Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, and Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, debate the merits of Ethereum, Solana, and Binance Smart Chain. In this episode, they discuss:  why Ethereum is losing market share to Solana and BSC whether decentralization matters and at what point decentralization becomes redundant why they think Solana and Binance Smart Chain need to be taken seriously as competitors to EThereum whether BSC or Solana is the bigger long-term threat to Ethereum the biggest obstacle to Ethereum’s success (and it’s not gas fees) how Ethereum will navigate fragmented Layer 2 solutions Solana and its lack of developers what differentiates DeFi from CeFi why Solana has an edge on Ethereum in terms of composability&nbsp; how Ethereum will onboard new users why Kain is such an ardent backer of Ethereum why both Kyle and Kain think EIP 1559 and the potential for higher ETH prices is bad for Ethereum if Synthetix would ever consider launching a cross-chain product the viability of a multi-chain world why Kyle believes the future holds a winner-take-most blockchain ecosystem  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! E&amp;Y: &nbsp; : &nbsp; Kyber Network: &nbsp; &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; People Kyle Samani  Twitter: &nbsp; Multicoin Capital: &nbsp;  Kain Warwick  Twitter:&nbsp;  Synthetix: &nbsp;  &nbsp; Content Kain’s tweet that instigated this pod:    Multicoin Blogs:  New $100m fund focused on Solana   &nbsp;   BNB Investment + valuation   &nbsp;   Investment in Solana   &nbsp;   Ethereum analysis        Value Capture at Layers 1 and 2   &nbsp;    Kain Warwick and Sam Bankman Fried podcast  &nbsp;  Comparing AMMs on different blockchains  &nbsp;  BSC and Solana NFT platforms   &nbsp;  Overview of Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum    Binance Smart Chain guide    Solana guide

How Solana and Binance Smart Chain Could Take Ethereum's Lead - Ep.240

Do Kwon, cofounder of Terraform Labs, was recently served subpoenas by the US Securities and Exchange Commission during Messari’s mainnet event, leading Kwon and Terraform to preemptively sue the SEC. On Unconfirmed, Kwon discusses:  what Terraform Labs does and how it is building its DeFi ecosystem around TerraUSD ($UST) why Terraform Labs created its synthetics protocol, Mirror, and how it works what Do thinks about the SEC’s investigation into Mirror what happened to Do at Messari’s mainnet event why the SEC’s approach to crypto regulation does not impact Do very much what Do thinks about how US regulators are treating crypto companies how Do would regulate the crypto industry why he believes the current state of crypto regulation doesn’t work in a global context why he says the SEC couldn’t do anything to TerraUSD -- even if it wanted to what two characteristics are critical in building a decentralized protocol how the crypto industry could improve security in light of the $130 million Cream Finance hack  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! Avado: &nbsp; Crypto.com: &nbsp; Nodle: &nbsp; &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Do Kwon  Twitter: &nbsp;  &nbsp; Terra  Twitter: &nbsp; Website: &nbsp; Terra ecosystem: &nbsp;  &nbsp; SEC Lawsuit  CoinDesk   &nbsp;   Terraform V SEC   &nbsp;   Stephen Palley   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Messari Mainnet Serving  &nbsp;  &nbsp; Miscellaneous  SEC charging Abra      Stablecoin market cap comparison   ​​&nbsp;

Unconfirmed: Why Terraform Labs Cofounder Do Kwon Is Unfazed by US Regulators - Ep.285

Maren Altman is a professional astrologer and crypto trader. On Unchained, she discusses her end-of-year price target for Bitcoin, how crypto fits into her natal chart, and how she uses planets to divine the price movement of crypto assets. Highlights:  why Maren believes she was born to trade cryptocurrencies how long-term planetary transits explain the rise of cryptocurrency why the transits of Uranus, North Node, and Jupiter could lead to a big, extremely innovative “metaverse/cyber pandemic/internet of things” development in spring 2023 how Maren determines the “natal chart” (a birth chart that determines a person or entity’s astrological chart) for cryptocurrencies how Maren uses astrology to trade cryptocurrencies Maren’s price prediction for BTC for the end of the year what astrological factors make Maren think BTC could crash after December 30th Maren’s EOY projections for ETH what Maren thinks about crypto regulation why Maren thinks CBDCs are inevitable whether Maren feels giving alpha for free via TikTok hurts her trading  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! Avado:  Crypto.com: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nodle: &nbsp; &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Maren Altman  TikTok:  Twitter: &nbsp;&nbsp; Instagram: &nbsp; Youtube:

