Unchained

Lea Thompson, aka Girl Gone Crypto, talks about what goes into producing her popular “The Crypto Minute” vlog, what initially got her into crypto, and her recent decision to quit her day job and go full time crypto. In this episode we discuss: what “The Crypto Minute” is all about, and all the crypto video content she produces (2:37) how Lea comes up with creative content such as wearing a whale costume to portray Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor (5:04) how long it actually takes to create “The Crypto Minute” (6:36) what goes into producing “The Crypto Minute” and which family member is behind the camera (7:05) the biggest challenges Lea faces when creating her videos and how she decides which stories make the final cut (8:56) Lea’s favorite bloopers including, but not limited to, rug pulls, sushi, an Amazon money printer, and a few fake $100 bills (10:28) how Girl Gone Crypto fell down the crypto rabbit hole and why her ukulele skills were instrumental to her crypto journey (12:54) the time when JK Rowling tweeted about Bitcoin, resulting in Lea’s viral “A Muggle’s Guide to Bitcoin” video (17:31) what type of crypto content works best on different social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok (20:00) when Girl Gone Crypto stopped being a hobby and how it is going now that Lea is full-time crypto (21:46) how Lea is trying to educate people about crypto in a simple and approachable way… one ninja suit at time (22:34) Crypto News Recap (26:12) Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://bit.ly/3jzkTAD Download the Crypto.com app here: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/laurashinpodcasttesla The Sun Exchange: http://thesunexchange.com/unconfirmed Episode links: Lea Thompson: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto Her YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GirlGoneCrypto Her TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlgone_crypto?source=h5_m Lea's personal website: https://www.lealovescrypto.com/ Video Examples 2020 Year in Review… News Vlog Style: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1344384717466914817?s=20 A Muggle’s Guide to Bitcoin: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1261445010832015361?s=20 Hardware Wallets Explained: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1329580439820849153?s=20 Miscellaneous Information Fair Use: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html Money Printer: https://www.amazon.com/Printing-Machine-Magician-Close-Up-Accessories/dp/B07XRBDCL8 Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-300k-btc-by-eoy/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, comes onto the show to discuss the lending protocol and second-biggest DeFi project by total value locked. Here are some of the highlights: How Stani’s background studying law and his passion for fintech led him to the world of smart contracts (1:53) Why he decided to transition ETHLend to Aave, and how that eliminated the “meme” narrative (5:55) How Stani would explain Aave to a five-year-old, or your normie friend (9:04) What new features were released in Aave v2 (15:54) reducing overall gas costs aTokens swapping collateral debt tokens What Aavenomics is and how the “safety module” attempts to keep the protocol secure (20:39) How AAVE works as a governance token Active versus passive risk in governance staking How Aave is transitioning from a centralized to a decentralized protocol (25:01) what he's finding difficult about this process issues with voting and an over-reliance on the Aave team delegating voting power to what he calls “protocol politicians” and whether this is good or bad for DeFi Who is using Aave and how they are using it? (37:27) what OpenLaw is and how OpenLaw contracts work how credit delegation, or unsecured loans enforced by law, differ in v2 vs V1 how people could use lending protocols to build credit What Aave plans to do with the E-Money (EMI) license it obtained in the UK (50:51) Since Aave was a pioneer in flash loans, which are responsible for the majority of DeFi attacks, whether Stani would do anything differently (53:12) Aave’s partnership with tokenized real estate project RealT and how Aave manages it given that, in the US, RealT tokens are securities and can only be sold to accredited investors (58:42) How Aave has been thinking about scaling given the high fees on Ethereum (1:03:57) Why building a moat in DeFi is impossible (1:07:16) What is next for Aave (1:11:40) Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Episode links: Stani Kulechov: https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov Aave: https://aave.com Aave stats: https://aavewatch.com Protocols mentioned ETHLend: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ethlend-announces-launch-of-new-parent-company-aave-300713825.html Aavegotchi: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-game-aavegotchi-preps-for-jan-4-mainnet-launch-with-nft-auctions RealT: https://medium.com/aave/realt-market-coming-to-the-aave-protocol-da4499a1e965 Yearn: https://yearn.finance/ Uniswap: https://uniswap.org/ Sushiswap: https://sushiswap.fi/ Kyber: http://kyber.network/ Balancer: https://balancer.finance/ $LINK: https://chain.link/ Aavenomics Aave’s documentation: https://docs.aave.com/aavenomics/ Safety Module: https://docs.aave.com/aavenomics/safety-module Summary: https://aave.com/aavenomics/ More background: https://defirate.com/aavenomics-upgrade/ Decentralization concepts Handing off admin keys: https://decrypt.co/46544/aave-officially-hands-over-governance-keys-to-defi-community + https://medium.com/aave/aave-admin-key-handover-3e09e603d348 OpenLaw: https://www.openlaw.io/ Protocol Governance: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/73336/defi-lending-aave-token + https://docs.aave.com/developers/protocol-governance/governance Other topics Electronic Money Licence: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/75845/aave-uk-fca-emi-license-defi Unsecured Loans: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/70678/aave-launches-new-service-for-unsecured-peer-to-peer-loans-on-ethereum Flash Loans: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/93740/flash-loans-as-a-capital-boost-tool Aave Version 2: https://medium.com/aave/the-aave-protocol-v2-f06f299cee04 + https://github.com/aave/protocol-v2/blob/master/aave-v2-whitepaper.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyn Alden, CEO and founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategies, and Raoul Pal, CEO & cofounder of Real Vision Group & Global Macro Investor, explain their thinking about Ethereum and its native token, and talk about their perspective on GameStop. In this episode, we discuss: why Raoul views ether as similar to bitcoin at a macro level (1:25) why Lyn decided ETH was not currently investable (5:06) an analysis of utility protocols (John Pfeffer’s paper) (6:55) counterarguments to John Pfeffer’s paper (9:31) how to allocate between BTC and ETH (11:22) why Raoul also invested in other coins beyond BTC and ETH (11:47) whether Metcalfe's law applies equally to all kinds of networks (13:35) why Lyn views Ethereum’s use case as circular, and why that makes it less investable (15:09) whether Ethereum 2.0 and Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, and whether that could make ETH more investable (21:20) the impact of fees on the value of Ethereum (23:36) Raoul's views on what S-Curves and the Lindy Effect indicate about the development of a currency (25:22) how high fees make DApps less attractive, while low fees potentially decrease demand for ETH (27:06) how Lyn believes demand for DeFi is to circumvent compliance and know-your-customer processes, and she doesn't also see that as a downside for Bitcoin (33:10) how the regulators are behind innovation in cryptocurrencies, particularly around taxation (36:32) Raoul's and Lyn's predictions for the ETH price by end of 2021 (41:45) what GameStop says about the democratization of financial information (45:32) whether smart contracts could play in preventing situations similar to what happened with GameStop and/or Robinhood (49:03) how blockchain technology could be used to prevent a situation in which the hedge funds could short more shares than existed (54:03) how the GameStop/Robinhood saga is a giant advertisement for self-custody (54:53) whether r/WallStreetBets' behavior was market manipulation or not (56:53) Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Episode links: Lyn Alden: https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact Lyn Alden Investment: https://www.lynalden.com/ Raoul Pal: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI Real Vision: https://www.realvision.com/contributor/raoul-pal Global Macro Investor: https://www.globalmacroinvestor.com Raoul's tweet storm on Ethereum: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI/status/1347013567799848961?s=20 Lyn Alden’s research paper on Ethereum: https://www.lynalden.com/ethereum-analysis/ Raoul Pal’s tweet: ETH equals BTC: https://twitter.com/raoulgmi/status/1347013567799848961?lang=en John Pfeffer’s paper: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/john-pfeffer/An+Investor's+Take+on+Cryptoassets+v6.pdf Network effects and Metcalfe’s Law: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_developing-new-products-and-services/s04-12-there-is-power-in-numbers-netw.html Quantity Theory of Money: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_economics-theory-through-applications/s30-01-the-quantity-theory-of-money.html How Will the Government React to GameStop?: https://www.coindesk.com/gamestop-regulators-response GameStop and Crypto trading: https://cryptonews.com/exclusives/are-gamestop-style-surges-in-crypto-any-different-from-old-p-9151.htm Robinhood Raises Extra funds: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/93258/report-robinhood-billions-raised-investors-1 Possible role of blockchain in trading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cardano-foundation-ceo-says-blockchain-could-prevent-gme-type-showdowns Caitlin Long: https://www.forbes.com/sites/caitlinlong/2019/05/16/naked-shorting-in-the-uber-ipo-it-couldnt-happen-on-a-blockchain/?sh=f2a0dcd4737d Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Shehan Chandrasekara, head of strategy at CoinTracker, and Dan Hannum COO at Zen Ledger, take a deep dive into the world of crypto taxes. Over an hour and fifteen minutes they tackle a bevy of topics ranging from why the IRS is asking about your crypto history to explaining the proper way of reporting yield farming income. Shehan and Dan give up their hard-earned tax secrets and tips learned through building their respective cutting-edge crypto tax software. Here is a list of talking points covered in the discussion: how the IRS is handling crypto this year (1:20) where to start with reporting crypto and what constitutes a taxable event (5:59) bitcoin corner cases: mining, with a description of calculating cost basis (19:48) wages (27:01) peer-to-peer transactions outside of exchanges (28:23) defi and taxes: yield farming — and how it's like Russian nesting dolls (31:45) how the IRS taxes earned interest (36:32) airdrops (40:15) crypto transactions that are not taxable: purchases, withdrawals, and stablecoins (46:28) navigating tax documents (51:24-58-10) NFT’s and social tokens (57:14) tax loss harvesting (1:03:09) how having coins on platforms like Robinhood and Paypal can have an effect on your taxes (1:05:05) proposed tax changes (1:06:50) crypto tax software and tips for the upcoming year (1:10:29) Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Episode links: Guests Shehan Chandrasekara: https://twitter.com/TheCryptoCPA Dan Hannum: https://twitter.com/DHannum8 Software CoinTracker: cointracker.io ZenLedger: zenledger.io Accounting LIFO, HIFO, FIFO: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shehanchandrasekera/2020/09/17/what-crypto-taxpayers-need-to-know-about-fifo-lifo-hifo-specific-id/?sh=7077f8e936aa (written by Shehan) 1040 Question: https://fortune.com/2020/09/28/the-irs-is-adding-a-cryptocurrency-question-to-form-1040-for-2020/ 1099 Misc: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1099msc.pdf 1099 B: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1099-b Regulatory research: 2014 IRS Tax Guidance: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-21.pdf IRS Virtual Currency page: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/virtual-currencies IRS gains and losses: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p550.pdf Equipment write-offs: https://www.section179.org/section_179_deduction/ IRS sues Coinbase: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/29/16717416/us-coinbase-irs-records How holding crypto at PayPal or Robinhood or any platform that does not allow you to transfer to an address off-platform could affect your taxes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shehanchandrasekera/2021/01/28/exiting-robinhood-could-create-a-tax-nightmare-for-crypto-users/?sh=106b74a84ad6 De minimis exemption: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/series63-050509.asp#:~:text='The%20De%20Minimis'%20exemption%20means,period%20with%20a%20physical%20address. FinCEN intends to apply FBAR to cryptocurrency held offshore: https://www.coindesk.com/fincen-foreign-crypto-exchange-disclosure-rule Backstory: Bitcoin Cash Fork: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-cash-has-split-into-two-new-blockchains-again Yield farming and social tokens: https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-yield-farming-beginners-guide https://www.cointracker.io/blog/defi-yield-farming-crypto-tax-guide (written by Shehan) Alex Masmej: https://www.coindesk.com/man-who-sells-himself-now-wants-buyers-to-control-his-life Crypto tax guides BlockFi: https://blockfi.com/crypto-tax-laws Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/learn/tips-and-tutorials/crypto-and-bitcoin-taxes-US Nerd Wallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/bitcoin-taxes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Saylor, CEO and founder of Microstrategy, explains how he decided the publicly traded business data firm needed to put its excess cash in bitcoin and what happened afterward. In this episode, we discuss: why Microstrategy decided to buy Bitcoin, and how the pandemic spurred that whether his previous experience with Microstrategy stock imploding after accounting irregularities were revealed had any bearing on the company's decision to buy bitcoin the reactions of the officers and board members to his suggestion to invest in bitcoin why they put all the excess cash into bitcoin as opposed to some percentage what parts of the bitcoin industry could be improved to better serve corporate interests whether Microstrategy intends to take any money off the table at the top of any future bubbles and reinvest when the price hits a new low whether it hurts Microstrategy that GAAP rules require the company to mark Bitcoin down to the lowest price it traded at during the quarter how his life has changed since Microstrategy bought bitcoin what he thought of Citi downgrading Microstrategy stock what he thinks of Renaissance Technology being the third-largest buyer of Microstrategy stock since the summer what will happen to Microstrategy stock in a bitcoin bear market whether or not there was any further conversation after his tweets with Elon Musk what types of companies, and how many, have been talking with him, expressing interest in buying bitcoin what will happen at the Bitcoin for Companies conference what type of bitcoin data products they are contemplating offering what he thinks will happen to the USD’s global reserve currency status what it would take for him to sell any bitcoin Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: http://1inch.exchange Episode links: Michael Saylor: https://twitter.com/michael_saylor Microstrategy: https://www.microstrategy.com/en Bitcoin for Corporations: https://www.microstrategy.com/en/resources/events/world-2021/bitcoin-summit Microstrategy purchases an additional $10 million in bitcoin: https://www.microstrategy.com/content/dam/website-assets/collateral/financial- documents/financial-document-archive/Form-8-K_jan-22-2021.pdf Unchained interview with Saifedean Ammous: August 11, 2020: Microstrategy adopts Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset: August 11, 2020: Microstrategy makes tender offer to purchase up to $250 million of its common stock: September 11, 2020: Microstrategy to purchase $60.5 million of common stock: Plan to offer $550 million in convertible notes: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/87120/microstrategy-550m-convertible-notes-bitcoin Microstrategy announces over $1 billion in Bitcoin purchases in 2020: Michael Saylor’s 2013 tweet on Bitcoin: https://twitter.com/michael_saylor/status/413478389329428480?s=20 Forbes expose on unusual accounting practices by Microstrategy back in 2000: https://www.forbes.com/global/2000/0306/0305024a.html?sh=46312df01674 April 2000 profile of Michael in The New Yorker: https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/2000-04-03/flipbook/034/ SEC enforcement action against Microstrategy: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/34-43724.htm Forbes profile after the SEC enforcement