The Alfalfa Podcast | Layer Zero

You don't talk about this stuff on bankless.

Welcome to Layer Zero. Layer Zero is a podcast of unscripted conversations with the people that make up the Ethereum community. Crypto is built by code, but is composed by people, and each individual member of the crypto community has their own story to tell. Cypherpunks understood that the code they write impacts the people that use it, and Layer Zero focuses on the people behind the code, because Ethereum is people all the way down, and always has been. Today on Layer Zero, I have a very, very special episode. I'm extremely excited about this one because I have not one, not two, not three, but four guests, the four members of the Alpha Alpha podcast. And I met these uh four individuals, you will hear the story in the podcast, during my times in San Diego. And they have been grinding away at producing an all-in style podcast. For those that enjoy the all-in podcast, uh, this is this is one of those. Uh, and uh they they talk about a very wide range of subjects, not just from the crypto world, because they are all very deep in the crypto world, uh, but they also talk about things that you might not hear out of bankless, other other components of the crypto industry, but also other investment strategies that have nothing to do with crypto, and also just life advice and and politics and just some other topics that might you would definitely not get out of bankless. This has kind of turned into my the other half of my podcasting uh side of things where there's bankless going very, very deep in the crypto world, and then there's the Alp Alpha podcast for literally everything else. Uh and these four four uh guys that I met here in San Diego have turned into some of my closest friends and they are becoming great podcasters. Uh and so before I made my Exodus out of San Diego, I called them all over to my apartment and we did an Alpha Alpha podcast together, but I co-opted the whole thing and I was the host, and that is what you are about to hear today on Bankless Layer Zero. So I thoroughly hope you enjoy this co-opted episode of the Alpha Alpha Podcast. Because uh, if the Bankless Nation likes this, this might be a regular thing that you might hear uh as one of our many, many podcasts in our podcast network. So I hope you guys enjoy this podcast, and we'll get right to it right after we talk to some of these fantastic sponsors that make the show possible. Welcome, Bankless Nation, to a one-of-a-kind show on Bankless. Brand new guests, a brand new format, different kind of content. We've got four members of the Alpha Alpha podcast, and here they are. On our hands, we've got a yield farmer with a chip in his brain. He can calculate APY in his head, but he can't understand the opposite gender, which is ironic, because he's got more farms than you've had girlfriends. Ladies and gentlemen, D Gen Spartan's apprentice, Steven Cesaro.

Thank you, that's beautiful.

Yeah, you like that one?

Welcome, buddy.

Coming up next, a man who's confused as to whether he's an investor or a painter. He can't really sell his art because he only accepts ETH.

The man whose cash flow is up only, but his portfolio just bores me. He's built a lot of companies, but none of them count because they don't have tokens. I think he's got a crypto punk, and I but at least there's one on his hat. He's the reason why we're all here today and why we'll all be hungover tomorrow. Nickerbonnie.

Hello, hello. Please buy my art. I have a habit to support.

I got you guys, yeah. Dollar bills are coming in.

And last but not least, the latest and greatest, holding down the fort, when he talks to his Insta-Stories, it feels like he's talking to me. If he were an author, he'd write romance novels with himself as the main character. The man that identifies as a beard, Armin Asadi.

I've never felt more flattered.

That was perfect.

Beautiful beard.

That was perfect.

I think we got one more. I think we have one more.

Right.

The only thing he's rug pulling is the city of San Diego.

Crypto Girl swoon, but he is in a committed relationship with his plants. He feeds us more smoked salmon than Alpha. It's the slayer of Moloch, our fearless friend, leading us into the frontier. David Hoffman, everyone.

Trust the state.

That's so good. I'm so glad I didn't read those beforehand.

Steven hasn't read it a single message on our text thread. Never read a message.

Oh and you you can tell because the the the tunes in about three hours late and he's like guys what have you been talking about? Um okay so Banco Station, this is the Alfalfa podcast. These are four DeFi DGens that I've met in my time here in San Diego, and I'm very sad to leave them. But they are hard committed to their podcasts, and so their podcast is gonna be the main topic of conversation today. So to get started on that, whose idea was Alfalfa Podcast? How did this get started?

Yeah, that's a good question. Take him to the Tipsy Talk data. I don't know if I would say it was my idea, but I have I have my flow with Arm on a Saudi podcast. That's definitely your idea. Okay. I pulled them into this. And I pulled them individually onto my podcast. And then eventually I said, what if we all got together and did one together? We called it Tipsy Talk. And they were a hit. And mostly just because I had a blast and I had fun. And I'm sitting with my three best friends in the world, getting to shoot the shit, talk life, alpha, politics, investing, crypto. And then we did a second one and a third one. And then I just started incessantly pushing the idea of a podcast. I was like, why are we doing this on my show? This should be its own thing. How many months did it take to like fully get you guys?

Moving though.

Armand's got another nickname. It's the wolf. Because the wolf will pressure you, peer pressure you into doing things. We have uh all cap all cap text messages.

None of us like the idea of being like a a persona online, actually. Except Armon, really.

Love it.

Steven, Steven kinda likes it too, but like I think like Nick and I have been like kind of avoiding sort of putting our head out of this hole, and now like we're being coaxed and

So good at it. You guys are fucking natural.

It feels it feels good now.

This is destiny. So it's happening. That's the inception. And uh yeah, we're like twenty-four, twenty-five episodes in. I think it's the best thing we've ever done.

