Unchained Ep. 929: The Chopping Block – Zcash +400%, Tempo’s $500M Shock, EF Pay Firestorm & AWS/Base Meltdown feat. Mert

Podcast: Unchained
Host: Laura Shin
Episode Air Date: October 22, 2025
Panelists: Aseeb, Tom, Robert, Guest: Mert (Helios)

Overview

This episode of The Chopping Block touches on several major flashpoints in the crypto world: the explosive 400% rally in Zcash and the debates it sparked between privacy and Bitcoin maximalism; Tempo’s massive $500M fundraise and the subsequent controversy about Ethereum’s talent exodus and incentives; organizational drama at the Ethereum Foundation (EF); the failure of "public goods" economic models; ongoing stablecoin coordination issues on Solana; and the chaos that ensued after a major AWS outage disrupted Coinbase, Base, and others.

The tone is industry-insider, direct, often irreverent, and unapologetically critical—a roundtable of founders, investors, and builders speaking candidly about what's working and not in the crypto space.

Zcash’s 400% Rally: Causes, Skeptics, and Bitcoin vs. Privacy Wars

Key Segment: [00:00–14:34]

Highlights

• Zcash experienced an astonishing 400% price run-up in 30 days, igniting debate over whether the rally was organic or orchestrated.
• Mert pushes back strongly on the notion that the move is a “pump and dump,” noting the token’s long bear market and the importance of privacy tech.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mert [02:19]:

  "It's essentially the meme, not now, babe, somebody's wrong on the internet. [...] As you get more successful as an ecosystem, it starts to look more and more ridiculous to hunch down, basically."

  • On moving from defending Solana to now fighting for Zcash.

• Aseeb [05:19]:

  "Right now, this month, Zcash is the number one token by price performance. [...] There’s this little bit of a civil war breaking out among OG bitcoiners who are now seemingly threatened or shitting on the Zcash movement."

• Mert [09:49]:

  "If I want to pump and dump, it's going to be the most legendary pump and dump you fools have ever seen."

  • Mocking the notion he’s manipulating Zcash for profit.

• Aseeb [10:10]:

  "There's a contradiction at the heart of bitcoin [...] The animating philosophy behind bitcoiners is this cypherpunk. Screw the banks. So there's a contradiction now embedded in this market that's becoming increasingly connected with TradFi. And Zcash is not that."

• Tom [13:11]:

  "Satoshi literally wrote like, oh, yeah, it would be great to do ZK proofs over the entire chain, but I just don't think it's technically possible. [...] They did it and it exists and it must sting a little bit and not have that be part of bitcoin."

Insights

• Many old-school Bitcoiners see Zcash’s rally as a challenge to Bitcoin’s "pure privacy" narrative, despite Zcash’s roots in cypherpunk/cryptographic innovation.
• The new generation of Zcash promoters (Mert, Naval, Ansem) are clashing with OGs who feel threatened or resent being out-memed.
• Irony: Zcash is being called a "pump and dump" while others, including larger chains, face no scrutiny for similar behavior.

The Tempo $500M Fundraise & Ethereum Talent Exodus: Corporate Chains vs. Public Goods

Key Segment: [14:34–41:00]

Highlights

• Tempo, incubated by Stripe & Paradigm, raised $500M at a $5B valuation pre-launch—churning up envy, fear, and criticism (esp. from Ethereum corners).
• EF researcher Dankrad leaving for Tempo stoked controversy, with many seeing a "talent drain" from Ethereum.
• Peter Szilágyi (longtime Geth dev) published a damning internal memo about EF’s pay, culture, and management, underscoring the problem of public goods organizations competing with well-funded corporates for talent.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Robert [18:21]:

  "Congrats to Tempo on a great fundraise. [...] Objectively, given who's involved, it doesn't feel that expensive. So kudos to them for a $5 million fundraise, bringing great people on board."

• Tom [19:28]:

  "There's all this moralizing and hand-wringing and it's like, no. The actual answer—this is a loser mentality. There's something not sufficiently good with the current offerings that they chose to go and build this thing."

