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The Delphi Podcast

The Delphi Podcast

Written by: The Delphi Podcast
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 Conversations with Crypto Gigabrains. Hosted by Tommy, Co-Founder and Founding Partner at Delphi VenturesThe Delphi Podcast
Episodes
  • Clay Robbins: Building Colosseum, Solana’s Largest Hackathon & Accelerator with 80,000 Participants

    Clay Robbins: Building Colosseum, Solana’s Largest Hackathon & Accelerator with 80,000 Participants
    Jan 19 2026
    Join Tommy Shaughnessy in San Francisco for the first podcast from the new Coliseum office. In this episode, Clay Robbins, Co-Founder of Coliseum, discusses how his team manages the world's largest online hackathons and why they chose to double down on the Solana ecosystem.They dive into the mechanics of sourcing 80,000 builders, the transition from remote to a massive in-person accelerator, and the shift from an infrastructure-focused crypto world to a new era of diverse consumer applications. From sub-3-hour marathons to "grenade" interview questions, Clay reveals what it truly takes to survive and win in the arena.🎯 Key Highlights▸The Numbers of Coliseum▸Clay shares the endurance training secrets that helped him clock a sub3-hour marathon in both Oakland and New York.▸How Coliseum distills 2,000+ global submissions down to a cohort of 10–15 elite investments.▸Why Coliseum moved from all-remote batches to a 75-desk physical hub in San Francisco.▸Why Clay believes Solana’s performance is the only viable infrastructure for the coming "application era".▸Why the Coliseum team now over-indexes on high-agency founders.▸The 15-minute "pressure test" interview used to suss out a founder’s conviction and humility.▸A new funding vehicle designed for companies launching on MetaDAO.▸A look at grand prize winners like Unruggable and Ore.💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔🧠 Follow the Alpha▸ Clay's Twitter: @clayrobbins ▸ Coliseum's Twitter: ‪@Colosseum‬ 🔗 Connect with Delphi🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/🐦 Twitter: / delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: / delphi-digital 🎧 Listen onSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1Ri...Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Youtube: / @delphi_digital Timestamps00:00 — Welcome to San Francisco: The first podcast from Coliseum’s new office.01:50 — Endurance Sports: Running sub-3 marathons and the Sam Lessin challenge.03:10 — What is Coliseum? Sourcing differentiation through global online hackathons.06:00 — Scaling the Funnel: Triage tools and the rote work of reviewing 2,000 projects.09:50 — The Cultural Zeitgeist: Naming hackathons like Cypherpunk and Breakout.11:30 — Why San Francisco? Overcoming the isolation of remote building.14:30 — Solana vs. L2s: Technical overhead, counterparty risk, and cultural kernels.21:00 — Emerging Themes: From DePIN and DeFi to prediction markets and stablecoins.23:40 — The Future of Payments: AI agents, X402 standards, and seamless commerce.27:30 — Venture as Art: Transitioning from idea-indexing to individual-indexing.33:30 — Partnership Dynamics: The specific roles of Matty Taylor, Nate Levine, and Clay.37:00 — Learnings from Slow Ventures: The 10x case vs. the 100x case.46:30 — 15-Minute Interviews: Why jumping straight to the "important three questions" beats small talk.51:30 — Success Stories: How Ore nearly broke Solana and landed on a high-revenue consumer model.53:30 — MetaDAO and Futarchy: Decision markets, token holder rights, and CEO accountability.59:30 — The STAMP Mechanism: A compliment to dilutive capital and the Safe.01:03:00 — The story of a 4-time hackathon participant winning the grand prize.01:06:30 — How to start building on Coliseum today.DisclaimerThis podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Nic Carter: Quantum Threatens $600B of Bitcoin

