Ben Gagnon , the Chief Mining Officer at Bitfarms , joins the show. In this episode we cover: Bitfarms' journey to the public markets in the US Ben's early efforts in flared gas mining How immersion cooling could provide operational efficiencies Bitfarms' site selection methodology How Bitfarms secures power originally built for now-departed industries How Quebec overbuilt electrical infrastructure The benefit of miners locating themselves in Quebec and scooping up stranded power How Bitfarms to...
Mar 30, 2022•54 min•Ep. 303
Michael Sonnenshein and Craig Salm of Grayscale Investments join the show. In this episode we discuss: Grayscale's filing to convert GBTC to an ETF and their advocacy campaign. The comment process (details at: www.grayscale.com/comment ) Reactions to the Biden Executive Order. Grayscale's product lineup and the future of active vs. passive crypto products. The metaverse, NFTs and other areas of interest for crypto asset managers. To learn more about Grayscale visit www.grayscale.com...
Mar 28, 2022•47 min•Ep. 302
Matt and Nic return for more deals and news. In this episode: Brink Nation is officially moving to GM.xyz Did blockchains 2.0 make fundamental scaling improvements? Is ESG over? Nic surrenders his eyeball sovereignty to Clear A secret trick to get through the Miami airport Bloomberg analysts think a spot ETF could be approved summer 2023... pending SEC developments Would the SEC have to gain control over crypto exchanges to approve an ETF? Florida will accept corporate taxes in BTC Terra is buyi...
Mar 25, 2022•37 min•Ep. 301
Jon Birnbaum, COO of Domain Money , a new investment platform, joins the show. In this episode, we discuss: History and launch of Domain Money Jon's path into fintech and then the digital asset industry Dimension of access to investing for the retail market Domain's product offering across crypto and equities Developing new metrics to help consumers think through investing Learn about Domain Money here ....
Mar 23, 2022•24 min•Ep. 300
Celestia Labs COO, Nick White , joins us on the show to kick off our modular blockchain mini-series. Celestia is the first modular blockchain network, which decouples consensus and data availability from execution and settlement. Celestia implements a novel design to unlock key properties such as scalability, interoperability, and sovereignty while preserving decentralization. We cover: Why scaling and decentralization have historically been at odds How Celestia creates a modular system to reima...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 299
Matt and Nic return for more news and deals of the week. In this episode: Too much Tom Brady content? Can Roman Abramovich sell Chelsea? Former skeptics coming around on Bitcoin Arbitraging tungsten cube NFTs? Why isn't physical tungsten rallying? Facebook's Diem is back from the dead Takeaways from Laura Shin's book The Cryptopians Tom Emmer's letter to the SEC Details of Sen. Lummis' bill start to come out The EU almost bans PoW cryptocurrencies Instagram announces plans to add NFTs Ukraine le...
Mar 18, 2022•44 min•Ep. 298
Brett Harrison, the CEO of FTX.US joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Brett's pre-crypto career and the path to leading FTX.US How FTX is evolving on their derivatives product offering Perspectives on crypto market structure in the US will evolve How equity markets may come to be impacted by innovations in the crypto world How FTX is pursuing NFTs and gaming To learn more visit FTX.us and follow Brett on Twitter...
Mar 17, 2022•35 min•Ep. 298
Former FT Alphaville Editor and founder of The Blind Spot, Izabella Kaminska joins the show. In this episode: Izabella's pre-FT career Izabella's Polish ancestry and how that informed her monetary worldview Why Izabella was a skeptic about Bitcoin – and why she revisited her stance Izabella's interest in anacyclosis and cyclicality in political systems Jeremy Bentham and his views on utilitarianism Consequentialism and its influence on contemporary elite ideology What Covid-19 policies revealed ...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 297
Nic and Matt return for more deals and news of the week. In this episode: The fallout from the seizure of the Russian fx reserves Did America default on its obligations? How are Chinese interests served by the US weaponizing the dollar? Can Bitcoin become an inter-state settlement asset and sovereign-scale SoV? Zoltan Pozsar declares an end to Bretton Woods We digest Biden's executive order The White House calls for 14 studies on crypto and CBDCs A pro-crypto candidate wins the Korean presidenti...
Mar 11, 2022•39 min•Ep. 296
Singer and songwriter, VÉRITÉ (Kelsey Byrne), and artist manager, Vanessa Magos have been leading the charge for artists and their teams to learn about and experiment in web3. In our third episode in the web3 music mini-series, they joined us to talk about: Artists as CEOs who bootstrap their business and put themselves in positions of power and ownership Artists being locked into the arbitrary fixed price imposed on music by the industry A future where artists have access to their fans free of ...
Mar 10, 2022•58 min•Ep. 295
Sohrob Farudi , the founder and CEO of Fan Controlled Football joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Sohrob's entrepreneurial journey and the insights that led to him founding Fan Controlled Football. How FCF works and how fans engage with the league, all the way to calling the plays. How Sohrob came to be interested in cryptocurrency and how NFTs have crossed into FCF. Longer term opportunities for cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities in the context of FCF. The upcoming season and wh...
Mar 07, 2022•32 min•Ep. 294
Nic and Matt return for another wild week. In this episode: OTB theme music controversy Is Bitcoin a risk off asset Ukraine raises crypto to fund the war effort Why Ukrainians were better positioned to deal with a banking sector failure The U.S. cuts Russia out of SWIFT (mostly) Can the U.S. pull the SWIFT deplatforming again? Will gold be remonetized? Metamask, Infura, and Opensea are banned in Iran and Venezuela Why the cost of running a full node matters Can NFTs be securities? Is Russia evad...
Mar 04, 2022•35 min•Ep. 293
We sit down with Blake Masters , COO at Thiel Capital, coauthor of Zero to One, and 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona. Why Blake is running for Senate in Arizona Blake's experience running Thiel Capital and what led him to politics today Does Congress need more business expertise? Where Blake falls on the spectrum of being pro vs anti crypto Where Blake gets his info regarding the crypto industry USA vs Chinese policy on Bitcoin Should the US pursue a strategic Bitcoin reserve? Does cryp...
Mar 02, 2022•38 min•Ep. 292
Meow CEO Brandon Arvanaghi and CTO Bryce Crawford join the show to cover crypto yields and how they make them accessible to corporate treasuries. In this episode: The origins of the name Bryce and Brandon's backgrounds The purpose of getting access to crypto yields while staying in dollars How Meow manages risks in DeFi protocols Are crypto yields fundamentally mispriced? Where crypto yields ultimately come from? The risk free rate of crypto yields The relationship between fragmented exchange en...
Feb 28, 2022•38 min•Ep. 291
Matt and Nic return for another insane week of news and deals. Russia invades Ukraine Will Russia get kicked off SWIFT? Are there alternatives to SWIFT? Laura Shin identifies the alleged DAO hacker Is Bitcoin's privacy fundamentally broken? Chainalysis demixes Wasabi transactions Was the DAO hacker even guilty of a crime? Should blockchains be private at the base layer? Wyoming introduces a state stablecoin Miami grapples with the fallout of Miamicoin Do turkeys hibernate? Sponsor notes: Fireblo...
Feb 25, 2022•37 min•Ep. 290
Leo Lucisano of Decentral Park Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Leo's regulatory predictions for 2022 and the beliefs that informed his blog post. Views on how DeFi would evolve in the face of a harsher treatment from the SEC. The emerging crypto lobby and how this will shape future elections and also policy. Lending, derivatives and other financial products in a central and decentralized context. How Decentral Park Capital is investing across the landscape. To learn more abou...
Feb 23, 2022•39 min•Ep. 289
Co-chairman of Stronghold Digital Mining Bill Spence and CEO Gregory Beard join the show. Stronghold is a vertically integrated Bitcoin miner that uses waste coal to power their operations – while also remediating this environmentally damaging product. We dive into this fascinating, and counter-intuitive story. In this episode: Backgrounds of the co-chairmen and how they found the intersection of Bitcoin mining and coal waste mitigation Bill's personal commitment to the mitigation of coal waste ...
Feb 21, 2022•55 min•Ep. 288
Matt and Nic return for a huge week of news and a big CIV announcement. In this episode: Matt scans the Coinbase QR code ad The post-Superbowl backlash against crypto ads Is there any hope for music NFTs Castle Island announces a third fund Binance buys a stake in Forbes Is Circle a bet on interest rates? Our thoughts on BlockFi's settlement with the SEC Does the SEC's BlockFi settlement create a regulatory moat for larger lenders? What happens to DeFi in the wake of the BlockFi settlement? Cana...
Feb 18, 2022•43 min•Ep. 287
In our second episode in the web3 music mini-series , we spoke with Matthew Chaim , musician and founder of Songcamp and other projects at the intersection of music and web3. We cover how Matthew thinks about: Helping artists gain control over their creative output Collective creation and re-imagining the role of fans Optimizing for resonance versus reach with music NFTs Discoverability in music NFTs and ways to democratize curation And much more. We also recommend reading Matthew's writing on t...
Feb 16, 2022•54 min•Ep. 286
Mash founder Jared Nusinoff joins the show to explain how internet monetization is broken and how lightning-based payments fixes it. In this episode: Jared's professional history and how he came to work on Bitcoin Going from an adventure guide to bitcoin Jared's early entrepreneurial work Jared's early history sharing music prior to torrents Why Jared quite Google to found an adventure guide company How Jared thinks of Bitcoin's MoE/SoV debate Why internet monetization models are flawed today - ...
Feb 14, 2022•43 min•Ep. 285
Matt and Nic return for another week of deals and news. In this episode: Kraken brings back PoR Bitfinex hack money launderers are arrested The long history of Bitfinex, hacks, Recovery rights, Tether, and LEO Who is entitled to the recovered BTC from the Bitfinex hack? The NY Fed attacks stablecoins, and private banknote issuance Ottawa truckers are banned from Gofundme Are US Treasuries backing stablecoins stranded liquidity? Why central bankers attack stablecoins to promote CBDCs Content ment...
Feb 11, 2022•33 min•Ep. 284
In this episode, Kraken chief product officer Jeremy Welch joins the show to cover Kraken's newly announced Proof of Reserve procedure. In this episode: Why bring back PoR? What distinguishes today's proof of reserve from the procedure Kraken undertook back in 2015 Why haven't exchanges done PoR historically? What Kraken's PoR actually proves to depositors The role of Armanino in Kraken's PoR What happens when a depositor verifies their PoR How Kraken protects user privacy in PoR The trustlessne...
Feb 07, 2022•28 min•Ep. 283
Tom Brady retires to focus on NFTs Was Satoshi interested in altcoins? Our thoughts on startups raising 69.420m The Solana-Ethereum bridge is hacked for over $300m– and then bailed out by Jump Capital Was Vitalik's warning about cross-chain interoperability prophetic? Is the cross-chain vision dead? Kraken revives their Proof of Reserve – after 7 years Why do exchanges avoid Proof of Reserves? Bitcoin developers at the MIT DCI are building the Boston Fed's CBDC pilot program How whaling was the ...
Feb 04, 2022•39 min•Ep. 282
In the first episode in our web3 music series, Cherie Hu , founder of Water & Music , sits down with Ria to talk about transitioning Water & Music into a research DAO and Cherie's thoughts on the growing interest of musicians in crypto. We discuss: How Cherie found a niche covering the intersection of music, technology, and now web3 The decision to formalize the Water & Music community into a research DAO harnessing the wisdom of the crowds The shortcomings of early experiments with ...
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 281
Veteran Bitcoin commentator and inventor of Drivechains Paul Sztorc joins the show to talk Bitcoin's sustainability and the role of merged mined side chains. In this episode: Why Paul is the 'Steely Dan' of Bitcoin Revisiting 'Measuring decentralization' Revisiting Paul's argument on Proof of Stake being veiled PoW Why you should roll your own statistics Concentration of power in miners and mining pools Is PoW worthless if it isn't challenged? How Bitcoin energy FUD is based on neo-malthusianism...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 280
Matt and Nic return for deals and news of the week. In this episode: Fidelity's Wise Origin spot Bitcoin ETF is denied Putin walks back the central bank ban on mining NY isn't processing BitLicense applications Facebook is selling their IP being Diem/Libra to Silvergate Ripple buys out their Series C Investors Google's cloud division makes a blockchain push A DeFi protocol founder is revealed to be a former Quadriga executive Are anonymous developers the future? Ark comes out with their Big Idea...
Jan 28, 2022•34 min•Ep. 279
Chris King , Founder & CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors , a digital assets SMA platform, join the show. In this episode, we discuss: Eaglebrook's Series A announcement Chris' path into the digital assets space and the origins of Eaglebrook Advisors Crypto penetration in the RIA and asset management space Inflection points in the market over the last couple years that have put a spotlight on solutions for RIAs and asset managers Key parts of the SMA solution that offer advantages for end clients Ea...
Jan 25, 2022•29 min•Ep. 278
Will Peck, the head of digital asset at WisdomTree joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Will's path to WisdomTree and how the firm began researching digital assets How WisdomTree is approaching exchange traded products in the public blockchain ecosystem Views on the Bitcoin futures ETF products vs. the proposed spot products Views on the various Bitcoin ETF proposals and the prospects of an SEC approval in 2022 Views on tokenization of investment products How 'legacy' asset management fir...
Jan 24, 2022•39 min•Ep. 280
Matt and Nic return for a busy week of deals and news. In this episode: We cover the witness selection for the House energy hearing on Bitcoin mining The SEC goes to war with its employee union The SEC rejects the Skybridge Bitcoin ETF proposal GBTC is trading at a 30% discount Walmart is building its own metaverse Twitter rolls out NFT avis Crypto dot com's ad copy We correct the record on Ari Juels' Congresional testimony on PoW Content mentioned in this episode: Ari Juels' congressional testi...
Jan 21, 2022•34 min•Ep. 279
In this latest installment of the mining miniseries, Iris Energy cofounder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts joins us to talk through their approach to mining. In this episode: How Dan came to work in mining Backgrounds of the Iris executive team Which thinkers influenced Dan in his Bitcoin journey Why Iris focuses on sustainable energy and on only entering energy markets where they will not drive prices up for households How Iris chooses geographies to operate How Iris found abundant underutilized powe...
Jan 20, 2022•51 min•Ep. 278
