BeaconLayer Podcast

by Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, Diksha Wells

Season 3

Michael Heinrich | Founder of 0G Labs — Building the First Modular AI Chain

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Michael Heinrich, Founder of 0G Labs, to explore a bold thesis: the future of AI infrastructure may need its own modular, crypto-native stack. Michael shares his unconventional journey — from high school boredom to building 0G Labs — and how practices like spiritual reading and meditation reshaped his leadership style as a founder. We talk about the less-discussed side of company-building: clarity, emotional regulation, and staying consistent when the market (and your own head) is volatile. On the product side, we dive into what “the first modular AI chain” means in practice, why decentralized AI infrastructure is emerging as a category, and why Michael believes a community-owned approach is essential for the future of AI and data. 0G Labs is building a modular Web3 platform aimed at unlocking data infrastructure and storage for advanced AI workloads — connecting decentralized networks with tooling designed for machine-learning-native applications. Expect a wide-ranging conversation on decentralized AI, community ownership, founder psychology, and what it takes to build at the frontier where crypto meets compute.

S3 · E9

May 5, 2026

49:53

Ron Bodkin | CEO & Co-Founder of Theoriq — Understanding Agent Collectives in AI

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa sits down with Ron Bodkin, CEO and Co-Founder of Theoriq, to unpack what “agent collectives” really are — and why the next wave of AI may be coordinated by crypto-native incentives. Ron explores the intersection of AI and Web3 through the lenses of responsibility, governance, and long-term alignment. He shares his journey from Google to founding Theoriq and ChainML, and reflects on what changes when you move from corporate AI leadership to startup execution. The conversation dives into agent collectives, why standardization in AI is still a mess, and what metrics might actually matter for decentralized AI success. Ron introduces “Proof of Contribution” and “Proof of Collaboration” as trust-building mechanisms for agents and teams — and explains Theoriq’s core pillars: interoperability, composability, and decentralized innovation. We also get into token economics, governance design, and how company culture shapes what a protocol becomes over time. Ron closes with lessons on leadership — and a forward-looking view of where decentralized AI could go next.

S3 · E8

May 5, 2026

48:32

Anna Kazlauskas | CEO & Co-Founder of Vana — Solving AI’s Data Dilemma

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Anna Kazlauskas, CEO and Co-Founder of Vana, to unpack one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI: data ownership and incentives. Anna shares her path from traditional finance into decentralized AI, and what it’s like building Vana — a platform designed to let people own their data and contribute it to AI models on their terms. We dig into why tokenomics matters in this model (and where it can go wrong), plus the hard parts of starting a Web3 company: hiring mission-aligned teams, staying focused through noise, and designing systems that can survive contact with real users. The conversation goes deep on the AI data shortage and how Vana approaches it through decentralized data ownership and data DAOs. Anna breaks down the difference between data DAOs, trusts, and unions, why private data is uniquely valuable, and what the ecosystem has learned from experiments like the Reddit Data DAO concept. If you’re interested in the future of AI, data rights, and crypto-native coordination, this one is packed.

S3 · E7

May 5, 2026

56:13

David Minarsch | Co-Founder & CEO of Valory — The Rise of Autonomous Agents and the Future of Web3

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa sits down with David Minarsch, Co-Founder and CEO of Valory, to explore what “autonomy” really means — and why autonomous agents might become the next major interface layer between humans, software, and markets. David shares his path into crypto and AI, including his work with Fetch.ai, and the founding story behind Valory and OLAS. We dig into the rise of autonomous agents: what they can do today (beyond demos), where they’re already useful, and what breaks when you try to deploy them in the real world — especially inside permissionless, adversarial environments like Web3. The conversation also covers the challenges in the Web3 × AI landscape: coordination problems, incentive design, security, and reliability. David makes a strong case for mission-driven teams that can keep building through cycles, and for an open-source ethos — with OLAS positioned as infrastructure to coordinate decentralized autonomous agents in a way that’s composable, verifiable, and scalable. Expect a thoughtful deep dive on autonomy, agent coordination, and the future shape of Web3 as agents become first-class participants.

S3 · E6

May 5, 2026

54:00

Nick Emmons | Co-Founder & CEO of Allora Labs — The Synergies Between Web3 and AI

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Nick Emmons, Co-Founder and CEO of Allora Labs, to explore what crypto actually adds to AI — and where the hype ends. Nick breaks down the synergies between Web3 and AI through a practical lens: how decentralized systems could coordinate models, incentives, and data into something closer to a “collective intelligence” network. He shares Allora’s mission and why they’re focused on AI-powered DeFi — building new financial primitives that use predictive models and markets to make on-chain systems smarter and more adaptive. We also get into the open vs. closed AI debate, why that tension matters for builders, and what kinds of opportunities exist right now for blockchain developers stepping into the AI space. Nick highlights the milestones at Allora Labs that excite him most — and returns to a core idea: markets aren’t just for price discovery; they’re one of the best tools we have for coordinating solutions to hard problems. Expect a wide-ranging conversation on decentralized AI, crypto-native incentives, and Nick’s founder journey at the Web3 × AI frontier.

