The mainstream media and the crypto industry have long been at odds, with crypto proponents often accusing the media of unbalanced or inaccurate coverage. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal has been covering financial markets since 2008 and bitcoin longer than many of its supporters. Over the years, Joe has consistently been one of the most informed members of the MSM who never shies away from taking a skeptical eye to the industry. In the conversation, Joe and Ryan discuss how narratives are formed in ...
Mar 13, 2020•58 min
Coinbase sits atop a short list of the largest and most critically important companies in crypto - a status they’ve achieved through a mix of product innovation and legal and regulatory compliance. As Chief Legal Officer, Brian Brooks is tasked with allowing Coinbase to continue to innovate while remaining within the good graces of governments and regulators, both domestic and abroad. In this conversation, you will get a glimpse into how one of crypto’s biggest firms continues to operate complia...
Mar 10, 2020•56 min
There are very few people who have created a top 20 cryptocurrency. Charles Hoskinson is one of them. In this conversation, Charles details his path through a failed project with Dan Larimer, an unsanctimonious departure from the founding team of Ethereum to ultimately creating Cardano. Charles details how he structured Cardano "like a DARPA project" with a deep focus on R&D and why they're concentrating heavily on development in Africa. He lays out his philosophy and strategy for building a...
Mar 06, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Jameson Lopp has been involved with Bitcoin in one form another for 9 of Bitcoin’s 11 year history. In that time, Lopp has contributed volumes of free educational resources while remaining a vocal proponent of Bitcoin’s core ethos of individual empowerment and self-sovereignty. In 2016, he co-founded Casa, which develops self-custody solutions for bitcoin owners. In this conversation, Ryan and Lopp discuss the challenges that Bitcoin has overcome in the past as well the hurdles to come. The two ...
Mar 03, 2020•1 hr 1 min
In 2019, centralized crypto exchanges were hacked to the collective tune of $300M. The ever present threat of exchange hacks has led to the rise of DEXs, which allow for trade without handing over custody to a third party. While DEXs have seen impressive growth, the liquidity available at their centralized counterparts remains orders of magnitude greater. Arwen protocol’s aim is to achieve the holy grail of giving prospective traders access to centralized exchange liquidity without having to giv...
Feb 27, 2020•53 min
Founded in 2018, The Block has grown into one of the leading crypto news outlets using a combination of thorough research and reporting and brash, in your face twitter theatrics. In this conversation, The Block Founder and CEO Mike Dudas details his journey from traditional fintech to crypto as well as the evolution of the company. Mike sheds light on how he views the role of media in 2020 and on how he's evolved his stance towards tribalism within the industry. Lastly, Ryan gets into Mike's pra...
Feb 25, 2020•50 min
Many in the West often look to privacy preserving technologies like Orchid’s virtual private network (VPN) marketplace as enablers of nefarious activities. Go to a place like Indonesia, where 43% of the population uses VPNs to circumvent an overly censored internet and government surveillance of basic business activities, and you’ll get a different opinion. For protesters in places like Hong Kong, VPNs can serve as freedom preserving technology. In this conversation, Orchid CEO Seven Waterhouse ...
Feb 20, 2020•54 min
If Bitcoin is to become the foundation of a global, non-national monetary system, consumers and institutions are going to need Bitcoin based financial services. At least that’s the thesis driving River Financial: a Bitcoin only platform that borrows heavily from the user experience of more traditional financial services. In this conversation, River Financial founder and CEO Alex Leishman explains the thinking behind River’s single asset focus that flies against the grain of the multi-asset strat...
Feb 18, 2020•49 min
You likely know Balaji as the former CTO of Coinbase and now editor-in-chief of Nakamoto.com. What you may not know is that prior to his days in the cryptosphere, Balaji studied at the intersection of engineering, biology and statistics, received a PHD and has published several academic papers in genomics. Given his background, Balajis has been watching and studying the developing situation surrounding COVID-19 closely. In this conversation Ryan and Balaji discuss the current status of the Coron...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Launched as Xcoin in 2014, Dash is one of the oldest projects in the top 25. While the prevailing narrative around bitcoin has shifted to digital gold, Dash is still pursuing wide adoption as a payments network; an area that is looking increasingly competitive with stablecoins and eventually, central bank issued digital currencies (CBDCs). In this conversation, Dash Core Group CEO Ryan Taylor details how Dash is emulating strategies employed by Visa in the 1960’s and Paypal in its early days to ...
