The Human Protocol podcast - the personal side of building big things. Where builders chat about the messy parts of building the future...
thehumanprotocol.eth
Joined February 2026
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Human Protocol retweeted
For those who missed it this week: new @_humanprotocol episode with @scupytrooples is out and it's a good one. Give it a listen 👇
Episode 14 is out: The Anonymous Alchemist with @scupytrooples of @AlchemixFi
It's a conversation of both breadth and depth starting with his leap from teaching through to early Ethereum, DeFi, a fast-growing team and a project that reached more than $500M in TVL within about two months of launch. But growth brings intense pressure: security worries, team conflict and burnout.
We cover leadership, authenticity in the space, co-founder conflict, anonymity and security, chronic pain and how therapy, physical therapy and time away helped him recover - all revealing the realities of creating frontier tech we seldom honestly share and underscoring the importance of taking care of ourselves and others doing the building:
@scupytrooples: "one of my non-negotiables now is just take care of yourself, take care of each other and you can take care of the place by doing so.”
Full conversation: youtu.be/29IWDvAdHrU?si=ZP1d…
Human Protocol retweeted
really enjoyed this convo as it reminded me how far my project and I have come despite the difficulties and challenges along the way. my founder’s journey is coming full circle, and the worst is most certainly over.
Episode 14 is out: The Anonymous Alchemist with @scupytrooples of @AlchemixFi
It's a conversation of both breadth and depth starting with his leap from teaching through to early Ethereum, DeFi, a fast-growing team and a project that reached more than $500M in TVL within about two months of launch. But growth brings intense pressure: security worries, team conflict and burnout.
We cover leadership, authenticity in the space, co-founder conflict, anonymity and security, chronic pain and how therapy, physical therapy and time away helped him recover - all revealing the realities of creating frontier tech we seldom honestly share and underscoring the importance of taking care of ourselves and others doing the building:
@scupytrooples: "one of my non-negotiables now is just take care of yourself, take care of each other and you can take care of the place by doing so.”
Full conversation: youtu.be/29IWDvAdHrU?si=ZP1d…
Human Protocol retweeted
People don’t fear change, they fear loss. Of what they know, of what is comfortable. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is the sweet spot
Human Protocol retweeted
Binary thinking is cognitively cheap: this or that, black or white, for or against.
Ambiguity (and we are in one of the most ambiguous realms of evolution here) requires holding competing truths at once, tolerating uncertainty, being in the grey area, resisting the impulse to resolve tension simply because it’s uncomfortable…
But certainty is socially convenient. Groups want to know which side you’re on, social media wants a position it can rank and reward by imposed standards. When something fails, we reach for the opposite and complexity gets flattened into allegiance to one side or another.
Maybe our discomfort with the grey says less about the complexity of the thing and more about our capacity to hold it.
Human Protocol retweeted
@SuperRareJohn and I have known eachother since @Consensys days. We collaborated on a bounty in 2019 with @ethBounties and Pixura as a way of showcasing what our respective projects did and we have been in eachother's orbit ever since...
medium.com/bounties-network/…
As with every episode of @_humanprotocol, I want to know who is behind the success, what creating a landmark crypto application gives and takes on a personal level, what still inspires them and how they have evolved as humans all these years down the line - through the highest of highs and the lows.
I hope you listen and enjoy youtu.be/C04m_9zqtF8
Episode 13 is live - "Riding Out" with @SuperRareJohn, co-founder of @SuperRare 🌊
A nod to his passion for surfing, the title speaks to the ups and downs of creating one of the best known and most successful platforms for digital art and a core crypto application.
We chat about BC (before crypto) times: architecture, civil engineering, a New York ad job and finding his people in the early @ethereum crowd. Pitching SuperRare to 120 VCs. All 120 passed so they built it anyway: "You have to be a little bit crazy..."
