Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: USDC gains ground on USDT Stable liquidity is sticky Why fiat-backed stables are still more censor resistant than bank deposits Do stablecoins make L1s unforkable Will the emergence of crypto prime brokers pressure crypto yields? Voyager files for Chapter 11 Should investors also be clients of lending firms they invest in? Circle's origins as a spot crypto broker 3AC files for Chapter 15 Genesis confirms they had 3AC exposu...
Jul 08, 2022•37 min•Ep. 333
Dave Balter and Jim Myers , the founders of Flipside Crypto join the show. In this episode we discuss: The early insights that led to the launch of Flipside Crypto Current market conditions and how Dave compares that to the dot com era The proliferation of NFTs and how the SaaS market will change as a result of this technology How Flipside prioritizes new blockchains ShroomDK , Flipside's latest product release To learn more visit www.flipsidecrypto.xyz...
Jul 07, 2022•29 min•Ep. 332
Matt and Nic return for the news and deals in another tumultuous week. Matt is snubbed by Coin Metrics Nic gets sort of cancelled on Twitter by the Bitcoin hardliners Nic is not a Bitcoin Maximalist Is there a positive, non-maximalist vision of Bitcoin? BlockFi update Our case for wallet-based passwordless authentication CIV's 3AC takes from last week start to be independently confirmed What trade kicked off 3AC's issues? We reminisce over the stolen bike saga BVI and Singapore regulators act on...
Jul 01, 2022•52 min•Ep. 331
Blake King , power markets engineer at Galaxy, formerly of Oak Ridge national lab and ERCOT, joins us to talk about how changing grids are accommodating an influx of load from Bitcoin miners. In this episode: Why the grid is undergoing a radical transformation today Blake's background in electrical engineering, power system modeling, and renewable development The origin of Blake's papers on bitcoin mining and the grid Bitcoiner misconceptions about mining? Why Bitcoin is not a battery Why you ca...
Jun 27, 2022•54 min•Ep. 330
Matt Walsh sits down with BlockFi CEO Zac Prince to cover turmoil in the crypto lending markets and how BlockFi is handling the crisis. In this episode: Is the contagion among lenders over? Was Three Arrows excessive risk taking or fraudulent? BlockFi's relationship with Three Arrows Does BlockFi still have 3AC exposure? BlockFi's plan to maintain all of their products and keep them operational What differentiates BlockFi's risk management from Celsius Asset liability matching Duration managemen...
Jun 24, 2022•38 min•Ep. 329
Matt and Nic return for a fiery episode of deals and news. In this episode: Is miner selling backed up by the on-chain data? Is Massachusetts open to pro-crypto legislation? FTX provides credit support to embattled crypto lenders Why private market transactions do not constitute bailouts in the pejorative sense Was 3 Arrows just a case of too much leverage and bad trades, or was it fraud? Does the 3AC situation stray into criminal territory? There were significant harms stemming from the 3AC sch...
Jun 24, 2022•52 min•Ep. 328
In this episode, host Ria sits down with the co-founders of Starkware, Eli Ben-Sasson and Uri Kolodny to discuss how the team is leveraging STARKs, or validity proofs, to unlock a magnitude increase in scalability. We discuss: The differences between Starkex and Starknet and how the two will converge Enabling functions and applications that cannot be built on monolithic layer 1s Why data availability is important to zk rollups and the trade offs of different approaches Simultaneously solving for...
Jun 20, 2022•56 min•Ep. 327
Nic and Matt are back for a truly chaotic week in the markets. In this episode: Is DeFi's transparency a vice? We reconsider the need for a lender of last resort? We debrief on Consensus How will the Celsius situation resolve? Fidelity doubles down on digital assets Is the Fed trapped by inflation? Was the Celsius situation foreseeable? Where does the next marginal buyer come from? Another crypto lender goes down Class action lawsuit launched against Binance US Circle is launching Euro coin Bill...
Jun 17, 2022•43 min•Ep. 326
Nic and Matt are back for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Greetings from a very hot Consensus in Austin Our takeaways from the Lummis/Gillibrand bill What the NY state mining moratorium means for miners The Central African Republic lays out its plans for Project Sango Custodia Bank is suing the Fed for sitting on their master account application Binance fires back at Reuters We break down a NY Times article on early bitcoin mining NYDFS issues new standards for NY-regulated stableco...
Jun 10, 2022•43 min•Ep. 325
The original roundup cast return for a covid-stricken episode. In this roundup: The boys are laid low with Covid (again!) Nic recounts his visit to Norwegian parliament Nic recaps the Oslo Freedom Forum Are we on the brink of L2 summer? Former Opensea PM is arrested on wire fraud/insider trading charges Is there an insider trading standard for non-securities? Korean prosecutors summon all Terraform Labs staff Biden admin looks to lower the emissions footprint of Bitcoin Two ways for the US Gover...
