"You just can't build a slow, expensive blockchain anymore."
Solana founder @toly built a $47 billion network from an idea he couldn't sleep on. Two coffees and a beer at Cafe du Soleil in 2017, and he was up until 4 a.m., figuring out how to use proof of work to measure time.
His parents escaped the USSR in the 90s with $50 to their name and landed in Chicago in their 40s.
His mom was a pianist. His dad was a civil engineer who took blue-collar roofing jobs while getting his electrician certificates. His son did the circuit analysis homework for him.
That 4 a.m. idea became proof of history, the core mechanism behind Solana.
In this episode:
00:00:00 Trailer
00:01:06 Intro
00:01:17 Growing up in the Soviet Union
00:04:02 Immigrating to the United States
00:07:34 Career dreams and studying computer science
00:09:47 First startup and early lessons
00:11:19 13 years at Qualcomm
00:22:32 Meeting Raj and founding Solana
00:26:44 Fundraising and early investors
00:28:41 Surviving the FTX collapse
00:40:19 Solana's mission and impact
00:43:54 Using AI to run side projects
00:49:39 Hardest decisions as a leader
00:52:51 Outlook on crypto and Solana's future
00:59:22 Twitter, being public, and politics
01:05:52 Beliefs on human nature and life philosophy
01:09:34 Outro
Full episode: https://t.co/PUStoaArKH