Laide chats with Igor Mandrigin, CTO at gateway.fm, a blockchain infrastructure company. We discuss how Igor defines blockchain, its practical applications, Layer 1 and Layer 2, the various consensus mechanisms (and I learned there was another one besides proof of work and proof of stake), zero-knowledge proof. We also talked about why he doesn't want to live in the metaverse, how he went from blockchain-skeptic to believer, and what he and his team at gateway.fm are building.