The Breakdown

Danielle DiMartino Booth is the CEO and Chief Strategist of Quill Intelligence. Before that, however, after correctly predicting the mortgage meltdown, she was called upon to serve and spent 9 years as an advisor to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. That experience led her to write “Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America.” In this episode, Danielle and NLW discuss: How the Fed went from simply corrupt to corrupt and broken Why we’ve been living through the largest experiment in monetary policy history Why interest rates are the lowest they’ve been in 5000 years Why COVID-19 was the pin, not the balloon Why current Fed action compromises the Fed’s independence Why the market structure incentivizes consumption and risk investment over savings Why risk investments have ceased to be risky because of Fed backstopping Why a key concern going forward is a second wave of COVID-19 layoffs in industries beyond the obviously impacted

The Lebanese pound has lost at least 50% of its value since last year. 220,000 people have lost their jobs. Food prices are up 58%. An estimated 75% of the population needs assistance of some kind. And over the last two nights, at least a dozen banks have been torched by protesters. The catalyst? Not coronavirus, but a massive dollar shortage that is destroying an economy that relies on inflows of USD to function. In this episode, NLW breaks down how Lebanon models what it looks like for a currency to fail, and why this likely isn’t the last emerging market currency to experience a similar crisis in the months to come.

As the COVID-19 crisis rages, it takes on new economic and political dimensions. The frames for many of the most important questions for the next decade are being set now, in this moment. On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW is joined by Maya Zehavi, a long-time blockchain consultant known for her insightful domain-spanning takes. They discuss: How the COVID-19 health crisis overlapped with a political crisis in Zehavi’s home country of Israel Why governments use times of crisis to take extraordinary powers How contact tracing apps have become a battleground for mass surveillance Why the shift to localism from globalism creates new challenges How the problems distributing stimulus are shaping the conversation around central bank digital currencies

The bitcoin halving is just two weeks away. While the COVID-19 crisis pushed attention off the momentous event for a while, the discussion is coming back fast and strong. Google searches for the bitcoin halving already exceeding the 2016 peak, despite almost no mainstream media coverage. In this episode, NLW breaks down 4 archetypes of people within the larger debates around the bitcoin halving: Speculators - those who flock to Twitter to engage in endless rounds of debate around the efficient market hypothesis and whether the halving is priced in or not Fundamentals - those who believe that what matters about the halving isn’t the short-term price movement but the fundamental decrease in supply Miners - those who have to actually figure out how to make their business model work in the context of reduced issuance Symbologists - those who are focusing on the significance of bitcoin’s issuance reduction coinciding with QE infinity

The full week's content in a single convenient long-run episode. Monday | Bearish or Bullish? What Oil, DeFi Hacks and Cash Hoarding Tell Us About Markets Tuesday | From Proof of Health to UBI: How Everything Changes Post COVID-19, Feat. Joe McCann Wednesday | The History of the Dollar System From Bretton Woods to QE Infinity, Feat. Luke Gromen Thursday | We Don’t Need Big Brother To Beat This Virus Friday | Why Bitcoin Is Freedom Money, Feat. Yan Pritzker

Yan Pritzker is the CTO and cofounder of Swan Bitcoin, an automated bitcoin only investing app aiming to be the best onramp to bitcoin. He is also the author of Inventing Bitcoin. On this episode, he and NLW discuss: How immigrating from the Soviet Union taught Yan about capital controls Buying bitcoin at $30 in 2011 Why the type of capital available shapes what type of startups entrepreneurs found Why venture capitals focused investments away from bitcoin The emergence of a bitcoin only startup scene Starting a startup during the COVID-19 crisis Why bitcoin’s scarcity is its most important property

One of the key aspects of most plans to reopen the economy is digital contact tracing. This would be an apparatus whereby mobile phones kept track of the other mobile phones they had been physically proximate to, so that if someone were diagnosed with COVID-19, the at-risk people they had been in contact with could be notified. Apple and Google have proposed one plan while a European consortium is working on another. At the center of the issue is whether contact tracing can be done in a way that doesn’t violate privacy and doesn’t open a Pandora’s box of new issues around the data governments have on their citizens. Today’s episode of The Breakdown explores the crypto community’s response to contact tracing and why we don’t need big brother to beat the virus.

