Episode Overview

Podcast: Impact Theory
Host: Tom Bilyeu
Guest: Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-founder of Solana
Episode: How Solana’s Founder Sees Crypto Transforming Global Finance, AI Innovation, and American Opportunity | Pt 2
Date: January 23, 2026

In this dynamic, forward-looking conversation, Tom Bilyeu and Anatoly Yakovenko dig deep into the future of crypto, AI, and America’s role in the global innovation landscape. Drawing from Anatoly’s immigrant experience and deep technical expertise, they examine how blockchain and AI are reshaping everything from finance to healthcare, what’s needed to unlock opportunity in America, risks that come with new tech, and the challenges and philosophies behind building for a decentralized global future.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Crypto & Political Volatility in the US

• Crypto’s Resilience to Regulation:
  Anatoly expresses optimism about crypto’s future, emphasizing how its growth and adoption are increasingly global and therefore resistant to US political cycles. Even harsh regulatory climates haven’t significantly slowed growth, especially outside the US.
  • "Even the worst administration... had no meaningful impact on crypto adoption slowing down. A lot of the adoption is happening outside the US, and you're not going to be able to stop that from the United States, no matter what the next administration tries to do." — Anatoly Yakovenko [04:50]
• Feedback Loops & Political Incentives:
  The US political system’s responsiveness still matters, but Anatoly stresses building real things (housing, infrastructure) over shifting numbers or subsidies.

2. The American Opportunity—Through an Immigrant Lens

• Personal Story:
  Anatoly recounts his parents’ emigration from the USSR to Chicago with $50 each; their pride in working immediate jobs, paying taxes, and refusing handouts.
  • "The reason I think I can credit a lot of my success is they moved to a city in Chicago area with high property taxes because they had good schools... you have access to the best schools in the world, and you don't actually need to go to Harvard to succeed." — Anatoly Yakovenko [12:21]
• Self-direction & Agency:
  The real American advantage is a culture of agency, meritocracy, and a belief in solving one's own problems.

3. Intersecting AI and Crypto

• Parallel Global Transformations:
  Anatoly sees AI and crypto as twin revolutions. Crypto rebuilds finance atop trustless, efficient rails, while AI revolutionizes the creation of technology itself.
  • "Crypto is transforming finance... AI is basically rebuilding how technology is made... I can't imagine any company... that's not using AI." — Anatoly Yakovenko [17:44]
• Hands-on Use of AI:
  Anatoly uses various AI models every day, especially for coding, project planning, and even adversarial testing between AIs before execution.
  • "I'm a manager now of the AI. I try to create an adversarial environment for the AIs between the agents... and then I'm like, Claude, here's the doc. Go build it." [19:41]
• AI as Force Multiplier:
  He stresses AI makes experienced engineers vastly more productive, sometimes eliminating the need for teams for side projects.
  • "I don't think you need a team for a lot of things now, which is weird." — Anatoly Yakovenko [21:25]

4. The Future: Engineering, Healthcare, & Societal Change

• Transformation Timeline:
  AI and robotics are poised for dramatic transformation in workflows, medicine, and even surgery, making the world unrecognizable in 10-15 years.
  • "If it's not five years, it's within 10 or 15 for sure." — Anatoly Yakovenko [25:06]
• AI Dangers:
  The real AI risk isn’t "Terminator"-style domination, but a world sedated by perfect entertainment—"the most subversive AI you can build is one that just tells the best joke." [26:09]
• Healthcare Use Cases:
  Large swaths of non-emergency healthcare will likely be automated through AI for greater efficiency and accessibility.

5. Quantum Computing and Crypto Security

• Quantum Threats & Resistance:
  Anatoly advocates proactive adoption of quantum-resistant encryption, even if it means bigger blocks/ledgers.
  • "Just suck it up—like, it's not a big deal. We have a lot more bandwidth now than 10, 15 years ago." [28:16-29:22]

6. Solana’s Core Vision: The Transaction Layer

• Decentralization as Physics Solution:
  Solana aspires to be the world’s immutable, decentralized message bus for finance, encoding and synchronizing market information globally at the speed of light.
  • "As soon as you see that signal, you can actually submit a transaction and its ordering becomes immutable in that moment in Singapore." — Anatoly Yakovenko [31:10]
• Market Structure Innovation:
  By decentralizing exchanges and minimizing intermediaries, Solana aims to lower spreads and deliver real consumer value at global scale.

