In Episode 12 of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith and Joe Mattia sit down with Cezary, a veteran software architect and systems engineer with decades of experience across finance, telecom, and large-scale distributed systems.

Cezary brings a rare perspective from deep inside traditional IT and financial infrastructure — from architecting insurance platforms and managing large engineering teams in Poland, to teaching Sun and Oracle systems, to eventually stepping into crypto after encountering IPFS, distributed storage, and the limits of centralized trust.

Together, the conversation pulls back the curtain on how crypto actually works under the hood — RPC providers, fake liquidity, high-frequency trading illusions, dependency hell, and the uncomfortable truth that most users (and many builders) don't really understand the systems they rely on. They explore why centralized exchanges can fabricate volume, how front-running and order-flow selling quietly mirror Wall Street practices, and why DEXs — while imperfect — offer radically better transparency.

The episode then shifts into software craftsmanship and governance: why UX quality is collapsing across tech, how AI-generated features are degrading coherence, and why most products fail because builders don't use their own tools. Cezary and Chris dig into testing culture, ownership, dependency risk, release discipline, and how one malicious commit or poorly audited library can compromise an entire financial network.

In the final act, they go deep on blockchain architecture — why Quantus chose Substrate, how abstraction layers enable cryptographic evolution, the dangers of over-centralized leadership, and why shared ownership, clear responsibility, and reduced attack surface matter more than speed or hype. It's a grounded, technical, and philosophical conversation about building systems that can survive real adversaries — human, economic, and quantum.

🔗 Follow the Guests

Cezary

X – https://x.com/czareko

Christopher Smith

X – https://x.com/YuviLightman

Joe Mattia

X – https://x.com/JoeMattia

Quantus Network

Website – https://www.quantus.com/

Telegram – https://t.me/quantusnetwork

Ecosystem – https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱ Chapters

00:00 — From traditional IT to crypto: Cezary's path through finance & systems

03:30 — Why crypto infrastructure is still shockingly immature

07:00 — RPC providers, trust assumptions & invisible centralization

11:00 — Fake liquidity, front-running & the illusion of exchange volume

15:00 — Traders vs investors, psychology & long-term signal extraction

19:00 — UX collapse, AI feature spam & building products nobody uses

24:00 — Ownership, testing culture & why release discipline matters

29:00 — Dependency hell, audits & real attack surfaces in crypto

34:00 — Why Quantus chose Substrate & designing for cryptographic change

39:00 — Shared ownership, decentralization & building systems that last

🧠 Themes

Distributed systems · Crypto infrastructure · UX failure · Software quality · DEX vs CEX · Front-running · Dependency risk · Governance · Post-quantum readiness · Builder responsibility

🔖 Hashtags

#TheQuantumPodcast #QuantusNetwork #ChristopherSmith #JoeMattia #Cezary

#CryptoInfrastructure #Blockchain #SoftwareEngineering #UXDesign

#DeFi #Security #DistributedSystems #OpenSource #Technology #Innovation

TheQuantumPodcast, QuantusNetwork, ChristopherSmith, JoeMattia, Cezary, CryptoInfrastructure, Blockchain, SoftwareEngineering, UXDesign, DeFi, Security, DistributedSystems, OpenSource, Technology, Innovation

In Episode 11 of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith and Joe Mattia sit down in Dubai with polymath builder, investor, and biohacker Tom Howard, joined by returning co-host Jangle, for a wild ride from TSA bomb scares to bank balance sheets to quantum-era Bitcoin risk.

Tom opens with a hilarious (and slightly terrifying) story about getting the TSA bomb squad called on him over a homemade electrolyte mix — then unpacks what "biohacking" actually means, from saunas and mitochondria to fertility, longevity, and why most people should start with sleep, movement, and blood panels before chasing exotic stacks.

From there, the crew dives deep into how banks really work: reserve ratios, the quiet removal of reserve requirements, FDIC backstops, duration risk, and why regional banks fear stablecoins far more than JPMorgan ever will. They break down the Genius Act, ring-fenced stablecoin collateral, how interest on stablecoin reserves flows straight into US treasuries, and why the small-bank lobby is suddenly panicking.

Tom also walks through the legal trench warfare around ICOs, securities law, and the SEC — from the Gensler era's "sue first, lose in court later" strategy to new leadership that actually cares about law, facts, and workable rules. The conversation then zooms out to AML theater, sanctions, and privacy, arguing that most anti-money-laundering regulation hurts normal people far more than it stops criminals, while sanctions function as "secret violence" against entire populations.

