The Breakdown

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

The full week's episode run in one long-run, long-chill, long-sleep episode: Monday | Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank Tuesday | 6 Explanations for Crypto’s Coronavirus Focus Wednesday | Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’? Thursday | A 101 Guide To Ethereum’s ProgPoW Controversy Friday | Understanding This Week’s Market Whiplash, Featuring Scott Melker

After weeks of not reacting to Coronavirus, the markets took a profound turn for the worse this week, leading ultimately to the fastest correction - i.e. loss of 10% - in recorded history. In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by crypto trader, DJ, and broad market thinker Scott Melker to discuss: What the crypto markets demonstrated this week What recent price action suggests about the bitcoin as a safe haven narrative Why it’s insane that just two weeks ago, despite tens (or hundreds) of millions of people being quarantined in the supply chain capital of the world, stock markets were printing all time highs How we went from those ATHs to the fastest correction (10% drop) in recorded history What the correction suggests for the fundamentals of our economy Why central bankers have fewer options than ever to fight economic turmoil

Last Friday on Ethereum’s core developer call, the devs agreed to push forward a controversial anti-ASICs consensus algorithm switch known as ProgPoW. The broader Ethereum community was not pleased, and has spent the last week debating both ProgPoW itself as well as the way decisions in the community get made. In this 101-guide to the controversy, @nlw breaks down: What is ProgPoW The history of the debate Arguments for and against Who falls on what side and why The implications of ProgPoW for DeFi

Bitcoin is having a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Many are using the dump - which from a timing perspective aligns with a broader market selloff among Coronavirus fears - as a way to diminish the “bitcoin as a safe haven” narrative. In this episode, @nlw revisits that narrative and argues that it is uncomfortably bunched up with the uncorrelated asset narrative, or, as Chamath Palihapitiya calls it “schmuck insurance.” This episode also covers: Central bank digital currency (CBDC) news: Canada says it doesn’t see the need right now but that could change if private cryptos get more traction, while China’s work on a digital yuan is paused due to Coronavirus shutdowns. The six year anniversary of Mt. Gox’s lost 750,000 BTC coming to light.

The spread of Coronavirus has dominated the news cycle across industries, but the discussion has been particularly fierce in both the finance and tech worlds, with crypto right in the lead. For a month or more, prominent crypto voices have been discussing the event in terms of skepticism of reported government cases, questions of market impact, and plans for personal preparation. I surveyed more than 1500 people on Crypto Twitter to ask why crypto was so interested in the Coronavirus. These were their top answers. This episode of The Breakdown also features an excerpt from Hidden Forces Ep 123: Market Nihilism: Price Discovery in a World Where Nothing Matters | Ben Hunt & Grant Williams

An incredible amount of work has gone into convincing institutional investors that bitcoin and crypto should be on their radar. Now that many are convinced, however, they face some significant limitations in the infrastructure. A new crypto bank out of Wyoming is designed to address those problems. Founded by Caitlin Long, Avanti is apply for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter and already has 8 products in its pipeline not currently available to US investors. In this interview, Caitlin and @nlw discuss: Why Avanti is needed Why Avanti will have 100% of assets in reserve at all times Why the right model for crypto custody is more akin to valeting a car than current financial market models Why building a crypto bank is important in the context of macro market turmoil How Coronavirus is exposing pre-existing problems in the global economy

The full week's episode run in one long-run, long-chill, long-sleep episode: Monday | Off Tuesday | Is It Exploitation Season for DeFi? Wednesday | Chainlink's Sergey Nazarov on What DeFi Can Learn From Early Exchange Hacks Thursday | Why We Should Stop Thinking of ‘Crypto’ as a Single Industry Friday | Diagnosing the Dip: Why Today's Leading Exchanges Are Powerful, but Not Inevitable

After settling in to the $10,000 price level, BTC suddenly and rapidly dipped more than 5% in an hour on Wednesday. As the market discusses possible explanations, some floated the unexpected simultaneous downtime of Binance and Coinbase as a causal factor. In this episode of The Breakdown, we discuss the power exchanges wield - both in terms of market liquidity as well as the ability to shape news cycles. The good news is that new funding for insurgent exchanges suggest that power today is not inevitable. Lastly, we discuss the latest in central bank digital currencies, with Sweden launching an e-krona pilot; a former head of China’s national bank saying Coronavirus could accelerate efforts; and a new member of the Libra Association.

The ‘crypto’ industry is having a hard time fitting everything that’s happening inside that one monolithic term. On this episode, @nlw looks at current news stories from across at least 5 different categories - DeFi, enterprise blockchain, central bank digital currencies, digital collectibles and bitcoin - to ask whether they really all belong lumped in in the same category. The episode also looks at: Four reasons these increasingly different categories remain bunched together Why turning other parts of the industry into an enemy is rewarded in the public sphere Why letting individual parts of the industry evolve individually is likely to bring more, not fewer resources into the space.

