VIDEO: Chatting crypto and podcasts with Solana Foundation’s Austin Federa

After hosting a podcast for close to a year now, yesterday I got to interview a fellow podcast host for the first time. Austin Federa is the head of communications at the Solana Foundation, but also hosts the Validated podcast, a web3 podcast re-launched last year.

The conversation was meant to be about Solana – at least in part – but we quickly got lost in a meandering conversation. We started off chatting about journalism and podcasting within the crypto space, sharing our thoughts on tribalism in the crypto space. We discussed how detrimental it is to the space at large and how, well, curious the whole attitude can be.

Of course, we dug into the good of crypto, too. Austin is clearly passionate about web3 and the change it can bring to the world, so it was fascinating hearing his thoughts. He also chatted about the insights he’s gained from hosting the Validated podcast.

Politics crept in too, with us chatting about how divided the world is right now, and how attitudes towards crypto are affected by this – indeed, I picked his brain on whether there was a connection between populist politics and the popularity of crypto.

As well as crypto, Austin gave his background, an intriguing blend of different experiences which have culminated in him working at the Solana Foundation – including a very amusing anecdote about a now-bankrupt company betting on an ERC-20 token back in the early days of crypto (I won’t spoil the story).

I had to ask about Bitcoin, and Austin even repeated one of my favourite sayings – “Bitcoin is meant to be boring” – something I love asserting in my analysis. An unromantic thing to say, but a truth all the same – at least if you ask me.

We also touched on the bear market, as I was curious to hear Austin’s take on the falling interest and volumes that the space has suffered from over the last year or so, something web3 has certainly not been immune to. Through hosting so many guests on Validated, it was an interesting viewpoint.

Then there is the future – what everybody wants to know! Austin spoke about his thoughts on where web3 is going, how viable the technology is long-term and what this future could look like.

All in all, it was a very fun discussion about the state of crypto in general, and Austin has an intriguing background with a perceptible energy for the space. Next time, we’ll just have to talk about Solana a little more…

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