Feb 13, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Bitcoin is a technology that launched a thousand ships. In one direction, hundreds of permissionless cryptoassets and networks. In the other, permissioned networks being developed by enterprises and governments to upgrade and iterate on existing systems and institutions. R3’s Corda is an open-source protocol that falls in the latter category. In this conversation, R3 CTO Richard Brown gives an overview of the current enterprise blockchain environment, including his thoughts on Central Bank Digit...
Feb 11, 2020•58 min
Justin Sun is easily one of crypto’s most polarizing and controversial figures. While many in the West have been critical of Sun’s over-the-top marketing tactics, it’s hard to deny the momentum Tron has built in the East. Armed with a TRX warchest, Tron acquired Bittorrent and streaming service DLive while making strategic investments in Poloniex and Steemit, all in the span of 18 months. In what is likely Sun’s most candid interview to date, Ryan and Tron’s enigmatic founder discuss past contro...
Feb 06, 2020•56 min
Crypto lending markets have exploded over the last year. Among the players in an increasingly competitive marketplace is Celsius, which according to CEO Alex “The Machine” Mashinsky has received $450M from over 70,000 users in 174 countries and paid out over $9M in interest payments. Unlike many competitors, Celsius somewhat boldly raised $50M in ICO during the latter half of 2018 at a time when many were shying away. Alex gives a colorful interview in which he provides an overview of the curren...
Feb 04, 2020•55 min
This is one conversation the entire #XRParmy is going to love. Daniel Vogel, CEO of Bitso, which is Mexico's largest crypto exchange details how the company is utilizing XRP the asset (not just Ripple software) to catch a piece of the $35B in remittances that flows across the US-Mexico border each year. Sourced mainly from Moneygram in the US, Bitso saw $18M in XRP remittance volume the last week of December and that number has been growing 15-20% each week. Daniel hopes to catch as high as 20% ...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Radar Relay, the peer-to-peer trading platform built on the 0x protocol did a respectable $100M in volume in 2019. This however is down from the dizzying highs of 2018 where in certain months, Radar Relay facilitated up to $60M. In this interview, Radar CEO Alan Curtis speaks candidly about the current state of the DEX landscape that features lower volumes ($5-7M a day) and more competition. He draws attention to the current “space race” taking place between Kyber Network and 0x to aggregate liq...
Jan 28, 2020•26 min
USDC, backed by Circle and Coinbase’s Centre Consortium has emerged as the dominant “regulated” stablecoin. In this conversation, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire provides some context around the evolution of USDC as well as where he sees it fitting within the broader macro landscape. He details how the next phase for USDC is to move beyond its use in crypto capital markets and into payments and settlements while drawing comparisons to how Visa and Mastercard developed interoperable standards ultimatel...
Jan 23, 2020•51 min
Tendermint Director of Research Zaki Manian reflects on the origins of the Cosmos project, including their 2017 crowdsale and the success of their “Game of Stakes” incentivized testnet. He also provides some color on why he thinks the Cosmos ATOM token has value right now, the role it currently plays in the Cosmos ecosystem as well as the role it can play in the future. Lastly, he weighs in on the global smart contracting platform landscape, ETH 2.0, the regulatory environment that has projects ...
Jan 21, 2020•53 min
On the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s genesis block, former Coinbase CTO Balajis Srinivasan launched Nakamoto.com to much fanfare, as well as controversy surrounding the site’s choice of name. On the latest episode of Unqualified Opinions, Balaji and Ryan discuss the intent behind the site, which at present boasts curated insights from 60 high-profile contributors, including Zooko, Naval, Vitalik. Balaji shares his concerns over the uncomfortable places modern technology and social media are taki...