QE infinity. Corporate bailouts. Nudging UBI. The incredible economic phenomena going on now didn’t happen out of the blue. They are the byproducts of a key events spread across the 70 year history of the US dollar led global monetary system. Luke Gromen is the founder of Forest From The Trees, a macro/thematic research firm. In this episode, Luke provides a TL;DR on those key events that got us to where we are today, including: Bretton Woods and why the world went on a USD-based system rather than Keynes idea for a non-sovereign ‘bancor’ world reserve currency The move to the Petrodollar in the 1970s The financialization of commodities that started in the 1980s The monetary policy vacuum after the Cold War ended How a shift in executive compensation rules led to many of today’s problems with Wall Street The export of Treasury Bills as a business model The fallout of 2008 globally and domestically The end of Treasury Bill buying in 2014 Why the Fed is the only sugar daddy left

Joe McCann currently works in cloud and AI at Microsoft and has spent decades in tech, crypto, and open source communities. He recently wrote a piece called “A New, New World Order” all about the second and third order effects of Covid-19. In this conversation, Joe and NLW discuss: Localism and the beginning of the end of globalization The return of domestic manufacturing The ‘Roaring 20s’ of Inflation The inevitability of Universal Basic Income in response to inflation QE infinity and the US’s nationalization by proxy National healthcare as national security and why microbes are this decade’s terrorists Proof of health, and why it’s likely to be implemented on a blockchain

It’s hard to look at recent news from both crypto and traditional markets and not feel like we’re getting pretty mixed signals. Stocks have been recovering, but oil is hitting historic lows. DeFi suffers a major hack over the weekend, but Coinbase sees a major spike in $1200 transactions right as $1200 stimulus checks hit. Cash hoarding is giving pretence for eliminating privacy-preserving money, but one of the world’s most successful hedge funds has authorized investment in bitcoin futures. On today’s episode of The Breakdown, NLW separates bullish from bearish signals for the strange in between times.

The entire week's shows in one convenient episode Monday | Off Tuesday | The $20,000 Human IPO & 5 Other Stories That Have Nothing to Do With COVID-19 Wednesday | What the Economy Will Look Like 6 Months From Now, Feat. Ryan Selkis Thursday | Libra vs. China's DCEP? The Battle for the Future of Money Heats Up Friday | Why Money Is Losing Its Meaning, feat. Jared Dillian

Bitcoiners are particularly sensitive to Fed intervention in markets, but the degree to which the Fed is willing to print to backstop basically all risk is drawing the attention of even normal market participants. On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW is joined by Jared Dillian, market analyst, contrarian, and editor of The Daily Dirt Nap. They discuss: What ‘safe haven’ means in today’s climate How Jared became a bitcoin believer after being a skeptic Why in an MMT world, taxation policy will be driven by ideology not practicality Why money is losing its meaning

This week saw the latest salvos in the battle for the future of money. Libra announced that it would be moving away from a single currency that was backed by a basket of national currency to a model of numerous individual fiat-pegged currencies. While the original model was akin to a disruptive implementation of John Maynard Keynes original concept for a global basket currency (which he called a “bancor”), this model seems more to position Libra to help existing central banks digitize their currencies. China meanwhile steamed forward with its digital currency and blockchain plans. Screenshots of an app from the Agricultural Bank of China show how the DCEP digital currency is currently being tested, giving us insight into functionality, geographies and players involved. China also announced the 71 members of its National Blockchain Council, as well as went live with their Blockchain Service Network. The BSN in particular has potential significance on a world scale as China tries to build and control a key piece of global digital infrastructure.

As week (one million, it seems) of the COVID-19 lockdown plods on, many are wondering what the economy will look like on the other side. Ryan Selkis is the CEO and founder of Messari. He was one of the earliest voices in crypto to sound the alarm on the potential impact of COVID-19 not only on the health system but on the economy. In this episode of The Breakdown, Ryan joins @NLW to discuss: Why the markets right now represent an economic and psychological relief rally What it takes to reopen the economy Why voluntary, privacy preserving contact tracing is part of the solution Why crypto has performed largely as Ryan expected

Even as the market tries to make sense of everything happen (or ignores it, depending on your perspective), crypto keeps on plugging along. Today on The Breakdown @NLW looks at 5 recent crypto stories that are representative of larger trends, including: Coinbase Custody enabling staking for Polkadot DOTs A Telegram-focused exchange shutting down due to regulatory compliance costs A $20k Human IPO on Ethereum Shapeshift acquires Portis & other crypto M&A A G20 report on the threat of Stablecoins

