Latest / The Starting Block / DoubleZero infra to supercharge Kalshi - Ft. Austin Federa
Transcript
- 0:06Welcome back to The Starting Block,
- 0:07a happy Friday to you, wherever
- 0:09you're joining us today.
- 0:10It's the end of the week, you made
- 0:11it.
- 0:12The markets aren't looking too bad,
- 0:14so plenty to smile about.
- 0:16I'm broadcasting live from the
- 0:17Netherlands. It's very hot today, so
- 0:19if you're across Europe and you're
- 0:21experiencing this heat wave, I hope
- 0:23you survive, I'm doing my best to.
- 0:25If this is your first time joining
- 0:26us on the show, welcome to The
- 0:27Startling Block.
- 0:28This is The Block's daily live
- 0:30show. We've been running for just
- 0:31under two months.
- 0:33Crazy to think, two months ago we
- 0:34were in Abu Dhabi.
- 0:35Sitting with CZ Live
- 0:37to launch this fantastic
- 0:39show. And it's been a fantastic
- 0:40journey since, and we keep going
- 0:43strong. Today, we'll be
- 0:44joined a little bit later by Austin
- 0:46Federa. He's the co-founder of
- 0:48Double Zero. And of course, many
- 0:50of you out there who are big fans
- 0:52or users of Solana will know him
- 0:53from his time at the Solana
- 0:55Foundation as well.
- 0:56So we've got Austin coming on the
- 0:58show to talk about a big partnership
- 1:00slash integration between
- 1:02Double Zero and Kalshi.
- 1:03Which will be a really interesting
- 1:04conversation coming up in the hot
- 1:06seat in a few minutes time.
- 1:08But if you've never joined us
- 1:09before, we always start the show
- 1:10with the Block Briefing, which is
- 1:12our rundown of the top headlines of
- 1:14the last 24 hours curated
- 1:16from the Block's fantastic editorial
- 1:18team. So it's a great pleasure for
- 1:20me to highlight some of the stories
- 1:22that our news team have been working
- 1:23on throughout the week and
- 1:25over the last twenty-four hours.
- 1:26So without further ado, let's jump
- 1:28straight into our first headline of
- 1:30the day. And I think probably one of
- 1:31the biggest.
- 1:33Pieces of news concerning stable
- 1:35coins and Tether in general.
- 1:37In the last 10 years, Tether has
- 1:40cleared a milestone critics have
- 1:41been chasing for years.
- 1:42The stable coin giant says KPMG
- 1:44US has issued an unqualified
- 1:47that's a keen opinion on the
- 1:48full 2025 financial statements
- 1:50of Tether International, which is
- 1:52the entity behind USDT,
- 1:55the world's largest stable coin.
- 1:57CEO Paolo Arduino told the
- 1:59block yesterday it's the company's
- 2:00first full independent financial
- 2:02statement audit and that it covered
- 2:04all of Tether's financials.
- 2:07KPMG separately confirmed the work
- 2:09for the world's largest stablecoin
- 2:11issuer long dogged by questions
- 2:12about its reserve.
- 2:14A big four sign off is a
- 2:16significant credibility marker
- 2:18and just a few more anecdotes on
- 2:19this story.
- 2:20I heard that KPM actually
- 2:22went into the bunker where Tether
- 2:24is holding all of gold reserves and
- 2:26they counted bar by bar.
- 2:27The gold that's backing their
- 2:30tokenized gold offerings that
- 2:32they have.
- 2:33I am actually going to be speaking
- 2:34to Paolo Arduino a little bit later
- 2:35this afternoon. We'll be sitting
- 2:36down for a pre-recorded interview,
- 2:38so keep an eye out.
- 2:40On the block socials, we'll be
- 2:41releasing some snippets of that
- 2:43interview as we have it later
- 2:45today. Unfortunately, he couldn't
- 2:46join us on the show, but we
- 2:48will be looking forward to chatting
- 2:49to Austin Federer in a couple of
- 2:51minutes' time.
