Welcome to Nofinity

In this episode of Huberman Lab Essentials, Dr. Chris Palmer explores the intimate connection between diet and mental health. He shares his personal journey: after curing his own metabolic syndrome with the Atkins diet, he noticed dramatic improvements in mood, energy, and sleep. As a psychiatrist, he began using the ketogenic diet for treatment-resistant patients, with remarkable results – including a man with schizoaffective disorder whose hallucinations and delusions vanished.

• Mitochondria are key: they regulate neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine), hormones (cortisol), inflammation, and even neurotransmitter release.
• The ketogenic diet stimulates two crucial processes:
  • Mitophagy – clearing old, defective mitochondria
  • Mitochondrial biogenesis – creating new, healthy mitochondria
• This explains why the diet works not only for epilepsy (known since 1921) but also for mental disorders.

• For mild mood issues or burnout, simply reducing carbohydrates (eliminating ultra-processed foods) can help.
• For serious mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia), the ketogenic diet should be done under medical supervision.
• Ketone levels:
  • For depression: ≥ 0.8 mmol/L
  • For psychosis/bipolar: ≥ 1.5 mmol/L
• Never stop medications on your own – the diet may enhance their effects and require adjustments.

Dr. Palmer emphasizes that nutrition is a powerful yet underutilized tool in psychiatry, and large-scale randomized controlled trials are currently underway.

The speaker updates his Value Investing Quadrant for the second half of 2026. The quadrant plots reward (x-axis) and risk (y-axis), with the ideal investment being high reward and low risk (bottom left corner). The following stocks are discussed:

• Risk: Very high, as it is a bet on Elon Musk and unlikely to ever be profitable.
• Reward: Very low. Placed at the bottom left.

• Risk: Now high from a price perspective. Stock rose from 560 to 1,500, P/E ratio now 57.
• Reward: Too expensive for value investing. Only interesting if the bubble bursts.

• Yield: ~5% (10-year at 4.7%).
• Risk: High due to inflation, national debt, and money printing.

• Return: Long-term ~6%.
• Risk: Very low. The speaker would sell now but considers it a solid long-term hold.

• Dividend yield 5%, trees growing. Interesting for income investors.

• Currently fairly valued for an 8% return. The speaker awaits a pullback for a better entry.

• Fairly valued for a 10% return. Optimistic due to AI growth.

• Sideways for 13 years despite company growth. Potential 10% return.

• Stock surged (from 25). Dividend yield now 4%, return potential reduced.

• Stock up 38%. Growth driven by AI partnerships (OpenAI), considered riskier now.

• Growth slowed from 25% to 19%, but still a 19% grower.

• Stock at 2,000, good results, but credit risks.

The speaker emphasizes that investors should choose based on risk tolerance and goals. He is building a diversified portfolio on his research platform.

Summary follows...

In this episode of Bankless, David Hoffman speaks with Mo Jalil and Oscar Thorne, co‑founders of ETH Systems – a new spin‑off from the Ethereum Foundation focused on Ethereum, institutions, and privacy.

• Ethereum is a great neutral base layer, but without built‑in privacy, institutions cannot use it.
• Institutions need confidentiality for their business and must remain compliant – both require cryptography.
• Currently they use private networks because public blockchains lack privacy, even though Ethereum offers deep liquidity and new business opportunities.

• Mo Jalil has a traditional finance background (Goldman Sachs, hedge funds) and led APAC BD at the Ethereum Foundation. He realized institutions need privacy to use public Ethereum.
• Oscar Thorne has been in crypto for ~10 years, focusing on privacy and protocol design (Status, R&D labs). He wrote a book on proof systems and built client‑side proving tooling.
• Together they started the Institutional Privacy Task Force at the EF, now spun out as ETH Systems.

• Interdealer compression: A tier‑1 investment bank wants to net trades without an expensive third party – this requires privacy on a shared state like Ethereum.
• Multi‑party private payments: Some jurisdictions require sender, receiver, auditor, and government as participants. This couldn’t be done privately and performantly for years – ETH Systems found a solution.
• Massive scale: One project could roll out to an entire country with tens of millions of users.