action: https://www.forbes.com/2000/12/18/1218faces.html?sh=523061e03bf9 Forbes announcing Microstrategy would restate earnings after its expose: https://www.forbes.com/2000/03/20/mu3.html?sh=21efe89d1ee6 Summary of SEC action: Citi downgrading MSTR: Renaissance Technologies has been third-largest buyer of Microstrategy’s stock since the summer: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/87194/renaissance-technologies-microstrategy-bitcoin Microstrategy contemplating bitcoin data products: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/85310/microstrategy-bitcoin-data-products Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill. and Gabriel Shapiro, partner at BSV Law, discuss the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple and two executives, Chris Larsen and Bard Garlinghouse. In this episode, they explain: what was so "egregious" that the SEC went after two executives, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, were charged why their sales showed an information asymmetry, and why that matters why the complaint comes close to being a fraud case, but why the SEC didn't charge them with fraud why the idea that XRP is a currency and therefore cannot be a security will likely not fly why it's unlikely the case will go to the Supreme Court the SEC's case for why XRP is a security, and Ripple's role in it how even on a technical level, the XRP network is centralized how strong the SEC's case is against Larsen and Garlinghouse Stephen's and Gabriel's predictions on how the lawsuit will play out how this will likely impact XRP investors whether or not Ripple could become an SEC-reporting company and XRP a security what happened with Ripple's lead investor in its most recent fundraising round whether or not the SEC might go after exchanges or other players who made money off XRP or collaborated with Ripple around XRP trading what this means for Coinbase, in particular, because it's going public later this year what Ripple's defense, in its summarized Wells submission, was how this case compares to some of the other big SEC/crypto securities cases, Kik/Kin and Telegram whether there might ever be a digital token that is determined to be a security for specific transactions but not others what the wider implications of the case are for the rest of the crypto industry Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: https://1inch.exchange Episode links: Stephen Palley: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley Gabriel Shapiro: https://twitter.com/lex_node SEC lawsuit against Ripple: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2020/comp-pr2020-338.pdf SEC lawsuit against Ripple being close to a fraud case: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1341523294344896515?s=20 Former SEC commissioner Joe Grundefest on the case: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/89164/former-sec-commissioner-says-ripple-lawsuit-will-cause-multi-billion-dollar-losses-to-innocent-third-parties Other lawsuit against Ripple: https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.334410/gov.uscourts.cand.334410.115.0.pdf Technical assessment of Ripple network: https://cryptobern.github.io/noconsensusripple/ Tetragon’s case against Ripple: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1346531087971999749?s=20 What the case means for exchanges: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-delist-xrp-exchanges-dilemma Coinbase suspends trading in XRP: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-will-suspend-trading-in-xrp-on-january-19-2e09652dbf57 https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-suspends-xrp-trading Lawsuit against Coinbase: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-30/coinbase-sued-over-xrp-commissions-after-sec-pursues-ripple?sref=m9L277rN https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1344352455895691269?s=20 People in the industry thinking for a while that XRP is a security: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/57366/xrp-is-probably-a-security-dont-at-me Mary Jo White: https://www.coindesk.com/former-sec-chair-represents-ripple-xrp-lawsuit Ripple’s Wells submission: https://ripple.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Ripple-Wells-Submission-Summary.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Willy Woo, a prominent on-chain Bitcoin analyst and author of the “The Bitcoin Forecast,” a market intelligence newsletter, explains the parabolic activity of Bitcoin in the past month. We cover: why he thinks Bitcoin has more than doubled in the last month what the "double pump" market is and why Bitcoin may see two rallies this cycle what stage of the Bitcoin bull market we are currently in who is buying, and how they've differed from previous investors who still is yet to buy this cycle why Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs mean that we're in "uncharted price discovery" how his "top cap model" shows Bitcoin could be around $95k by end of year and how if certain trends accelerate, it could reach $200,000-$300,000 by year's end how the pandemic impacted Bitcoin’s price what on-chain movements he's seeing that make him call the current cycle of Bitcoin "whale spawning season” how to gauge the increasingly rapid investor activity what to expect from Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2021 Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: http://1inch.exchange Episode links: Willy Woo: https://twitter.com/woonomic Woobull.com: http://charts.woobull.com Willy on Unconfirmed: https://unchainedpodcast.com/willy-woo-on-why-its-an-extremely-great-time-to-buy-bitcoin/ Fibonacci traces tweet: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1347433551906500614?s=20 Bitcoin reflexivity: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1344189627997949952/photo/1 Who has been buying recently: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1347127159538688002?s=20 Double pump bull market: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1346889817792004096?s=20 Buying by long-term holders: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1346827893322616833/photo/1 What percentage of the Bitcoin supply is liquid: https://insights.glassnode.com/bitcoin-liquid-supply/ Premium above NVT Price: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1346797291668029440/photo/1 Accumulation of BTC before the OCC announcement: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1346296294797582336/photo/1 Will never see a $20k BTC again: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1345660018541019138?s=20 Bitcoin as investment vs. tech: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1345221723751206912?s=20 NVT Ratio: http://charts.woobull.com/bitcoin-nvt-ratio/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This panel, from a panel for the fifth anniversary of Hyperledger, features Rob Palatnick, managing director of global head of technology research and innovation at the DTCC and chairman of the Hyperledger board, Matthieu Saint Olive, Codefi payments product manager and CBDC advisor at ConsenSys, and Robert Bench, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In this discussion on the current outlook on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), they cover: what main problems CBDCs can solve whether CBDCs should be open sourced why building a new technology for CBDCs is preferred over using existing tech how concerns over CBDCs and their privacy implications differ across countries what possible pain points or opportunities CBDCs pose for central banks whether CBDCs should be blockchain-based to what extent CBDCs will be distributed and open networks, and whether fees would be charged for transactions how central banks are thinking about methods of adoption, like whether they will bank directly with retail customers or still use commercial banks how developers balance the drawbacks and benefits of blockchain-based CBDCs with different stakeholders whether stable coins will be replaced by or coexist with CBDCs and what the future holds for the continued development of CBDCs Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: http://1inch.exchange Episode links: Rob Palatnick: https://www.dtcc.com/our-experts/robert-palatnick Brian Behlendorf: https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf?lang=en Matthieu Saint Olive: https://twitter.com/msaintolive?lang=en Robert Bench: https://www.bostonfed.org/home/people/bank/robert-bench.aspx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Laura Shin recaps the biggest stories of the year in crypto, with clips from shows throughout the year. In this episode, we cover how the pandemic drove Bitcoin to new all-time highs, how regulation began to come for the crypto space in a big way, plus new trends in DeFi, corporate structures, and how ETH will change as an asset. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: https://1inch.exchange Episode links: Meltem Demirors on Bitcoin’s behavior during the recession https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-meltem-demirors-and-lyn-alden-on-the-perfect-conditions-for-bitcoin/ Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on Bitcoin’s relation to fiat https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/ Chamath Palihapitiya on Bitcoin as a financial hedge https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/ Cathie Wood and Dan Tapiero on corporate adoption of Bitcoin https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-bitcoin-under-a-biden-administration/ Dave Jevans and Siân Jones on regulation and VASPs https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/ Jake Chervinsky and Kristin Smith on the Swiss Rule and self-hosted wallets https://unchainedpodcast.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-looming-battle-over-privacy-in-crypto/ Jeremy Allaire and Kristin Smith on Mnuchin’s proposed FinCEN rule https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-is-the-proposed-fincen-rule-for-unhosted-wallets-being-pushed-so-quickly/ Jessi Brooks and Zia Faruqui on cryptocurrencies facilitating illicit activity https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-this-doj-strike-force-hunts-down-cryptocurrency-criminals/ Brian Brooks on Americans accepting more privacy restrictions https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/ Meltem Demirors on privacy being under attack https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-meltem-demirors-and-lyn-alden-on-the-perfect-conditions-for-bitcoin/ Haseeb Qureshi on the maturation of DeFi https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-decentralized-trading-has-10xed-in-a-few-months/ Vitalik Buterin on risks that still exist in DeFi https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/ Taylor Monahan and Dan Guido on DeFi security https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/ Vitalik Buterin reflecting on the last five years of Ethereum https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/ Ryan Watkins on Ethereum 2.0 https://unchainedpodcast.com/ethereum-2-0-what-you-need-to-know/ Olaf Carlson-Wee on DeFi impacting the traditional corporate structure https://unchainedpodcast.com/olaf-carlson-wee-if-there-is-a-money-losing-exploit-the-money-is-gone/ Andrew Cronje on shifting corporate structures https://unchainedpodcast.com/andre-cronje-of-yearn-finance-on-yfi-and-the-fair-launch-im-lazy/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy Allaire of Circle Pay and Kristin Smith of the Blockchain Association explain the impact of and motivation behind Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s proposed FinCEN rule that targets “unhosted” wallets. In this episode, they cover: what the new FinCEN rule says, and how it would impact unhosted or self-hosted wallets, as well as crypto businesses why they believe this is really politically motivated and unilateral midnight rule making by Secretary Mnuchin what other bureaucrats and policymakers think should be done instead whether the rule only affects businesses rather than individuals what information will be recorded according to the rule ways to circumvent compliance how the rule affects DeFi and Web3 the procedural hurdles Mnuchin took to propose the rule, and what they recommend the crypto community to do try to stop the implementation of the rule how the rule comports with European GDPR regulations which government entities will be tasked with making the regulatory changes the space needs why President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration may be more favorable for the space Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: http://1inch.exchange Episode links: Jeremy Allaire: https://twitter.com/jerallaire Kristin Smith: https://twitter.com/kmsmithdc Circle: https://www.circle.com/en/ The Blockchain Association: https://theblockchainassociation.org Stories on proposed rule: https://www.coindesk.com/fincen-proposes-kyc-rules-for-crypto-wallets https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/88347/treasury-crypto-wallets-reporting-rule Effect on DeFi: https://twitter.com/jerallaire/status/1340060806088671232?s=20 https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1340050400871911424?s=20 Coin Center response: https://www.coincenter.org/a-midnight-rule-for-cryptocurrency-transaction-reports/ Brian Armstrong’s earlier tweet thread: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1331745196887867393 Collins Belton’s tweet thread: https://twitter.com/collins_belton/status/1340051986008350721?s=20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marguerite deCourcelle is co-founder and CEO of Blockade Games, which is releasing the role-playing game game Neon District the day this episode comes out. She discusses her background in art, how her love of video games led her to discover Bitcoin in the early days of the cryptocurrency, and how she helps create the next phase of web 3.0 content creation and distribution. Topics include: how Marguerite became involved in crypto and what led her to co-found Blockade Games her work on Pineapple Arcade and Plasma Bears the problems she sees with gaming and how blockchain technology can solve them how Blockade Games is utilizing blockchain tech Neon District, a blockchain-based RPG game with active gameplay and animation that uses NFTs and farming the difference between ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens and how each is utilized in Neon District how they have been marrying NFTs with DeFi through the NIFTEX exchange how an open economy challenges the dynamics of gameplay and how they account for this in their game design why a decentralized profile can be so powerful in gaming the types of users Blockade Games hopes to attract with Neon District why they are using the Matic Network how blockchain tech within a game changes the business model for Blockade as opposed to a traditional gaming company whether she thinks conventional gaming companies will be disrupted by blockchain technology the problems in content creation business models and distribution and how she thinks blockchain can solve them her personal token, COIN, how it is connected to CRED and how the two work together and people earn them what Coin Artist Liquidity Mining is and how it works Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: http://1inch.exchange Episode links: Marguerite: https://twitter.com/coin_artist Coin Artist: https://coinartist.io Yield farming NFTs: https://www.coindesk.com/nfts-yield-farming-defi-buzz-explained Crypto puzzles: https://www.coindesk.com/theres-more-money-to-win-in-the-310-bitcoin-challenge-heres-some-hints Blockade Games's seed round: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-puzzle-artists-blockchain-gaming-startup-valued-at-13-million CoinDesk podcast network with Marguerite: https://www.coindesk.com/what-artists-love-about-crypto Delphi Digital podcast with Marguerite: https://www.delphidigital.io/podcasts/marguerite-decourcelle-building-towards-a-neon-future/ Delphi Digital report on Coin's E-den syndicate: https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/social-tokens-the-rise-of-the-coins-e-den-syndicate/ OpenSea store for Alex Botez chess pieces: https://opensea.io/collection/get-pwnd Blog post about the Alexandra Botez collaboration: https://coin-artist.medium.com/bringing-chess-to-ethereum-5969d9cfa07a Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot, Kusama, and Parity, discusses what he calls the "meta-protocol," Polkadot. In this episode, he talks about: his vision for Polkadot and the problems he set out to solve when conceiving it why he considers Polkadot a meta-protocol the implementation of parachains and parathreads, how they are defined and how they differ parachain auctions and candle auctions how DDoS attacks can be prevented on parachains initial parachain offerings and how they differ from initial coin offerings and avoid the regulatory problems that were so common with ICOs on-chain governance on Polkadot and how it works how immediate implementation of proposals that pass consensus will prevent forks his answer to those who point to Parity's history with security lapses as cause for concern about Polkadot's security how he sees Polkadot co-existing with Ethereum whether Polkadot is working toward composability how the Web3 Foundation and Parity plan to use their collective stake of DOTs within the network how he plans to address the possibility that DOT could be labeled a security how he imagines Polkadot will serve the enterprise world and how Polkadot will benefit enterprise blockchains Thank you to our sponsors! 