- 2:52Moving on to our next story,
- 2:53Gemini's first earnings as a public
- 2:55company. Sent shares sliding more
- 2:57than 7% after hours Thursday.
- 2:59The Winklevoss twins exchange
- 3:01posted $107 million
- 3:04net loss for the second quarter,
- 3:06even as their revenue grew
- 3:08by 37% to
- 3:1045 and a half million.
- 3:12The bright spots were outside crypto
- 3:14trading, credit card revenue surged
- 3:15231% to
- 3:17$16 million, and
- 3:19prediction market volume jumped 93%
- 3:22quarter over quarter with cumulative
- 3:24contracts topping.
- 3:25$225 million.
- 3:27Management struck a candid note
- 3:29saying the company still has, quote,
- 3:32work to do.
- 3:33So an interesting one.
- 3:34And hopefully we can get the
- 3:36Winklevoss twins on the show in
- 3:38the next couple of weeks for a catch
- 3:39up. I met and interviewed them last
- 3:41year at Bitcoin Amsterdam,
- 3:44where they were launching
- 3:45Cypherpunk, their Zcash
- 3:48treasury company.
- 3:49So we'll go knocking on their door,
- 3:50and maybe we can dig a little bit
- 3:52more into that story.
- 3:53Our next headline, Peter Thiel
- 3:54backed exchange bullish is still
- 3:57bleeding red, but less of it.
- 3:58The company reported a $280 million
- 4:00net loss for the second quarter
- 4:02narrowing sharply from $604
- 4:05million in
- 4:07losses in the first quarter.
- 4:09It's adjusted revenue rose 62%
- 4:11year over year to $92 million.
- 4:14The pain point here, digital asset
- 4:16sales fell 44%
- 4:18dropping to 32.6
- 4:21billion. From 58.6
- 4:23billion.
- 4:24It's a mixed scorecard for the newly
- 4:26public exchange, top
- 4:28line growth and a slimmer loss set
- 4:29against a steep slide in
- 4:32trading volumes. And I think, you
- 4:33know, this financial report really
- 4:36indicating the current state
- 4:38of things in the crypto industry.
- 4:41Then regulators drew a hard line
- 4:42around Kalshi in Washington state.
- 4:44A court issued a final order
- 4:46requiring the prediction market to
- 4:47stop offering contracts tied to
- 4:49sports. Elections, politics,
- 4:51entertainment, culture, technology,
- 4:53and science.
- 4:54Culture must geofenge
- 4:56Washington, uses out of
- 4:58those markets by the 2nd of
- 4:59September, but it's not a total
- 5:01shutdown. The platform can still run
- 5:03commodities, climate,
- 5:05economics, and finance markets in
- 5:06the state, but it is another
- 5:08regulatory blow for the event
- 5:09contract space, which is fighting
- 5:11battles on multiple fronts in
- 5:13the United States.
- 5:14And staying on that vein, the
- 5:16prediction market legal parlor.
- 5:17Continues to grow, Baltimore,
- 5:19Maryland's largest city
- 5:22has sued Kalshi and Polymarket,
- 5:24alleging their sports events
- 5:25contracts amount to illegal sports
- 5:27betting.
- 5:28It's not stopping at the operators,
- 5:30Mayor Brandon Scott and the city
- 5:32council roped in distribution
- 5:33partners, Coinbase, Robinhood
- 5:35and Weeble as defendants too.
- 5:38The city is seeking penalties,
- 5:39restitution and a court order
- 5:41blocking what it calls unauthorized
- 5:43sports betting for an industry
- 5:44already under regulatory fire having
- 5:46a major city name.
- 5:49Mainstream brokerages raises the
- 5:51stakes here. And just a really
- 5:52interesting kind of situation
- 5:54playing out in the United States
- 5:55where prediction markets and
- 5:57gambling kind of see some
- 5:59blurred lines.
- 6:00So we've been talking about this
- 6:02plenty on the show in the last
- 6:03couple of weeks.