• Mert [23:08]:

  "Peter Guy getting 600k over 6 years, which I thought was insanity, right? The lead dev for the client making 100k per year... I think that's just a colossal failure of leadership. [...] If people are being paid that way, then you obviously cannot blame them for leaving."

• Aseeb [24:20]:

  "To paraphrase Vitalik: 'if someone's not complaining that they are paid too little, then they are paid too much.'"

  • Highlighting a deep (and controversial) ideology in EF compensation.

• Tom [28:44]:

  "You end up selecting for a very strange group of people if you end up having your organization this way, with incentives structured this way. Maybe it works for things with a long time horizon and not much market pressure, but Ethereum is in a marketplace and it does have to be competitive..."

Insights

• The open question: can public-good foundations (like EF) retain and attract top talent in a market where private, VC-backed chains pay dramatically more?
• "Religious" foundations provide important signaling—"the monks chanting"—but market competition is inescapable.
• Solana Foundation is spotlighted as an example of professionalizing operations (under Lily) and outcompeting the "vibes-maxxing" approach of Ethereum Foundation.
• The fundamental tension: should base protocol devs be held to different compensation and ethics standards (like a priesthood in government/nonprofits), or is pure market competition inevitable for progress?

Public Goods Under Siege: Compete or Die?

Key Segment: [29:53–41:00]

Highlights

• Steel-manning the critique: are corporate chains "poaching" public-goods developers and crowding out the commons?
• Some panelists see this as natural, market-driven evolution. Others lament the loss of non-market-aligned "priesthoods" upholding foundational values.
• Ethereum’s current weaknesses (slow, poor UX, etc.) haven’t eroded its status, thanks in part to "special valence," signaling, and its "smells and bells"—i.e., culture and ideals.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mert [31:51]:

  "You should pay wherever is most competitive and wherever aligns best with their values. What's the alternative? Central control or shaming. Those are not sustainable."

• Aseeb [34:45]:

  "It's important for society to have this religious priesthood that doesn't live within the market system. [...] I do think people should care if somebody at the EF goes and takes an advisorship with some company that's politically sensitive."

• Robert [37:00]:

  "There will be chains that are religious in nature, right? Maybe that is Ethereum. Maybe there’ll be some new chain that says we have to be double, double, triple pure. [...] I really don’t fault anyone at play leaving Ethereum to go to another chain because they get paid more."

• Aseeb [38:10]:

  "Ethereum as a product has been pretty shit over the last few years. Not the fastest blockchain, not the best UX. [...] A big part of its endurance is this special valence: the purity, the high priesthood, and the smells and bells, so to speak."

Insights

• Both public-goods "priesthoods" and ruthless market competition have roles and utility in maturing blockchain ecosystems.
• Changing compensation and professionalization are inevitable as crypto moves beyond its "religion phase."
• The debate isn’t settled—and won’t be, as competing models (Solana’s competition, Ethereum’s ideals) play out in the real world.

Solana’s Stablecoin Dilemma: USD Manlet, USDC, and Realpolitik

Key Segment: [41:00–49:25]

Highlights

• Mert tried to rally Solana around "USD Manlet," a homegrown stablecoin, to keep yield and value within the ecosystem (not to USDC/Circle).
• In practice, coordination has failed: dominant front-ends (Phantom, Jupiter) drive their own strategies, and competitive fragmentation remains.
• Mert ultimately pivots to boosting USDT (Tether) on Solana as a competitive lever against Circle/USDC.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mert [43:00]:

  "He who controls the front end basically controls everything. And Phantom and Jupiter control the front ends on Solana... whatever they decide, that's kind of what's going to happen."

• Mert [45:23]:

  "I changed my mind on this: the smart play actually is to incentivize Tether more on Solana as opposed to launching [a Solana-native stablecoin]. [...] As USDT comes more onto Solana ... you’re really forcing USDC’s hand to compete."

• Aseeb [46:12]:

  "USDT has kind of not really worked on any chain in DeFi. USDC is totally dominant. That does seem hard."

Insights

• Despite the philosophical appeal of ecosystem-owned stables, practical realities (fragmented teams, perverse incentives, competitive landscape) make coordinated action nearly impossible.
• Instead, market competition is the pressure valve—push USDT to gain ground and indirectly force USDC/Circle to be more competitive toward Solana projects.