    Nic Carter: Quantum Threatens $600B of Bitcoin
    Jan 9 2026
    Join Tommy Shaughnessy as he speaks with Nic Carter, partner at Castle Island Ventures, about his deep dive into the existential threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin. After six months of intensive research and discussions with Nobel Prize-winning physicists, Nic breaks down why the "quantum threat" has moved from theoretical FUD to a material risk that the Bitcoin community is currently unprepared to face.They explore the "Q-Day" timeline, the vulnerability of Satoshi’s 2 million BTC, and the urgent need for a migration to post-quantum cryptography. Can Bitcoin’s rigid governance survive the most significant technical challenge in its history, or will sovereign nations and private firms reach the coins first?🎯 Key Highlights▸Why Nic stepped away from podcasts and TV to focus on precise technical writing.▸The 2025 Quantum Inflection: Why 2025 was a record year for quantum investment.▸The Trillion Dollar Bug Bounty: The "unsolvable" problem of Satoshi’s P2PK addresses.▸Why Bitcoin developers implemented Taproot without making it quantum-resistant.▸Defense in Depth for BTC: The technical hurdles of implementing post-quantum signature schemes and the potential for a mandatory "migration" period.▸How the U.S.–China rivalry mirrors the 1939 race for the atomic bomb.▸Applying maritime law to the potential "theft" of ancient Bitcoins by private firms like IBM or Microsoft.▸Scoring the Bitcoin core developers’ preparedness at a 1/100.💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔🧠 Follow the Alpha▸ Nic Carter Twitter: @nic_carter🔗 Connect with Delphi🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/🐦 Twitter: / delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: / delphi-digital 🎧 Listen onSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1Ri...Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Youtube: / @delphi_digital Timestamps00:00 — Miami loafers and Nic’s return from podcast retirement 01:50 — The 4-part series on Quantum’s risk to Bitcoin 03:00 — Why "Quantum FUD" is actually quality risk assessment 04:30 — 2025: The year the consensus among physicists shifted 07:30 — Probability of a quantum break: 70-80% by 2035 10:00 — Defining Quantum vs. Classical: Probabilistic states and entanglement 15:30 — Physical vs. Logical Qubits: The importance of fidelity thresholds 20:00 — Risk #1: The 2 million BTC sitting in Satoshi’s original wallets 24:00 — Risk #2: Address reuse and the vulnerability of Taproot 28:30 — The "Y2K" of Bitcoin: Working backward from Q-Day 34:00 — The 1/100 preparedness score for Bitcoin Core 40:00 — Geopolitical scenarios: Will the US government requisition the coins? 44:00 — The 1939 Parallel: Secret research and the race for "facile material" 48:00 — How an IBM/Microsoft "theft" would look on-chain 53:30 — Why ETH and Solana may have an easier path to upgrading 59:00 — Maritime Law: Shipwrecks, the Titanic, and "finds" in Bitcoin 01:05:00 — Final outlook: Biting the bullet vs. pleasant fantasiesDisclaimerThis podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Mike McCormick: AI Acceleration vs Risks, Funding Global Resilience, AGI scenarios, U.S. vs China

    Mike McCormick: AI Acceleration vs Risks, Funding Global Resilience, AGI scenarios, U.S. vs China
    Oct 9 2025

    Join Tommy Shaughnessy as he speaks with Mike McCormick, founder of Halcyon, about the urgent intersection of AI acceleration and safety. Mike shares his path from venture capital to launching a hybrid nonprofit–fund model focused on securing advanced AI systems. They dive into mechanistic interpretability, global competition for AGI, and what a safe superintelligence future could look like. Can we build superintelligence safely? How do we balance innovation with existential risk? And what happens to humanity when AGI arrives?


    Halcyon Futures: https://halcyonfutures.org



    🎯 Key Highlights


    ▸ Leaving VC to focus entirely on AI safety and security

    ▸ Why Halcyon flipped the model: nonprofit first, fund second

    ▸ Multi-layered “defense in depth” approach to AI biosecurity & cyber risk

    ▸ The acceleration vs. safety debate — finding middle ground

    ▸ Good Fire case: career grants into interpretability research

    ▸ The 2×2 dilemma — speed vs. slowdown, centralization vs. decentralization

    ▸ U.S.–China dynamics and fast takeoff scenarios

    ▸ AI underwriting: how insurance can drive safety standards

    ▸ Founder-market fit and mission orientation in AI startups

    ▸ Risk, diffusion, and the uncertain path to AGI



    💡 Subscribe for more crypto & infrastructure insights! 🔔



    🧠 Follow the Alpha


    ▸ Mike's Twitter: @MikeMcCormick_

    ▸ Halcyon's Twitter: @HalcyonFutures



    🔗 Connect with Delphi


    🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/

    🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/delphi_digital

    💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital/



    🎧 Listen on


    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1RigLG2YN5Pelq6UY9?si=18ac7ccf36ab4753&nd=1&dlsi=50105fd66e6c4124

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-delphi-podcast/id1438148082

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q



    Timestamps


    00:00 — Mike’s background & pivot to AI safety

    03:00 — The realization: AGI could change everything

    05:00 — Why VC wasn’t enough to solve the problem

    06:00 — Halcyon’s hybrid model and early mission

    08:00 — AI security concerns: misuse, bio, and control

    12:00 — Defense in depth: pre-training → deployment

    15:00 — The creativity vs. restriction trade-off

    17:30 — Pause AI vs. Build Baby Build

    20:00 — Speed vs. centralization: the 2×2 framework

    24:00 — Good Fire: career grants & interpretability

    27:00 — Writing to neurons: alignment and insight

    30:00 — How insurance markets can enforce safety

    36:00 — Mission-driven founders & conviction filters

    44:00 — Geopolitical race: U.S., China, and compute

    50:00 — Diffusion limits, adoption, and energy costs

    57:00 — Mass unemployment and meaning after AGI

    01:05:00 — What “winning” AGI means for humanity

    01:12:00 — Critical thinking, sycophantic AI, and engagement traps

    01:20:00 — UBI, adaptation, and new work paradigms

    01:30:00 — Three AGI futures: scale, shift, or stall

    01:36:00 — 20% catastrophic risk & asteroid analogy

    01:40:00 — Final message: talent is upstream of everything



    Disclaimer


    This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast.
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    1 hr and 42 mins
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