- 6:04Our final story of the day, a costly
- 6:05reminder that the threat often
- 6:07starts at the top of a
- 6:09search page.
- 6:10A hyperliquid user appears to have
- 6:11lost roughly $550,000
- 6:14in USDC.
- 6:15After falling for a phishing scam
- 6:17promoted through a Google search ad,
- 6:20according to the co-founder of
- 6:21crypto firm Flash Rescue.
- 6:23If it's a pattern, security
- 6:24researchers have been warning about
- 6:26back in April, the non-profit
- 6:28Security Alliance will seal,
- 6:30said it had blocked 356 malicious
- 6:32Google ad URLs in just a
- 6:34few weeks.
- 6:35The lesson, double check that
- 6:37link before you connect a
- 6:39wallet. And that really goes without
- 6:40saying, just seeing the spate of
- 6:42crypto crime in the last
- 6:45year.
- 6:46And recent issues with
- 6:48lots of AI assisted
- 6:50hacks and exploits going on
- 6:52in the industry.
- 6:53So take care of what you're doing
- 6:54online and definitely double check
- 6:56what you are clicking.
- 6:58That's it for the block briefing
- 6:59today. We're gonna move straight
- 7:01into the hot seat this afternoon.
- 7:03It's a great pleasure to welcome
- 7:04back to, well, actually for the
- 7:06first time to the show,
- 7:08Austin Federer is of course the
- 7:10co-founder of Double Zero.
- 7:11And was previously with the Solana
- 7:13Foundation. Austin, it's great to
- 7:14have you on the show for the first
- 7:16time. I keep saying that because
- 7:18I've spoken to you so many different
- 7:19times at my previous employer,
- 7:21but this is the first you're on the
- 7:23starting block.
- 7:24So first things first, welcome to
- 7:25the show. It's good to catch up.
- 7:26How are you doing?
- 7:27I'm good, congratulations on the new
- 7:28show.
- 7:29Thank you very much.
- 7:30We've been working hard and it's
- 7:32been a great two months so
- 7:34far and just on the
- 7:35up and up.
- 7:36And once again, it's always good to
- 7:38catch up with you and have you on
- 7:39the show. So we appreciate your
- 7:40time. Let's talk about the big
- 7:41headline. We'll jump straight into
- 7:43it.
- 7:44You've just announced a big
- 7:46partnership slash integration with
- 7:48Kalshi.
- 7:49They're coming to essentially use
- 7:51Double Zero's infrastructure,
- 7:53fiber infrastructure.
- 7:55You can give us the TLDR a lot
- 7:56better than I can. Give us, give us.
- 7:59The long and short of it.
- 8:00Yeah, certainly.
- 8:01So what we're doing with Caoshi and
- 8:03Caoshi research is basically
- 8:04enabling users to subscribe
- 8:07to every single
- 8:09event contract and every single
- 8:10state change with full market depth
- 8:12delivered over double zero and
- 8:14multicast. And there's a lot of
- 8:15words to kind of unpack there.
- 8:17But at its core, what this is is a
- 8:19much faster way to receive
- 8:21a complete view of all of
- 8:23the data of what's going on on
- 8:24Caoshi event contracts, including
- 8:26liquidity depth.
- 8:27So this is called L2 data in
- 8:29the financial world.
- 8:30And what this really provides is a
- 8:32few different things.
- 8:33So today, most people who consume
- 8:36any type of data from this whole
- 8:38category of new finance, whether
- 8:39it's crypto and hyperliquid
- 8:41and finance and Coinbase,
- 8:43or whether it is prediction markets
- 8:45like Cal-She, they're basically
- 8:47using the same way that Slack
- 8:49receives updates from your
- 8:51coworkers.
- 8:52It's something called a web socket
- 8:53connection and they never really
- 8:55were built for this type of thing.
- 8:57In the traditional financial space,
- 8:59you actually see this technology
- 9:01called multicast as something that's
- 9:02been an underpinning financial
- 9:04technology for 20-plus
- 9:07years at this point.
