Coy Garrison, former counsel to SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce and partner at Steptoe & Johnson, discusses the role of regulation in the crypto industry and what the SEC could be doing to make crypto a better space. Show notes: how Coy started working with crypto why Coy decided to leave the SEC why recent comments by SEC chair Gary Gensler made him hopeful in how the SEC approaches crypto how the crypto industry has grown and evolved over the years whether the regulations are impeding innovatio...
May 27, 2022•37 min•Ep. 356
Cobie, co-founder of Lido and UpOnlyTv, and Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder Ventures, talk about surviving a crypto bear market, the Terra collapse, lessons they’ve learned from their mistakes, and much more. Show highlights: whether Chris and Cobie think crypto is in a bear market why Chris says these are the times to buy what effect the Terra debacle will have on the crypto industry why Chris was expecting UST to blow up why Chris thinks there is going to be another massive liquidation ...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 355
Tascha Che, founder of Tascha Labs, unpacks the Terra/Luna debacle and reveals what she believes are the five main takeaways from its collapse. Here are some highlights from the show: how stablecoin issuers make money what caused Terra’s downfall why Tascha is bullish on algo stablecoins whether she believes undercollateralized stablecoins can work how fast market cap expansion without actual network effect equals death for stablecoins why she doesn’t believe a stablecoin’s network effects mean ...
May 20, 2022•41 min•Ep. 354
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Kevin Zhou, the CEO of Galois Capital and long-time critic of UST, also joined the conversation. Show topics: the UST depeg and Terra collapse Kevin on what it was like being one of the earliest naysayers of LUNA why Kevin believes that UST initially depegged and became a “fear cascade” how Galois Capital traded the UST depe...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 353
Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Venture, Eric Wall, former Chief Investment Officer of Arcane Assets, and Erik Voorhees, founder of ShapeShift, discuss what happened with the TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA fiasco, Do Kwon’s responsibility, the impact on the crypto ecosystem, and much more. Show highlights: how Erik used to feel that algo stablecoins were impossible and why he changed his mind why Eric considers that the demand for UST was tied to a sh*tcoin why Nic didn’t think LUNA would ...
May 17, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 352
Jon Wu, head of growth at Aztec Network, recaps a historically chaotic week in the Terra ecosystem that saw $UST depeg, Anchor depositors flee, and $LUNA fall 99%. Show highlights: how $UST, $LUNA, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), and Anchor Protocol are supposed to work why Jon compares the Terra blockchain with VISA, LFG with the Fed, and Do Kwon with Jerome Powell how a previous $UST de-peg foreshadowed this week’s dystopian price action how a bitcoin short seemed to have kickstarted $UST’s depeg...
May 13, 2022•51 min•Ep. 351
Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, and Ben Jones, cofounder and chief scientist at Optimism Foundation, discuss the current state of Ethereum Layer 2s, Optimism’s new governance structure, why Synthetix chose to build on Optimism, and more. Show topics: what Optimism and Synthetix are how zero-knowledge rollups differ from optimistic rollups why Synthetix decided to build on Optimism what makes L2s more enticing to build on than other L1s how Optimism’s governance is going to change with the la...
May 10, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 350
Eric Golden, the owner of BAYC #7560 and host of Web3 Breakdowns, discusses the Otherdeed NFT drop that stalled Ethereum and burned over $150 million worth of ether. Show topics: what the Otherdeed mint is Why Yuga Labs had buyers undergo a know-your-customer process in order to mint the NFTs why Eric was pretty certain a gas war was imminent in the hours leading up to the mint how KYC’d addresses played into the Otherdeed mint what Eric thought about Yuga Labs’s decision to scrap a Dutch auctio...