The full week's episodes in one convenient file: Monday | How Covid-19's Second Order Effects Could Make Humanity Stronger, feat. Emerson Spartz Tuesday | Exit Plans, Premature Rallies and Frontline Heroes feat. Ben Hunt Wednesday | The Questions We're Not Allowed to Ask, Feat. Hidden Forces' Demetri Kofinas Thursday | Rebuilding the Resilience Economy, Feat. Anthony Pompliano Friday | Quantitative Tightening and 5 Key Questions for Our Changing World

As we wrap up another crazy week - 6.6m more jobless claims, $2.3T more in stimulus - this episode offers a few key themes and questions for bitcoiners and the crypto-minded to think about over the long Easter weekend: Crypto-dollarization: why money is pouring into USD stablecoins and how it could create a future onramp to bitcoin ‘Quantitative Tightening’: why a new brand for the bitcoin halving could help us better capture a unique narrative moment What it takes to get the economy back to work: beyong the political hemming and hawking, how can we force the real, nuanced conversation of turning the economy back on? What it takes to rebuild as a Resilience Economy - and how can bottoms-up networks get started now? Moments of transition are moments of leverage: what opportunities can each of us take advantage of?

As host of the Pomp Podcast, author of the daily Off The Chain newsletter, and founder partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, Anthony Pompliano is one of the best known media personalities and investors in the crypto industry. In this episode, he and @NLW discuss: The Fed’s just announced $2.3 trillion stimulus package - including the authorization to buy junk bonds Why media and trust have desiccated to their lowest levels ever The lack of a plan to restart the economy Why Bitcoin was sold in last months larger market sell off Why smart institutional investors are looking to bitcoin as a hedge when the deflationary environment turns inflationary Why companies have to be allowed to fail to increase resilience Why the best way to build a resilience economy is to put money in the hands of entrepreneurs and small businesses

Demetri Kofinas is the host of Hidden Forces, a popular podcast that examines markets through the lens of large patterns of change. On this episode, Demetri and @NLW discuss: How the politicization of the Coronavirus crisis has undermined smart action How media incentivizes extreme opinions regardless of underlying expertise What conversations are we not having around Coronavirus - in particular in terms of second order effects Why we’ve barely begun to discuss the plan for turning the economy back on

Epsilon Theory’s Ben Hunt joins for a follow up to our pre-lockdown Covid-19 conversation in early March. In the month since, the markets finally started to take Covid-19 seriously, elected officials stopped calling it just the flu, and big chunks of the world economy shut down. Now, as markets rally on early evidence the curve may be flattening, the question is: is this premature? In this episode, Ben & NLW discuss: How the markets have moved from “denial” to “bargaining” Why this rally has all the hallmarks of a type of bear market rally we’ve seen over the last month Why the predictability of corporate bailouts doesn’t make them any less detestable Why we should be buoyed by an explosion of ground-up, grassroots citizen action How Frontline Heroes is creating a p2p PPE purchasing network that gets essential gear into the hands of health professionals without causing additional price pressure for state-led negotiations

Second order effects are things that happen as unexpected outcomes of something else happening. These effects can create surprising causal chains. Take this for example: A pandemic makes everyone need to work from home leads to an increase in video calling leads to Walmart reporting that people are buying more shirts, but not pants. Emerson Spartz is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on virality and the internet. He founded Mugglenet - the world’s biggest Harry Potter fan site - as a middle school drop out, and would later found and raise tens of millions for Dose. In the past weeks, Emerson started an open crowdsourced document on the Coronavirus’ second order effects that has, itself, gone viral, especially among venture capitals and other investor circles trying to understand what the world looks like on the other side of this. Emerson brings a surprisingly optimistic perspective on where this could lead a generation of people who are now more fully plugged in to the internet than ever before.

The full week's episode, in one convenient file. Monday | Bitcoin, Stablecoins, DeFi and Privacy: How COVID-19 is Changing Key Crypto Narratives Tuesday | ‘If You’re Not Radicalized, You’re Not Paying Attention’ Feat. Nic Carter Wednesday | How Coronavirus Is Accelerating the End of Globalism, Feat. Peter Zeihan Thursday | 5 Reasons For Cautious Optimism In Crypto Friday | Will DeFi Even Matter In A Post-Corona World? Feat. Matt Luongo

Matt Luongo got his start in bitcoin in 2013. In 2016, he watched a pivotal moment where the sound money, digital gold narrative subsumed the payments use case for bitcoin. While he agreed, ultimately, with the important of bitcoin as a new reserve asset, he still wanted to build and found his way to Ethereum. Now his company is launching tBTC, a trust-minimized bridge between bitcoin and ethereum. Among other uses, it is a new solution to enabling bitcoin to be used as collateral in DeFi applications. In this conversation, Matt and @NLW discuss these narrative shifts, as well as what the role and narrative for DeFi might be in a post-Covid crisis world.

The economic outlook is grim. The jobless claims keep piling up and even the most intransigent states are shutting down business. There isn’t - yet - a realistic plan - for returning to any sort of economic normalcy. Yet in this bleak view, there are a handful of crypto indicators that suggest for cautious optimism. In this episode, @NLW discusses: The crypto community’s volatility resilience A significant uptick in Stablecoin issuance Proof that bitcoiners have been buying the dip Evidence that new audiences are finding their way to bitcoin (and perhaps with a sound money narrative in mind) Binance’s acquisition of CMC and the power of M&A signals

“Some countries just aren’t going to emerge from the Coronavirus.” Peter Zeihan is one of the world’s foremost geopolitical experts. In his new book “Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World,” Zeihan argues that we’re at the end of the largest expansionary period in human history. As America withdraws from global leadership, a totally new (and for most parts of the world, more painful) ‘normal’ will emerge. On this episode of The Breakdown, Zeihan joins @NLW to discuss why the Coronavirus crisis is rapidly accelerating the end of the era of globalization. How the American-led global order used the dollar as the tool to keep the world together Why geopolitics and demography are coinciding to end the era of globalization Why Covid-19 will spark a massive return of American manufacturing Why, when it comes to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency “Never before has the “exorbitant privilege” of being the world’s reserve currency felt more exorbitant or more like a privilege. Why the crisis could spell the end for the Euro Why China isn’t nearly as well positioned in the post globalization era as many assume Why the best positioned countries in the coming era are the US, Japan, Argentina, France and Turkey

In this wide-ranging discussion, Castle Island Ventures founding partner and Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter joins @NLW to discuss: Why corporations weren’t adequately prepared for any serious economic trouble, much less a global pandemic Why government backstopping the corporations leads to inappropriate risk-taking How stock buybacks became a boogeyman of the current crisis Why the crisis is actually four crises in one: health, economic, financial, and geopolitical How Covid-19 could accelerate the US’ withdrawal from the world and China stepping into the void Why the response to the handling of Covid-19 could lead some to authoritarianism How stablecoins are allowing global market exposure to the world’s most in-demand currency: the USD Why stablecoins and central bank digital currencies look the same but are functionally opposite Why a ‘naive safe haven’ narrative was never correct for bitcoin Why bitcoin was designed for exactly this type of moment.

On January 28th, Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal tweeted “Notable overlap on here between the most alarmist people tweeting about the virus and those who are obsessed with the size of the Fed balance sheet.” There is no doubt that the bitcoin and crypto community broadly were far earlier in recognizing the potential significance of the Covid-19 crisis than most professional communities. Today, America preps for at least another month of lockdown and social distancing. The markets continue their chaotic swing as investors are simply unable to price in such a once in a lifetime event. A question for the crypto community becomes: how is this impacting narratives about our own industry? In this episode, @NLW looks at the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on narratives around: Bitcoin Stablecoins Digital Dollars and Central Bank Digital Currencies DeFi Privacy

The full week's episode, in one convenient file. Monday | Unlimited QE and Why Markets Can’t Price In COVID19 Tuesday | Cronyism, Zombie Companies and the True Cost of the Corona Crisis, Feat. Morgan Creek's Mark Yusko Wednesday | How the U.S.' $2 Trillion Stimulus Will Expose the Monetary System’s Flaws Thursday | How BlackRock Ended Up on Both Sides of the Bailout, Feat. Meltem Demirors Friday | From Corporate Socialism to Dying for the Dow: 7 Themes That Defined the Week

