The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership · 2026-06-11 · 56 min
In this episode of The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership, Jess sits down with Anthony Di Iorio, co-founder of Ethereum and one of the earliest builders in the crypto ecosystem, for a wide-ranging conversation on Bitcoin, Ethereum, AI, decentralization, and personal sovereignty. Anthony shares how he first discovered Bitcoin in 2012, bought in when it was under $10, and helped build the Toronto Bitcoin community where he eventually met Vitalik Buterin and became part of Ethereum’s founding story. The conversation moves beyond crypto into Anthony’s deeper mission: helping people regain control of their digital lives. He explains why Ethereum’s real breakthrough was not speculation, but utility, smart contracts, programmable systems, and the removal of unnecessary middlemen. Anthony also shares why he believes too much of today’s digital infrastructure depends on centralized platforms, cloud providers, and business models that extract value from users instead of empowering them. Jess and Anthony dive into his newest work around AI, cognitive sovereignty, and what it could mean for one person or a tiny team to accomplish what used to require hundreds of people.
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