How Berachain Became One of the Most Popular Blockchains - Ep. 793 from Unchained

How Berachain Became One of the Most Popular Blockchains - Ep. 793

1 hour Posted Mar 4, 2025 at 5:00 pm.

How Smokey got into crypto and how that led to the founding of Berachain

What proof of liquidity is and what problems it solves

Whether there’s an incentive problem in how BGT and BERA are designed

Why Smokey believes the EVM has the “largest capital base”

How Berachain leveraged culture to accrue network effects

How Berachain achieved so much TVL growth

What Smokey thinks about the big allocation of BERA to VCs

How the bear-themed NFTs were born

How the project was able to buy back a portion of the tokens sold to VCs

Whether Smokey should have done things differently when launching the token

Smokey’s response to the criticism of private participants staking BERA

Why Smokey believes that the inflation will be useful for ecosystem growth

What’s next in Berachain’s roadmap

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Show notes

A new consensus model. A bear-themed brand. And one of the most debated token launches in recent memory.Berachain is trying something radically different. Instead of just rewarding validators, it pays liquidity providers—turning the traditional blockchain incentive model on its head.But not everyone is convinced. Some critics say too much of the token supply went to VCs. Others question whether “proof of liquidity” can actually work at scale.In this episode, Smokey, Chief Smokey Officer at Berachain, joins Unchained to break it all down. Why did Berachain choose to make itself EVM-identical? What really happened with the token launch? And what’s next?Show highlights:

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.comThank you to our sponsors!BitwiseGuest:

Smokey the Bera, Chief Smokey Officer at Berachain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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