1inch: https://1inch.exchange Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Gavin Wood: https://twitter.com/gavofyork Polkadot: https://polkadot.network Kusama: https://kusama.network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Watkins and Wilson Withiam, senior research analysts at Messari, explain the nuts and bolts of Ethereum 2.0, including how it will transform ETH as an asset and why they believe it will be Ethereum’s most ambitious upgrade yet. Topics include: the different phases of Ethereum 2.0 and the functions they serve the problems Ethereum hopes to solve with this upgrade the technical requirements needed to ensure the launch can happen the new proof of stake consensus and why Ethereum is leaving proof of work behind the requirements necessary to maintain a validator node on the Ethereum 2.0 network why users won’t be able to use their ETH once it is staked on Ethereum 2.0 the incentives and services that will allow users staking on Ethereum 2.0 to continue using their ETH on Ethereum 1.0 whether the appeal of DeFi is a threat to Ethereum 2.0 staking how Ethereum 2.0 incentivizes client diversity the monetary policy of “minimum necessary issuance” that supports Ethereum 2.0 how Ethereum 2.0 will allow ETH to achieve the unprecedented combination of a store of value, a capital asset, and a commodity what will be done in the short term to help ease the scaling problem while ETH 2.0 is being built whether scalability can be efficiently addressed in time to prevent migrations to other blockchains and the most significant risks Ethereum 2.0 is facing Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Ryan Watkins: https://twitter.com/RyanWatkins_ Wilson Withiam: https://twitter.com/wilsonwithiam Messari Crypto: https://messari.io/ Messari report on Ethereum 2:0: https://messari.io/road-to-eth2 Amount of ETH in the Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Contract: https://etherscan.io/address/0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa#analytics https://www.stakingrewards.com/earn/ethereum-2-0 ETH issuance based on amount staked: https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-basics/monetary-policy/#proof-of-stake-impact Dan Elitzer article on DETH: https://medium.com/ideo-colab/the-deth-of-ethereum-98553866e81b Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing at Fidelity Digital Assets, talks about how 30 years in traditional finance and an early retirement led her to Coinbase, and, eventually, Fidelity Digital Assets. She discusses the history of Fidelity's involvement in crypto, how they became one of the first to enter the space, and what the future holds. Topics include: what Fidelity Digital Assets is and Christine's role there Christine's background in traditional finance, how she was drawn into the world of cryptocurrencies, eventually working at Coinbase, and how she found her way to Fidelity Digital Assets the role Fidelity sees itself playing in the digital asset space how the client base for digital assets has changed over time how Fidelity approaches the difficulties around explaining what bitcoin and crypto is, and the most common questions they receive how the pandemic has changed the conversation around digital currencies the types of services and products Fidelity is considering for the future the differences Fidelity sees in how international investors are approaching digital currency Fidelity's plans for a Bitcoin index fund and whether they are considering offering futures how financial institutions and institutional investors fit into a world of decentralized finance founded with the ethos of excluding them the regulatory improvements Fidelity is hoping to see what a Bitcoin ETF would mean for Fidelity how Fidelity might use a central bank digital currency in its business Fidelity's thoughts on offering proof of stake services whether a more deflationary Ethereum might attract more institutional investors and whether Fidelity will offer Ethereum in the future Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Christine Sandler: https://twitter.com/shoegalnyc Fidelity Digital Assets: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/overview Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigitalAssets Christine leaves Coinbase for FDAS: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-poaches-coinbase-institutional-sales-head-christine-sandler Fidelity Center for Applied Technology: https://fcatalyst.com/overview Fidelity Digital Assets looking to become prime broker: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/68920/fidelity-digital-assets-eyes-service-for-introducing-crypto-funds-to-big-investors How the client profile has changed: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/42342/the-client-profile-is-changing-fidelity-digital-assets-exec-says-new-players-are-entering-the-crypto-fold How to Explain Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains to the Average Person Unchained episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-explain-cryptocurrencies-and-blockchains-to-the-average-person/ Fidelity expands crypto business to Europe: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-to-expand-institutional-crypto-business-to-europe Fidelity obtains New York Trust Charter: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-gets-a-new-york-trust-charter-to-custody-bitcoin-for-institutions Bitcoin Index Fund: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/08/26/fidelity-president-files-for-new-bitcoin-fund/?sh=13aa335445c9 Fidelity survey of 800 institutional investors: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/FDAS/institutional-investor-study.pdf FDAS hiring: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/articles/engineering-hiring-initiative?ccmedia=owned&ccchannel=social&cccampaign=hiring_blog&cctactics=twitter Kingdom Trust: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-digital-assets-to-custody-bitcoin-in-kingdom-trust-retirement-accounts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at Compound Labs, and Kristin Smith, executive director of The Blockchain Association, talk about the storm brewing in the cryptosphere involving self-custody and privacy. In this episode, they cover: the differences between hosted and self-hosted wallets and how transactions between them differ why the ability to transact from self-hosted wallets is so important compliance and regulation in the traditional financial world and how it could affect self-custody the “Swiss rule” and what it could mean for the rest of the world the proposal by FinCEN to lower the threshold for collecting data on transactions from $3,000 to $250 how regulators might achieve their goals without “dragnet” surveillance how the amount of crime and money laundering in the traditional financial system compares to that in the crypto world why OTC brokers are considered the most significant money laundering risk in crypto, and how that risk might be mitigated how different political environments can influence the value of peer to peer transactions whether Americans should be willing to give up some of their financial privacy in favor of security what the recent statement by the DOJ's cryptocurrency enforcement framework labeling anonymous transactions as "high-risk activity indicative of possible criminal conduct" could mean for privacy coins like Monero and Zcash Gary Gensler's appointment as head of Biden's financial policy transition team and whether to view it as a positive or negative for crypto whether they think the incoming Congress will be in favor of more surveillance or more privacy whether there might eventually be regulations for developers who write code for self-hosted wallets how potential rules regarding self-custody could affect non-monetary items like NFTs and the next big developments they are watching out for regarding this issue Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Episode links: Jake Chervinsky: https://twitter.com/jchervinsky Compound Labs: https://compound.finance Kristin Smith: https://twitter.com/kmsmithdc The Blockchain Association: https://theblockchainassociation.org/ https://twitter.com/BlockchainAssn FinCen NPRM: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/27/2020-23756/threshold-for-the-requirement-to-collect-retain-and-transmit-information-on-funds-transfers-and Coin Center commentary on lowering FinCEN threshold: https://www.coincenter.org/app/uploads/2020/10/Coin-Center-Comment-FinCEN-FRB-250-threshold.pdf Unchained episode about the FATF travel rule: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/ The choice of Gary Gensler to lead the financial policy transition team: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-biden-election-day-2020/card/peMRHGPJasECSPLezSFx https://www.coindesk.com/biden-confirms-gary-gensler-will-lead-financial-policy-transition-team Shapeshift delists Zcash: https://www.coindesk.com/shapeshift-delists-privacy-coin-zcash-over-regulatory-concerns Jessie Liu interview on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-dojs-cryptocurrency-enforcement-framework/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Dan Tapiero, founder of 10T Holdings and Gold Bullion International, and Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO at ARK Invest, discuss the long election week in the U.S. and how they believe Bitcoin will behave in a post-election world. They also talk about: how a changeover from a Trump to a Biden administration could affect Bitcoin how the prospect of legal challenges from the Trump administration might affect Bitcoin whether they think the presidential election influenced Bitcoin’s precipitous price jump in the first week of November what it takes to change the mind of a Bitcoin skeptic in the investment world whether gold investors are becoming more resistant or more embracing of Bitcoin whether Democratic control of the Senate would affect Bitcoin how they expect the new wave of rising coronavirus cases and lockdowns to affect economies and Bitcoin the new inflation policy introduced by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and how it will affect Bitcoin the recent Bitcoin halving and how they expect Bitcoin to perform over the next year how banking will change over the next few years and how that will affect Bitcoin their thoughts on central bank digital currencies and how an increase in CBDCs might affect Bitcoin what factors they are looking at right now when thinking about what could happen with Bitcoin over the next year Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Cathie Wood: https://twitter.com/cathiedwood Ark Invest: https://ark-invest.com/ Yassine Elmandjra: https://twitter.com/yassineARK Dan Tapiero: https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP 10T Holdings: https://10tfund.com/ Gold Bullion International: https://bullioninternational.com/ Unchained with Brian Brooks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/ Jerome Powell speech on targeting inflation of 2%: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/27/powell-announces-new-fed-approach-to-inflation-that-could-keep-rates-lower-for-longer.html Bitcoin-gold correlation: https://coinmetrics.io/correlation-charts/#assets=btc-gld Bitcoin-S&P 500 correlation: https://coinmetrics.io/correlation-charts/#assets=btc-s&p Forbes profile on Cathie Wood: https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/10/05/how-cathie-wood-beat-wall-street-by-betting-tesla-is-worth-more-than-1-trillion/?sh=12d44f813d45 ARK Invest Bitcoin white papers: https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/bitcoin-part-one/ https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/bitcoin-part-two/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this seventh installment of the Why Bitcoin Now series, Meltem Demirors, the chief strategy officer at Coinshares, and Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, discuss the state of Bitcoin since June, amidst the presidential election – which takes place on the date of publication of the show -- and a global pandemic. Topics discussed include: the significance of bitcoin staying above $10k for over three months why the pandemic has created the conditions for which Bitcoin was designed how the markets may react to a Trump or Biden win why they believe, no matter which party wins, there will be massive deficits and a money-printing debt spiral why other countries see opportunities to erode the supremacy of the US dollar why Bitcoin has shown that it’s possible to have money without state how the current record unemployment and massive stimulus efforts during the pandemic have impacted Bitcoin the increasing interest in Bitcoin from traditional investors the IMF’s recent call for a “New Bretton Woods moment” and how it may impact crypto China’s DCEP central bank digital currency and the effects it may have on increasing China’s trade leverage why the pandemic has made clear the importance of bringing more Bitcoin mining onshore whether or not Bitcoin will be able to remedy growing wealth inequality why privacy/encryption will be the main issue Bitcoiners need to watch from the coming administration Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Lyn Alden: https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact Lyn Alden Investment Strategy: lynalden.com Meltem Demirors: https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem Coinshares: https://www.coinshares.com/ Lyn’s post on how the economy and stock market perform under Democratic vs. Republican presidents: https://www.lynalden.com/presidential-elections/ US stimulus spending: https://datalab.usaspending.gov/federal-covid-funding/#section-tracking IMF New Bretton Woods speech: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/10/15/sp101520-a-new-bretton-woods-moment Stocks in a bubble: https://www.longtermtrends.net/sp500-price-earnings-shiller-pe-ratio/ Meltem on the financialization of internet infrastructure: https://medium.com/coinshares/the-financialization-of-compute-connectivity-66beaffe7501 BitOoda report on Bitcoin mining: https://bitooda.medium.com/bitcoin-mining-hashrate-and-power-analysis-bitooda-research-ebc25f5650bf Bloomberg wealth report: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-08/top-50-richest-people-in-the-us-are-worth-as-much-as-poorest-165-million Cash app’s Bitcoin sales: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/74001/square-q2-bitcoin-cash-app JPMorgan research note on Bitcoin: https://fortune.com/2020/10/26/jp-morgan-chase-bitcoin-predictions-analyst-jpm-cryptocurrency/ https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP/status/1319703750450302980?s=20 Forbes interview with Daniel Masters of Coinshares: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/10/24/jp-morgan-veteran-daniel-masters-explains-how-blockchain-will-end-commercial-banks/#77ec4f6a6bdd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Brooks got his start in traditional finance before joining Coinbase in 2018 and is currently the acting comptroller of the currency. In this episode, he discusses: how his background in traditional financial services led him to take a position at Coinbase whether the role blockchain and crypto will likely play in the financial future is being recognized at the federal level whether or not banks have always had the authority to custody crypto for their customers how he expects things to unfold in the coming years as banks begin to become more involved in crypto custody his thoughts on Kraken and others launching crypto banks and whether it will lead to the founding of other crypto banks how his office is pushing for a national fintech charter, and how it could affect less crypto-friendly states whether banks that work with crypto companies supporting unhosted wallets are prohibited from holding stablecoin reserves whether or not OCC regulations cover DeFi, and the regulatory challenges that open source protocols present whether he sees a time when governments and regulators participate in the governance of crypto platforms what roles he thinks public and private sectors, as well as commercial banks, should play in the creation of a central bank digital currency what stance the OCC might take around privacy in blockchain transactions how U.S. regulators can offer more clarity to the crypto industry and how he thinks the pandemic, its effect on the economy, and the government’s response through stimulus will affect the crypto industry Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Brian Brooks: https://twitter.com/BrianBrooksOCC Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: https://www.occ.gov Letter to authorize banks to provide crypto custody services for customers: https://www.occ.gov/topics/charters-and-licensing/interpretations-and-actions/2020/int1170.pdf The significance of the letter for banks and crypto companies: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthougan/2020/07/27/the-occs-notice-on-crypto-is-a-really-big-deal/#13aad8806301 The OCC’s statement on federally chartered banks and crypto custody: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2020/nr-occ-2020-98.html His support for a federal licensing framework for crypto companies: https://www.coindesk.com/us-banking-regulator-suggests-federal-licensing-framework-for-crypto-firms Questions about the OCC’s stablecoin guidance https://www.coindesk.com/questions-occ-first-guidance-stablecoins CSBS “One Company, One Exam” policy: https://www.coindesk.com/csbs-firms-explained Battle with states over federal licensing program: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/currency-comptroller-reshape-banking-406393 FinCEN’s 2019 Regulatory Guidance: https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/new-fincen-guidance-affirms-its-longstanding-regulatory-framework-virtual Federal Reserve says it is exploring a central bank digital currency: https://www.coindesk.com/fed-reserve-evaluating-digital-dollar-but-benefits-still-unclear-says-chairman His view that a CBDC should be designed by the private sector: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/69216/heres-how-brian-brooks-disagrees-with-fed-chair-jerome-powell-on-the-digital-dollar The OCC’s Financial Inclusion Project: https://www.occ.gov/topics/consumers-and-communities/minority-outreach/project-reach.