SuperRare is a family business - John, his brother @SuperRareChar and his cousin @rareperkins...because they already knew how to disagree without it getting personal. Especially when debating about maybe giving up on SuperRare entirely and maybe pivoting into DeFi back in 2019...
On the personal side of staying in it through the lows: "This may be pretty horrible, but I know where I'd like to go, and I think it's still worth it to get there. So I'll suck it up and deal with it. Every day isn't a good day, otherwise you wouldn't have good days..."
Then October 2020: the first $1M month, the moment it started to feel like this is definitely something. And the honesty of going from the crest of that wave to having to lay off 30% of the team in 2023 - all in public, full ownership of mistakes made while growing.
"I think the best learning experiences are always the most difficult."
This is the yin and yang of building here.
Full episode - youtu.be/C04m_9zqtF8
open.spotify.com/episode/0Mw…
Human Protocol retweeted
The real bottleneck is never the tech. It’s that powerful tools are in the control of people who've never sat with their own nervous system and looked at where their behaviour actually stems from.
"heal the mindset and traumas of humanity" is the actual arms race.
Self work at all levels, starting now.
We are entering an era where everyone will have everything, including crazy weapons.
So, we need two things:
1. To heal the mindset and traumas of humanity, and
2. Extreme deterrence capability in the meantime while we do ‘the work’ as a species .
What a crazy exciting time we’re living in - let’s not blow ourselves up before @elonmusk takes us to the stars, please!
Human Protocol retweeted
More wholesomeness for you via @ricmoo on @_humanprotocol ep 11:
Being kind to AI isn't really about the AI... it's about the kind of person you are when nobody's watching.
A lot of people think of "be nice to AI" like it's future insurance. If and when the bots take over, maybe they'll remember you said please and thanks. Ric builds live fruit fly traps and then securely disposes of them outside.
It's a tiny thing. But tiny things are the whole game. You are creating and practicing habits and habits spread out and reverberate into everything you do and build...
Full convo youtu.be/gGM9WoTNnHc?si=cbSC…
Let's face it, @ricmoo is hands down one of the most excellent people in our space.
There's this really calming energy he brings whenever we've spent time chatting at different events across the world for the past x years or when I've asked his technical opinion on say an ENS proposal or another.
A self proclaimed "random developer from Canada", he leads with kindness and is disarmingly self-aware about who he is. That honesty about himself is what makes everything else he says in this episode land harder because none of it is about protecting the self-image or has any kind of ulterior motive.
Touching grass is a solid practice and be less worse is my new motto.
One of my favourite episodes so far...
youtu.be/gGM9WoTNnHc
Human Protocol retweeted
Posting seems to work (while re-posting is broken for me). Lez see if this works. :)
I haven’t watched it yet, but already two key insights for next time: do not sit in a Poäng rocking chair and don’t have the laptop on my lap.
"Be Less Worse" - episode 11 with @ricmoo is live!
One of the most honest and heartfelt conversations about building, open source, crypto and what it means to be human while the world gets weirder...
Ric's story starts far from “founder legend” energy: University of Waterloo, Blackberry graphics engine, Kindle work at Amazon. Then a Kickstarter experiment that failed and taught him more than its success probably would have.
The early days of crypto - a small, strange community: meetups, random developers, @VitalikButerin, drinks with people who all seemed "normal" until you realised they were all building the future together.
Then ethers.js - at first just a tool to scratch his own itch, then millions of people depending on it. The edge and beauty of open source: you build for yourself, then the world shows up and the responsibility kicks in.
Throughout the conversation, there's a self awareness and honesty that makes it all incredibly relatable: from admitting he loves being on stage to going off on tangents, to taking a good few minutes talking about potentially killing a frog.
This episode is part technical history, part philosophy, part cautionary tale and part frog-related existential crisis.
“Be Less Worse” is brilliant - not fake perfection, no moral posturing, just a more realistic goal: make things less harmful, less captured, less broken, one step at a time...