AWS Meltdown, Base, and Decentralization Theater

Key Segment: [49:29–59:57]

Highlights

• A major AWS outage (starting US East, but rolling) took out a swath of Web2 and crypto apps, including Coinbase and Base.
• Base’s sequencer failed, showing the perils of "decentralized" blockchains with centralized dependencies.
• Several panelists marvel that anyone is still single-cloud, and express skepticism at such basic infra mistakes from major players.
• The discussion closes with a reflection on how these failures highlight the unfinished work of robust, decentralized infrastructure.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mert [51:58]:

  "It's kind of embarrassing that there is not like a failover or some geo redundancy. That's not a hard... Coinbase already does this with all the other systems, by the way, and really any Web2 organization does it."

• Aseeb [55:38]:

  "No, absolutely not. [...] If you're building a robust system that has real money that people are going to lose if the system doesn't work—no, they absolutely should have some mitigation."

  • Rejecting the idea of simply blaming Amazon/AWS.

• Mert [56:37]:

  "What’s interesting is there used to be a criticism that Solana is like an AWS chain... What's interesting is barely any Solana nodes can use AWS because AWS bandwidth costs would literally bankrupt you. You need to use bare metal, which ends up making it more decentralized in some sense."

• Aseeb [58:05]:

  "Base is one of the titans of the industry, right? It’s like Signal. [...] No excuse for Signal going down. [...] There’s levels of seriousness with which you need to take engineering robustness."

Insights

• The event exposed the entire ecosystem’s reliance on a handful of cloud providers and the lack of proper failover, even among industry titans.
• Solana, ironically, is "more decentralized" on this axis because of cost structures forcing node ops to other providers.
• The real lesson: decentralization theater is common; substance lags behind, often for expediency or cost reasons—until something breaks.

Memorable/Notable Quotes (Summary Table)

| Time | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:19 | Mert | “It’s essentially the meme, ‘not now babe, somebody’s wrong on the Internet.’ It’s basically just my personality in some sense.” | | 09:49 | Mert | “If I want to pump and dump, it’s going to be the most legendary pump and dump you fools have ever seen.” | | 23:08 | Mert | “Peter Guy getting 600k over 6 years, which I thought was insanity... That is a colossal failure of leadership.” | | 24:20 | Aseeb | “To paraphrase Vitalik, ‘if someone’s not complaining they are paid too little, then they are paid too much.’” | | 31:51 | Mert | “You should pay wherever is most competitive ... What’s the alternative? Central control or shaming. Those are not sustainable.” | | 38:10 | Aseeb | “Ethereum as a product has been pretty shit over the last few years ... A big part of its endurance is this special valence: the purity, the priesthood…” | | 45:23 | Mert | "I changed my mind on this: the smart play actually is to incentivize Tether more on Solana as opposed to launching [a Solana-native stablecoin]." | | 51:58 | Mert | “It’s kind of embarrassing that there is not like a failover or some geo redundancy. That’s not a hard [problem to solve].” | | 58:05 | Aseeb | “There’s levels of seriousness ... I think this is one of these places where the anger is justified... That’s real economic damage.” |

Episode Structure with Timestamps

• [00:00] Zcash rally, skepticism, and BTC vs. privacy
• [14:34] Tempo’s $500M round and the “stolen” Ethereum talent
• [24:20] Ethereum Foundation pay, "priesthoods," and more public goods drama
• [41:00] Solana stablecoin “USD Manlet,” the difficulty of coordination, and market realities
• [49:29] AWS meltdown, Base goes down, decentralization “theater,” and the cost of centralization

Final Thoughts

The episode lays bare the deep tensions between ethos and economics, centralization and decentralization, public goods and private enterprise. The hosts pull no punches in critiquing weak incentives, slow governance, and failures of leadership (especially at the EF), while also acknowledging the market forces and technological constraints shaping modern crypto.

If you care about:

• How blockchain ecosystems actually function vs. their narratives,
• The realpolitik behind token launches, organizational drama, and L1 competition,
• And how infra failures and big funding rounds shape the next chapter,

...this episode is for you.