Unconfirmed: Why Astrologer Maren Altman Believes 2023 Will Bring an Innovative 'Cyber Pandemic' - Ep.293

On Unchained, two co-founders of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, dive deeply into the Solana ecosystem, discussing everything from the price of SOL to the Solana network outage to the competition between Ethereum and Solana. Show highlights:  why Raj thinks SOL’s market cap grew from $86 million to $68 billion in less than a year Anatoly’s and Raj’s background and how they found themselves working together to build Solana why Anatoly thinks Solana will be a general-purpose blockchain rather than specializing in gaming or high frequency trading Anatoly’s goal to make Solana the first billion-user blockchain why Raj thinks NFTs on Solana have been so popular why, in the opinion of Raj and Anatoly, Solana’s purpose has shifted away from high-frequency trading how NFTs could replace ads why “everything is DeFi” how Solana Labs plans to allocate the recent $314 million funding round it raised what lessons Anatoly learned from the 18-hour September network outage technically speaking, what happened to cause Solana’s network outage why Anatoly believes that outages, at this stage, aren’t necessarily a bad thing whether “trading mercenaries” dominated at Solana Breakpoint why developers are interested in building on Solana how Solana and Ethereum compare as execution and settlement layers why Raj doesn’t like framing competition between Solana and Ethereum as a fight how Anatoly views the competition between Ethereum and Solana whether the arrival of Neon Labs, which is bringing EVM to Solana, could lead to developers leaving Ethereum how NFTs and Phantom wallets are bringing in new users for Solana whether Raj and Anatoly would roll back Solana if something like Ethereum’s DAO hack were to occur why Solana has the competitive advantage in throughput, according to Anatoly what would happen if FTX cofounder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave up on Solana their predictions for Solana five years from now  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Nodle: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Brave:  &nbsp; Episode Links: &nbsp; Anatoly Yakovenko  &nbsp;  &nbsp; Raj Gokal  &nbsp;  &nbsp; Solana News  Anatoly Yakovenko -- ​​ It ‘doesn’t really matter’ if the network goes down again   &nbsp;   Neon Labs      Aave + SushiSwap going to Solanas through Neon Labs   &nbsp;       Solana + Brave integration   &nbsp;   ATH at $260   &nbsp;   Solana Breakpoint   &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;   FTX US + Solana NFTs   &nbsp;   Solana Outage   The Block’s coverage   &nbsp; &nbsp;   Why the mainnet went down   &nbsp;&nbsp;   Potential ramifications   &nbsp;   Anatoly Yakovenko Solana outage tweets       &nbsp;     Solana $314M Fundraise   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Solana Topics  Raj thinks Ethereum cannot be killed      NFT Growth   &nbsp; &nbsp; Pplpleasr   &nbsp;     Investment in gaming   Forte   &nbsp;   Alexis Ohanian investment   &nbsp;   FTX + Solana   &nbsp;     Phantom wallet hits 1M+ users       &nbsp; Solana Basics  CoinMonk: &nbsp; Solana Labs: &nbsp; The Tie: &nbsp; Binance.Research: &nbsp; Genesis Block: &nbsp; Block Explorers:  +  + &nbsp; Messari:

Will Solana Be the Execution Layer and Ethereum the Settlement Layer? - Ep.294

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. Show topics:  Analyzing the market drawdown Twitter-native NFTs + Crypto Coven LooksRare — real or BS? Solana’s disappointing network performance What broke during the market downturn: OHM, Solend, and MakerDAO Predictions for market action going forward  &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Hosts  Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital      Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital      Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures   &nbsp;   Robert Leshner, founder of Compound&nbsp;   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Background on certain topics covered:  Twitter NFTs      Loot adding royalties      LooksRare versus OpenSea      Tom’s issue w/ Dune queries      Robert and his Crypto Coven NFT   &nbsp;   Rune’s tweet about MakerDAO   &nbsp;   Solana’s poor performance       Block’s DEX   &nbsp;