Full episode youtu.be/gGM9WoTNnHcBe
Human Protocol retweeted
Knowing @kartiktalwar and the core @ETHGlobal team since 2018 and judging most of the hackathons they’ve run since then has enabled me to closely watch their invaluable contribution to this space throughout the years.
Onboarding newcomers around the world, creating the spaces for core projects to emerge and relentlessly fostering developer access and immediate feedback loops has been a trademark - I wanted to know what drives that mission. What the personal side of creating the spaces enabling others to create looks like and where that drive comes from.
Over 150k developers onboarded and $200 million raised by companies who started as @ETHGlobal hackathon projects…this is the personal side of building this big thing.
Ep 10 is out - High Stadards Build Resilient Ecosystems
@kartiktalwar @ETHGlobal
Kartik's first ever podcast interview dives into in his background in astrophysics, exploring complex systems and big questions blending into @svangel and the 8,000 pitches that shaped his high standards when it comes to...everything. Recognizing real value, real conviction and the difference between something that sounds good and something that proves it can actually become huge.
Hackathons became the perfect environment for fast feedback, low friction and the chance to turn ideas into something concrete - @CryptoKitties was born at ETHWaterloo, @Uniswap and @1inch also sparked during @ETHGlobal hackathons.
The thread connecting it all is that ecosystems get stronger when builders and projects share openly, learn quickly and hold themselves to a higher bar:
"If you want things to get better, the only way they will get better is everybody is in the same room. And the second you go internal or solo or on your own track, you're bound to just be behind because ideas don't spread that way..."
Full episode - youtu.be/49ZmG59hBm0
Human Protocol retweeted
“If you want your product to get better, the only way things will get better is if everybody is in the same room.” - @kartiktalwar interviewed by @Sim_Pop
The final conversation for Pragma Lisbon turned into a live recording for @_humanprotocol.
10/10 way to close out the day.
Human Protocol retweeted
Pragma Lisbon 🇵🇹 | 5:20pm
The Invisible Labor of Creating Community with @Sim_Pop of @_humanprotocol
July 25 ∙ Pavilhão Carlos Lopes
ethglob.al/HKRXP56HKA
Human Protocol retweeted
“At the end of the day, decentralization is probably one of the most important things we need to be thinking about right now.”
@jbrukh on @_humanprotocol with @Sim_Pop discussing everything from growing up in Russia to starting @coinfund in a Slack channel in 2015 and what it takes to be a great founder.
Listen to the full pod here: youtube.com/watch?v=Qi3AWRFN…
Ep 09 is out - The Decentralization Revolution: Tech Needs Human Resilience with @jbrukh @coinfund
The most disruptive tech isn’t just about the innovation, it’s about human resilience, creativity and purpose.
Growing up in the USSR, Jake learned early to distrust authority...that cynicism became a superpower in crypto. When most saw Bitcoin as a speculative gamble, he saw a chance to challenge tradition - an act of rebellion rooted in deep skepticism that made him question everything: Why can’t money be self-sovereign? What’s actually stopping blockchain from changing the world?
The emotional core of it all? Rebellion, curiosity, creativity and purpose - crypto's not done, it’s just evolving. We’re finally at the intersection of technology and mainstream acceptance and now more than ever humans need patience, even though it is a tough space to navigate.
It's our creativity that fuels innovation and tech-driven pursuits need that human touch. More than anything, Jake emphasizes: don’t wait for perfect conditions. Build, iterate, learn. The market always rewards resilience. For all the ups and downs, the key message is stay true to your purpose, keep learning and trust your gut.
The best is yet to come...
Full conversation: youtu.be/Qi3AWRFNvYE
Human Protocol retweeted
Such a great episode with @jbrukh where we chat about skepticism and rebellion as shared insticts coming from our Eastern European heritage, the hard lessons from bear markets, the need for resilience in entrepreneurs, the true importance of human qualities and creativity in tech success and everything in between.