May 06, 2022•41 min•Ep. 349
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Andre Cronje, the recently retired (sort of) DeFi developer, also joined the conversation. Show topics: why being doxxed led to Andre retiring (sort of) from crypto Andre’s response to Robert who calledl his departure from DeFi “an epic rug pull” why Andre is back – and why he is working on “regulated” crypto...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 348
André Allen Anjos, who is better known as the crypto-friendly artist RAC, and David Greenstein, co-founder of Sound.xyz, a web3 music platform, analyze the current state of the web3 music scene and discuss how artists can leverage web3 tools to get paid at fair market value for their art. Show highlights: RAC’s experience in the traditional music industry why David believes music is the most undervalued sector in the world – and how Sound and crypto can help value it correctly the different type...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 347
Chris Perkins, president of CoinFund, a web3 investment firm, discusses his experience at the Crypto Bahamas conference before diving into an FTX.US proposal that would allow for direct trading of crypto derivatives in the US – which appears to be rocking the boat of certain regulators in D.C. Show topics: Chris’s two biggest takeaways from his Crypto Bahamas experience how Chris’s experience at Lehman Brothers and Citi prepared him for crypto what issues arise via the plumbing of traditional fi...
Apr 29, 2022•39 min•Ep. 346
Amy Wu, head of FTX ventures and gaming initiatives, discusses her role at FTX, what problems need to be addressed in the web3 gaming world, and her thoughts on APE and Yuga Labs as a board member of Apecoin DAO and investor in Yuga Labs. Show highlights: what Amy does at FTX how her background investing in gaming prepared her for her role at FTX Amy’s vision for FTX’s gaming studio how FTX is helping gaming studios get into web3 and NFTs why Amy thinks blockchain games are the evolution of the ...
Apr 26, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 345
Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, discusses a proposed rule by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that has massive implications for the free-speech rights of crypto software developers in the US. Show highlights: why an SEC proposal changing the definition of “exchange” could violate the right to free speech of US crypto developers whether the SEC is going after DeFi on purpose – as its 200+ page proposal never mentions crypto or DeFi what precedent Peter has fou...
Apr 22, 2022•43 min•Ep. 344
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Laura Shin, the host of Unchained and author of The Cryptopians, also joined the conversation. Show topics: how people have responded to The Cryptopians why traditional publishers were reticent to publish the story revealing the alleged DAO attacker’s identity what lessons can be learned from North Korea’s alleged involvemen...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 343
Two policy experts, Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, and Niki Christoff, the founder of Christoff and Co., discuss how the crypto industry has performed in Washington and how it can better educate more regulators and politicians about the technology. Show highlights: Niki and Chris’ background how Niki and Chris would grade the performance of crypto companies in Washington what parallels Chris can draw between crypto in the 2020s and FAANG in the mid-90s whether having a pl...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 342
Tim Beiko, the Ethereum Foundation coordinator for core developers, discusses his recent estimation that Ethereum’s merge, where the network transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, will be delayed until the second half of 2022. Show topics: what the Ethereum merge is why an upcoming difficulty bomb could force developers to delay the merge what shadow forks are and how they affect the decision to go forward with the merge how network difficulty is used in Ethereum to keep a balance bet...
Apr 15, 2022•36 min•Ep. 341
Stuart Levi, co-head of the Technology Transaction and Intellectual Property Group at Skadden Arps, and Marta Belcher, general counsel and Head of Policy at Protocol Labs, break down the legal issues surrounding NFTs specifically in the context of Yuga Labs’ recent purchase of CryptoPunks and Meebits IP rights. Show highlights: the definitions and differences between copyrights, trademarks, and rights of publicity (name, image, likeness) how NFT projects have evolved in the past 12-18 months and...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 340
Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galois Capital, discusses a crazy week in the world of algorithmic stablecoins that saw USDN de-peg from the dollar and Terra unveil plans to create a new liquidity pool on Curve to strengthen UST. Show highlights: how USDN and Waves works what made USD de-peg why Kevin thinks algorithmic stablecoins fail so often what Kevin thinks about backing UST with BTC how 4pool works in the context of Curve Finance, 3pool, UST, Frax Finance, and Redacted Cartel why Kevin believes...
Apr 08, 2022•45 min•Ep. 339
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. Show topics: how social engineering was used in the $600 million+ Ronin bridge hack what bridge infrastructure needs to be built (note: if someone wants to build a cross-chain Etherscan, it sounds like Tarun would fund it) why the Inverse Finance hack impressed Tom how Open Zeppelin found and patched a $15 billion vulnerabili...
Apr 07, 2022•56 min•Ep. 338
Mike Brock, general manager of TBD at Block, discusses how TBD’s yet-to-be-released DEX is structured, explains why he thinks decentralized solutions do not necessarily need blockchains, and tells the humorous story about how Jack Dorsey convinced him to start working on a Bitcoin project. Show highlights: what TBD is and what its relation to Block (formerly Square) is how TBD differs from Spiral, another Block-based Bitcoin firm how tbDEX works and why building on-ramps and off-ramps to crypto ...