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui, and Jessi Brooks, assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section at the United States Attorney’s Office, have prosecuted several cryptocurrency-related cases, many of them amongst the most well-known. In this episode, they talk about: how they came to be involved in the prosecution of so many cases involving cryptocurrency the nature of civil forfeiture cases the Al-Qassam Brigades case, which led to the largest ever seizure of a terrorist organization’s cryptocurrency accounts, and the terrorist organization’s use of dynamic addresses in an attempt to elude detection by authorities. how Al Qaeda used Telegram to pursue cryptocurrency donations the case involving ISIS and counterfeit PPE for COVID the process of seizing funds from unhosted wallets the North Korean affiliated Lazarus Group, and how they were able to amass $2580 million worth of cryptocurrency the methods hackers will use to cash out stolen crypto funds to fiat how different government agencies in the U.S., as well as in other countries, are coordinated when tackling these cases the Welcome to Video case and how they went about prosecuting a person in a foreign country how they’ve seen the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals evolve over time and whether or not they think decentralized exchanges will make it easier for criminals and hackers to cash out Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Jessi Brooks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-brooks-8289ab32/ Zia’s Faruqui: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zia-faruqui-a73ba11a5/ Three terror-finance cybercrime cases: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns The Al-Qassam Brigades case: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns Scam PPE site: https://www.wired.com/story/isis-allegedly-ran-a-covid-19-ppe-scam-site/ Civil forfeiture complaint against North Korea-affiliated hackers, Lazarus Group: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/united-states-files-complaint-forfeit-280-cryptocurrency-accounts-tied-hacks-two https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1310411/download https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/lazarus-group-north-korea-doj-complaint-august-2020 Welcome to Video indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-korean-national-and-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child Dark Scandals: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/03/13/dark-deja-vu-irs-announces-charges-in-takedown-of-multi-million-dollar-child-exploitation-website-funded-by-bitcoin/#4a09b2ac28ae https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1257581/download Jonathan Levin from Chainalysis on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-bitcoin-led-to-the-demise-of-the-largest-child-porn-site/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hester Peirce, AKA “Crypto Mom,” was just confirmed to a second term as SEC Commissioner of the Securities Exchange Commission in August. In this episode, she talks about: the reasons for her dissent in the Unikrn Settlement and what she believes would have been a proper penalty the current status of her token safe harbor proposal her thoughts on fair launch projects as opposed to traditional VC-backed tokens her view on how the SEC should view airdrops her thoughts on whether existing securities laws could be tweaked as opposed to implementing a safe harbor whether she thinks DeFi governance tokens should be considered securities her thoughts on DeFi playing its own regulatory role her thoughts on the Securities Clarity Act introduced in Congress the chances of a Bitcoin ETF being approved by the SEC in the future the charges against BitMEX and the effect it may have on the industry in general stablecoins, and how they might raise securities issues and whether she thinks that all securities could one day be tokenized Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Hester Peirce: https://twitter.com/HesterPeirce SEC: https://www.sec.gov Her dissent on the Unikrn settelement: https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/peirce-statement-settlement-charging-token-issuer Unconfirmed interview on her safe harbor proposal: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-on-her-safe-harbor-proposal/ Her token safe harbor proposal: https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/peirce-remarks-blockress-2020-02-06 Unchained interview with Cmr. Peirce: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-come-talk-to-the-sec/ Proposal in The Block on ways to amend existing securities law instead of issuing a token safe harbor: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/57207/case-for-reg-a-response-commissioner-peirce-sec-token Is UNI a security: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/78231/uniswap-token-security-debate FCA banning crypto derivatives and ETNs: https://www.coindesk.com/fca-bans-sale-of-cryptoderivatives-to-retail-consumers-in-uk https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79911/uk-regulator-fca-bans-crypto-derivatives-retail-users Securities Clarity Act: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/78231/uniswap-token-security-debate Statement on ATS’s: https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mr-noaction/2020/finra-ats-role-in-settlement-of-digital-asset-security-trades-09252020.pdf SEC chairman Jay Clayton says all stocks could be tokenized: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79783/all-stocks-tokenized-sec-chairman-clayton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX and Alameda Research, and Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, discuss the Project Serum ecosystem that they are building on the Solana blockchain, and the unique approach to scaling the Solana blockchain is taking. In this episode, they talk about: their backgrounds, and how they became involved in crypto why Solana takes a different approach to scaling and how it is implemented why they think a relatively lower number of nodes is sufficient to protect from attacks or collusion what the vision for Solana is, who they see using it, and how Serum fits into that vision why they think there haven’t been more crypto projects migrating to Solana yet Solana’s proof-of-history algorithm and how it works how Solana plans to attract DeFi developers why Serum was made interoperable with Ethereum the types of traders they are hoping to attract with Serum, and what their experience will be like on the platform why Project Serum is an ecosystem and not just an order book exchange how high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading came to adopt Serum how Serum will manage trading tokens from different chains the purpose of Serum’s two tokens, SRM and MSRM and what’s in store for Project Serum in the future Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.Com: https://www.crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod Episode links: Anatoly Yakovenko: https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko Solana: Solana.com Sam Bankman-Fried: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda Project Serum: https://www.projectserum.com Project Serum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectserum Solana CoinList auction in March: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/59952/blockchain-project-solana-raises-1-76m-from-its-launch-auction-on-coinlist Solana network stats: https://explorer.solana.com The Block Research on Solana: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/76615/solana-blockchain-overview Proof of history: https://medium.com/solana-labs/proof-of-history-a-clock-for-blockchain-cf47a61a9274 Serum: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72924/ftx-dex-serum-solana-blockchain Tether: https://medium.com/solana-labs/tether-to-bring-usdt-to-the-solana-network-77864184b20 Jump Capital: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/76826/veteran-market-maker-jump-trading-forays-into-defi-to-provide-liquidity-for-ftxs-solana-based-dex Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andreas M. Antonopoulos, speaker, educator, and the author of Mastering Bitcoin, Mastering Ethereum, and The Internet of Money, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, and Dan Held, growth lead at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, discuss the core features of Bitcoin's monetary policy, including how it differs from traditional central bank monetary policy, what gives it value and yet how it seems to have derived value from thin air. Plus, we talk about how the coronavirus pandemic will affect Bitcoin. In this episode, we cover: how monetary policy in general is defined the core feature of Bitcoin’s monetary policy, and how it differs from previous forms of money the similarities and differences between Bitcoin and gold why the hard cap on Bitcoin is unique and so important the difficulties in analyzing and classifying Bitcoin whether or not transaction fees alone can sustain the network once all 21 million Bitcoin have been minted if Bitcoin will be able to fulfill its original vision of democratizing finance and serving as an everyday medium of exchange why they think Bitcoin has recently been more correlated with the stock market their thoughts on the stock to flow model and whether it works for Bitcoin how they think the coronavirus, unprecedented quantitative easing, and increasing inflation will impact Bitcoin’s adoption and price how crypto banks that don’t conduct fractional reserve banking or lending might change the economy Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod Episode links: Andreas Antonopoulos: https://aantonop.com On Twitter: https://twitter.com/aantonop YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/aantonop/ Dan Held: https://www.danheld.com On Twitter: https://twitter.com/danheld Dan Held on Bitcoin's monetary policy: https://medium.com/the-bitcoin-times/information-theory-of-money-36247aebdfe1 Dan Held on Bitcoin's security model: https://www.danheld.com/blog/2019/6/16/bitcoins-security-is-fine Unchained interview with Saifedeam Ammous: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-saifedean-ammous-on-why-bitcoin-is-the-most-advanced-form-of-money/ Mises’ Regression Theorem: https://mises.org/library/bitcoin-regression-theorem-and-emergence-new-medium-exchange Stock to flow model: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25 https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/bitcoin-stock-to-flow-cross-asset-model-50d260feed12 Why the stock-to-flow model is wrong: https://www.coindesk.com/why-the-stock-to-flow-bitcoin-valuation-model-is-wrong Federal Reserve announcement about letting inflation run higher than normal to achieve a 2% target rate of inflation: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200827a.htm Kraken launching the first crypto bank: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-first-crypto-bank-what-kraken-financial-will-do-and-how/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Leising, a reporter at Bloomberg who began covering crypto in 2015, is out with a new book Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All. In this episode, he discusses: the catalyst that led to him writing his new book, which covers the early history of Ethereum and the DAO attack of 2016 why he thought the story of the DAO hack was compelling enough to make a book, and how he went about reporting it the surprising things he learned about Ethereum’s early days and Vitalik the twists and turns during his quest to discover the identity of the DAO attacker why he thinks separate people were responsible for the two biggest DAO attacks his meeting in Tokyo with one of the prime suspects of a copycat DAO attack why he decided to end his story at the Ethereum hard fork and chose not to write about Ethereum Classic what he feels the long-term significance of the DAO and the hard fork has been for Ethereum why he thinks the lessons of the DAO are not being heeded today what he thinks the next chapter of Ethereum will be and how it will unfold the differences he’s found as a journalist covering crypto as opposed to covering more traditional finance and how the book is about more than just the DAO Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod Episode links: Matthew Leising: https://twitter.com/mattleising Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Out+of+the+Ether%3A+The+Amazing+Story+of+Ethereum+and+the+%2455+Million+Heist+that+Almost+Destroyed+It+All-p-9781119602934 Matt's original Bloomberg article on the DAO attack, "The Ether Thief": https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-the-ether-thief/ Excerpt in Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-16/a-trip-down-the-crypto-rabbit-hole-in-search-of-the-dao-hacker Excerpt in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/55m-hack-ethereum-down Decrypt's interview with Matt about the book: https://decrypt.co/41952/book-sheds-new-light-on-ethereums-55-million-dao-hack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andre Cronje, the developer of yearn.finance, talks about all things DeFi and the past, present, and future of yEarn. In this episode, he discusses: what Yearn Finance is, and what led him to develop it and eventually open it to the public his history and background, leading up to the development of Yearn the processes and mechanisms involved in yEarn v1 and yEarn v2 why he decided to do a "fair launch" of the YFI token, despite being in debt as a result of building Yearn why he felt that a Decrypt article about him in August was a "horrible hatchet job" why he disagrees with what he sees as the current anti-VC narrative his thoughts on the phenomenal rise in YFI's price and why the price of a YFI token still doesn't matter how and why he decided governance participation would be a requirement for earning tokens in the Balancer/yCurve/YFI pool the governance processes in Yearn and his thoughts on whether or not a Compound-style form of governance would be better how he might mitigate whales dominating the vote what he means by "I test in prod" and how people have misinterpreted his meaning why he briefly walked away from DeFi whether he agrees that YFI could be a new structure to replace existing traditional business structures his response to the allegations by XAR Network whether he would consider moving Yearn to another blockchain his vision for what Yearn can become and how much YFI he currently owns personally Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod Episode links: Andre Cronje: https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech Yearn Finance: https://yearn.finance https://docs.yearn.finance CoinDesk on Yearn: https://www.coindesk.com/what-is-yearn-finance-yfi-defi-ethereum The Block report on yEarn Finance: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/75189/defis-yield-aggregator-dao-yearn-finance Post introducing $YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/earning-yfi-y-curve-fi-53b5fd347f0f Delegated vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-vaults-explained-fa81f1c3fce2 V2: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-finance-v2-af2c6a6a3613 Delphi Digital report on yETH yVault: https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/yeth-now-do-you-understand/ yETH collateralization ratio: https://defiexplore.com/cdp/13972 Tony Sheng newsletter: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/yfi-ponzinomics Yearn Governance: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-governance-forum-7b7c9d0300ac yInsure Finance: https://medium.com/iearn/yinsure-finance-a-new-insurance-primitive-77d5d4217896 Delegated funding DAO vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-funding-dao-vaults-7ab05a63d7ba Siege Rhino question about governance: https://twitter.com/SiegeRhino2/status/1303415750238101504?s=20 Andre’s “Building in DeFi Sucks” post: https://medium.com/@andre_54855/building-in-defi-sucks-b8fdfda0ef58?source=---------17------------------ Andre quits in February: https://decrypt.co/21068/founder-of-promising-defi-project-abandons-the-toxic-cryptosphere Andre close to quitting in August: https://decrypt.co/37995/exclusive-yfi-andre-cronje-broke-quitting-defi What Andre wishes he had known before building Ethereum dapps: https://medium.com/iearn/things-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-ethereum-defi-dapps-cd6bf0f07a16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, goes deep into yield farming, fair launches and how decentralization will upend the traditional notion of the corporation. In this episode, he talks about: when it makes sense for a team to introduce a liquidity mining scheme, and when it doesn't the difference between yield farming and ICOs when it comes to investing his thoughts on YFI, as well as YAM, and the pace at which unaudited DeFi projects are moving forward the three advantages he sees in automated market makers as opposed to centralizedexchanges his thoughts on Uniswap and SushiSwap and why he's not sure Uniswap will make a token his thoughts on fair launches and whether he thinks they will threaten traditional crypto VCs whether the CRV token launch really was instigated by someone unrelated to the team his thoughts on the yEarn yETH vault and what it says about where the DeFi space is going what he sees as the pros and cons of rebasing why he sees projects like YFI as a new kind of corporation whether he thinks Ethereum will scale fast enough to meet the demand already being put on it why he thinks systems like Polkadot are going to expand what is possible in the same way that Ethereum expanded beyond what was possible with Bitcoin whether he thinks the yields from yield farming will pull investors away from staking on Ethereum 2.0 what he thinks DeFi teams should do to improve security Bitcoin on Ethereum and what he believes it could mean for DeFi in the future the chatter around a potential public offering from Coinbase, and what's in store for Polychain in the future Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Episode links: Olaf Carlson-Wee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olafcw/ Polychain Capital: https://polychain.capital Previous interviews with Olaf on Unchained and Unconfirmed: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-first-employee-of-coinbase-launched-a-hedge-fund/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/to-the-moon-and-back-with-polychains-olaf-carlson-wee/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/special-episode-with-cnbcs-crypto-trader-olaf-carlson-wee-on-why-this-crypto-winter-is-different-from-previous-ones-ep-028/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/all-things-cryptoeconomics-pt-1-with-olaf-carlson-wee-and-ryan-zurrer-of-polychain-capital/ Why trading on automated market makers has risen so quickly: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-decentralized-trading-has-10xed-in-a-few-months/ Launch of yEarn/YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/yfi-df84573db81 Dex volume over time: https://defiprime.com/dex-volume YAM recap: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/74810/yam-token-market-cap-collapses-by-more-than-90-flaw YAM team’s plans going forward: YAM Post-Rescue Attempt Update. At approximately 6PM UTC, on Wed August… | by Yam Finance | Aug, 2020 | Medium SushiSwap vs. Uniswap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sushiswap-takes-on-uniswap-which-should-win-and-why/ Ian Lee of IDEO CoLab Ventures on fair launches vs. VC coins: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fair-launches-will-disrupt-crypto And on fast-follower forks: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fast-follower-forks-in-defi CRV token launch: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74921/the-story-of-the-botched-crv-launch yEarn's yETH vault: https://www.coindesk.com/yearn-finance-yeth-vault-defi-triforce Ethereum's transition to 2.0: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/ Security in DeFi: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/ Whether Coinbase will do a token offering when it goes public: https://unchainedpodcast.com/will-coinbase-do-a-token-offering-when-it-goes-public/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, and Dan Robinson, research partner at Paradigm, discuss the explosion in decentralized exchange activity on automated market makers from $1 billion earlier this year to more than $10 billion in August. Why trading in automated market makers has 8xed in a few months how automated market makers work, and how specific dexes can specialize for the assets being traded on them why traders would prefer to trade on a dex vs. a centralized exchange how incentivized pools have drawn traders and liquidity why trading on a dex seems can be more appealing than on a centralized exchange why trading on dexes now mirrors trading on Binance in 2017 how "DeFi is the hottest coolest place where people are making a lot of money" the difference between the metrics of liquidity, trading volume and total value locked for a dex why AMMs are capital inefficient what it means that fees paid on Uniswap are about half of those paid on Bitcoin what the purpose of liquidity mining is why Haseeb doesn't think that dexes have network effects and that once professional market makers come in the space, Uniswap will lose market share whether users will use DeFi directly through the dexes or through another interface why Dan thinks that DeFi is now comparable to financial investment in the 1970s whether or not yield aggregators like yEarn make it harder for AMMs to compete what happened with the CRV token launch initial dex offerings or initial DeFi offerings, like the UMA token launch whether, because of the high fees on Ethereum and the how long its transition to Ethereum 2.0 will take, DeFi activity could move to another blockchain such as Solana where DeFi will go over the next few years Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Episode links: Haseeb Qureshi: https://twitter.com/hosseeb Dan Robinson: https://twitter.com/danrobinson Haseeb’s post on the rise of AMMs: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/what-explains-the-rise-of-amms-7d008af1c399 Haseeb's post on how Uniswap could be un-bundled: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/unbundling-uniswap-the-future-of-on-chain-market-making-1c7d6948d570 Dex volume: https://defiprime.com/dex-volume Trading volume on centralized exchanges: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74539/july-by-the-numbers-a-look-at-crypto-exchange-volumes-open-interest-and-miner-revenue Incentivized pools: https://pools.fyi/#/?tag=incentivized Top dexes by trading volume: https://www.coingecko.com/en/dex Ethereum transaction fees: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/ethereum-transactionfees.html Uniswap website visits 15x in July: https://messari.io/article/uniswap-total-website-visits-grew-15x-in-july Website traffic to DeFi platforms explodes in July: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/74231/defi-platforms-web-traffic-july Fees paid to various crypto projects: https://cryptofees.info Curve reaches $1 billion in TVL: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75014/curve-becomes-third-defi-protocol-to-hit-1-billion-in-total-value-locked The Block on dex aggregators: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/69468/dex-aggregators-user-experience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saifedean Ammous is an economist and the author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, which has been translated into 20 languages. In this episode, he discusses: the basic tenets of Austrian economics and why it is the only school where Bitcoin is possible historical examples of currencies and how they lost their monetary value the stock-to-flow model and how Bitcoin fits into that model the three functions, or descriptive properties, of money and why Bitcoin fulfills these functions the concept of sound money the idea of time preference in economics and why he believes it is so important the distinction between debt and money, and why they are not the same the significance of difficulty adjustment and why he believes it is the crowning achievement of Bitcoin why he views Bitcoin as the best store of value humanity has ever invented the metrics he watches when assessing Bitcoin what he thinks is in store for Bitcoin in the future, and whether he still thinks central banks will buy Bitcoin as a reserve currency his thoughts on Ethereum and other digital currencies and his predictions for Bitcoin in the next year Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Episode links: Saifedean Ammous: https://twitter.com/saifedean Saifedean’s website: https://saifedean.com The Bitcoin Standard: https://saifedean.com/book/ Invest Like the Best episode with Saifedean: http://investorfieldguide.com/ammous/ What Bitcoin Did episode with Saifedean: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/saifedean-ammous-on-understanding-bitcoin-economics Plan B’s stock-to-flow model applied to Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25 https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/bitcoin-stock-to-flow-cross-asset-model-50d260feed12 Essay on why the stock-to-flow model is wrong: https://www.coindesk.com/why-the-stock-to-flow-bitcoin-valuation-model-is-wrong Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Chaum, the inventor of eCash and CEO of xx network, and Adam Back, the inventor of Hashcash and the cofounder and CEO of Blockstream, discuss their involvement in digital currency well before Bitcoin existed. In this episode, they discuss: how they each became enamored with the idea of digital currency years before such an idea was widely discussed the crypto wars of the 1990s and the U.S. government’s attempts to control access to advanced cryptography Digicash, the creation of eCash, and the difficulties of implementing the system with the technology available at the time the innovation of blind signatures used in eCash what caused the demise of Digicash, and David's role in that the development of Hashcash and the problems Adam was trying to solve by creating it their initial reactions to learning about Bitcoin for the first time how they think Bitcoin might improve in the future the stock-to-flow Model, and where they believe the Bitcoin price might go next why the Hashcash proof-of-work mechanism became so widely used Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Episode links: Adam Back: https://twitter.com/adam3us Blockstream: https://blockstream.com Adam's website: http://www.cypherspace.org David Chaum: https://twitter.com/chaumdotcom Elixxir: https://elixxir.io XX Network: https://xx.network Previous Unchained episode on the history of digital currency: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-the-history-of-digital-currency/ Wired article on “e-money”: https://www.wired.com/1994/12/emoney/ Translated Dutch article on why DigiCash failed: https://cryptome.org/jya/digicrash.htm Aaron Van Wirdum's Bitcoin Magazine series on the history of digital currency: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-3-bitcoins-pre-history-and-the-cypherpunks-with-aaron-van-wirdum David Chaum's e-Cash: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-how-david-chaums-ecash-spawned-cypherpunk-dream Hashcash: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-hashcash-or-how-adam-back-designed-bitcoins-motor-block Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaron van Wirdum is the technical editor at Bitcoin Magazine. Finn Brunton is the author of “Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency.” In this episode, they tackle the history of digital currency. Topics include: the motivations behind the earliest attempts to create digital currencies, and who was behind those attempts the Extropian philosophy and how digital currency was born out of it how the cypherpunks came together and eventually began implementing tools that would lead to the creation of digital currencies the problems faced during the development of digital money, from double-spending to privacy, centralization, and spam the development of a public key protocol and why it was so significant the characteristics of earlier forms of digital currency like e-cash, hashcash, b-money, and bit gold, as well as their differences the original purpose of proof-of-work and how it was developed Hal Finney’s essential contributions to the creation of earlier digital currencies, and later, Bitcoin previous implementations of blockchain and how Bitcoin came to reinvent and utilize it which previous digital currencies come closest to Bitcoin and who they think Satoshi Nakamoto is … Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links: Aaron Van Wirdum: https://twitter.com/AaronvanW Finn Brunton: http://finnb.net Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179490/digital-cash Aaron's Bitcoin magazine series on the early days of digital currency: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-how-david-chaums-ecash-spawned-cypherpunk-dream https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-hashcash-or-how-adam-back-designed-bitcoins-motor-block https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-if-bitcoin-had-first-draft-wei-dais-b-money-was-it https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-bit-gold-szabo-was-inches-away-inventing-bitcoin Aaron on What Bitcoin Did discussing the stories: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-3-bitcoins-pre-history-and-the-cypherpunks-with-aaron-van-wirdum Breaker Mag Interview with Finn Brunton about his book: https://breakermag.com/new-book-reveals-cryptos-radical-origins/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Jevans, CEO of CipherTrace, and Siân Jones, Senior Partner at XReg Consulting, give the lowdown on the Financial Action Task Force’s travel rule and how it applies to businesses in the crypto space. They discuss: their background and journey into crypto what the travel rule is the consequences for countries that are not compliant whether the regulation will apply to staking providers in the future the type of companies and transactions that will be covered under the travel rule the type of information that has to be provided how banks comply with the travel rule and whether crypto companies can use the same system the different open standards available for sharing information how the information will get shared between entities who use different travel rule solution providers the “sunrise problem” in which different companies implement their compliance systems at different times the security of user data being shared between different entities how it applies to central bank digital currencies and centralized stablecoins how the rule would affect privacy coins the inherent contradiction between the cypherpunk philosophy and regulatory compliance unintended consequences of the travel rule how the travel rule may play out in the coming years A glossary of terms discussed in the episode: FATF: Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization that develops policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing VASP: virtual asset service providers, who are custodial entities that run fiat-to-crypto or crypto-to-crypto exchanges, or run businesses related to transfer and safekeeping of virtual assets and financial services. FinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the United States federal bureau that analyzes information about financial transactions in order to fight money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes FCA: Financial Conduct Authority, the financial regulatory body of the UK Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Tezos: https://tquorum.com/ Episode links: Dave Jevans: https://twitter.com/davejevans CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/ Sian Jones: https://twitter.com/COINSULT XReg Consulting: https://www.xreg.consulting/ Financial Action Task Force (FATF): https://www.fatf-gafi.org/ The Osaka conference where crypto got serious about FATF’s travel rule: https://www.coindesk.com/inside-the-osaka-conference-where-crypto-got-serious-about-fatfs-travel-rule Will Osaka be crypto’s Bretton Woods moment? https://forkast.news/will-osaka-be-cryptos-bretton-woods-moment/ InterVASP Messaging Standard: https://intervasp.org OpenVASP: https://openvasp.org OpenVASP white paper: https://openvasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/OpenVasp_Whitepaper.pdf?cache=1 FATF report on “so-called stablecoins”: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/recommendations/Virtual-Assets-FATF-Report-G20-So-Called-Stablecoins.pdf OKEx’s Korea arm delisted privacy coins: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/39724/okex-korea-delisting-all-privacy-coins-including-monero-zcash-and-dash-as-these-violate-fatfs-travel-rule Some of the potential FATF compliance solutions: Travel Rule Information Sharing Alliance (TRISA): https://trisa.io/ Coinbase’s messaging board solution: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72293/coinbase-exchanges-fatf-travel-rule-solution CoolBitX: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/56853/coolbitx-raises-16-75m-series-b-to-help-crypto-exchanges-comply-with-fatfs-travel-rule Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, shares his thoughts on the five-year anniversary of Ethereum, challenges with ETH 2.0 and criticisms about DeFi. We discuss: his thoughts and feelings ahead of Ethereum’s five-year anniversary how to address the high gas fees on the Ethereum network whether the complexity of Ethereum 2.0 creates a risk for the security of the network whether staking will lead to a higher focus on ETH price and issues such as monetary policy how he looks at the ETH price with its significance for security in Ethereum 2.0 how proof of stake systems can be more democratic whether staking lends itself to the kind of securitization that looks similar to mortgage-backed securities his concerns about DeFi the most optimal way for DeFi projects to distribute their tokens his thoughts about Bitcoin on Ethereum inherent risks to Ethereum users connected to China’s Blockchain Service Network (BSN) his views on DCEP, other CBDCs and Libra the indictment of Ethereum Foundation staff member Virgil Griffith for allegedly helping North Korea to circumvent sanctions how he plans to make the Ethereum Foundation more transparent whether lack of diversity would impact the success of Ethereum in the long term where he would like to see Ethereum in the next five years Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Tezos: https://tquorum.com/ Episode links: Vitalik Buterin: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin Ethereum: https://ethereum.org/en/ Vitalik’s blog: https://vitalik.ca Median gas price: https://blockchair.com/ethereum/charts/median-gas-price Average gas price: https://blockchair.com/ethereum/charts/average-gas-price Solutions to gas price problem: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-developers-consider-new-fee-model-as-gas-costs-climb Reddit AMA with the Ethereum 2.0 Research team, including Vitalik: https://old.