Many government officials have noted the potential blockchain technology has to fight fraud, waste and abuse. Tomicah Tillemann, cofounder of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator, assembled an intimate group of 18 people at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center to discuss the ways in which blockchains can be designed in a way that fulfills the technology's most idealistic potential to combat corruption and democratize access, whether to the financial system, the ability to vote or to a self-s...
May 13, 2018•25 min•Ep. 18
Robert Opp, director of innovation and change management at the United Nations World Food Programme, discusses the Ethereum-based food voucher program for Syrian refugees. He describes how the refugees are identified, what they receive with their voucher, and how the system has allowed the program to save a half million dollars a year. He also gives a hint at how the program will be built on for other initiatives. Robert Opp: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/AI/Pages/opp.aspx UN World Food Programme...
May 12, 2018•24 min•Ep. 17
Who sets up the rules of a blockchain? And how does that impact its users? Could there be unintended consequences? Might the design not account for the potential that bad actors will abuse it? These are questions that Cara LaPointe, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, is about to release a framework for blockchain ethics. She and her team came up with six main areas of focus that blockchain designers should be considering from the outset, s...
May 11, 2018•24 min•Ep. 16
Ryan Selkis of blockchain standards organization Messari explains why he jumped into a public debate between CoinDesk editor Pete Rizzo and Vitalik and Ethereum, in which Vitalik criticized CoinDesk for charging high prices for its Consensus conference. He also names some blockchain-based media efforts that can bring new solutions to the media industry and discussion how token-curated registries play a role. Messari: https://messari.io/ Vitalik's tweets about skipping Consensus: https://twitter....
May 07, 2018•22 min•Ep. 15
Vinny Lingham, the founder and CEO of blockchain-based identity service Civic, talks about how he hasn't seen token projects find good product-market fit yet, and gives us a sneak preview of how Civic is trying to solve that problem for itself. (Apparently, an announcement is in the works.) He also discusses how Multicoin Capital, where he is a general partner, takes this view into account when investing and why the firm is a proponent of EOS, set to launch in June. We also dive into why he is b...
May 04, 2018•23 min•Ep. 14
Formerly head of emerging technology at State Street, Hu Liang is now launching Omniex, which offers tools for institutional investors in crypto. He talks at the Time Summit in Greenwich, Connecticut, about the four quadrants of activity he sees in the crypto space, why he thinks private blockchains will still be disruptive, and what institutional players are planning to do in crypto in 2018. He also discusses what concerns they have about getting involved and what Omniex is building to serve th...
Apr 27, 2018•24 min•Ep. 13
At the CoinAlts Fund Symposium in New York City on Thursday, Don Wilson, CEO of DRW Holdings, discussed what hopeful signs he's seeing amid greater regulatory uncertainty, what crypto regulations in other jurisdictions he finds smart, and how the regulatory cloud is affecting the decisions of institutional investors. He also described how DRW's customers changed over 2017, and why the market has dropped in 2018. DRW: https://drw.com SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's recent statements on tokens evolving...
Apr 20, 2018•24 min•Ep. 12
Meltem Demirors of Athena Capital and recently of Digital Currency Group explains how the crypto world is creating artificial scarcity and how investors can uncover the true scarcity (or lack thereof). She describes why many projects have not yet able to create natural demand and how the downturn has affected many of their balance sheets. She also talks about how she's looking for investments and businesses that aren't necessarily sexy but will make money in both bull and bear markets -- and rev...
Apr 13, 2018•25 min•Ep. 11
Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder and author of Cryptoassets, discusses why he thinks initial coin offerings may not always be the best token distribution model, why he's more interested in projects that enable users to earn tokens through contributing to the network, and how token distribution models can be designed to take advantage of the democratizing potential of blockchains. We also discuss why Placeholder uses a ten-year time horizon as it invests in these liquid markets and why regu...
Apr 06, 2018•26 min•Ep. 10
Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, discusses the slump in crypto prices, and how infrastructure rolling out over the rest of the year could have a positive effect on the market. He also describes how BlockTower Capital thinks about security for its assets and what risks they consider. Additionally, we discuss the movement in some parts of the crypto community to build coins to be ASIC-resistant and whether or not that could adversely affect the security of those tokens. BlockTower Capital: htt...