- 9:08And the reason for that is it
- 9:10delivers all of the data to traders
- 9:12as quickly as possible, and it
- 9:14does it in a much more equitable way
- 9:17because all that data is delivered
- 9:19at the same moment to all
- 9:20the people in the same location, as
- 9:22opposed to what traditionally
- 9:24happens is you send one piece of
- 9:26data out and another piece of out.
- 9:28It's much more akin to like radio
- 9:30and streaming TV.
- 9:31And so in working with Cauchi on
- 9:33this, what this means is
- 9:34sophisticated traders, whether those
- 9:36are large, high-frequency trading
- 9:37firms, which believe it or not, are
- 9:39actually very active on prediction
- 9:41markets, or if it's just like a few
- 9:43guys running a trading strategy
- 9:44powered by AI agents,
- 9:46we now allow them to consume
- 9:48much more detailed information
- 9:50and faster information about what's
- 9:53going on on Cauchi.
- 9:54And that's a big deal in these
- 9:56markets, right, because literally
- 9:58milliseconds will make the
- 10:00difference between trades going
- 10:02through or you being beaten to
- 10:04an arbitrage or a specific trade.
- 10:07Do you think this is kind of
- 10:08indicative of how quickly the
- 10:10prediction market space is maturing.
- 10:12Absolutely. I mean, we have seen
- 10:14prediction markets go from sort of
- 10:16two or three years ago, like a weird
- 10:17thing that a bunch of political
- 10:18nerds did in their spare time
- 10:20to like core financial
- 10:22infrastructure.
- 10:23You know, we, we have folks
- 10:25in discords that are trying to
- 10:27solve the exact same problems and
- 10:29questions that an entire team
- 10:31of experts at
- 10:33a large Wall Street trading firm are
- 10:34also trying to solve.
- 10:35What is inflation going to be?
- 10:37What is CPI numbers going to be?
- 10:38What are the jobs numbers going to
- 10:40be. And often times prediction
- 10:41markets are getting it.
- 10:42More accurate than the
- 10:45traditional Wall Street firms are,
- 10:46which is fascinating.
- 10:48I think the argument that this stuff
- 10:49is somehow not
- 10:51part of core financial
- 10:52infrastructure is really missing
- 10:54the point.
- 10:55This is taking something that
- 10:57every single large financial actor
- 10:59has had access to, which is the
- 11:00ability to hedge exposure to
- 11:03anything that is not by their own
- 11:05design.
- 11:06You've had hotels effectively
- 11:08shorting the weather.
- 11:10Or running prediction markets
- 11:12for the weather through complex
- 11:13insurance products.
- 11:14What is crop insurance, except a
- 11:17prediction market outcome on yield
- 11:19harvests for a specific piece of
- 11:20field?
- 11:21And now, suddenly, a mom and pop ice
- 11:23cream store can also hedge the
- 11:25weather, because, of course, you
- 11:26sell much more ice cream when it's
- 11:28beautiful and sunny out than when it
- 11:29is cold and rainy.
- 11:31That's a really good anecdote,
- 11:32actually.
- 11:33I also wanted to just pick your
- 11:35brain a little bit on how much
- 11:36learning you've done about
- 11:38prediction markets, obviously, in
- 11:39the buildup to this partnership and
- 11:40this integration, because there has
- 11:42been sort of
- 11:44the naive assumption
- 11:47or belief that prediction
- 11:49markets are just a dressed up
- 11:51gambling, but that's not quite the
- 11:53pace.
- 11:55It's not true, it's not accurate.
- 11:57Maybe you can give us your kind of
- 11:59take on prediction markets and why
- 12:00you think they are so powerful and
- 12:03they are actually quite different
- 12:04from just conventional gambling.
- 12:07I mean, prediction markets are,
- 12:09at its core, just a new type
- 12:11of financial primitive that's now
- 12:13available at a much lower
- 12:14cost of access.