As one of the longest standing crypto VCs, our conversation blends takes on the future of crypto, AI and decentralization together with personal boundaries, mental health and the emotional rollercoaster of our space and the power of entrepreneurship as a creative form.
Really enjoyed this one - in full youtu.be/Qi3AWRFNvYE?si=Nn7x…
Ep 09 is out - The Decentralization Revolution: Tech Needs Human Resilience with @jbrukh @coinfund
The most disruptive tech isn’t just about the innovation, it’s about human resilience, creativity and purpose.
Growing up in the USSR, Jake learned early to distrust authority...that cynicism became a superpower in crypto. When most saw Bitcoin as a speculative gamble, he saw a chance to challenge tradition - an act of rebellion rooted in deep skepticism that made him question everything: Why can’t money be self-sovereign? What’s actually stopping blockchain from changing the world?
The emotional core of it all? Rebellion, curiosity, creativity and purpose - crypto's not done, it’s just evolving. We’re finally at the intersection of technology and mainstream acceptance and now more than ever humans need patience, even though it is a tough space to navigate.
It's our creativity that fuels innovation and tech-driven pursuits need that human touch. More than anything, Jake emphasizes: don’t wait for perfect conditions. Build, iterate, learn. The market always rewards resilience. For all the ups and downs, the key message is stay true to your purpose, keep learning and trust your gut.
The best is yet to come...
Full conversation: youtu.be/Qi3AWRFNvYE
Human Protocol retweeted
btw, while we were in algo jail I launched a podcast. (yeah, I know but you know…?)
It’s an absolute passion project, I’m learning as I go (as a host, AI wrangling editor etc), I want it to be good and enjoyable *plus* I get to talk to the friends who have put their hearts and minds into this wild endeavour of ours. Where it will take us who knows but I want to record their stories because they matter in a very deep way.
There are so many I still have to interview and I will continue my ethstory vlogging regardless of what happens.
Anyway, this is it @_humanprotocol
Give it a whirl if you like humans 🫡
a while ago I tweeted "you know what's going to truly get us from web2 to web3? therapy."
xitter.cf/Sim_Pop/status/1678362…
20K impressions - people felt that
I've been sitting with that idea ever since - it's finally becoming a thing (after a bit of procrastination because I was touching grass...) 🧵
Human Protocol retweeted
I saw @worthalter at @EthCC in April - a month after the first announcement that @poapxyz was going into maintenence mode - he was not wearing his trademark orange jacket...but a full black suit. I asked him how he was and if he wanted to talk about it.
He told me he wasn't quite ready...I said, take your time, I will be here when you are. Four hours later we sat down and recorded this.
With so many key projects sunsetting, this is an emotional, vulnerable journey through burnout, discovering @ethereum, building a beloved collective graph of all our memories and how they connect us and what it's like to let go of something you have put time, effort and passion into.
Thank you Patricio for sharing the human side of building the big things.
Ep 08 is live - Proof of Letting Go: The Story of POAP
@poapxyz was all about preserving memories, building belonging and proving that our shared collective experience is worth encoding. @worthalter's journey starts with crisis, burnout and a search for meaning. It leads into @ethereum, early crypto optimism and the push to build something non-speculative and human.
But over time, the industry shifted and POAP’s original mission became harder to sustain. That’s why “letting go” matters. Sometimes the bravest move is knowing when a chapter has run its course and closing it with clarity, not denial.
This episode is a lesson in:
- building for meaning, not just momentum
- the emotional rollercoster of building here
- accepting when a season is over
- making space for what comes next
In full youtu.be/zAg4uBmSDqY?si=z_gg…
Human Protocol retweeted
🌟 NEW Pragma Lisbon speaker announced:
@Sim_Pop, host of @_humanprotocol
July 25 • Pavilhão Carlos Lopes 🇵🇹
ethglob.al/HKRXP56HKA
