Signaling Theory

Rex talks with cryptographer Vanishree Rao, founder of Fermah, about what verifiable compute actually unlocks—and why the real story isn’t “ZK eats the world” just yet. They get into ZK vs trusted execution environments (TEEs), how oracles really fail in practice, why restaking got ahead of real demand, and what a universal proof market like Fermah is doing differently. It’s a grounded look at the compute layer under rollups, oracles, and AI agents—and where the next wave of applications might actually come from.

What is Signaling Theory?

Signaling Theory is a roundtable with Rex Kirshner and a rotating group of builders who spend way too much time testing AI tools. They compare notes on what works for coding, how they manage context and workflows, what’s getting better fast, and what still breaks. Grounded takes, no evangelism.