In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW reflects on the themes that defined an absolutely wild week in global markets and society. Those themes include: Unlimited QE - broad new powers (corporate bond buying anyone?) and an unlimited checkbook for the Fed Digital Dollars - a surprise inclusion of a digital dollar in an early Stimulus draft shifts the Overton window Narrative Shift to “Grandma Dies For The Dow” - narrative analysis that suggests that the “just the flu” of two weeks has become “business closures will kill more than COVID” Stimulus as Corporate Socialism - a huge bailout for businesses explained away by something that Taleb says is decidedly NOT a Black Swan The Last Break of Institutional Trust - jobless claims were 4x higher than the previous record on the same day the stock market went bull again - trust in leadership is dead Surveillance - a growing concern with surveillance - such as the new CDC program earmarked in the Stimulus package Bitcoin difficulty adjustment - as Preston Pysh put it “this thing is so resilient it’s almost laughable”

The Senate passed $2T in Stimulus. That includes a one time $1,200 check to impacted individuals and….you guessed it, billions and billions for corporate relief. Included in that are hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate bond buying programs. The Federal Reserve has recruited asset management giant BlackRock to administer three of those programs. Here’s the kicker. As Bloomberg describes it: “under the arrangement [BlackRock] could buy some of its own funds on behalf of the central bank.” Outrage is running rampant, and to help listeners sort through it, @NLW is joined by Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares. In this conversation, they discuss: The government mechanics behind the “money printer go brrr” meme The unfathomable failure of US intelligence in seeing the pandemic coming The deficit of leadership across the political spectrum What Blackrock means and why “they’re not even pretending anymore” Why Twitter memes on their own can’t change the world Why bitcoin can and should be a gateway and tool for evangelizing more systemic change

CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey and Head of Research Noelle Acheson join for a lively debate about the new $2 trillion stimulus package and era of “unlimited” QE, including: Whether (and on what time scale) fiscal and monetary stimulus might lead to inflation Whether the Fed buying corporate bonds amounts to a nationalization of the bond markets Why the appearance of a ‘digital dollar’ in an earlier stimulus proposal was a huge surprise How a digital dollar in the form proposed would upset the balance of power between the Fed, commercial banks, and citizens Why trust in governments and financial institutions is likely to achieve new lows in the wake of COVID-19 Why people are reevaluating the meaning and purpose of money

Mark Yusko is the founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management. In this wide-ranging conversation, he and @NLW discuss: Why bitcoin has fallen with stocks over the last few weeks Why price and value are not the same thing Why stocks have been manipulated An argument for buy backs being illegal Why cronyism is not capitalism Why bailouts and other types of intervention help zombie companies that should perish A debate about whether the “cure is worse than the disease” The costs of a 0-risk tolerance The polarization of health vs. economics Why there should be a market holiday Why bitcoin is the last and only free market Why the big market announcements are always on Sunday Why we’re headed to debt jubilee There is a non-zero probability that Trump tries to cancel the election Why a lack of leadership is the biggest cause for pessimism today

Last October, Ikigai Asset Management’s Travis Kling predicted that Central Banks would have to “juice QE to infinity” in order to save markets from recession. Yesterday on 60 Minutes, Fed President Neel Kashkari said “there is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there is enough cash in the financial system.” This was followed this morning by an announcement that the Fed was giving itself effectively unlimited capacity to intervene in markets. Markets were...still not impressed. In less than two hours, an initial gain had entirely retraced. On this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW looks at: Specifics details of the Fed Announcement Why FinTwit and Bitcoin Twitter are focusing on inflation Why some think that this action amounts to a nationalization of markets How the ‘money printer go brrr’ meme is taking hold

The week's episode, in one convenient file. Also including short clips from CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti and SwanBitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten. Monday | Can $700B in Quantitative Easing Calm The Markets? Feat. CoinDesk’s Michael Casey and Noelle Acheson Tuesday | Gov't Stimulus Goes BIG and Why Bitcoin Is the Only Truly Free Market, Feat. Dan Tapiero Wednesday | Is the COVID19 Fiscal & Monetary Response An Overreaction? Feat. Bruce Fenton Thursday | Off Friday | State Power & Authoritarianism After Coronavirus featuring Peter McCormack