S3 · E5

May 5, 2026

38:17

Gabby Dizon | Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games — Tokenomics and In-Game Economies

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Gabby Dizon, Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG), to unpack what makes Web3 gaming economies work — and why most of them don’t. Gabby shares his journey from PC gamer to Web3 pioneer, and what he’s learned after years of watching in-game economies succeed, fail, and evolve. We talk about tokenomics that actually sustain player behavior (not just incentives that pump and dump), how guilds change the onboarding equation, and why mainstream adoption won’t happen until the product experience competes with the best of Web2 — not just on ownership, but on fun. We also dive into the future of Web3 gaming: where AI might reshape both game design and player markets, what qualities founders need to survive long cycles, and how YGG has evolved from a play-to-earn guild into experiments like on-chain guilds and more decentralized coordination models. Gabby is a game industry veteran with 18+ years of experience. Beyond YGG, he’s a founding board member of the Blockchain Game Alliance, and his mission is simple but massive: onboarding millions of gamers into new digital opportunity — with a belief that the future of work will be built inside an open metaverse.

S3 · E4

May 5, 2026

45:51

Greg Osuri | Founder of Akash Network — Liberty, Community, and the Future of Decentralized AI

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Greg Osuri, Founder and CEO of Akash Network, to explore the ideas powering the decentralized web — liberty, sovereignty, and what “freedom” should mean in an AI-driven internet. Greg shares his founder journey and the real challenges of building a Web3 product: staying grounded through volatility, making hard tradeoffs, and keeping a healthy work-life balance while running at startup speed. We also talk about why community isn’t just a nice-to-have in Web3 — it’s the distribution engine, the governance layer, and the resilience mechanism when everything else shifts. On the tech side, we dig into open-source as a strategy, why decentralized cloud infrastructure matters for the future of AI, and how Greg thinks about governments and regulation in a world where AI compute is becoming the new choke point. If AI is going to be decentralized, he argues, the infrastructure and incentives have to be decentralized too. Before Akash, Greg founded AngelHack — one of the largest hackathon communities in the world, spanning 100,000+ developers across 50 cities. He started his career at IBM and later designed Kaiser Permanente’s first cloud architecture — experience that shaped how he thinks about reliable infrastructure, not just narratives. Expect a deep conversation on decentralized AI, open-source, the Web2-to-Web3 mindset shift, and what it takes to build a movement — not just a product.

S3 · E3

May 5, 2026

1:18:48

Ethan Sun | Co-Founder of MyShell — Empowering Creators at the Blockchain × AI Crossroads

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with Ethan Sun to explore what happens when consumer AI meets crypto rails — and why creators may be the biggest winners. Ethan shares his journey into the blockchain-and-AI intersection and the origin story of MyShell, an “AI consumer layer” designed to connect users, creators, and open-source AI researchers. His core thesis: the next wave of the creator economy won’t require everyone to be technical — it’ll give non-technical creators real leverage to build, remix, and distribute AI-native experiences. We unpack MyShell’s approach to making AI models more accessible, what it means to transition from Web2 to Web3 without losing users, and where blockchain fits into the product (beyond buzzwords). Ethan also offers a Chinese perspective on the crypto/AI landscape — how sentiment, policy realities, and market structure shape what gets built and what actually reaches users. Expect a wide-ranging conversation on creator tools, product distribution, Web3 incentives, and the practical path to AI adoption at scale.

S3 · E2

May 5, 2026

55:35

DC Builder | Research Engineer at Worldcoin Foundation — Proving Personhood in a Digital Era

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells speak with DC Builder, Research Engineer at Worldcoin Foundation, about one of the hardest problems on the internet: proving you’re a real human — without giving up privacy. DC Builder breaks down the project’s approach to decentralization and its mission to expand access to digital identity and finance globally — with the broader goal of making distribution in the digital economy more fair. We unpack the “web of trust” challenge, why biometrics are both powerful and controversial, and what it actually takes to verify personhood at scale. We also dig into how privacy-preserving cryptography fits into the picture, including the use of Semaphore for anonymous signaling and membership proofs. And because the lines between crypto and AI are blurring fast, we explore the emerging ZKML space and other crypto–AI projects that are pushing the frontier of what on-chain systems can verify. Expect a deep conversation on identity, decentralization, privacy tradeoffs, and DC Builder’s path through Web3.

S3 · E1

May 5, 2026

57:56

Season 2

David Tse | Co-Founder of BabylonChain — Scaling Bitcoin to Secure a Decentralized World

In this episode of BeaconLayer Podcast, Kenzi Morikawa, Sachi Miyasaki, and Diksha Wells sit down with David Tse, Co-Founder of BabylonChain, to explore a bold idea: using Bitcoin to help secure a broader decentralized world — without wrapping, bridging, or handing your coins to a third party. David breaks down BabylonChain’s approach to Bitcoin staking and why it matters: enabling bitcoin holders to earn yield on otherwise idle BTC while maintaining self-custody. Instead of bridging BTC to another chain, users lock their bitcoin in a self-custodial way to obtain the rights to help validate Proof-of-Stake chains and earn rewards in return — with the goal of minimizing trust assumptions at every step. We also talk about BabylonChain’s origin story, what it takes to build through both technical complexity and market cycles, and David’s journey from academia into Web3 entrepreneurship. Beyond crypto, David is a celebrated professor at Stanford University whose work spans wireless communications, information theory, and broader technology research. He also serves as an advisor to Bain Capital Crypto, where he provides strategic guidance on the evolving blockchain landscape. Expect a deep conversation on Bitcoin security, staking, and the mindset shift required to build infrastructure meant to last decades.

S2 · E14

May 5, 2026

45:48

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