The Chopping Block: Why the Lack of a Fee Market Created 'Bread Lines' on Solana - Ep.313

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 rights and commercial use being granted to NFT holders by Yuga Labs why 6529 believes Yuga Labs will be good stewards of CryptoPunks how NFTs (and Bitcoin) are leveraging memes and social construction to go mainstream&nbsp; what 6529 thinks Larva Labs’ legacy will be in the NFT space how royalty revenue streams led to the Yuga Labs purchase of Meebits and CryptoPunk IP why 6529 is unsure about the significance of metaverse real estate what 6529 thinks about ApeCoin  Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Coinchange: &nbsp;&nbsp; OnJuno:  &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; 6529  Twitter: &nbsp; Threads:   &nbsp; Miscellaneous  Yuga Labs purchase of Larva Labs IP: &nbsp; Yuga Labs metaverse land plans:  ApeCoin: &nbsp; Punk 6529 on the Yuga Labs purchase: &nbsp;

Punk6529 on the Significance of Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks - Ep.331

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. &nbsp; 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-largest stablecoin why Do and LFG decided to back UST with bitcoin why Do thinks LUNA’s price will continue to appreciate despite UST’s new dependence on bitcoin how UST might perform if the price of a bitcoin were to crash why diversifying UST with different types of collateral could help Terra politically how LFG plans to use bridges, smart contracts, and an AMM reserve pool to secure its bitcoin why Do thinks Terra is now a Layer 2 project for Bitcoin who is deciding to purchase bitcoin and who determines what other assets to purchase as collateral for UST how a bitcoin reserve pool would help UST not de-peg from the dollar whether Do thinks Anchor’s 19%+ yield is sustainable and why Anchor is moving to other chains  &nbsp; Part 2: Do, the self-described “toymaker” of DeFi.  why Do is fascinated with creating a fungible labor market how developer working hours could become a token traded on an AMM and used to take out loans why Do thinks developer salaries in crypto should be cyclical how on-chain identity and history will be similar to credit scores why Do is a personal fan of Thorchain – but is reticent to use it as a bridge for LFG why Do is interested in Prism Protocol what Do thinks the impact of a pro-crypto president will have on South Korea  &nbsp; Book events Keep up on all the latest events here!&nbsp;  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Beefy Finance: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cross River Bank:  &nbsp; Upcoming Book Events Wednesday, March 30: I’ll be speaking (remotely) with Six Senses about The Cryptopians at 2 pm ET. Be sure to save your spot soon – space is limited! &nbsp; Tuesday, April 5: I will be doing a reading and signing hosted by the City of Miami Beach and Future Perfect Ventures at Sky Yard from 6-8 pm. Jalak Jobanputra, CEO of Future Perfect Ventures will be interviewing me. You need to RSVP by April 1 to dianafontani@miamibeachfl.gov.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Saturday, April 9: I will be on a panel at the Annapolis Book Festival at 11 am.&nbsp; &nbsp; Tuesday, April 12: I will be at StartupGrind’s global event in Redwood City, which is focused this year on Web3 (time → TBD).&nbsp; &nbsp; May 4-7: I will be in conversation with author Jimmy Soni at the PBS Seattle Crosscut Festival, which takes place from May 4-7.&nbsp; &nbsp; May 23-25: I will be at the Oslo Freedom Forum which takes place from May 23 to 25. Details on these events are TBD.&nbsp; &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Do Kwon   Previous Unchained appearance: &nbsp;  &nbsp; Terra  Twitter: &nbsp; Luna Foundation Guard:   &nbsp; LFG Purchases  Pomp – the $10B Bitcoin Bet on Stablecoins      3/10 BTC purchase   &nbsp;   $1 BTC billion purchase   &nbsp;   TFL x LFG relationship   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Terraform Labs proposal to make Terra inter-chain  &nbsp; Anchor Going Cross Chain to Avalanche   &nbsp;  Jump’s BTC reserve proposal  &nbsp;  &nbsp; Recent worries about Anchor APY being sustainable&nbsp;  Do said Anchor yield shouldn't be sustainable (marketing scheme)   &nbsp;     Arca + Polychain proposal: &nbsp;  &nbsp; South Korea’s new President  &nbsp;  &nbsp; SEC subpoena  &nbsp;