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/ho2zpt/ama_we_are_the_efs_eth_20_research_team_pt_4_10/ Paper on how DeFi lending could undermine security in a POS system: https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.00919 Vitalik tweet on yield farming: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1278337657194655744 Abra settlement with SEC and CFTC: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-cftc-hit-crypto-app-abra-with-300k-in-penalties-over-illegal-swaps Maya Zehavi’s comments on what this could mean for DeFi: https://twitter.com/mayazi/status/1282696180741414918 China’s BSN using public chains, including Ethereum: https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-blockchain-infrastructure-to-extend-global-reach-with-six-public-chains Unchained interview about DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/ Charges against Virgil Griffith: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-arrest-united-states-citizen-assisting-north-korea More on Virgil Griffith case: https://www.coindesk.com/usa-v-virgil-griffith-what-we-know-and-dont-in-the-bombshell-crypto-sanctions-case Unchained interview with human rights activist Yeonmi Park on what life is like in North Korea: https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/ Unchained interview on why North Korea is interested in cryptocurrency: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-north-korea-is-interested-in-cryptocurrency/ Case against Steven Nerayoff: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-arrested-extortion-startup-cryptocurrency-company Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant and author of a new book on Ethereum, "The Infinite Machine," speaks about how currency controls in Argentina got her interested in crypto and explains why she chose to tell the Ethereum story. She discusses: how she started covering the crypto space what it was like living through currency controls in Argentina why she started focusing on Ethereum instead of Bitcoin what’s in her new book, The Infinite Machine the most pivotal moments in Ethereum’s history possible risks to Ethereum 2.0 because of delays whether competing protocols could take market share away from Ethereum the most surprising aspect of the Ethereum story starting her own DeFi-focused media platform, The Defiant why she launched ‘CAMI’ tokens and how they are used the significance of ERC-20 tokens having a higher market cap than ETH her predictions about trends and promising projects in the DeFi space Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Tezos: https://tquorum.com/ Episode links: Camila Russo: https://twitter.com/CamiRusso The Infinite Machine: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-infinite-machine-camila-russo The Defiant: https://thedefiant.substack.com/ Excerpt from The Infinite Machine on CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/sale-of-the-century-the-inside-story-of-ethereums-2014-premine Decrypt review: https://decrypt.co/35466/the-incredible-story-of-ethereum-the-infinite-machine Camila on what Ethereum has accomplished in five years: https://www.coindesk.com/five-years-on-ethereum-really-is-the-minecraft-of-crypto-finance Hidden Forces podcast with Camila: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rise-ethereum-future-defi-transformation-crypto-media/id1205359334?i=1000484635053 Camila in the Keen On podcast: https://lithub.com/camila-russo-on-ethereum-and-the-future-of-the-internet/ Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 may not go live until 2021: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/71155/eth-2-phase-0-ama-2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the author of numerous books including The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and most recently, the Square and the Tower: Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook, and Michael Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk and coauthor of two books on crypto, The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine, discuss the history of money and the macro environment for Bitcoin. We cover: how they became involved in crypto historically, what has made things money, or how people have decided that something is money the difficulty of managing fiat currency modern monetary theory and the role of the state in the financial system Satoshi’s message in BTC’s genesis block and what that indicates about Satoshi's intentions with Bitcoin whether a more transparent, blockchain-based financial system could eventually lead to a new financial order how Bitcoin behaves like an option on digital gold, and when it will behave like digital gold whether Bitcoin is simply a reversion to previous forms of money that weren’t controlled by the state how crypto/blockchain and fintech innovation from startups and the Chinese government will affect the USD how a hypothetical war between the US and China would affect the dollar's dominance how China's DCEP could disintermediate banks how Bitcoin fits into all of the different macro conditions facing the global economy whether Libra is going to be the initial gateway getting people into our digital currency world how well the recovery from coronavirus will go, and how it will affect the development of the crypto space in the near-term Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Tezos: https://tquorum.com/ Episode links: Niall Ferguson: http://www.niallferguson.com The Ascent of Money: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302900/the-ascent-of-money-by-niall-ferguson/ Michael Casey: https://www.michaeljcasey.com Money Reimagined: https://www.coindesk.com/tag/money-reimagined The Age of Cryptocurrency: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551 The first episode in the Why Bitcoin Now series: Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on 'the Single Greatest Brand' ofo the Last 10 Years: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/ How Niall got into Bitcoin: http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/finance-economics/bitcoin-may-go-pop-but-its-revolution-will-go-on Niall and Michael at Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/disruption-money-and-a-world-of-change-feat-niall-ferguson Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya, who believes Bitcoin is a hedge on everything blowing up: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/ Carlota Perez at CoinDesk's Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/video/carlota-perez-on-blockchains-and-technological-revolutions Unchained interview about the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/ Unchained interview with Christopher Giancarlo about a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/ Unconfirmed episode with Michael about Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/ Unchained episode with a co-creator of Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Elitzer, investor at IDEO CoLab Ventures, and Will Price, data scientist at Flipside Crypto, discuss the yield farming craze. In this episode, we cover: the goals of protocols offering liquidity mining the goals of users yield farming right now whether users of Compound will have much awareness of COMP in the future how Compound is trying to dampen inorganic activity and properly align incentives how incentives in one DeFi protocol can screw up another's such as changes in Compound's liquidity mining program causing Dai to lose its peg whether the activity created by liquidity mining is sustainable and how whether Compound is overvalued and how to determine valuations for DeFi tokens the security risks that come with trying yield farming how teams can keep their protocols safe given the composability of DeFi and the growing number of developments in the space whether the yield farming craze will cause the price of ETH to rise and why the prevalence of stablecoins might prevent that whether new DeFi tokens could push flagging layer 1s out of the top 10 what will happen if even more Bitcoin comes to DeFi how the next big thing in DeFi might be trying to stack yield across protocols and eventually prime brokerage protocols Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Episode links: Dan Elitzer: https://twitter.com/delitzer IDEO CoLab Ventures: https://www.ideocolab.com/ventures/ Will Price: https://twitter.com/will__price Flipside Crypto: https://flipsidecrypto.com Total value locked in Compound: https://defipulse.com/compound What liquidity bootstrapping pools are: https://medium.com/balancer-protocol/building-liquidity-into-token-distribution-a49d4286e0d4 Dan on earning more from borrowing USDT than lending it on Compound: https://twitter.com/delitzer/status/1272642107128164354 Tony Sheng on how yield farming works and how much you can earn from it: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274393189231689728 And his followup on the risks of yield farming: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274780457729617920 The purpose of COMP for governance: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-community-ownership-ee0ed1252cc3 https://medium.com/compound-finance/expanding-compound-governance-ce13fcd4fe36 Risks of so much BAT being held in Compound: https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1276897377446776832?s=20 https://twitter.com/defiprime/status/1277026665952980992?s=20 https://twitter.com/devops199fan/status/1274732220192829441?s=20 Cyrus of MakerDAO concerned about the risks COMP poses to the Dai peg: https://forum.makerdao.com/t/upcoming-comp-farming-change-could-impact-the-dai-peg/2965 Dan Guido and Taylor Monahan on Unchained discussing DeFi security: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/ Twitter discussion on whether ETH price will rise due to yield farming: https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1274781676875452421 What will happen to other Layer 1s? https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119/status/1274376237239189504?s=20 Aquaponic yield farming: https://bankless.substack.com/p/aquaponic-yield-farming Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the first in a series, Why Bitcoin Now, that takes a deeper dive into Bitcoin and the history of money in the macroeconomic environment of the coronavirus. Mike Novogratz, founder, CEO and chairman of Galaxy Digital, and Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor and Real Vision Group, tell us where they think Bitcoin is going amidst this macro uncertainty and the global crisis due to the coronavirus. We discuss: why Bitcoin’s price hasn't risen in price due to the global turmoil, and instead fell with the rest of the market on Black Thursday why quantitative easing is the catalyst for institutional investors to turn to Bitcoin, but why that takes time, and why registered investment advisors may be on the cusp why they think retail investors will continue to buy Bitcoin despite record unemployment why Bitcoin will benefit from social unrest why any particular country's success in dealing with the coronavirus won’t really lessen the economic impact there whether China's first-mover advantage with the DCEP and its comprehensive enterprise blockchain initiatives will undermine the global dominance of the US dollar why they believe there will ultimately be a dollar-based stablecoin why they believe Libra will be a strong player in the future of stablecoins how election outcomes, and in particular a potential movement to break up Big Tech, could affect Bitcoin and the vision for Web3 whether Ethereum, and staking, will see more adoption from institutional investors why they believe yield farming is ultimately not sustainable, but still profitable the impact the Bitcoin halving will have in this macroeconomic environment Unchained is hiring! Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here! Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://crypto.law Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links: Mike Novogratz: https://twitter.com/novogratz Galaxy Digital: https://www.galaxydigital.io Raoul Pal: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI Real Vision: https://www.realvision.com Unchained interview with Kyle Samani on what happened in the crypto markets on Black Thursday: https://unchainedpodcast.com/teetering-on-the-edge-how-black-thursday-exposed-the-flaws-in-the-crypto-markets/ Unconfirmed interview with Antoine Le Calvez on what happened on BitMEX during Black thursday: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-happened-on-bitmex-during-black-thursday/ Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya on Bitcoin: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/ Brian Armstrong tweet about deposits to Coinbase the same size as the $1,200 stimulus check: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1250907110730170370?s=20 China's DCEP and blockchain initiative: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/ Unchained interview on Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/ Unconfirmed interview with the Libra Association's Dante Disparte: https://unchainedpodcast.com/libras-dante-disparte-on-why-we-should-trust-a-financial-system-designed-by-facebook/ Unconfirmed interview with Michael Casey on why it would it would be good if Libra rivaled the USD: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/ Christopher Giancarlo's digital dollar project: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/ Ethereum 2.0 staking: https://www.coindesk.com/3-ways-staking-will-upend-the-economics-of-ethereum Unconfirmed with Kain Warwick on COMP's launch: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-comp-5xed-on-day-1-and-what-this-means-for-a-defi-bull-market/ Unconfirmed interview with Tony Sheng on yield farming: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-you-can-double-your-money-or-lose-everything/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital and chairman of Virgin Galactic, talks about a wide range of issues, including Bitcoin, COVID, civil unrest, and broad economic trends and forecasts. We discuss: Whether his economic forecasts have shifted throughout COVID Why he believes a debt crisis will occur How he views the success of BTC as a hedge against the ruling class How the economic pendulum will swing back toward consumers Why he doesn't mind if big corporations and hedge funds get wiped out Whether he subscribes to the thesis that Bitcoin is uncorrelated Why the pandemic has not spurred institutional adoption of crypto Why he sees no merit in Ethereum How the economy will become more decentralized in the future and whether blockchain will be a part of it Why he prefers SPACs over ICOs Why he started capital as a service Why he believes the government should bust up large corporations Unchained is hiring! I'm looking for a remote editorial assistant. If you love crypto and have journalism experience, get in touch! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Kelman Law: https://www.kelman.law Episode links: Chamath Palihapitiya: https://twitter.com/chamath Social Capital: https://www.socialcapital.com/ Turmoil at Social Capital: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/social-capital-founder-gives-his-account-of-turmoil-at-firm https://observer.com/2018/09/chamath-palihapitiya-social-capital-turmoil/ https://medium.com/@chamath/the-reports-of-our-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated-11bcc80ee4ab 2019 interview with Kara Swisher: https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2019/3/4/18247010/chamath-palihapitiya-social-capital-happiness-identity-crisis-kara-swisher-teddy-schleifer-podcast Chamath on Recode Decode in 2020: https://podcastnotes.org/recode-decode/chamath-palihapitiya-kara-swisher-investing/ Fed buying up to $250 billion in individual corporate bonds: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/federal-reserve-begins-individual-corporate-bond-purchases-secondary-market-relief-2020-6-1029309910 CNBC interview where he says Bitcoin is an uncorrelated hedge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gDmcU8bDw https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/12/social-capitals-palihapitiya-bitcoin-is-going-to-1-million-in-the-next-20-years.html SPAC: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-modern-ipo-is-useless-lets-reinvent-it-1506361770?mod=searchresults&page=2&pos=13 China’s blockchain efforts: https://www.coindesk.com/from-banking-giants-to-tech-darlings-china-reveals-over-500-enterprise-blockchain-projects Capital as a service: https://caas.socialcapital.com https://medium.com/social-capital/from-experiment-to-product-capital-as-a-service-one-year-later-6d8b4b9c038b 2019 investor letter: https://www.socialcapital.com/annual-letters/2019 At Stanford GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At an event at the NYU Stern School of Business, Christopher Giancarlo, former CFTC Chairman and co-founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, discusses his proposal for a US central bank digital currency (CBDC), and how that fits into the broader geopolitical environment. We cover: Why he has focused on pushing for a US digital dollar after leaving the CFTC How a US CBDC would be different from other stablecoins How the proposal is designed to build off of the traditional banking infrastructure What pilot programs would look like How a digital dollar would foster economic inclusion even though using the digital dollar requires owning a smartphone How it would handle privacy How the network would be secured Whether the US is falling behind China in terms of central bank digital currencies and blockchain exploration Whether Libra will be a proxy for the digital dollar How COVID-19 has affected the discourse around a digital dollar Whether the election will affect the future of the digital dollar Unchained is hiring! Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://crypto.law Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links: Chris Giancarlo: https://twitter.com/giancarlo Digital Dollar Project : https://www.digitaldollarproject.org Previous Unchained interview with Chris: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-on-the-craziness-of-becoming-crypto-dad/ Chris and Daniel Gorfine’s WSJ op-ed advocating for a digital dollar: https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-sent-a-man-to-the-moon-we-can-send-the-dollar-to-cyberspace-11571179923 Digital dollars in stimulus bills — March: https://www.coindesk.com/house-stimulus-bills-envision-digital-dollar-to-ease-coronavirus-recession April: https://www.coindesk.com/digital-dollar-reintroduced-by-us-lawmakers-in-latest-stimulus-bill Pew Research on smartphone adoption: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ FDIC survey on the unbanked and underbanked: https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf Banks keeping some of customers’ stimulus money: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/stimulus-paychecks-garnish-banks.html Why a digital dollar is politically more feasible at this moment than before: https://www.coindesk.com/the-overton-window-opens-for-a-digital-dollar Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown also proposes digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/us-senate-floats-digital-dollar-bill-after-house-scrubs-term-from-coronavirus-relief-plan Philadelphia Fed paper: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2020/wp20-19.pdf Receptivity in Congress to the idea of a digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/how-a-flurry-of-digital-dollar-proposals-made-it-to-congress Libra white paper: https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#cover-letter Congressional hearing on using FedAccounts and for stimulus: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=406612 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. House Representative, Warren Davidson, contextualizes the state of crypto legislation in terms of widespread civil unrest, COVID-19, and global shifts in power. He explains where crypto plays a role in these paradigm shifts and talks about: Why he believes in crypto, and how he came into the space How his Token Taxonomy Act creates regulatory clarity for token issuers What four conditions tokens would have to meet to not be considered securities Other features of the Token Taxonomy Act, including a de minimus exemption for taxes and no taxation of crypto-to-crypto trades How the pandemic and coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus affects the prospects for the Token Taxonomy Act What he thinks about China's blockchain push and its DCEP digital yuan Whether and how that creates a credible threat to US dominance in global markets Whether Libra could be a counterweight How a shift toward digital currencies could undermine the global reserve status of the USD and whether that affects the US's ability to enforce sanctions How outcomes of the upcoming election will affect the potential passage of crypto-friendly regulation Why it is easier for crypto legislation to be more bi-partisan than other bills What help he needs from the industry right now to push along crypto-friendly bills Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://crypto.law Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links: Rep. Warren Davidson: https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson His House page: https://davidson.house.gov Press release on the Token Taxonomy Act: https://davidson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/token-taxonomy-act-address-blockchain-innovation-flight-america Token Taxonomy Act on GovTrack: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2144 Text of the Token Taxonomy Act: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2144/text Letter requesting IRS clarify some crypto tax policies: https://www.coindesk.com/us-lawmakers-ask-irs-to-clarify-crypto-tax-rules-around-airdrops-forks-in-new-letter Congressman Patrick McHenry on Unchained discussing his “permanent beta testing” idea for crypto: https://unchainedpodcast.com/congressman-patrick-mchenry-bitcoin-will-be-of-enormous-value/ Unchained interview on the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/ Unchained interview with Libra co-creator Christian Catalini: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/ Unchained with Christopher Giancarlo on his proposal for a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-on-the-craziness-of-becoming-crypto-dad/ Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Libra and a digital dollar: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-05/mnuchin-powell-see-no-need-for-fed-to-issue-digital-currency Video in which Rep. Davidson says “shitcoin”: https://www.coindesk.com/lawmakers-amp-up-pressure-on-facebook-to-halt-libra-cryptocurrency-development Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson on the Shitcoin Waterfall on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/meltem-demirors-and-jill-carlson-on-the-shitcoin-waterfall-ep-74/taxes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Walden of Variant Fund, and Robert Leshner of Compound explain all of the problems associated with the decentralizing process in terms of governance and compliance, pulling from their own lessons and their commentary on other projects. We cover: Why projects must start with some level centralization How projects can both monetize and not put their code at risk of being forked How they can decentralize while also maintaining security, especially for composable DeFi projects that may become vulnerable as new technology and new protocols are introduced How and when to distribute the token so as not to attract only speculators and also not trip regulatory wires How Compound’s current governance works, how it is decentralizing, why they decided to use a governance token, and what Compound (the company) will do after full decentralization Why open-sourced projects are still able to extract profits, even after a fork Whether or not teams should have admin keys, such as what was used in response to the bZx attacks Whether or not projects should be upgrade-able What Block.One, which raised $4 billion in an ICO, did right to only pay a $24 million fine to the SEC Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://crypto.law Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links: Jesse Walden: https://twitter.com/jessewldn Robert Leshner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rleshner/ A16z Crypto startup school: https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/ Compound: https://compound.finance Progressive Decentralization playbook: https://jessewalden.com/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building-crypto-applications/ What recent moves by the SEC say about mutability when it comes to crypto networks: https://a16z.com/2019/10/22/mutability-sec-recent-cases/ Compound’s $COMP token: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-governance-5531f524cf68 More on Compound’s governance token: https://www.coindesk.com/compound-extends-defi-ethos-to-itself-launches-governance-token Unchained discussion about bZx attacks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-bzx-attacks-unethical-or-illegal-2-experts-weigh-in/ Eric Wall tweet storm on admin keys: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1229198599264907264?s=20 tBTC shutting down: https://twitter.com/keep_project/status/1262483526437556228 More on tBTC: https://www.coindesk.com/bug-forces-shutdown-of-bitcoin-backed-ethereum-token-tbtc Unchained interview about tBTC in which Matt Luongo explains the admin key: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tbtc-what-happens-when-the-most-liquid-crypto-asset-hits-defi/ Is the SEC trying to kill the SAFT? https://www.coindesk.com/with-kik-and-telegram-cases-the-sec-tries-to-kill-the-saft Block.One settlement with SEC: https://www.coindesk.com/eos-maker-block-one-settles-with-sec-over-unregistered-securities-sale Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s Unchained is my panel at Ready Layer One! We talk everything layer one with four key players and projects -- Illia Polosukhin of NEARprotocol, Zaki Manian of Cosmos, Rob Habermeier of Polkadot, and Arthur Breitman of Tezos — to find out how these projects plan to compete with Ethereum and attract developers and users. We discuss: What platforms they are building and at which stage in development they are How they differentiate themselves from Ethereum, and what problems they believe need to be solved How they plan to attract devs in an industry of network effects Whether or not Bitcoin and Ethereum are direct competitors Whether, in the long run, crypto will be more winner-take-all or there will be multiple, interoperable chains How they plan to bring new users into the space How they think the transition to ETH2.0 will shake up the existing blockchain space Take our survey! Tell us what would you like to see from Unchained! Please take a moment to fill out the survey to let us know what you'd like from the show: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a chance to win a metal MCO Visa card -- and Crypto.com will stake these cards indefinitely! Ten lucky winners will enjoy card benefits including free Spotify, free Netflix and 3% back on all spending, and they’ll earn extra interest on their crypto deposit and more! Thanks, Crypto.com! Again, take the survey now: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Unchained is hiring! Come work at Unchained! We have an opening for a remote editorial assistant — find out more about the gig and apply here: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Stellar: https://www.stellar.org/ Episode links: Illia Polosukhin: https://twitter.com/ilblackdragon Near protocol: https://near.org Zaki Manian: https://twitter.com/zmanian Cosmos: https://cosmos.network Rob Habermeier: https://twitter.com/rphmeier Polkadot: https://polkadot.network Arthur Breitman: https://twitter.com/ArthurB Tezos: https://tezos.com Near protocol on mainnet: https://near.org/blog/near-mainnet-genesis/ Electric Capital report on the number of developers in Ethereum: https://unchainedpodcast.com/electric-capital-on-the-coins-punching-below-their-weight/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, cofounder and CEO of Binance, and I kicked off the Ethereal Virtual Summit with a fun fireside chat! He talked about Binance’s current operations, its plans for the future, and the crypto industry as a whole. He explains: Why he thought the questions I asked him in our first interview were misleading Whether Libra’s new plans are affecting Binance’s strategy for Venus What impact China’s DCEP will have on crypto Why the confluence of circumstances caused by COVID are a “perfect storm” for crypto, and how this will affect crypto in the long-term Whether the Binance Smart Chain will leech away Ethereum developers and users Why he thinks competition in the industry only grows it How Binance can own CoinMarketCap without affecting its objectivity What he says to the class-action lawsuit against Binance, him and the other cofounders of Binance accusing them of offering unregistered securities How he views the role of Binance in governance in delegated proof-of-state systems, such as when Binance flip-flopped on a contentious hard fork in Steem Where Binance is headquartered Unchained is hiring! Check out the job posting here! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Stellar: https://www.stellar.org/ Episode links: CZ: https://twitter.com/cz_binance Binance: https://www.binance.com/en My first interview with CZ: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-binance-became-the-most-popular-crypto-exchange-in-5-months-ep-84/ Details on BUSD: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/38607/binance-launching-its-own-usd-pegged-stablecoin-busd-with-paxos-as-custodian Binance announcement about BUSD: https://binance.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032604131-Binance-Announces-Open-Blockchain-Project-Venus- BUSD marketshare: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-stablecoin-busd-tops-100m-but-lags-behind-rivals Venus as the One Belt, One Road initiative of Libra: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1163364542233006082?s=20 Venus focusing on developing countries: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-is-pitching-its-stablecoin-as-a-government-friendly-libra-competitor Binance’s acquisition of CoinMarketCap: https://www.coindesk.com/binances-coinmarketcap-acquisition-is-a-bet-that-crypto-really-is-for-the-masses 125x leverage: https://www.binance.com/en/blog/393707200802271232/5-Things-You-Need-to-Know-About-Binance-Futures-125x-Leverage The Block report on BNB’s latest token burn: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/62306/a-closer-look-at-binances-bnb-burns Lee et al. vs. Binance: https://www.scribd.com/document/455203877/Lee-et-al-vs-Binance Estimate that Binance earned $46 million in profit in 2018: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/10491/analysis-binance-brought-in-446-million-in-profits-in-2018-despite-the-bear-market Binance used Steem tokens on its exchange to help vote out Steem validators: https://steempeak.com/witness/@ura-soul/ura-soul-witness-update-anarchy-vs-empire-tron-replaces-top-witnesses-and-takes-over-the-steem-blockchain CZ’s initial tweet about the how Binance handled the Steemit fork: https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1234565384327585792?s=20 Binance reverses course: https://www.coindesk.com/steem-will-hard-fork-in-just-hours-over-community-fears-of-justin-sun-power-grab Binance not authorized to operate in Malta: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/56603/binance-is-not-authorised-to-operate-in-malta-says-the-countrys-financial-regulator CZ on Binance not being based in Malta and decentralized: https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1230860647086338048 Binance shut down Shanghai offices: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/47922/binances-shanghai-office-shut-down-following-police-raid-sources-say Links to topics we did not have time to cover: Binance removes all references to Visa from its credit card: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/60886/binance-quietly-scrubs-visa-mentions-from-its-payment-card-website Opening mining pool: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-crypto-exchange-is-launching-its-first-bitcoin-mining-pool Investment in startups in Africa: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-backed-crypto-payments-app-as-race-for-africa-heats-up In-browser trading: https://www.coindesk.com/brave-partners-with-binance-to-develop-in-browser-crypto-trading https://brave.com/binance/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Fabiano, director of Bitcoin mining at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, and Christopher Bendiksen, head of research at CoinShares, discuss the third Bitcoin halving, which occurred hours before the publication of this episode. They discuss: the significance of the halving what effect it could have on price and what Amanda and Christopher think of Dan Morehead's projection that it could reach $115,000 next year how macroeconomic events like the coronavirus and quantitative easing could impact uptake of Bitcoin how the halving could affect miners and hash rate how the halving could influence the environmental impact of Bitcoin why mining was the first activity Fidelity pursued with Bitcoin what they think needs to happen in Bitcoin to foster more adoption why hash rate derivatives will be a crucial step what the outlook is for institutional adoption of Bitcoin plus, is it halving or halvening? Take the 2020 Unchained Podcast survey! I'm doing another survey to find out what you want from the podcasts and how I can make them better! Please take a moment to fill it out here and to tell us at Unchained what you'd like from the show: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020 Plus, Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a chance to win a metal MCO Visa card -- Crypto.com will stake these cards indefinitely! Ten lucky winners will enjoy card benefits including free Spotify, free Netflix, 3% back on all spending, earn extra interest on their crypto deposit and more! Thanks, Crypto.com! Again, take the survey now! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020 Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Stellar: https://www.stellar.org/ Episode links: Amanda Fabiano: https://twitter.com/_amanda_fab Fidelity Center for Applied Technology: https://www.fidelitylabs.com Christopher Bendiksen: https://twitter.com/C_Bendiksen Coinshares: https://coinshares.com Coinshares’ 5 Popular Bitcoin Halving Theories: https://coinshares.com/research/5-popular-btc-halving-theories Coinshares’ December 2019 Bitcoin Mining Report: https://coinshares.com/assets/resources/Research/bitcoin-mining-network-december-2019.pdf Unconfirmed episode with Dan Morehead: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-bitcoin-price-of-115000-next-year/ Bitcoin stock-to-flow ratio: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25 Fidelity opens trading to institutional customers: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-06/fidelity-said-to-offer-cryptocurrency-trading-within-a-few-weeks Fidelity Digital Assets signs first exchange: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-digital-assets-to-sign-up-its-first-crypto-exchange-by-end-of-the-year Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, this is an essay by Mariano Conti of MakerDAO that was so popular, personal and relatable, especially to those living in Latin America, that we decided to have Mariano translate it and read it in Spanish. Share it with your Spanish-speaking friends who still don’t understand what crypto is about, to show how it solved real-world problems for at least one person. Mariano Conti, jefe de contratos inteligentes de MakerDAO, nos lee su ensayo sobre su experiencia personal con criptomonedas, desde el punto de vista de un Argentino cuya familia ha experimentado períodos de hiperinflación, y de un freelancer que recibe pagos por su trabajo desde varios países. Mariano describe la evolución de Maker desde Dai de Colateral Único (ahora Sai) hasta Dai Multi Colateral, y también brinda su perspectiva de los eventos del Jueves Negro y las subastas de deuda subsecuentes que el protocolo debió llevar a cabo para regularizar su situación. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Guido, cofounder and CEO of Trail of Bits, and Taylor Monahan, founder and CEO of MyCrypto, discuss all the recent hacks in DeFi, how it can be made more safely and who is responsible. We tackle: the Hegic security incident: whose responsibility it was to make sure the contract was secure — the auditor (Trail of Bits) or the team (Hegic) — what Trail of Bits was saying in its audit summary, and how to read between the lines of an audit summary how long an audit should be upgradeability: particularly around when more advanced technology and contracts interface with older technology/contracts centralization vs. decentralization: whether contracts can be made safely while maintaining adhering to the principle of decentralization, why Taylor would prioritize centralization and security, and how teams can create different levels of risk for users bug bounties: why asking what amount they should be is the wrong question the security threats posed by oracles and what a checklist for DeFi teams might look like Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links: Dan Guido: https://twitter.com/dguido Trail of Bits: https://www.trailofbits.com Taylor Monahan: https://twitter.com/tayvano_ MyCrypto: https://mycrypto.com Initial tweet by Hegic calling the security issue a typo: https://twitter.com/HegicOptions/status/1253937104666742787?s=20 Hegic tweet saying, “It’s not a security issue”: https://twitter.com/HegicOptions/status/1253954145113038849?s=20 Trail of Bits saying it will no longer work with Hegic: https://twitter.com/dguido/status/1254260725431894020?s=20 Taylor breaks down the audit summary: https://twitter.com/MyCrypto/status/1254058121342803968?s=20 Molly Wintermute’s Medium post on requesting a week audit vs. three-day review: https://medium.com/@molly.wintermute/post-mortem-hegic-unlock-function-bug-or-three-defi-development-mistakesthat-i-feel-sorry-about-5a23a7197bce Unconfirmed episode with Haseeb Qureshi on the Lendf.me attack: https://unchainedpodcast.com/haseeb-qureshi-on-the-unbelievable-story-of-the-25-million-lendf-me-hack/ Unchained interview showing Matt Luongo's approach to kill switches and upgradeability with tBTC: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tbtc-what-happens-when-the-most-liquid-crypto-asset-hits-defi/ Discussion of the bZx attacks on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-bzx-attacks-unethical-or-illegal-2-experts-weigh-in/ Issue with Curve contract: https://blog.curve.fi/vulnerability-disclosure/ Compound bug bounty program: https://compound.finance/docs/security#bug-bounty Taylor on “upgradeability makes things more insecure”: https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1222564979657723904?s=20 Synthetix oracle incident, allowing a bot to profit $1 billion: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-synthetix-became-the-second-largest-defi-platform/ Taylor’s tips on how to get more ROI on an audit: https://twitter.com/MyCrypto/status/1254061500244713474?s=20 Tips to follow before getting an audit: https://blog.openzeppelin.com/follow-this-quality-checklist-before-an-audit-8cc6a0e44845/ Resources for security in DeFi: crytic/building-secure-contractsGuidelines and training material to write secure smart contracts - crytic/building-secure-contractsgithub.com https://consensys.github.io/smart-contract-best-practices/ https://forum.openzeppelin.com https://swcregistry.io https://diligence.consensys.net/blog/2020/03/new-offering-1-day-security-reviews/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis, the parent company of Fold and Keep, describes the just-launched tBTC, his plan for a censorship-resistant Bitcoin-Ethereum bridge. He explains his personal reasons for wanting such a platform, why tBTC is different from other versions of Bitcoin on Ethereum, and how it works -- including the process of becoming a signer in minting tBTC, how the system will handle crises, the reason for high collateralization levels, why staking assets are limited, and the necessity of a work token, Keep. He also discusses the economics behind tBTC-backed tBTC, his vision for DeFi, how tBTC could buffer an ETH crash, and the reasoning behind minimal governance mechanisms -- playing into why institutions trust BTC more than ETH. Plus, he contrasts the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities and talks about the possibility of tBTC2.0. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Episode links: Matt Luongo: https://twitter.com/mhluongo Thesis: https://thesis.co/ Keep: https://keep.network/ Fold App: https://foldapp.com/ tBTC white paper: https://docs.keep.network/tbtc/index.pdf Initial reveal: https://twitter.com/mhluongo/status/1162481737525583873?s=20 Announcement on Keep blog: https://blog.keep.network/bridging-bitcoin-and-ethereum-b2f9923630a7?gi=5c9040ed3a72 Some criticism of tBTC: https://twitter.com/peterktodd/status/1162728205607985152?s=20 Matt on the Breakdown podcast: https://www.coindesk.com/will-defi-matter-in-a-post-coronavirus-world-feat-matt-luongo Matt on Sendwyre podcast: https://blog.sendwyre.com/announcing-tbtc-with-james-prestwich-and-matt-luongo-of-cross-chain-group-c424e2b0b40c?gi=d1e8b53ca80e How tBTC works: https://defipulse.com/blog/what-is-tbtc/ The Block on tBTC: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/55284/inside-tbtc-the-bitcoin-backed-erc-20-token-that-could-go-live-in-march Keep raises $7.7 million: https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinoconnell/2020/04/03/coinbase-co-founder-invests-in-project-to-bridge-bitcoin-and-ethereum/#368a6f737df4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest, and Yassine Elmandjra, ARK's thematic analyst, discuss their investment strategy with disruptive innovation, and how blockchain technology, especially Bitcoin, plays a major role in it. They explain why the unique market circumstances due to the coronavirus have led to more correlation between crypto and the traditional financial markets, but also why, in the long-term, it will ultimately be uncorrelated. We cover why they think crypto in the age of COVID-19 will see new opportunity, and when there will be a recovery of the larger economy. They also share, from an investor standpoint, their growing conviction in Bitcoin due to its long-term value proposition compared to other chains like Ethereum. Plus, we talk about the future outlook for central bank digital currencies, and how Libra will launch, albeit differently, than expected. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Episode links: Cathie Wood: https://twitter.com/cathiedwood?lang=en Yassine Elmandjra: https://twitter.com/yassineARK Yahoo Finance interview on ARK’s big ideas for 2020: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/cathie-wood-talks-ark-invests-222723696.html Keynote on State of Digital Assets at Volt Capital summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2729&v=c50TMCKsktA&feature=emb_logo ARK’s Q&A video conference on COVID-19: https://ark-invest.com/research/bis2020?utm_campaign=BIS%202020&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--kCZDJ0VuIxNViHjN7KR7qOryEusndZqMfNp7JMkD4AIZJCv8otUtZm8YgPdmVYTZb3ylv4ysbxt8fRIUvngkRLcyvIw&_hsmi=85729999&utm_source=hs_email&utm_content=85729999&hsCtaTracking=14ee7e75-5bf4-46f8-8c8c-f5aeb84b32a7%7C5f5d3a43-f10e-4792-92de-96ef495eb5c6 Feature on Cathie Wood: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-18/cathie-wood-s-tesla-bet-puts-ark-invest-in-spotlight Her views on Zcash: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/12660/cathie-wood-on-the-block-the-crypto-revolution-is-coming-jump-on-or-get-out-of-the-way Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mariano Conti of MakerDAO, head of smart contracts at MakerDAO, reads from his essay about his personal experience with cryptocurrency, particularly as an Argentine whose family has experienced periods of hyperinflation, and as a freelancer accepting payment from foreign countries. He describes the evolution of Maker from single-collateral Dai (now Sai) to multi-collateral Dai, and also gives his perspective on the events of Black Thursday and the subsequent debt auctions the protocol undertook to right itself. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Episode links: Mariano Conti: https://twitter.com/nanexcool Linda Xie’s essay about crypto memes on Unchained : https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-memes-can-help-crypto-go-mainstream/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital reads from his essay on how defensible each of the major DeFi protocols on Ethereum are, and what that says about Ethereum's defensibility. He evaluates how easy it would be from an effort and capital standpoint to fork each of the major DeFi protocols, and makes a strong case for how and why he thinks protocols like Maker are quite defensible, and why he believes certain dexes are less so. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this essay, Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital explains why he thinks the focus on decentralization can be overhyped. He looks at why decentralization can be important but then makes it clear, by dissecting when it is important and when it’s not, and to whom it does and doesn’t matter, that it isn’t the be-all end-all goal for every endeavor. He talks about which questions we should be asking beyond just, “is it decentralized,” and also explains why that question doesn’t even make sense. Thank you to our sponsors! CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, dissects Black Thursday, March 12, the day the crypto markets plunged twice amid the wider sell-off in the markets due to the coronavirus. He offers several theories for the first price drop that day, how that set off a series of liquidations on various exchanges, and then why liquidations stopped for about 12 hours before the next wave, which triggered the next price slump. He also describes why, at that point, the crypto market structure broke, as arbitrageurs attempted to move collateral from one exchange to another but could not because both the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains became congested, setting off a downward spiral particularly in Bitcoin, as miners began turning off equipment due to the falling BTC price. This led, ultimately, to there being $200 million worth of positions to liquidate on BitMEX, but only $20 million worth of bids on the entire BitMEX order book. Then we cover what happened next that ultimately saved the price of BTC dropping to $0 on BitMEXT. Next, we discuss the second fall in prices that day, and how that affected MakerDAO, with congestion on the Ethereum blockchain preventing keepers from being able to liquidate undercollateralized vaults. A clever keeper sent a bid to liquidate a vault with a higher gas price, but realizing that there was no competition, bid $0, walking away with $4.5 million, and a total of $8 million being won this way. We covered how the price of ETH fell to $88 but because oracles weren't properly updating, the last price of ETH on MakerDAO was at $101 — a dollar higher than the $100 where a bunch of liquidations would have occurred, which would have likely put more downward pressure on ETH, resulting in another downward spiral. Kyle also evaluates some of the technical options for preventing these issues in future times of volatility, why many of them aren't promising but what is. Thank you to our sponsors! CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/ Kraken: https://www.kraken.com Episode links: https://multicoin.capital/2020/03/20/march-12-the-day-crypto-market-structure-broke-part-2/ Links from news recap: Kyle Samani: https://twitter.com/KyleSamani Multicoin Capital: https://multicoin.capital/ Multicoin blog part 1: https://multicoin.capital/2020/03/17/march-12-the-day-crypto-market-structure-broke/ Part 2: https://multicoin.capital/2020/03/20/march-12-the-day-crypto-market-structure-broke-part-2/ Theory that BitMEX’s maintenance was to prevent a collapse in Bitcoin: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1238306306043162625 https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/58918/money-2-0-stuff-free-price-auctions How traders took advantage of the roiling markets: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/59172/surfing-the-spread-crypto-market-turmoil-arbitrage More on the liquidations in MakerDAO: https://medium.com/@whiterabbit_hq/black-thursday-for-makerdao-8-32-million-was-liquidated-for-0-dai-36b83cac56b6 https://blog.makerdao.com/usdc-approved-by-maker-governance-as-the-third-collateral-type-of-the-maker-protocol/ MakerDAO weighs emergency shutdown: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-leader-makerdao-weighs-emergency-shutdown-following-eth-price-drop MakerDAO adds USDC as collateral: https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-adds-usdc-as-defi-collateral-following-black-thursday-chaos Kain Warwick on USDC as Dai collateral: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1239795250882740225?s=20 Eva Beylin on USDC as Dai collateral: https://twitter.com/evabeylin/status/1240039492985085952?s=20 Huobi’s derivatives platform introduces circuit breaker: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/59210/huobis-derivative-platform-now-includes-a-circuit-breaker-function Debate over circuit breakers in crypto: https://twitter.com/TusharJain_/status/1238311534767595520 https://www.coindesk.com/does-crypto-need-circuit-breakers-last-weeks-price-crash-ignites-a-debate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices