Podcast: Solana founder unravels the Layer 1 Wars | Anatoly Yakovenko

Anatoly Yakovenko talks founding Solana, open source projects, and layer 1 wars with Blockworks’ own Jason Yanowitz and Mike Ippolito.

by Brianna Beckford /
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In the latest episode of Blockworks’ podcast “Empire,” Jason is joined by Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito & Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

Anatoly has spent over 20 years as an engineer working for companies such as Qualcomm & Dropbox whilst contributing to open source software development. After the recent success of Solana, we invited Anatoly onto Empire to discuss how Solana was founded, the current layer 1 wars, the growth of crypto vs the internet, DeFi, and DEXs vs CEXs.

They also discuss:

  • Building conviction in the bear market
  • The disruption of crypto & open source projects
  • and so much more!

Check out what they had to say in the video below. 👇

On “Empire,” once a week, Jason interviews individuals that have built the crypto industry to talk about their struggles, bold moves and tough decisions. For any NPR or Guy Raz fans out there, you can think of “Empire” like a “How I Built This” for the bitcoin and crypto industry.

Episodes are released every Thursday morning. 

Subscribe to Empire today on Apple or Spotify. Watch episodes on YouTube.


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