I've been watching

through and through and it's getting better and better and better and more and more DGEN. You guys are coming out of your personalities as this goes along. Um but why does the world need Alfalfa? What what is the alpha that Alfalfa has to bring to the table?

I mean, I think, you know, Bankless has its its values, right? And those come through and through through the content and how you guys conduct yourself and your guys' perspectives on the industry. And I think we definitely have our values as well. Like our core values are that, you know, it's critical for people to have a group of friends that they respect and they think are thoughtful to kind of dissect the world around them and figure out what is our perspective and how do we go forward. So whether you have a crew, you know, in person with your friends or not, like come come join us. We think that success it's critical to be successful in life and to get fulfillment, to have people to bounce ideas off of. So we go into crypto and investing is number one. We talk a little politics, you know, and and I think most people don't want to get into politics or or be active. But the next best thing is to be informed, you know, over time, create a perspective for yourself so you could talk about it with your friends and and maybe create change that way. And then, yeah, of course, a little life alpha alpha, because we're all good friends. We've been friends for a long time. We help each other out through the opportunities life presents itself and the and the the troubles. So naturally we gotta help each other out and make sure we uh miss the you know philosophical pitfalls of being a crypto DGen investor, I think.

Yeah, I think at Bankless we definitely try and promote everyone to just basically take the crypto pill and stop taking every other pill and only think about crypto for the rest of your life, like only buy ETH, only buy Bitcoin, only think about the merge, only think about ETH staking, uh, because we got to promote crypto to the rest of the world. And I think you guys are the much more healthy and balanced out of that. So it's like, okay, here's how crypto fits into the world, here's how you can integrate this and have a part of your life. But then when you talk about life alfalfa, you also talk about work life balance and just like how to do other things uh in relation to all your investments. You guys are all crypto people, but uh crypto is part of my identity, and I don't think you guys have that, you haven't gone that far down into the crypto world.

You know, it was Eric that actually said this one time. He's like, I don't I don't give a fuck if it's called crypto or it's called Schmorgis board or whatever the hell it is. It's the thing that's interesting right now that's giving me the most alpha. It's the thing in life right now that we are paying the most attention to. It doesn't matter what it is, but that's where we're currently putting our attention. But you know, you come from like Trad5 background, and that's what became most exciting to you, and we all started pivoting toward that. But it could be anything, it's just the common denominator, I think, right now.

Oh, I I'm a devout listener to the Bankless Podcast, and I I give you guys a lot of credit in in my adoption into this industry. And like um one thing I noticed was when we were talking with SBF, he said he he he chased the money into into crypto, and then he like got sort of pilled by the values, and that's exactly where I'm at. Like I I I wanted the returns, but then after like getting deeper and deeper into it, and like especially uh listening to what you guys are talking about, I'm like, wait a second, this is like actually better for humanity, etc.

Crypto should by its own merits like work their way into everyone's portfolios. But I think you guys like I will never say that like crypto is is not the right time to get into crypto because because of like it's more for like you know you can get in here as a long term investment, not just for you and your financial assets, no matter what part of the cycle that you're in, uh, because crypto's good for good for the world. Uh but you guys are like, well, it kind of feels like a top right now, guys. Like, man, but let's start talking about real estate and like some other some other assets. Um

We do owe it to Steven though for dragging us along. Like big time. I I think, yeah, maybe I pushed the podcast, but Steven's the one that dragged us along with crypto. Hello Lord.

But this is a good entrance for the DeFi Nihilist. Speaking of uh top toppy tops and what we're gonna do from here.

What do you want to talk about? Oh everything's dead. We're all gonna die.

Is everything dead we're all gonna die?

Almost everything, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're you're a fan of this is gonna be as bad as bl and as bloody as all the previous cycles?

Uh yeah, I'm I'm I'm kind of open to the idea that it could be worse

Oh.

in a lot of ways.

Alright, let's change subjects.

I don't know how uh how sunny do you want to keep this thing?

Uh I think actually we'll re we'll return to the D finalist uh last because we'll go into that after after after we do all this. And so uh we've talked a little bit about what Alpha Alpha is. It's a bunch of different things. A little bit of crypto, a little bit of real estate, a little bit of normal finance, a little bit of life Alpha Alpha. I'm sure you guys talk about uh even like health stuff uh uh sometimes every now and then too. Uh so let's go into each one of you guys just to e explore who you guys are for the audience, for the bankless audience. We'll end with Steven so he can just bring us all down again.

Uh but we'll we'll start with Nick, because Nick and I have an interesting story about how how I met him.

Can we talk about our origin story?

Yeah, you wanna you wanna do that?

Oh man. Well uh I was showcasing some art at a local neighborhood art festival and this guy comes up and says, Can I take a picture of your art? And I'm like

Oh, thank you, thank you. It's uh only purchased in ETH. So um he says, Can I take a picture of art? And I'm like, sure, go ahead and do a double take. And I'm like, oh god, this is gonna be really weird. But I'm like, hey man, are you the guy on the bankless podcast? And he's like, oh yeah, sure. Well, what a crazy weird fan again. And uh, you know, are you are you into crypto? And I pull off my my hat, which has my crypto punk on it, and show it as like my verified street cred that I am in fact into crypto. Point to the QR code that says only purchase an ETH, and uh then he just leaves me, just ghosts to me. And guys are our our story could have just ended.

That could've been it.

Ended very quickly. Could have been like one of those like misconnections on Craigslist.

Well, how are you feeling in that moment when he's just like, cool, well, see ya.