- 12:16Again, we've had these type of
- 12:17complex instruments for a while.
- 12:20You could always go to Lloyd's of
- 12:22London and get an exotic policy on
- 12:24something extremely expensive to
- 12:25hedge risk. They famously insured
- 12:27the space shuttle.
- 12:29And these sorts of things are
- 12:31available at certain level of
- 12:33sophistication and on Terry Premium.
- 12:35That just has not been available to
- 12:37individuals before or even small
- 12:39businesses.
- 12:40And so, from my perspective here,
- 12:42you have to ask yourself, is it a
- 12:44game of chance or is it
- 12:46prediction based on skill?
- 12:48I think it's very hard to look at a
- 12:50political market or an oil market
- 12:52or a crypto futures contract
- 12:54and say, there's not skill involved
- 12:56in trying to predict what the
- 12:57outcome was.
- 12:58If there was no skill involved and
- 13:00it was purely luck, you would not
- 13:01have people employed at many Wall
- 13:03Street firms. Whose job it is to try
- 13:05and predict exactly these things,
- 13:06let alone people at intelligence
- 13:08agencies who are trying to predict
- 13:09the exact same thing.
- 13:11And so for me, that's kind of a
- 13:13pretty sharp line that separates
- 13:15things that may be considered
- 13:16something along the lines of
- 13:17gambling from something that is
- 13:19simply aggregating
- 13:21human intelligence to try and
- 13:23produce accurate outcomes for
- 13:24financial gain.
- 13:25That's the name of the game.
- 13:26That's what capitalism is all about.
- 13:28Yeah, and it's it's fascinating that
- 13:30really that's what it comes down to
- 13:31is that the the likelihood
- 13:33of an outcome happening is
- 13:35Directly correlated to
- 13:37the financial positions that people
- 13:39are putting in so literally the skin
- 13:41in the game indicates how
- 13:43likely something is to happen and it
- 13:44it's incredibly powerful because
- 13:46No one's gonna put money on
- 13:48on a certain outcome happening just
- 13:50just by chance You know other than
- 13:52if they're willing to just gamble,
- 13:54you know, like I used to work
- 13:56in the sports industry and
- 13:57I had a betting agency that
- 13:59sponsored my trip to the Rugby World
- 14:01Cup. And before I went to the rugby
- 14:02world cup, I was like, I think South
- 14:04Africa are gonna win this rugby
- 14:05world Cup. So I'm gonna put a
- 14:06hundred dollars on that.
- 14:08That was a gamble.
- 14:09I was right and it happened, but it
- 14:11was a complete gamble.
- 14:12And prediction markets, that's not
- 14:14quite the same thing at all.
- 14:16And I really loved the notion of,
- 14:18yeah, the amount of money being put
- 14:20on the table for a
- 14:22certain outcome is very interesting.
- 14:24And I think you need look no further
- 14:25than even the US elections a couple
- 14:27of years ago, and you know,
- 14:29Polymarket and kind of Carl Shee,
- 14:31you know indicating to us that
- 14:33Donald Trump was going to win when
- 14:34in fact, people tracking the polls
- 14:36and conventional news websites, etc.
- 14:38Would be telling you a different
- 14:39story.
- 14:40And if that doesn't tell you
- 14:41everything you need to know,
- 14:43then I don't know what does.
- 14:47I do want to keep just talking about
- 14:48prediction markets for a little bit
- 14:49longer here.
- 14:50When it comes to the infrastructure
- 14:52that you have built, maybe you
- 14:53can just give our audience that
- 14:55don't know Double Zero a quick TLDR
- 14:57on what you do and
- 15:00why and how this kind of
- 15:02prediction market angle came out to
- 15:03you. Because as you were saying,
- 15:04Orfe, it's very interesting to move
- 15:06away from the crypto use case that
- 15:07you imagined when you found
- 15:09the Double Zero to what
- 15:12kind of primitives are now being
- 15:13built on top of that infrastructure.
- 15:15Certainly. So under the hood, double
- 15:17zero is a blockchain protocol.