Jun 03, 2022•36 min•Ep. 324
Andrew Cahill and Saurabh Deshpande of The Block join the show. In this episode we discuss: The Ethereum L2 ecosystem The varying scaling solutions and views on the communities with traction Views on native tokens being launched on these platforms in 2022 Optimistic rollups ZK rollups Learn more by reading the report, " Layer-2 Scaling Solutions: A Framework for Comparison "...
May 31, 2022•26 min•Ep. 323
Matt returns with CMS Holdings' Dan Matuszewski , filling in for Nic, covering deals and news of the week. In this episode: Bitcoiners brief Norwegian policymakers History of the BitLicense Circle's physical BitLicense a16z raises a massive $4.5b fund The effect of VC dry powder on crypto startups Can crypto catch a bid until macro calms down Adam Neumann is back with a blockchain startup FTX attends a heated CFTC roundtable Arthur Hayes gets house arrest and probation Why certain Tether holders...
May 27, 2022•51 min•Ep. 322
Ric Edelman, the founder of Edelman Financial Services and the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Ric's new book The Truth About Crypto His journey in the digital assets industry The current macro backdrop and how cryptoassets should be considered in a portfolio Views on the RIA market and how the crypto discussion is evolving The regulatory landscape, including views on the DoL, SEC and Elizabeth Warren How the Digital Assets Council of...
May 23, 2022•47 min•Ep. 321
Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Was UST/Terra a ponzi or not? Fintech apps put client deposits into Anchor Tradfi yields are competitive with DeFi yields The GBTC discount reaches its highest ever level at -31% MSM crypto hate reaches a fever pitch The World Bank publishes a new paper on crypto adoption The Warren staff have a dossier of mean tweets Will generalist VCs lose interest in web3? El Salvador hosts a Bitcoin summit for a number of central banks...
May 20, 2022•49 min•Ep. 320
Jon Kol and Asa Oines, cofounders of Abacus join the show to talk about the state of the art in cross chain interoperability. In this episode: Career trajectories and why Jon and Asa decided to start Abacus The three eras of interoperability Asset interoperability vs app based interoperability Why asset interoperability might just be a transitional phase Why asset interoperability is more about the creation of derivatives than true portability Application parallelization or duplication versus na...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 319
Matt and Nic cover news and deals of the week. In this episode: The CIV hat snafu Was synthetic USD on Bitmex the first stablecoin? Remembering Mastercoin and seigniorage shares stablecoins Does the Fed have a shadow third mandate? We break down the Luna situation and why it was destined to fail Why the subsidized yields on Anchor were the biggest mistake Likely fallout from the Luna collapse The Terra blockchain is halted Do we actually need algorithmic stablecoins? SBF acquires a stake in Robi...
May 13, 2022•38 min•Ep. 318
Mark Lamb , co-founder and CEO of CoinFLEX joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Mark's entrepreneurial path in the cryptocurrency industry and the insight behind starting CoinFLEX The history and market landscape for crypto derivatives platforms The state of the stablecoin market and how flexUSD is positioning for USA launch The regulatory environment and how this is impacting trading venues and stablecoin issuers. To learn more visit coinflex.com and follow Mark on Twitter...
May 09, 2022•36 min•Ep. 317
Nic and Matt return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Matt's takeaways from the Medici conference The rapid growth of ZKPs We review Brink Nation posts on GM We look back at the history of the FUD dice Are tungsten dice possible? Big thunderstorm in Miami Is the crypto industry sitting out the recession? We consider the merits of virtual real estate Does proximity matter in the metaverse? Metaverse land rights and NIMBYism The Bitcoin Mining Council letter to the EPA and what moti...
May 06, 2022•41 min•Ep. 316
TeraWulf cofounder and CEO Paul Prager joins us to talk about his experience building a vertically-integrated, zero carbon Bitcoin miner. In this installment of the mining miniseries we cover: Paul's career trajectory from coal trading to energy infrastructure to Bitcoin Beowulf's deal with Marathon and their entry into Bitcoin How TeraWulf distinguishes itself from other Bitcoin miners Why TeraWulf has an explicit ESG focus Zero carbon and how that differs from 'carbon neutral' The importance o...
May 02, 2022•46 min•Ep. 315
Matt and Nic are back with news and deals of the week, joined by Dave Gray, Head of Workplace Retirement Offerings and Platforms at Fidelity Investments, who joins us to talk about Fidelity's new Bitcoin 401(k) product. In this episode: Are airdrops taxable? CheckTemplateVerify drama in Bitcoin Central African Republic apparently adopts Bitcoin as legal tender NY State Assembly passes a bill banning Bitcoin mining with fossil fuels Fidelity adds Bitcoin to 401ks Will deep deplatforming on the in...
