Erik and his co-host Tony Sheng are joined by two special guests for this episode. Lily Liu (@calilyliu) is co-founder of Earn.com which was sold to Coinbase. Jillian Carlson (@_jillruth) is a consultant to projects both big and small in the space.

Co-host Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) leads product at Decentraland. He also publishes analyses on the business and strategy of crypto at tonysheng.com and is one of Village’s Network Leaders.

Erik starts by asking what each of Lily and Jillian are thinking about these days and what's been top of mind for the last while for them. Lily's been thinking about how the blockchain can be used internationally and Jillian has been thinking about how to make blockchain and crypto actually useful to end users.

They have a discussion of Venezuela and its effort to create a state-sponsored cryptocurrency. They discuss the idea of getting blockchain to scale by adding blockchain tech to existing projects that already have scale instead of creating something entirely new.

They have an enlightening discussion about business model innovation compared to protocol innovation. They say that much of the protocol innovation will happen in the US and the business model innovation is likely to happen in Asia. There is discussion of the risks of creating projects on top of Ethereum as well as of the risks of creating your own coin and holding your funds in that coin.

They also talk about why the sharing economy is well-positioned to have blockchain integrated into it and Lily explains why she thinks that despite the correction in prices we're still not in a bear market yet. Finally, they discuss personal ICOs and the rise of crypto hedge funds.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.