement of a strategic staking partnership with the Tezos Foundation . In January, TenX acquired approximately 5.5 million tez . But beyond the headline, this conversation focuses on something more important: how that decision was made, and what it actually means in practice. 🎙️ This episode looks at Tezos from the perspective of an operator responsible for uptime, security, and long-term trust. 🔍 In this episode, we explore: How the internal decision to acquire tez came together The biggest concerns raised before committing capital What made Tezos a “yes” for TenX What a “strategic staking partnership” actually involves What TenX is running today and how to verify it What delegators should expect in terms of fees, payouts, and reporting How validator performance and transparency will be communicated What due diligence from the Tezos Foundation looks like behind the scenes How TenX approaches security, key management, and failure scenarios The balance between yield optimization and operational safety How TenX thinks about decentralization and stake concentration Why Tezos governance and upgrade reliability stood out How TenX plans to approach on-chain voting Whether TenX plans to contribute beyond validation Throughout the conversation, Mat keeps coming back to a simple idea: running infrastructure is about responsibility, not just returns. If you’re delegating, building, or just trying to understand what serious operators look for before committing to Tezos, this episode gives a clear view into how those decisions are made.

February 19, 202630 min

116: Latency, Instant Confirmation, and the Next Phase of Tezos

Enjoyed our podcast? Shoot us a text and let us know—because great conversations never end at the last word! This week on TezTalks Radio , host Brandon Langston speaks with Yann Régis-Gianas , Head of Engineering at Nomadic Labs , about what Tezos X is — and more importantly, what it changes for the people actually using Tezos. Rather than focusing on abstract architecture, this conversation centers on experience. What does latency really mean? What is instant confirmation in practical terms? And when these pieces come together, how different does Tezos feel? 🔍 In this episode, we explore: What Tezos X is and how Yann explains it in simple terms How this direction differs from previous upgrades Where development stands today and what milestones come next The challenges and unknowns the engineering team is navigating Who benefits most from Tezos X — users, developers, or both What latency means in everyday usage How instant confirmation changes the feel of payments, games, and apps The difference between perceived speed and actual finality What kinds of applications become more realistic as confirmation times drop How latency improvements connect back into the broader Tezos X vision What Yann is personally curious to see once these pieces are fully in place