Peter McCormack is the host of What Bitcoin Did and the Defiance podcast. He recently returned from travel to a number of countries in South America including Venezuela and Colombia as well as the Turkey-Greece border. In this off-the-cuff and wide ranging conversation, Peter and @NLW discuss Bitcoiner politics and the bitcoin community’s reaction to the potential for increased state power in the wake of Coronavirus Which types of state power growth we should be most concerned with How to push governments to retract power growth on the other side of crisis How travel around the world has informed Peter’s perspective on bitcoin and politics Why nuance is both disincentivized and sorely needed in times of crisis

In his daily Coronavirus press briefing today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said “our main scramble now is ventilators.” The state anticipates that within 45 days, it could need 37,000 ventilators. It currently has 3000. Bruce Fenton was one of the early crypto community canaries in the coal mine warning of the impending threat of Coronavirus. As the world has caught up to the warning, he has shifted his attention to helping coordinate an open source network that is trying to address that exact problem. On this episode of The Breakdown, Bruce joins to discuss: Where the US is in its awareness cycle Why bitcoiners are worried about the long-term economic ramifications of massive stimulus What a voluntarist alternative to government intervention might look like How an open source network is trying to solve the ventilator shortage What regular people can do to contribute to the fight against Coronavirus

President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a significant slate of upcoming stimulus measures, including deferred taxes and direct payments to Americans (although those details remain to be seen). On this episode of The Breakdown, 10T holdings CEO Dan Tapiero joins to discuss: How this forthcoming stimulus might impact the bitcoin narrative Why some traditional safe havens like bonds might not fair well in the coming markets while others like gold are poised to thrive Why markets could be positioning for a major bounce back Why the Fed has more tools in its toolkit than popular media and opinion are suggesting Why the dollar’s global strength is a major concern Why bitcoin is the only truly free market in the world

Over the weekend, the Fed decided it couldn’t wait for Wednesday’s planned meeting to act, cutting interest rates to nearly 0%. It also announced $700 billion of direct capital injection through the purchase of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed debt. The question is whether this action can actually calm markets? So far, it’s not looking great. Within minutes, emergency circuit breakers were triggered again. Markets are down more than 9% on the day. In this episode, @NLW chats with CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey and director of research Noelle Acheson about: Why the market isn’t impressed with Fed action Why no Fed response will be enough on its own to solve the health crisis and the resulting economic dislocation Why we’re going to see more conversations in the coming weeks about UBI, MMT and other direct citizen stimulus

The entire week's shows in one convenient file: Monday | What the Market Crash Means for Bitcoin, Feat. Delphi's Kevin Kelly Tuesday | Crypto Fundraising and the Nothing-Is-Safe Haven Wednesday | Ben Hunt on the Clash of Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus Thursday | 6 Good Reasons for Bitcoiners to Keep Calm and HODL On Friday | What Happens When Currencies Fail? Featuring Preston Pysh

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced more than a trillion dollars in liquidity injections into the market. In the coming weeks, many observers expect trillions of more in stimulus in a variety of exotic new intervention tactics. While this will (hopefully) stem the still emerging economic fallout from the pandemic, it creates its own new set of problems. In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by “We Study Billionaires” host Preston Pysh to discuss: How bond markets will react to the wave of stimulus The challenge of global coordination for a new Bretton Woods Why in the wake of stimulus some governments might turn to bitcoin The three factors that lead to currency failure

The Coronavirus got really extra real today for markets. A two and a half week selloff was tipped to the next level by a major ratcheting up of action from the US government (which still seemed clearly to be not enough to calm markets). In bitcoin, this meant a drop from around $8000 yesterday to under $6000 today - a head-spinning dump, especially for those who are more recent to crypto. Still, in this episode, @NLW argues that there are 7 good reasons to keep calm and HODL on: It’s not just bitcoin Correlation means infiltration Peak fear Asia on the upswing Buy order behavior Bitcoin’s been dead before And a bonus: this environment is exactly what bitcoin was built for

The week of February 12, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was reaching new all time highs. Meanwhile, China’s quarantine of the 11 million people in Wuhan was three weeks old and expanding to other parts of the country. While the global equities markets have finally started to catch up to the fear of a global pandemic, the Coronavirus has been one a profound case study in the power of narratives to shape behavior. Even now, those seeking to contain the spread in the US are fighting against narratives from leadership that range from “it’s just the flu” to “it’s a hoax from the media.” On today’s episode of The Breakdown, NLW speaks with Epsilon Theory co-founder and market theorist Ben Hunt, who makes it his business to understand how narratives are shape and shaped by the world around us. Since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak, Ben has been a clarion voice in the chaos. This episode is no exception.