Jan 16, 2020•47 min
Gone are the days when a blockchain network could launch quietly, coordinated over an online forum by an anonymous developer or when a small number of technically minded people could participate in a low-profile token sale. While the early days of Bitcoin and Ethereum came with their own inherent challenges, the high profile network launches of today come with a new set of concerns. How do you gain developer mindshare? How do proof-of-stake networks grapple with the threat of exchanges centraliz...
Jan 14, 2020•45 min
In this episode, we take a walk down memory lane through Bitcoin’s chaotic early years. Required listening for anyone who got into the industry post 2017 and is missing context behind some of Bitcoin’s longest standing feuds and divisions. We cover Samson’s origin story as a pivotal player throughout Bitcoin’s first civil war, the history of Blockstream (and associated conspiracy theories), the blocksize debate and the infamous New York Agreement. Samson also shares his gripes with the Ethereum ...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Matt Spoke is the founder and CEO of the Open Application Network, formerly known as Aion. In this discussion, Matt and Ryan discuss the OAN’s strategic shift to focusing on solving problems that exist within large online marketplaces. Matt lays out his vision for a future where YouTubers own their subscribers and can offer them discounts on Shopify or where drivers for Uber and Lift own their reputations and can use them to benefit on other online marketplaces. If you enjoyed this conversation,...
Dec 05, 2019•41 min
Oded Wertheim provides and update on Orbs, which is a project building public blockchain infrastructure designed for enterprises. In this conversation Oded details Orbs’s approach to collaborating with enterprises and how it differs from the private/permissioned approach taken by Hyperledger and R3’s Corda. Oded also lays out the problems that public chains solve for enterprises and how trust will be a standard feature built into the products of the future. If you enjoyed this conversation, shar...
Dec 03, 2019•28 min
Jake Yocom-Piatt is the project lead of Decred: a hybrid proof-of-stake/proof-of-work blockchain that re-thinks development funding, on-chain governance and consensus mechanisms. In this conversation, Jake discusses how his experience contributing to Bitcoin lead to the creation of Decred and how the project aims to compete as one of the top store-of-value chains. Jake and Ryan discuss Decred’s roadmap, including its integration of the lightning network, additional privacy features and more. If ...
Nov 26, 2019•40 min
Ryan interviews Simon Taylor, Co-Founder of 11:FS. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io
Nov 21, 2019•54 min
Ryan interviews Max Pertosovskiy, Head of Growth at Waves. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io
Nov 19, 2019•23 min
Qiao Wang, Director of Product at Messari, interviews Chris McCann, Founding Partner at Proof of Capital. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io
Nov 14, 2019•48 min
Qiao Wang, Director of Product at Messari, interviews Dovey Wan, Founding Partner of Primitive Ventures. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io
Nov 12, 2019•43 min
Qiao Wang, Director of Product at Messari, interviews Mo Dong, CEO of Celer. This episode is sponsored by Voyager, a fast and 100% commission-free app that lets you trade more than 20 top cryptocurrencies. Sign up at investvoyager.com/messari to earn $25 in free Bitcoin when you download the Voyager iOS app and create an account. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive ...
Nov 07, 2019•35 min
Qiao Wang, Director of Product at Messari, interviews Dawn Song, the CEO of Oasis Labs. This episode of Unqualified Opinions was recorded live during SF Blockchain week. This episode is sponsored by Voyager, a fast and 100% commission-free app that lets you trade more than 20 top cryptocurrencies. Sign up at investvoyager.com/messari to earn $25 in free Bitcoin when you download the Voyager iOS app and create an account. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & frien...
Nov 05, 2019•41 min
Ryan interviews Ryan Sean Adams, the creator of Bankless. -----This episode is sponsored by Voyager, a fast and 100% commission-free app that lets you trade more than 20 top cryptocurrencies. Sign up at investvoyager.com/messari to earn $25 in free Bitcoin when you download the Voyager iOS app and create an account. -----If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content a...
Oct 31, 2019•42 min
