
<p>On today&#8217;s episode of &#8220;<a href="https://youtu.be/11Jlj_qplew" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Empire</a>,&#8221; Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, one of the fastest-growing layer-1 blockchains that focuses on the user and developer experience. Illia believes NEAR&#8217;s culture, simplicity and dynamic scalability will onboard the next billion users to crypto. </p>



<p>Don&#8217;t miss this discussion on NEAR&#8217;s roadmap and the layer-1 landscape. This podcast was recorded the day before NEAR announced its latest <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/near-raises-350m-to-bring-market-cap-over-10b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$350 million raise</a> led by Tiger Capital, just three months after Three Arrows Capital led a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/near-token-spikes-after-protocol-raises-150m-led-by-three-arrows-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$150 million</a> raise for the blockchain.</p>



<p>Plus, hear more on:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>scalability solutions</li><li>crypto aid</li><li>sharding</li><li>multichain and bridges</li><li><span style="color: initial;">and so much more!</span></li></ul>



<p>Check out what they had to say in the video below.👇</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="NEAR, The Dark Horse of the L1 Wars? | Illia Polosukhin, NEAR" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/11Jlj_qplew?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>About the show</strong></h3>



<p>&#8220;Empire&#8221; is a twice-a-week show. On Thursdays, Jason interviews crypto industry movers and shakers to talk about their struggles, bold moves and tough decisions. Friday&#8217;s weekly roundup episodes feature <meta charset="utf-8">co-host Santiago Roel Santos and cover the top news from the past week.</p>



<p>For any NPR or Guy Raz fans out there, you can think of &#8220;Empire&#8221; as a &#8220;How I Built This&#8221; for the bitcoin and crypto industry.</p>



<p>Subscribe to &#8220;Empire&#8221; today on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empire/id1554930038" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>. Watch episodes on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvER9nHSRN3wPkrDGTT5_8VC4Hjcq0f9U" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>.</p>



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<p><strong><strong>Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/?source=end" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter</a>&nbsp;now.</strong></strong></p>



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