Whatever you thought of the uncorrelated or safe haven narratives a few weeks ago, it’s hard to deny that bitcoin and crypto are moving in lock step with equities - even mirroring a small bounce in the morning that retreated in the early afternoon. On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at hot takes on the narrative from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and crypto investor Ari David Paul. Not all the news is bleak, however. Also on this episode, we break down recent financings for Argent’s de-fi friendly wallet Horizon Games’ blockchain-based Hearthstone/MtG style game SkyWeaver Futureswap’s decentralized futures exchange and more

Bitcoin’s price has cratered, but it’s nothing compared to the broader market havoc. From the Coronavirus scare to an oil price war, a confluence of factors is aligning to make it a very rough Monday. On this episode of The Breakdown, @nlw is joined by Delphi Digital’s Kevin Kelly to discuss: Why the stock market is just catching up to what the bond markets have been saying Why the bond markets have been a better reflection of potential economic pain Why we need to pay attention to what happens in the credit markets The role of the oil price war in today’s market drop What the declining bitcoin price means for the safe haven and uncorrelated asset narratives Which assets are actually acting like safe havens

The full week's episodes in one convenient package The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham What Us Election Outcome Is Best for Bitcoin? Libra Plus? A New Global Digital Currency Strategy For Facebook Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants Riccardo 'Fluffypony' Spagni on How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy

As the Coronavirus took hold in China, officials in the Hubei province tracked potential patients by examining purchase records for cough and flu medicine for the previous month. Welcome to the new frontiers of privacy. In this wide-ranging episode, @NLW chats with former lead maintainer of Monero and Tari co-founder Riccardo Spagni - aka @FluffyPony on Twitter - about privacy in the context of: The recent arrest of DropBit CEO Larry Harmon surrounding bitcoin mixer technology being used for illicit purposes The US govt’s battle against end-to-end encryption Central bank digital currencies At home devices like Alexa and Google home Clearview AI and facial recognition China’s response to Coronavirus Why individual apathy is the greatest threat to privacy in the world

It was another good day for global crypto, as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies. In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low cost energy with 7000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of US-based mining in 2020. In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership between ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close. Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin.

Yesterday, The Information reported that Facebook’s Calibra wallet would be abandoning the backed-by-a-basket-of-currencies Libra for a set of fiat-backed digital currencies for different regions. The company quickly amended that while they would be launching those fiat-based digital currencies, they weren’t abandoning Libra. In this episode, @NLW argues that these fiat digital currencies could be more readily adopted initially than Libra among Facebook’s existing user base. Also on this episode, huge news out of India, as the Supreme Court reverses a decision by the Reserve Bank of India from 2018 to ban crypto banking. The move could breath life into an industry which has largely shuttered in India since the initial ban. Finally, a news roundup including a lawsuit against Twitter around deplatforming and a new router from HTC that can also run a bitcoin full node.

Today is Super Tuesday - the biggest day of the US primary election season. Increasingly, prediction markets and pollsters suggest it’s a two person race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (although Mike Bloomberg has insisted he’s staying in). In this episode, NLW breaks down each candidate in the context of their positions vis a vis cryptocurrency, as well as looking at the possible role of three other fallen contenders in the rest of the campaign. As Bernie leads the Twitter poll, the question arises: do people think Bernie will be good for bitcoin because he shares the same values of prioritizing the little guy over big banks, or because they think his programs will demand so much QE it will send bitcoin to the moon? Listen and find out.

When everyone wrote their 2020 crypto prediction pieces, China featured prominently in everything from the exchange business to enterprise blockchain to the potential impact of a forthcoming digital yuan. Coronavirus erased those issues from focus. On this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by Matthew Graham, CEO of Sino Global Capital. For the past 7 years, Matthew has lived in China and for the past several years, his exclusive focus has been on crypto and blockchain. In this episode, they discuss: What Chinese crypto and blockchain investors were focused on before Coronavirus The shift in the crypto and blockchain narrative in China post-Libra What living through the Coronavirus has actually been live (and how it differs from the media narrative in the US) Why enterprise blockchain is poised to be one of the most dominant focuses for China-centric investors this year