In the final act, they turn to quantum computing and Bitcoin: Scott Aaronson's surprise timeline shift from "30–50 years" to "3–5 years," the narrow but devastating power of Shor's algorithm, and why web2 can probably patch to post-quantum quickly — but Bitcoin and older chains are uniquely exposed because their on-chain state is the canonical source of truth. They explore what a quantum-secure, reversible future might look like, and why now is the time to build it.

🔗 Follow Tom Howard

X (Twitter) – https://x.com/_TomHoward

🔗 Follow Christopher Smith
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/YuviLightman

🔗 Follow Joe Mattia
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/JoeMattia

🔗 Follow Jangle
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/defijangle

🔗 Follow Quantus Network
Website – https://www.quantus.com/
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/QuantusNetwork
Telegram Community – https://t.me/quantusnetwork
Ecosystem Links – https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱ Chapters
00:00 TSA bomb scare: homemade electrolytes & the bomb squad
04:00 What "biohacking" really is: sleep, saunas, labs & longevity
08:00 Saunas, sperm counts, "icing the boys" & mitochondrial health
15:00 Libertarian roots, discovering Bitcoin & the ICO rabbit hole
20:00 How banks actually work: reserves, FDIC & money from a spreadsheet
26:00 Stablecoins, the Genius Act & why small banks are freaking out
32:00 SEC chaos, Gensler's legacy & the new wave of crypto rulemaking
38:00 AML theater, sanctions, surveillance & the cost of "compliance"
46:00 Quantum timelines, Scott Aaronson's U-turn & shorelines for ECC
52:00 Why Bitcoin is most exposed & what a quantum-safe future needs

What happens when quantum computers stop being theory and start actively breaking the cryptography that runs Bitcoin and public blockchains?

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith (founder of Quantus Network), co-host Joe Mattia, and returning guest Jangle dive deep into "Q-Day" the moment quantum hardware can steal coins, fake signatures, and rewrite the trust assumptions of the entire crypto ecosystem. They unpack why timelines are compressing, how academic skeptics like Scott Aaronson and major voices like Vitalik are revising their estimates, and why Bitcoin may be in the most fragile position of all.

They walk through the three enormous coordination problems the industry must solve: convincing builders and leaders to care, reaching social consensus on which post-quantum standards to adopt, and then actually migrating billions in value, including Satoshi's coins, centralized exchange cold wallets, and DeFi protocols before attackers do. Along the way they explore HD wallets, lattice cryptography, Falcon vs Dilithium, quantum game theory between nation-states, and how stablecoins, ETFs, and Wall Street custody change who really decides what "real Bitcoin" is.

The conversation then turns to Quantus: why starting from a fresh, quantum-secure, ZK-friendly L1 solves problems legacy chains can't, and how native reversible transactions can eliminate blind signing horror stories, Bybit-style hacks, and endless test transactions. From escrow-less real-estate deals to proof-of-funds flows, Chris, Joe, and Jangle sketch a future where quantum-secure money and humane UX actually coexist, if the industry is willing to move before the asteroid hits.

Follow the Guests

Jangle
X – https://x.com/defijangle

Christopher Smith
https://x.com/YuviLightman

Joe Mattia
https://x.com/JoeMattia

Quantus Network
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 — Q-Day, compressed timelines & the three milestones of migration
02:00 — Scott Aaronson, shifting quantum timelines & 2028 key-cracking fears
04:00 — Why Bitcoin may be in the worst position of all
06:00 — HD wallets, seed phrases & how post-quantum breaks old assumptions
08:00 — Lattice cryptography, Falcon vs Dilithium & choosing a standard
10:00 — Expected value, tail risk & responsible leadership in crypto
12:00 — Satoshi's coins, rich lists & mega-targets like Binance cold wallets
14:00 — Nation-states, first-mover advantage & brutal quantum game theory
16:00 — Quantum attacks, stablecoins & ETF custodians under stress
18:00 — BlackRock, Bitcoin ETFs & who really chooses the "real" fork
20:00 — Stablecoin issuers, protocol capture & fork-choice power
22:00 — BIP-444, illegal content & retroactive editing of the chain
24:00 — Fresh L1s & why not going quantum-secure in 2025 is madness
26:00 — Designing Quantus: quantum-secure, ZK-friendly from genesis
28:00 — Reversible transactions as the missing primitive in blockchains
30:00 — Proof-of-funds, good-faith deposits & escrowless large deals
32:00 — Blind signing, multisigs & supply-chain attacks like the Bybit hack
34:00 — Clear-signing on Quantus & radically shrinking the attack surface
36:00 — Building quantum-secure, reversible stablecoins for the dollar era
38:00 — Final reflections: Q-Day as crypto's asteroid & why migration starts now