Do Kwon Is Backing UST With Bitcoin – And Here’s What Else He Is Building - Ep.335

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 what that means for the rights of NFT holders why NBA Top Shot’s licensing model is the best model for famous brands entering the NFT space how the popularity of PFPs and the open-source ethos of crypto has led to confusion regarding the commercial rights of NFT holders what you are getting when you buy an NFT (hint, it’s not copyright) the misconceptions surrounding Yuga Labs’ acquisition of Crypto Punks and Meebits why Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders most likely cannot use the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand or logo what issues web3 projects face in getting NFT holders to accept terms and conditions why web3 projects should protect their trademark what a Creative Commons license is, and how it can be used in the NFT space what sort of licenses exist in the NFT space why secondary sales and transfers of NFTs pose such massive problems for copyright and trademark owners how marketplaces are handling terms and conditions what NFT projects can do to help the transfer of copyrights and trademarks  &nbsp; Announcing The Cryptopians Book Clubs! On April 26th, I will be selling NFT tickets to five 90-minute virtual book clubs in which 22 people can discuss "The Cryptopians" with me and with each other — without worrying about spoilers! Two of the book clubs will also feature special guests.&nbsp; &nbsp; The sale will go live on Tuesday, April 26, at 1pm ET/10am PT,&nbsp; and tickets will be $100 each. (The sale will be on Bitski, but the NFTs will not be visible until the sale goes live on the 26th):  &nbsp; Here is the schedule:&nbsp;  Monday May 2, at 8pm ET/5pm PT with Laura Shin Tuesday, May 3, at a time TBD with guests Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, and Griff Green&nbsp; Thursday, May 5, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with Laura Shin Monday, May 9, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with guest Andrey Ternovskiy Tuesday, May 10, at 9pm CET/3pm ET/12pm PT with Laura Shin  If you'd like to participate, be sure to mark your calendars for the sale time on April 26th. Hope to see you in one of the book clubs!    Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Beefy Finance: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cross River Bank:  Galaxis:  &nbsp; Episode Link: &nbsp; Marta Belcher  &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp; Stuart Levi      Content on NFT IP/Legal Issues  Josh Durham on IP rights and NFTs      Punk 6529 on CryptoPunks and Yuga Labs      Decrypt on stolen IP      Why IP rights are meaningless      IP questions from DC Investor      The Copyright NFT bible   &nbsp;   What Exactly Do You Get When You Buy an NFT? Three Lawyers Discuss       &nbsp; Difference between copyright and trademark  ​​  &nbsp;

Excited About Your Bored Ape or CryptoPunk? Make Sure You Understand Your IP Rights - Ep.340

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”&nbsp; why Andre is back – and why he is working on “regulated” crypto products how the Otherside KYC’d NFT drop was an “absolute fail” where identity fits into the crypto space and why traditional and DeFi institutions alike are interested in the identity of their users Dalle 2 why the Bored Ape community likely sees the Yuga Labs Otherdeed NFT sale as a turning point why Robert would compare buying a BAYC NFT last year to purchasing BTC in 2010 main takeaways from Solana’s seven-hour outage and why designing a mempool (or multiple) is critical for the chain &nbsp;  &nbsp; Hosts &nbsp;  Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital      Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital      Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures   &nbsp;     Robert Leshner, founder of Compound&nbsp;   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Guest  Andre Cronje, DeFi OG   &nbsp;    &nbsp; Show Topics &nbsp;  Andre Cronje’s Retirement      Andre Cronje’s return to regulated crypto   &nbsp;   Solana outage&nbsp;        Yuga Labs rakes in $317MM from the sale of Otherside land NFTs and causes huge congestion on Ethereum.