7. Staking, Incentives, and Token Economics

• Validator Model:
  Solana's “hot dog stand” analogy explains staking and validator incentives; future value should be driven by actual protocol utility, not speculation.
  • "What I hope eventually is that the fees generated by providing the service... are discount cash flows that people can backtrack into the value of it and be like, okay, there's a fundamental hot dog stand here..." — Anatoly Yakovenko [42:08]
• Volatility & Speculation:
  Anatoly emphasizes his disinterest in volatility-driven speculation—real value is in protocol utility, not price swings.

8. Solana’s 2026 Roadmap & Alpha

• Major Upgrades:
  The “Alpenglow” consensus upgrade exemplifies bleeding-edge performance gains—higher bandwidth, lower latency—enabling rapid blocks and distributed agreement.
  • "The biggest change that's cooking is Alpenglow... essentially next generation consensus algorithm... ripping out all my code, which is great." [48:50]
• AI and Formal Verification:
  AI models like Claude now enable rapid, mathematically-proven bug-free software for decentralized exchanges.
  • "Claude is really good at generating formal verification. My toy project is... a risk engine for a perpetual DEX that's formally verified." [49:46]
• Real-World Asset Expansion:
  Expect more stablecoins and “real world assets” (e.g., tokenized stocks) on-chain; Solana Labs and partners are pioneering bridges with regulated TradFi.
  • "The ones that I'm excited about is more real-world assets, more stablecoins..." — Anatoly Yakovenko [57:39]

9. Challenges: Memecoins, Regulation, Identity

• Meme Coins, IPOs, and Risk:
  While meme coins reflect persistent digital culture, Anatoly sees true innovation in direct, on-chain IPOs, though regulatory and agency hurdles remain high.
• Identity & AI Deepfakes:
  On identity fraud and deepfakes, Anatoly contends there’s no simple cryptographic solution; real trust is local and social, built in the physical world.
  • "Throw more block parties, get to know your neighbors." — Anatoly Yakovenko [55:48]

10. Financialization & Decentralized Prediction Markets

• Betting = Politics Minimization:
  The spread of prediction markets essentially removes political reputation from the equation and replaces it with objective risk and liquidity signals.
  • "Financialization is the absence of politics." — Anatoly Yakovenko [66:16]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Political Cycles & Crypto:
  • "Who's in charge? It matters for founders... but in terms of product and real adoption, not much will change. It'll continue growing no matter what." — Anatoly Yakovenko [04:50]
• On the AI Productivity Explosion:
  • "I don't think you need a team for, for a lot of things now, which is weird." — Anatoly Yakovenko [21:25]
• On Identity in an AI World:
  • "You tell them, here's my public key... They will sign it with a public key that looks very similar to yours." [53:11]
• On Direct Local Action:
  • "Go throw a block party, shake hands, get to know your neighbors, smell them, sell them some hot dogs." — Anatoly Yakovenko [57:11]
• On Memecoins:
  • "It's just like Ultima Online... NFTs and meme coins are just kind of part of that weird phenomenon that because these systems are persistent, people start valuing them and start speculating on their value." [63:37]

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:02 | Societal/political cycles, crypto’s resilience | | 08:27 | The immigrant perspective on America's opportunity | | 17:38 | AI’s role in technology & engineering, Anatoly’s workflow | | 22:02 | AI’s short-term and long-term transformations for science/engineering | | 24:33 | Healthcare automation via AI, timeline for robotics | | 28:10 | Quantum computing, crypto security, and readiness | | 30:38 | Solana: physics & finance, decentralized exchanges | | 37:56 | Solana as a global message bus, eliminating financial middlemen | | 42:08 | Token economics, volatility vs. protocol utility | | 48:50 | 2026 roadmap: Alpenglow, bandwidth/latency upgrades | | 49:46 | AI and formal verification of decentralized finance software | | 52:45 | The limits of digital identity, Sybil problem, and human trust | | 57:39 | Real-world assets & stablecoins on Solana | | 63:37 | Meme coins, culture, and speculative games | | 66:16 | Financialization as the absence of politics, prediction markets |

Final Thoughts

This episode stands out for Anatoly’s blend of technical insight, immigrant grit, and optimistic realism about technology’s impact and America’s future. It’s an essential listen for anyone interested in where blockchain, AI, and society are heading—and how everyday action, not just code, drives real change.

Quote to Remember:
"I think ultimately people have a sense of fairness and have a sense of belief that they can solve their own problems... That's very much a true American entrepreneurial spirit." — Anatoly Yakovenko [06:50]