- 15:19It the sort of core network
- 15:22of the double zero network
- 15:23is contributed by
- 15:2617 different individual companies
- 15:28at this point, saying the same way
- 15:29that there are multiple entities
- 15:30that run validators for
- 15:32Solano or Ethereum or hyper liquid.
- 15:34There are multiple companies and
- 15:35entities out there that run fiber
- 15:37for the double-zero network.
- 15:39And so what we build and what the
- 15:41folks at the labs company build is
- 15:43really the software system that
- 15:44allows these individual pieces of
- 15:46fiber to mesh together and
- 15:47talk to one another.
- 15:48And the whole purpose of this is to
- 15:50go faster than the public internet
- 15:52allows data to move and to
- 15:53use technologies like multicast that
- 15:55are simply not available on the
- 15:57public Internet. And so this whole
- 15:59market data feed, which is called
- 16:00Double Zero Edge, is just one
- 16:02of many different products and
- 16:04services that are built on top of
- 16:05the Double Zero Network the same way
- 16:07that a DEX or a Borrow-Len protocol
- 16:09might just be one thing built on a
- 16:11Ethereum.
- 16:12And so for us, this
- 16:14high-speed data movement for
- 16:16market data, it can carry all types
- 16:17of data, whether that is equities
- 16:19data or commodities data,
- 16:21securities data.
- 16:23Anything that is a
- 16:25data feed that people would like to
- 16:27consume rapidly for any
- 16:29reason at all can be transmitted
- 16:30over the double zero network.
- 16:32And so you hear a lot
- 16:34on now is like, oh, are
- 16:36these event contracts commodities?
- 16:38Are they securities? Are they
- 16:39something else?
- 16:40It really is agnostic to the double
- 16:42zero network because we
- 16:44run smart contracts under the hood
- 16:45to provision access.
- 16:47And so any type of granular access
- 16:49control that a data feed needs,
- 16:51we can program that into the base
- 16:53layer. And you might assume that
- 16:54like, you can do this for feeds from
- 16:56traditional finance and Wall Street,
- 16:58and we can, but none of the existing
- 17:00providers for this type of thing
- 17:02actually have that level of smart,
- 17:04intelligent routing and control.
- 17:05Most of these are still.
- 17:07Physical cross-connects and paper
- 17:08contracts and these sorts of things.
- 17:10And so really, the Double Zero
- 17:12Edge product is all about expanding
- 17:14access. And a lot of this is
- 17:15targeted at AI agents, that a
- 17:17huge number of people are trading
- 17:19prediction markets, as well as other
- 17:20types of digital assets or digitally
- 17:22accessible markets, through
- 17:24AI agents now.
- 17:25And so you can go to Double Zero.
- 17:27You can buy access to calcium data
- 17:28or Solana data or other data
- 17:30coming soon.
- 17:31And your agent can now ingest
- 17:33that feed and set up trading
- 17:35strategies.
- 17:35And it's an entirely new way
- 17:37both to think about trading and
- 17:39to think about the data that powers
- 17:41that trade.
- 17:43I mean, I don't mean to make this a
- 17:44competition, but it kind of sounds
- 17:46like you're edging into competition
- 17:47with, you know, players like
- 17:49Chainlink. Is it kind similar,
- 17:51some of the offering and the data
- 17:52that you're putting out there now?
- 17:53So there's a pretty good distinction
- 17:55between these two things.
- 17:56And so if you look at like what
- 17:58chain link or pith or an oracle out
- 17:59there is doing, they're trying to
- 18:01look at sort of the aggregate market
- 18:02and tell you what a good price
- 18:04is, right?
- 18:05Like you see this price on
- 18:07this deck or this website.
- 18:09How does that relate to the average
- 18:11price of Bitcoin on the market?
- 18:12What double zeros focused on is
- 18:14quite different. It is what is the
- 18:16price at this specific venue so
- 18:18you can make your own decision so.
