In Episode 86, Yitzy Hammer interviews Ran Neuner (aka “Crypto Man Ran”), co-founder of Crypto Banter, to unpack the real story behind the brand: the childhood hustle that revealed his entrepreneurial wiring, the obsessive “must-win” mindset he calls constructive paranoia, and the hard-earned lessons from building a company to a reported $150M sale—then later watching $130M evaporate in days during the LUNA collapse.

Ran walks through how he went from fired stockbroker to founder of Africa’s largest sales & marketing agency, why linear businesses eventually frustrated him, and how a Harvard network-effects framework helped him see crypto as networks + commodities - and why that matters for the future of markets. He also shares how CNBC Crypto Trader started (and why it became a pipeline to the biggest names in crypto), how Crypto Banter unexpectedly exploded on YouTube, and how he learned to handle public criticism when you’re “the face” during volatile cycles.

Finally, Ran gives his early-2026 take on crypto - why he expects a major “catch-up trade,” what would make him question the thesis, and how to think about investing when narratives break.

What you’ll learn

• The psychology of high performance: obsession, OCD loops, and “winning against yourself”

• Building, losing, and rebuilding: dot-com crash parallels + LUNA lessons

• Why networks dominate (Metcalfe’s Law + Barabási) and how that maps to crypto

• Behind the scenes of launching the world’s first televised crypto show on CNBC (2017)

• Scaling Crypto Banter, monetization, and dealing with hate comments at scale

• Ran’s framework for 2026: commodities, tech, AI agents, and crypto’s role

Chapters (approx.)

• 00:01 – Intro: who is Ran Neuner?

• 02:30 – “Winning” obsession + constructive paranoia

• 13:20 – Israel → South Africa + early entrepreneurship

• 16:15 – The stockbroker story (and getting fired)

• 21:40 – Dot-com crash, insolvency, and the J-curve

• 28:45 – Building Africa’s largest marketing agency + $150M sale

• 32:40 – Harvard, network effects, and why crypto clicked

• 39:50 – CNBC Crypto Trader: the first televised crypto show (2017)

• 46:00 – The coffee shop YouTube era → Crypto Banter explosion

• 49:45 – LUNA: “I lost $130M in four days”

• 55:20 – Monetizing Banter + rebuilding

  01:01:15 – 2026 outlook: catch-up trade vs thesis check

This episode is with Anna George, co-founder & CEO of CowSwap / Cow Protocol (originally built inside Gnosis, spun out in 2022). What’s wild is Anna spent about a decade in humanitarian/UN work before getting pulled into crypto in 2017 - partly because she wanted impact, and partly because UN bureaucracy will make anyone want to run away and build something.

We talk about the real CowSwap origin story: the early DEX experiments that didn’t work (including six-hour auctions… lol), the liquidity chicken-and-egg problem, and how CowSwap finally hit product-market fit with intent-based trading, MEV protection, and “you only pay gas if the trade actually executes.”

We also cover where they’re going next: cross-chain swaps that don’t feel like bridging hell, deeper DeFi integrations (including Aave), and a bigger push to make crypto UX not terrible.

In this episode of Beyond the Code, Yitzy sits down with David Alexander “Alex” Scheer, founder and CEO of zkMe, a zero-knowledge identity network that lets users prove who they are - and meet KYC/AML requirements - without exposing their personal data.

zkMe builds identity oracles that turn existing credentials (passports, bank accounts, credit scores, tax records and more) into reusable, privacy-preserving proofs using zero-knowledge technology.

Alex shares how a career that started in mechanical engineering and aerospace, moved through automotive supply-chain consulting and software, and eventually led him to Shanghai, MiCA, and the decision to jump head-first into decentralized identity. We dig into why MiCA’s early drafts convinced him that Web3 would need a decentralized identity primitive to survive, and how zkMe is now serving millions of verified users while staying fully privacy-first and compliant.

Together we unpack what zero-knowledge proofs actually are (in human language), why Alex thinks ZK is more foundational than blockchains themselves, and how zk-based KYC can both meet FATF-level requirements and keep users pseudonymous until regulators really have grounds to pierce the veil. We explore the tension between regulators who are increasingly open to ZK approaches and compliance officers who’ve done things the same way for 40 years, as well as how stablecoins, self-custodial wallets and secondary markets are forcing a rethink of identity and risk.

From open banking ZK credentials and under-collateralized lending, to AI agents, the “machine economy,” and the business model behind decentralized compliance, Alex explains where zkMe is growing next and why he sees ZK identity as an anti-cyclical bet on crypto’s regulated future.