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 337
Arjun Bhuptani, founder of Connext and bridging expert, breaks down the Ronin bridge exploit that led to a hacker stealing $600 million+ and discusses different bridge designs that could limit future attacks. Show highlights: how a hacker was able to drain more than $600 million from Ronin bridge the difference between DeFi hacks and the Ronin bridge exploit, which was a social-engineering based attack why multisig bridges are susceptible to social engineering attacks why Arjun believes the Roni...
Apr 01, 2022•44 min
Do Kwon is the CEO of Terraform Labs and a director at Luna Foundation Guard. On Unchained, he explains why LFG is spearheading a plan to partially back Terra’s $15 billion stablecoin UST with Bitcoin. He also dives into another project idea that would transform developer salaries into financial assets that, as far as I can tell, he has not yet spoken about publicly. Part 1: Everything you need to know about Terra, UST, and BTC. how Terra works and why Do thinks UST will soon be the third-larges...
Mar 29, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 335
Andy Beal, head of ecosystem development at Forta and author of the 30,000 Feet newsletter, discusses the dramatic governance proposal on Juno Network, a Cosmos-based project, where Juno holders are voting to confiscate millions of dollars in tokens from a whale who allegedly gamed the Juno airdrop. Show topics: how the Juno airdrop worked how the whale was able to amass more JUNO tokens than the team wanted why the Juno Network community feels threatened by an entity holding so many JUNO tokens...
Mar 25, 2022•38 min•Ep. 334
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this week’s episode, Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, also dropped by. Show topics: why Do decided to make millions of dollars in bets that LUNA will appreciate in value next year what Robert and Do, as crypto/DeFi founders, think about Crypto Twitter how the difficulty of building payment systems led to Do launching Terra Gauntlet’s...
Mar 24, 2022•55 min•Ep. 333
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder NEAR Protocol, and George Kikvadze, executive vice chairman at BitFury Group, both of whom have called Ukraine “home” at one point in their lives, discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the role crypto is playing in the war, and the various avenues crypto users can donate to. Show topics: George and Illia’s background in crypto George and Ilia’s connection to Ukraine why crypto is so popular in Ukraine what supplies are being purchased with donated crypto how to donat...
Mar 22, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 322
In his first podcast appearance ever, Punk6529, known for writing massive threads on Crypto Twitter, discusses the cultural and historical significance of Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs purchasing the intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. Topics: how CryptoPunks set the industry standard for PFP projects how Bored Ape Yacht Club distinguished itself from CryptoPunks – and other NFT projects why 6529 is bullish on the utility of intellectual property rig...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 331
Jack of all metaverse-trades Chase Chapman discusses her experience working for DAOs, how DAO tooling and governance can improve, and drops a hot take about Discord. Chase brings a unique perspective to Unchained as a co-founder and advisor at Decentology, host of On the Other Side podcast, and active DAO contributor at Orca, Index Coop, and Rabbit Hole. Show topics: how Chase got into crypto new avenues for bringing more women into crypto how DAOs change the nature of work how Chase gets paid –...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 330
Chris Harland-Dunaway, a freelance reporter for The Verge, talks about his most recent investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun, which details a long string of questionable decisions and actions by Sun. Show topics: why Justin Sun fled China after the Tron ICO why Chris’s 15 sources were granted anonymity for this story why Chris believes that Tron’s market-making team was performing insider trading how Justin Sun has tried to evade US securities law what “Operation Couch Cushions” was and...
Mar 11, 2022•43 min•Ep. 329
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Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 328
While researching for The Cryptopians, I discovered that Andrey Ternovskiy, the founder of internet sensation Chatroulette, was heavily involved in The DAO back in 2016. In this episode, we skirt around revealing major spoilers from The Cryptopians and discuss Andrey’s experience founding Chatroulette, how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole, whether hacking smart contracts is ethical, and more. Show topics: Andrey’s background how Andrey’s struggles with PayPal at Chatroulette led him to quickl...
Mar 08, 2022•50 min•Ep. 327