• Many current solutions are bespoke because institutions have specific legal and business needs.
• The goal is to extract generic building blocks that become open‑source libraries and a reusable stack.
• ETH Systems follows a two‑track approach: business‑driven (directly helping institutions) and open‑source (strengthening the whole Ethereum ecosystem).

• ETH Systems is a for‑profit company – necessary for sustainable funding and to be a trusted counterparty for institutions.
• Demand is massive and inbound – institutions reach out because they see DeFi’s potential but need privacy and compliance.
• Engagements take 18–24 months, so first products are still in development.

• Financial infrastructure should run invisibly on blockchain: users can trade global stocks without revealing their identity, yet enjoy all DeFi benefits (ownership, transferability, verifiability).
• Privacy means selective disclosure – aggregates like TVL or trading volume remain visible, while individual transactions stay private.
• The bridge between cypherpunks and institutions is narrower than expected: both want censorship resistance, security, and openness – they just speak different languages.

• DeFi protocols should be open to adaptation – ETH Systems seeks collaboration to modify products for institutional users.
• Open‑source contributions are welcome: the team regularly publishes write‑ups and market maps; contributors benefit from high attention from banks.
• More mutual understanding is needed between developers and traditional finance – a continuous feedback loop is essential.

• Bitcoin is fighting to break through $80,000 and shows strong upward momentum. A breakout above $82,000 would open the path toward $90,000.
• A possible correction to $74,000 or to $70,000 (200 EMA on the 4-hour chart) is not ruled out. However, no major pullback is expected.
• On-chain data shows many long-term holders sitting in the $82,000 – $86,000 range – this is both a resistance and an important support level.

• Strong spot ETF inflows and broad market movement (altcoins like Solana, VeChain, Polkadot etc.) indicate sustained interest.
• Nvidia earnings beat expectations (revenue $96 billion, positive outlook). This supports the AI sector and the broader stock market, positively impacting Bitcoin.
• The 'Basement Trade' (debasement of fiat money through debas and money printing) is fueling Gold and Bitcoin. Financial repression and potential Treasury buybacks could further increase liquidity.

• PCI data came in slightly hotter than expected – inflation remains an issue. GDP at 1.5% – under pressure.
• The Fed (Kevin Warsh) speaks on Friday – the market expects no major surprises. Labour market data (Nonfarm Payrolls) may be revised.
• M2 money supply and Tether supply are rising – long-term a clear signal for rising asset prices.

• The speaker is considering switching his monthly DCA plan to weekly and investing 10–20% of his cash position over the next 2–3 months into Bitcoin.
• He warns against the 'I told you so' mentality and emphasises that no one knows the future. Regular entry is the best strategy.
• For altcoins, he advises taking profits during strong rallies (e.g., +62% in 7 days) by settingstop-loss limit orders, as the market can turn quickly.

• Sentiment is bullish, but the speaker remains open to a possible correction. In the long run, Bitcoin's ability to debase fiat money makes it a must-have in any portfolio.

• Generative AI is a con – companies sell it as magic, but it's expensive, unreliable cloud software.
• Massive losses: OpenAI lost $20.9 billion last year. No AI company is profitable; they rely on constant subsidies from Big Tech.
• Myths of the AI industry:
  • AI creates enormous economic growth – No, revenues outside OpenAI/Anthropic are tiny (~$22B) against over a trillion in spending.
  • AI will replace all jobs – No economic data supports this. In fact, software quality is deteriorating.
  • US must spend trillions to beat China – There is no race; China already has models.
• Financial reality: It's a „Rotcom Bubble“ – Big Tech (Microsoft, Amazon, Google) invest to fake growth while their core markets stagnate.
• Subsidized usage: Consumers pay far less than actual cost (token consumption). Enterprises resist when charged per token.
• Outlook 2027: Zitron predicts OpenAI's collapse (~2027) when funding stops, triggering a tech depression, stock crashes, and retirement losses.

• Be skeptical of Big Tech promises.
• Hold cash, don't blindly invest in the AI hype.
• Best hedge: Cultivate good relationships – more important than any stock gain.