The DeFi world continues to dissect the recent attacks on bZx. To most, the amount lost in the attacks is far less relevant than what the attacks suggest about how DeFi applications need to be designed. Within that, one key topic of conversation is the role of price oracles - the systems by which DeFi applications check the prices of assets that dictate what happens in a given smart contract. Since asset price manipulation was at the core of the recent attacks, this is a particularly pertinent area of inquiry. Yesterday, Chainlink announced that it would be helping bZx upgrade their systems taking advantage of Chainlink’s recently-launched “meta oracle.” On this episode of The Breakdown, Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov discusses: The role of price oracles in DeFi How price oracles were targeted in the recent attacks What the DeFi industry can learn from early crypto exchange hacks

Part of what makes DeFi interesting to people is how it takes advantage of open source protocols to enable types of transactions never before available. The problem, however, is that financial structures mean new financial vulnerabilities. In the last few days, two attacks on bZx have used a similar strategy of manipulating the price of synthetic assets in the context of a new instrument called “flashloans.” On this episode of @nlw breaks down exactly How the attacks were carried out How the community is responding What the larger ramifications for DeFi might be

The full week's shows as one long episode, featuring guests including Travis Kling (Ikigai), Muneeb Ali (Blockstack), Coinlist (Andy Bromberg) Monday | On the Frontlines of the SEC Safe Harbor Proposal With CoinList President Andy Bromberg Tuesday | Muneeb Ali Explains Blockstack’s Big Bet on Bitcoin Wednesday | Why Crypto Sentiment and Prices Are Soaring: Puppets, Pundits, Partnerships Thursday | The US Government Sends Mixed Signals on Digital Currency Privacy Friday | The Top Narratives Driving Crypto Market Growth feat. Travis Kling

There’s no denying that 2020 is off to a roaring start. From prices to volume to social media, sentiment is up up up. But what’s driving it? On this special Valentine’s Day episode, @nlw reacts to listeners votes about which narratives are most driving the shift in energy, discussing: The BTC halving Coronavirus and volatility Fed action Central bank digital currency intrigue Ethereum and DeFi Price reflexivity and Lindy effects The episode finishes up with some hot takes on what is driving the markets and what we should be most concerned about and most excited for with Ikigai Asset Management’s Travis Kling.

To look at the US Government, it is the best of times and the worst of times for personal financial privacy. On the one hand, in comments before the Senate Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that FINCEN is planning more strict regulations around anti-money laundering and crypto. At the same time, the CEO of DropBit was arrested on money laundering charges around a bitcoin mixing service he ran between 2014 and 2017. In this new enforcement regime, one of the government’s major partners is Chainalysis, who have seen more than $10m in Federal agency contracts since 2015. Yet privacy advocates are also surprisingly enthused by comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell, who suggested in testimony to Congress that any potential US digital dollar would need to be privacy preserving.

After Monday’s quick retrace, bitcoin and the rest of the market went green again. In this episode, @nlw breaks down the shifting sentiment, looking at: How a partnership between Hedara Hashgraph and Google Cloud pumped HBAR more than 50% - featuring commentary from Hedara CEO Mance Harmon Why Figure is launching a TV campaign to educate people about blockchain CNBC Fast Money actively (and convincingly) promoting the narrative of bitcoin as a safe haven asset.

Last week, Blockstack announced a new proposal through which node operators would be rewarded in bitcoin. The concept behind Proof of Transfer is that, for the cryptoasset ecosystem to run, electricity should only have to be converted into digital scarcity once. In this interview with @nlw, Blockstack CEO Muneeb Ali explains how, by tying the security of Blockstack’s Stacks blockchain to bitcoin, and allowing miners to be rewarded with BTC, Blockstack might be setting a new precedent for how the crypto ecosystem looks to bitcoin as a base layer.

Last week, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed Rule 195 to give token projects a 3 year safe harbor. This proposed period would allow them to distribute tokens without fear of violating securities law so long as they achieve certain standards of decentralization in that time. Coinlist is a platform for compliant token sales. On this episode of The Breakdown, Coinlist CoFounder & President Andy Bromberg and @nlw discuss: The cost of regulatory clarity in the US, including projects leaving US shores Historic approaches to “compliant” token sales and what problems they still leave What Commissioner Hester Peirce’s proposed Rule 195 includes The potential implications for the US crypto markets The chances that Rule 195 comes to pass

The week's full episode run in one long-run, long-drive ready podcast. Monday | Deplatforming, Ethereum Marketing and Whether Brexit Matters for Crypto feat. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier Tuesday | Are Uncensorable Web Domains Blockchain's Next Killer App? Feat Namebase CEO Tieshun Roquerre Wednesday | What All This VC and M&A Activity Tells Us About The State Of The Crypto Markets Thursday | The Federal Reserve Has Its 'Come to Satoshi' Moment Friday | Kraken's Dan Held on What's Different About Bitcoin At $10k This Time

Bitcoin is on a 7 week upward trend. Having already smashed through its $9,000 Vegeta memes, it is now inching closer towards $10k. On this episode, @nlw is joined by Kraken’s Dan Held to discuss how bitcoin has changed in a number of ways since the last time we were at the $10,000 price level last year. They look at: Narrative - Speculation around bitcoin as a safe haven and the role of the halvening continue to shape the conversation Infrastructure - The tools for how people can interact with bitcoin - from lending to derivatives - have never been broader Audience - Institutions are no longer just around the corner but actively participating in the market