- 18:20In a mature end state of double
- 18:21zero, you could imagine we would
- 18:23have feeds from multiple centralized
- 18:24exchanges.
- 18:25Whereas what Chainlink and Pith do
- 18:27is they aggregate that data together
- 18:29and they give you an editorial
- 18:31perspective.
- 18:32We think the price of Bitcoin today
- 18:34is $65,283.34
- 18:37with a certain amount of confidence
- 18:39interval.
- 18:40What double zero instead will give
- 18:41you is this is what Coinbase thinks
- 18:43the price is. This is what Binance
- 18:44thinks the prices.
- 18:45And for a lot of traders.
- 18:47What they're looking for is actually
- 18:49a better purview about what's
- 18:51going on across multiple venues.
- 18:53And arbitrage is the name of the
- 18:54game, oftentimes, in
- 18:56that. And so as we start to
- 18:58see hip four markets and hyperliquid
- 19:00take off, as we started to see this
- 19:02sort of diversification of
- 19:04the prediction market, you might
- 19:06find, hey, I have a high conviction
- 19:08about this thing.
- 19:09And you know what? Polymarket
- 19:10actually, other traders
- 19:12have the same conviction as me about
- 19:13it. Maybe that's not the case on
- 19:15calcium. So maybe you have an
- 19:16opportunity there to say.
- 19:18Okay, I've reached confidence
- 19:19on a prediction that I would like to
- 19:21make where actually is the best
- 19:23market for me to express
- 19:25that outcome potential, whether
- 19:27it's in terms of liquidity or
- 19:28whether in terms of how far I think
- 19:30the market is off from the truth.
- 19:33I want to talk to you a little bit
- 19:33about AI agents and
- 19:35that convergence now.
- 19:38Anyone who's spun up Claude
- 19:40and is using frontier models,
- 19:42I think, would be looking for
- 19:43different trading strategies,
- 19:45especially on prediction markets,
- 19:47because you can do a lot of
- 19:48interesting things there.
- 19:49And we all read these outrageous
- 19:50headlines about crazy trades
- 19:52and insights and money that people
- 19:54have made on prediction markets.
- 19:57And the block also
- 19:59has Prediction Markets News, our
- 20:00recently launched podcast that's
- 20:02dedicated to the sector.
- 20:03So we're watching this stuff kind of
- 20:05very closely.
- 20:06But when it comes to the AI
- 20:07integrations, how important is
- 20:09infrastructure like
- 20:12Double Zero Edge in
- 20:14giving people and their agents an
- 20:16edge over other people?
- 20:18I feel like it could
- 20:20make or break some trading
- 20:21strategies.
- 20:22Yeah, it's hugely important.
- 20:24I think, you know, if you'll allow
- 20:25me a digression for a second, one of
- 20:26the things that we have seen with
- 20:28the rise of these frontier AI
- 20:30companies is.
- 20:32For the first time in probably 20
- 20:33years, the majority of people who
- 20:35work in tech are starting to
- 20:36understand that the servers and the
- 20:38infrastructure truly matters.
- 20:40One of the beautiful things about
- 20:41the cloud is that it abstracted all
- 20:43of that away from you now.
- 20:44But you can't abstract away
- 20:46a frontier model.
- 20:47You need access to GPUs
- 20:49in very high performance data
- 20:51centers. And the physical location
- 20:53of those data centers matters
- 20:54because the speed of light is
- 20:56very fast, but the speed light is
- 20:58nowhere near fast enough.
- 20:59And so the type of people now who
- 21:01are trading with AI agents
- 21:03on prediction markets or traditional
- 21:05markets, they're thinking about
- 21:07where physically is my agent
- 21:09running. Is it physically close to
- 21:10the matching engine for Kalshi?
- 21:12Is it physical close to matching
- 21:13engine for a NAZI or NASDAQ?
- 21:15Or is it running in an abstract
- 21:17environment somewhere that's pretty
- 21:19far away?
- 21:20And so with double-Z, we're going to have to look at that.