✅ Recap of my convo with @joseph.eth 

🎯 Getting Started in Crypto & Building:

📖 He started by reading whitepapers

🔄 Transitioned from protocol research to DeFi engineering

🍣 Worked on Sushi, Astaria, and experimental protocols...

CTO Astaria.xyz, Father or two, Ethereum believer 🤩, Ride or die Based Ghoul

🛠🔥🧙‍♂️ I work for Ethereum at 🏰 https://BuidlGuidl.com

💡 Product Ideation & Validation

📊 Thinks in economic mechanisms first, then writes contracts to test feasibility

🔄 Iterative design—realizes new constraints while implementing

🚀 Early user commitment is key (e.g., ETH Strategy pre-commitments before building)

⚖️ On Simplicity vs. Complexity in DeFi

🛠️ Prefers “AK-47 design”—robust, simple, reliable contracts

🚫 Avoids over-engineering & unnecessary dependencies

🧩 Modular smart contracts don’t work as intended—focuses on single-use, efficient designs

⚡ Shipping & Experimentation Culture

🏎️ Believes DeFi needs more fast, iterative experimentation like during DeFi Summer

🛡️ The audit industrial complex is slowing down innovation—prefers rigorous self-testing & peer reviews

🎰 Dislikes the over-financialization of crypto...

🤖 AI & Smart Contract Development

🖊️ Uses 
@cursor_ai
 heavily for writing & refactoring code

🚀 AI supercharges productivity but still requires critical thinking for system design

⚠️ Concerned AI might hurt future devs’ deep problem-solving abilities...

🏗️ What Should Be Built On-Chain?

💰 Anything economic—where trustless settlement & decentralization matter

📡 Prefers self-contained mechanisms that don’t rely on Oracles

🔗 Ethereum’s role is still about being a decentralized, trustless settlement layer!!!

🔮 Final Thoughts

🔥 His superpower: Overcommitting—forces him to level up

🧪 Encourages builders to experiment & deploy without overthinking monetization

💫 PMF is about magic—build something that makes users go “whoa”

🛠️ Will be hacking at @ethdenver

🎞️ Watch the full episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDf0A5c654

🛠️ Tech Stack & Development Approach

💻 Next.js + Vercel for frontend

📜 TypeScript & Ponder for indexing

🔨 Foundry for smart contracts, with heavy testing & fuzzing

📦 Prefers an on-chain-first design philosophy—keeping things self-contained

Really enjoying the episodes. Keep them coming please!