The Chopping Block: Did Andre Cronje Pull an Epic Crypto Rug Pull? - Ep.348

Shaun Maguire and Michelle Bailhe, partners at Sequoia, discuss their long term view and thesis about crypto, what do they look for to invest in a crypto project, the takeaways from the blowup of Terra, the insolvency of crypto companies, and much more. Show highlights:  what is Sequoia’s long term view and thesis about the crypto industry how different our lives will look in 20 years from now due to blockchain technology how Sequoia had to adapt to invest in this new asset class and what are the similarities and differences with investing in traditional startups when a product or service on the internet should be offered in a decentralized or centralized way how Sequoia decides whether to invest in the entity behind a project or in the tokens whether having venture capitalists involved at all goes against the ethos of decentralization why Shaun believes that Ethereum proved that decentralization can be achieved even when you start being centralized whether people underestimate the value that VCs can add to a project why Shaun believes that Solana is moving towards decentralization Sequoia’s thesis about privacy in crypto and the potential of zero-knowledge proofs&nbsp; how Michelle sees the macroeconomic environment impacting crypto and whether this cycle is different from the previous ones the importance of product market fit in crypto projects what crypto projects should be focusing on and the business model they should be pursuing the main takeaways of the Terra collapse and how it was a major setback for algo stablecoins how crypto founders should always do the right thing even though there is no clear regulation whether SBF is the Berkshire Hathaway of crypto today the lessons to be learned from the potential insolvency of some crypto lenders and investment firms how demand for blockspace will keep increasing and whether a single blockchain could supply all that space the future of the metaverse and how it can be defined Michelle’s mental model for crypto and the phases for achieving worldwide adoption  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! &nbsp; :  Beefy Finance:  Ava Labs:    EPISODE LINKS &nbsp; Shaun Maguire:&nbsp;  Twitter:  Sequoia Profile:   &nbsp; Michelle:&nbsp;  Twitter:  Sequoia Profile:  Michelle’s investment thesis:     Bear Market:  Michelle’s Twitter thread:  Insolvency of crypto lenders:   Voyager:  BlockFi:  Celsius:  Celsius possible bankruptcy:    Previous Unchained Coverage:   &nbsp;Why Possible Insolvencies by Celsius and 3AC Could Spell Disaster for Crypto:  Cobie and Chris Burniske on How to Navigate a Crypto Bear Market:       Terra  Shaun’s take on stablecoins:&nbsp;    Previous Unchained Coverage:&nbsp;   Kevin Zhou on the risk of UST’s death spiral: &nbsp; The Legal and Regulatory Fallout From Terra’s Collapse: Who Will Pay?:  The Chopping Block: Does the New Terra Have Any Chance?:  Why Terra Collapsed and Whether an Algo Stablecoin Can Ever Succeed:  The 5 Biggest Lessons From Terra/Luna’s Collapse, According to Tascha Che:&nbsp;

Does Venture Capital Investment Violate the Ethos of Crypto? Sequoia Says No - Ep. 367

Andrew Hinkes, partner at K&amp;L Gates and adjunct professor at NYU, and Martin Koeppelman, co-founder of Gnosis, talk about the sanctions on Tornado Cash, how they will impact Ethereum on the base layer, and the likelihood of having two chains.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  the legal meaning of the OFAC sanctions on Tornado Cash and why it is causing complications how legislation is built for the fiat world, and how in DeFi and crypto there’s no clarity&nbsp; how miners have changed their behavior prior to the Merge whether a proof of work chain or a proof of stake chain would be more censorship resistant whether laws apply to validators in a PoS chain the ways in which the government could provide more clarification&nbsp; the different entities involved in Proof of Stake the liabilities for each entity in PoS and what secondary liability is how the task of the bidder can be described as a mathematical optimization problem whether Lido is exposed to US regulations how long would it take for a large staker like Coinbase to stop being a validator how a user-activated soft fork works and the conditions in which a fork could happen whether social slashing is enforceable considering it is not in the protocol the likelihood of Ethereum becoming a permissioned system the role of Flashbots’ relay code and what it means for Ethereum’s censorship resistance how DeFi’s exposure to US-based institutions can affect the likelihood of the chain complying with sanctions whether DAI is just wrapped USDC how MakerDAO is trying to be more independent of USDC why US-based companies will choose a conservative path, considering the lack of guidance the importance of educating the regulators&nbsp; how cash and crypto are the only remaining private payment methods&nbsp;  Thank you to our sponsors! &nbsp; :  Ava Labs:  a16z:  &nbsp; Andrew Twitter:  &nbsp; Martin Twitter:  &nbsp; Previous Coverage of the Tornado Cash Sanctions on Unchained:  Is TRM Labs Blocking Addresses From DeFi Protocols? Ari Redbord Says No:  Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?:  The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?:   &nbsp; &nbsp; Social Slashing and Censorship on ETH Axios summary of the situation:  &nbsp; BitMex research on how the sanctions affect Ethereum:  &nbsp; Ethermine banning transactions:  &nbsp; Nic Carter’s article:  &nbsp; Eric Wall’s article on social slashing:  &nbsp; CoinDesk article:  &nbsp; Hetzner banning Ethereum users:  &nbsp; Tornado Cash  Treasury Press release:&nbsp;  Developer arrested:  Rep. Emmer’s letter:  Tornado Cash post on compliance:  Coin Center’s article authored by Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh:  Second Coin Center article authored by Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh:  Coin Center may challenge the US Treasury's decision to sanction Tornado Cash:  What the sanctions mean for privacy coins:  Celebrities get Dusted:   &nbsp; DAI and USDC  Maker forum:   Circle freezes USDC in sanctioned wallets: &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp; Flashbots  Flashbots relay open source:  MEV Boost:  MEV in ETH PoS:  Proposer-Builder separation:

Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant? - Ep. 390

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, discusses his views on crypto regulation, macroeconomics, and the role of FTX in a decentralized industry.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  whether the market has already bottomed and the influence of macroeconomics why Sam thinks regulation could have a significant impact on the crypto industry the impact of the Terra collapse, Sam’s thoughts on stablecoins, and the importance of disclaimers what the industry can do to prevent high leverage from crypto companies like Three Arrows Capital how crypto lenders should manage risk in a sustainable way whether the crypto collapses affected the opinion of lawmakers and regulators the topics and proposals that Sam is discussing with regulators and his philosophy on financial regulation what Sam thinks about building a centralized entity in a decentralized space what it would take for FTX to move back to the United States why Sam’s political donations more commonly support Democrats, among which are some prominent critics of crypto whether he makes political donations based solely on candidates’ crypto stances the role of FTX in the TradFi market and whether crypto and TradFi will evolve toward or away from each other concerns about potential conflict of interests between FTX and Alameda Research the impact of the Merge, the value proposition of Ethereum and whether it affects the narrative of Bitcoin as digital gold how FTX is positioning itself in this macroeconomic environment&nbsp; the type of acquisitions FTX is interested in  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!    &nbsp; Episode Links Sam:    &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Bailouts and Acquisitions   ’    &nbsp; Stablecoins and Regulation       Previous Coverage of Unchained on Stablecoins and Regulation:       &nbsp;  Donations and Politics      &nbsp; Alameda Research Concerns    &nbsp; Collapse of Crypto Companies &nbsp;          &nbsp; &nbsp; FTX proposal to clear derivatives      &nbsp;  Previous coverage on Unchained:&nbsp;  &nbsp;      &nbsp; Interest in buying Twitter

Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC - Ep. 403

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra were joined by Laura Shin to chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show topics:  Whether crypto optimism is different in Asia than in the United States How Sam Bankman-Fried has been doing some work with US regulators How the CFTC lawsuit against Ooki DAO changed people’s perspectives about the regulator Whether the lawsuit could make all DeFi illegal and the role of DAOs to coordinate governance The SEC settlement with Kim Kardashian for $1.26 million, Gensler’s video explaining the case and whether it was a publicity stunt Why Tarun would fire almost everyone at the CFTC and the SEC to hire more technical people How the NFT QQL collection censored a marketplace in its code What the whole purpose of NFTs is, according to Haseeb The debate around NFT royalties and their enforcement How a huge portion of the blocks in Ethereum are generated by Flashbots and whether it represents a centralizing force&nbsp; Whether MEV should be stopped or accelerated&nbsp;  &nbsp; Hosts  , managing partner at Dragonfly Capital , managing partner at Robot Ventures , general partner at Dragonfly Capital  &nbsp; Guest , author, and host of Unchained &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; The lawsuit against Ooki DAO  Previous Coverage of Unchained on Ooki DAO:         CFTC  $250,000  Nik’s  CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger’s dissenting  CFTC  the members of the Ooki DAO via their forum Tim Copeland’s  on what’s next for DAOs   A federal court  that the CFTC legally served Ooki DAO through a website help bot. The LeXpunK Army  a motion for amicus status in the SEC case against bZx/Ooki DAO. Crypto group DeFi Education Fund  that the CFTC should properly serve Ooki DAO’s actual members, not just the DAO at large.  &nbsp; NFT Royalties  Tyler Hobbs’ QQL $17 million  QQL  NFT platform  Previous  of The Chopping Block debating NFT Royalties Article:  Article:   &nbsp; SEC charges against Kim Kardashian  The SEC  reality TV star Kim Kardashian $1.26 million for promoting a crypto security without proper disclosure.  on the Kim Kardashian settlement as publicity stunt eMax  Gary Gensler’s   &nbsp; Flashbots and MEV    :&nbsp;   Previous Coverage of Unchained on MEV:

The Chopping Block: Was This Gary Gensler's Most Liked Tweet? - Ep. 405

Zaki Manian, cofounder of Sommelier Protocol and cofounder of Iqlusion and Jack Zampolin, founder of Strangelove Ventures, discuss everything about Cosmos, the new white paper, and how to improve MEV capture for ATOM holders. &nbsp; &nbsp;Show highlights:  how Jack and Zaki got involved with crypto and Cosmos what the Sommelier protocol is, the role of Iqlusion, and what Strange Love does the basics of Cosmos and application-specific blockchains (ASB) why would a project choose to be an ASB rather than an application on a blockchain whether Cosmos can achieve network effects the reasons behind launching a new white paper for Cosmos why the team decided to pursue interchain security whether there would be an increase in fees with so many chains relying on the Cosmos Hub for security how much economic value the Cosmos Hub will end up securing if the proposal gets passed how the Cosmos Treasury could be used to fund development the role of the Interchain Scheduler to capture MEV whether centralized exchanges are going to start trading against the customers the new issuance model proposed for ATOM the role of an active governance community to make Cosmos more decentralized what problems Liquid staking solves how USDC will launch on a consumer chain  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!      Jack:    Zaki:    &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Previous Coverage of Unchained on Cosmos:    &nbsp; New white paper     &nbsp; Interchain security   The Block  The DeFi investor   &nbsp; ATOM 2.0      &nbsp; Other articles  Vaneck’s : Why we are bullish on Atom Alex Valaitis : A deep dive into Cosmos    &nbsp;

Zaki Manian and Jack Zampolin on Why ATOM Is 'Dogecoin for Academics' - Ep. 406

Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, comes to talk about the SEC probe into Yuga Labs, how to determine whether something is a security, and Coin Center’s lawsuit against the US Treasury over the sanctions on Tornado Cash.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  whether there’s an over-reliance on the Howey Test and how a token being non-fungible doesn’t mean it’s not a security what constitutes an investment contract and how it works in the Metaverse the consequences for NFT holders and issuers if the NFTs are considered securities why Coin Center is suing the US Treasury over the Tornado Cash sanctions Who the plaintiffs are whether this lawsuit differs from the one Coinbase is supporting how to solve the issue of bad actors like North Korea using tools such as Tornado Cash to launder money the remedy Coin Center is looking for in the lawsuit against the Treasury&nbsp; how long the lawsuit could take to be resolved  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors! &nbsp;  &nbsp; Peter &nbsp; &nbsp; SEC probe into Yuga Labs  Unchained  CrypTones  on land sales  Coin Center lawsuit over Tornado Cash sanctions  Coin Center  and  Unchained &nbsp;    on the sanctions Previous coverage of the Tornado Cash sanctions on Unchained:   &nbsp;

