On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder of LayerZero. LayerZero is an interoperability protocol that wants to connect every contract on every chain. This is a can't miss episode on blockchain bridges and the future of interoperability. We discuss how LayerZero works, how Stargate enables seamless cross-chain swaps, the flaws of synthetic/wrapped assets, and why the future will be cross-chain. -- Links: Bryan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrimordialAA LayerZero Website: https://layerzero.network/ Stargate Website: https://stargate.finance/ -- BitMEX is back and better than ever. Sign up for BitmEX's new Spot Exchange for a chance to win a piece of $500,000 in BTC (new users). Learn more about them at https://www.bitmex.com/ -- Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR…

Deep Dive on Layer Zero and Stargate Finance Intro 00:00 What is Bridging? 02:59 How Does Bridging Work? 09:03 Bridge Security: Smart Contract Bugs & Wormhole Hack 16:28 The Two Core Issues with Bridge Security — Unbacked Assets & Censored Transactions 21:55 Multichain/Cross-Chain World & Vitalik’s Take: 27:25 Axie Infinity Ronin Bridge Hack: 32:24 LayerZero & Stargate Protocol Overview 44:45 LayerZero Messaging 54:59 Stargate Protocol 1:03:47 Long-Term Outlook — Bullish or Bearish? 1:15:55 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/decentcryptopodcast/message