Apr 29, 2022•48 min•Ep. 314
Longtime Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton re-joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Bruce's career and the events that led him to discovering Bitcoin Bitcoin's social layer and how Bruce has managed to stay close to the project through so many chapters of the journey His view on the tokenization of securities and why he is so optimistic on this technology Why Bruce decided to run for Senate and what issues he is fighting for Views on big tech, the future of the U.S. dollar and more His outlook for Bi...
Apr 27, 2022•37 min•Ep. 313
Pat Larsen , founder and CEO of crypto tax prep company ZenLedger , joins the show for a timely discussion on how investors should be thinking about taxes this tax season. In this episode: The outlook for crypto taxes in 2022 Tax accounting for specific transactions Clarifications and improvements to tax regulation ZenLedger provides a platform that makes it easy for users to aggregate transactions across centralized and decentralized venues and measure their crypto tax impact. The team publishe...
Apr 25, 2022•39 min•Ep. 312
Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The OTB music debate rages on Nic survives Covid Should we bring back dueling? Ancient altcoin dramas Coinbase launches NFTs Elon has financing to buy Twitter Product suggestions for Twitter The US sanctions Russian miners BitRiver Is Russia remonetizing gold? Australia gets a spot BTC ETF North Korean hackers are active in crypto Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter...
Apr 22, 2022•41 min•Ep. 311
Adam Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Braintrust , a web3 talent network joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Marketplace business models and how web3 models will improve on web2 dynamics How Adam came to the insight to launch Braintrust and how the platform works The regulatory environment in the United States and how Adam sees web3 evolving over time Other marketplace categories where Adam sees opportunities for community owned networks Adam's view on the venture landscape and how that ha...
Apr 20, 2022•33 min•Ep. 310
We sit down with Ohio Senate Candidate Josh Mandel to cover his race, platform, and Bitcoin advocacy. Josh's political origins and why he is running for Senate in Ohio Josh's time as Ohio state treasurer and his Ohio state checkbook initiative Why Josh pioneered Ohio's acceptance of Bitcoin for tax payments How Bitcoin values mirror American values Why Bitcoin support ought to stay nonpartisan The state of the Ohio primary and Josh's prospects The political prudence of making Bitcoin such a key ...
Apr 18, 2022•30 min•Ep. 309
Matt and Nic return for a post-conference episode. This week we cover: The FDIC asks banks to go slow on crypto integrations Blackrock is studying cryptoassets and invests in USDC Blockchain.com partners with the Dallas Cowboys Virginia will allow state chartered banks to custody cryptocurrency Balaji's decentralization inflation index winner is announced Why this current CPI print is misleading Blockstream Block and Tesla are mining Bitcoin with solar Celcius shuts down their retail-facing lend...
Apr 15, 2022•42 min•Ep. 308
In the second episode in our modular blockchain mini-series, we sat down with John Adler , the inventor of optimistic rollups and co-founder of Fuel and Celestia . Fuel is the fastest execution layer for the modular blockchain stack. The technology enables parallel transaction execution and offers flexible throughput and the highest security required to scale. FuelVM offers developers a superior experience and the ability to go beyond limitations faced by the EVM and other virtual machines. In o...
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 307
Socket Supply Co founder and CEO Paolo Fragomeni joins the show to discuss what web3 is and isn't – and what it should be. In this episode: Paolo's start writing modem software and BBS in the pre-modern web days What delineated web 1.0 from web 2.0 The single request that really made web 2.0 possible How today's web is limited by incumbents When did web 3.0 really emerge? What distinguishes it from 2.0? Best definitions of web3? State of the web in terms of centralization and prospects from here...
Apr 13, 2022•50 min•Ep. 306
Andrew Myers and Brock Petersen of Satoshi Energy join the show to cover how Bitcoin mining monetizes renewables. In this episode we cover: Andrew and Brock's origin story How Satoshi Energy develops sites and infrastructure for miners Is Satoshi Energy explicitly renewable focused? How mining with intermittent renewables can be economical How Bitcoin mining improves the economics of renewables The merits of the behind the meter approach How using Bitcoin as an offtake improves the economics of ...
Apr 11, 2022•51 min•Ep. 305
Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Mora et al rears its head again Chris Larsen and Greenpeace team up to try and eliminate PoW from Bitcoin Who is the protagonist in the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit? Rep. Stephen Lynch introduces the ECASH Act Axie Infinity suffers a $625m hack Is there any debate remaining about the utility of Bitcoin? Circle selects BNY Mellon to custody their own assets Grayscale mulls a lawsuit against the SEC over their continued ETF disappro...
Apr 01, 2022•42 min•Ep. 304