Mar 30, 2018•28 min•Ep. 9
Arianna Simpson, managing partner of investment firm Autonomous Partners, discusses this week's news that Cambridge Analytica had used data from Facebook to perhaps manipulate the 2016 election and whether that could create an opening for blockchain-based decentralized social networks. We also cover the announcement that Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and top individual investors invested $12 million in Cryptokitties and why Simpson thinks the area of digital collectibles could take ...
Mar 23, 2018•20 min•Ep. 8
Wyoming now has five blockchain-specific laws. Caitlin Long, cofounder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, describes what these laws are, what they mean, and how our least populous state became a crypto leader. The former chairman and president of Symbiont explains what this could mean for any project that aims to launch a utility token, whether or not ICOs held in Wyoming would only be available to Wyoming residents, and what big issue she thinks remains for the SEC to address. Caitlin Long: h...
Mar 16, 2018•26 min•Ep. 7
Amber Baldet, JPMorgan Chase blockchain program lead, talks about what she was discussing at SXSW with Hyperledger executive director Brian Behlendorf and what themes she heard at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris. She talks about privacy in financial transactions, how "immutable" blockchains might conflict with a new EU privacy law granting people the "right to be forgotten." And we briefly touch on her work with Jalak Jobanputra's new diversity-focused group Collective Future. Privacy...
Mar 15, 2018•24 min•Ep. 6
As a former government official, current board member of Coinbase and professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Kathryn Haun has a unique and varied view of the crypto space. She doesn't necessarily see the SEC subpoenas as a reason to be alarmed and compares it to her work as a federal prosecutor. We also discuss the FinCen letter and why her take is different from the fear we've seen in the marketplace. SEC issues 80 subpoeast: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-launches-...
Mar 14, 2018•23 min•Ep. 5
Spencer Bogart, partner at Blockchain Capital, discusses why he think Bitcoin's growing pains are a sign of success, how the SEC regulatory gloom could affect the development of crypto and how a liquidity crunch could affect crypto hedge funds. We also take a peek at the coming platform wars. Blockchain Capital: http://blockchain.capital/ New crypto hedge funds: https://hackernoon.com/the-fate-of-crypto-hedge-funds-ca5850e8421c...
Mar 09, 2018•25 min•Ep. 4
Future Perfect Ventures' founder and managing partner Jalak Jobanputra and I discuss the New York Times article earlier this week about how few women there are in crypto. We discuss some of the surprising comments we saw from women in the space who wish the story hadn't been written and Jobanputra's new effort to increase diversity in crypto, The Collective Future. The New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/business/cryptocurrency-women-blockchain-bros.html Jutta Steiner's tw...
Mar 02, 2018•26 min•Ep. 3
Brian Kelly of BKCM talks about token-curated registries, such as the proposal for Messari, by Ryan Selkis, formerly of Digital Currency Group and CoinDesk, and why such TCRs are probably a good idea, but what pitfalls they may face. We also discuss the highly anticipated launch of crypto trading on Robinhood and look behind the scenes at Venezuela's new crypto offering, the petro. Token curated registries: Proposal for Messari: https://medium.com/@twobitidiot/a-token-to-self-regulate-tokens-but...
Feb 23, 2018•25 min•Ep. 2
The founder and CEO of Polychain Capital discusses why an Ethereum core developer is stepping down, how blockchains should be governed and whether speculators and users have equal weight in crypto communities. We also discuss an op-ed that suggests a new crypto-specific regulatory body, and whether or not it's safe for Salon.com to be asking its readers who use ad-blockers to give computer power so Salon.com can mine Monero. Governance issue: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/867#issuecommen...
Feb 16, 2018•22 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe now - first episode coming Friday! Weekly Insights and Analysis From the Top Minds in Crypto. Events in crypto take place at warp speed. This weekly crypto podcast reveals how the marquee names in crypto are reacting to the week’s top headlines. With host Laura Shin, the guests also discuss what they’re thinking about these days and reveal what they believe is on the horizon in crypto. Host Laura Shin - Independent journalist covering crypto (crypto assets, Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, tok...
Feb 09, 2018•32 sec