Why the SEC Is Probing Yuga Labs and Coin Center Is Suing Treasury - Ep. 407

Do Kwon, cofounder of Terraform Labs, discusses the charges against him, gives a message to Terra victims, answers allegations about potential fraud and non-transparent business practices, and much more. Show highlights:  whether Do finds the charges based on the Capital Markets Act legitimate&nbsp; why he doesn’t want to discuss his location whether the South Korean government is lying about the accusations against him what happened with the BTC held by the Luna Foundation Guard whether Do regrets being so arrogant in his tweets what he would say to the people who lost huge amounts of money in Terra or family members of people who committed suicide due to its collapse the decision to set Anchor’s yield near 20%&nbsp; why Terra had a large SDT pre-mine that was not proactively disclosed whether Do’s actions show he didn’t think that the algorithmic mechanism was sufficient to keep UST pegged to the dollar whether Terraform Labs cashed out $2.7 billion using Degenbox why there were no disclosures about Chai terminating its agreement with Terra why the Terra blockchain went through a hard fork without a public discussion the failure of the basis cash stablecoin, also worked on by Do Kwon whether an algorithmic stablecoin can work the week of the UST depeg and what happened to the funds held by LFG where the 3 million Luna unlocked per month by Project Dawn went when the LFG will return funds to UST holders what Do would do differently if he had the chance to go back  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!    &nbsp; Episode Links Do Kwon:    &nbsp; Previous Coverage of Unchained on Do Kwon and Terra:         &nbsp; Devastating Stories   Fat Man Terra’s  with several stories  &nbsp; SDT pre-mine  CoinDesk Korea   Anchor yield  JTBC  reporting core devs wanted a lower yield  &nbsp; Chai&nbsp;  WSJ  Do’s tweets about Chai:     2021  2021 #2     &nbsp; Abracadabra Degenbox    on Dune  &nbsp; Project Dawn   The Defiant   &nbsp; Basis Cash  CoinDesk   &nbsp; Luna Foundation Guard      &nbsp; Allegations against Do Kwon   Do moved funds to the Virgin Islands. Seoul Police Probe  of Embezzlement by Terraform Staff South Korea Launches  into Company Behind Luna Crypto Crash  Was LUNA a ?      Kwon’s   &nbsp; SEC Actions Against Terra  SEC  UST Stablecoin Blowup in Fresh Threat to Terra Terraform Labs  US Appeal over SEC Subpoena

Do Kwon of Terra: 'It Was Never Really About Money or Fame or Success' - Ep. 408

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Host Haseeb Qureshi partnered with Zhuoxun Yin, cofounder of Magic Eden, to debate Unchained host Laura Shin and Li Jin, cofounder at Variant Fund, on the topic of NFT Royalties.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  What NFT royalties are Why Laura believes zero NFT royalties is a bad business decision prioritizing short-term needs over long-term ones and that it will turn creators off from the industry How charging no royalties is not sustainable, according to Haseeb Why royalties are the best mechanism to align incentives between creators and holders, according to Li The technical limitations of NFT royalties on a general-purpose blockchain like Ethereum or Solana How to align incentives between NFT creators and holders Why the prices of NFTs would go up if royalties are not enforced Whether the NFT market will change in the future Whether it is possible to create a standard that enforces royalties in a smart contract The creators’ reaction to Magic Eden moving to optional royalties The possibility of a bifurcation of the NFT market  &nbsp; Hosts  , managing partner at Dragonfly&nbsp;  &nbsp; Guests , author, and host of Unchained , cofounder of Magic Eden , cofounder of Variant &nbsp; Episode Links  Magic Eden Optional Royalties - &nbsp; Post-debate      by Li Jin    Previous episodes of The Chopping Block debating NFT Royalties       Article:   Article:

The Chopping Block: Two on Two Debate: NFT Royalty Throwdown! - Ep. 409

Fat Man Terra, the anonymous Twitter account dedicated to bringing Do Kwon to justice, reacts to my recent interview with Do Kwon and says what he thinks it revealed about his personality.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  why Fat Man Terra created the Twitter account whether Terra was used to enrich insiders how Fat Man believes Do Kwon evaded questions in the interview with Laura whether Do lied about Chai to misrepresent the success of UST and LUNA why Fat Man believes some people will never admit wrongdoing what he thinks of Do’s response to the stories of people losing everything and whether he is actually sorry what he calls Do’s lack of transparency about his history what he believes is the need to make an example out of the collapse of Terra and the Do’s failure  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!  &nbsp; Fat Man Terra &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp; Other Coverage of Unchained on Do Kwon and Terra:         &nbsp; Fat Man Terra’s  with several devastating stories related to the collapse of Terra &nbsp; SDT pre-mine  CoinDesk Korea   &nbsp; Chai&nbsp;  WSJ  Do’s tweets about Chai:     2021  2021 #2     &nbsp; Abracadabra Degenbox    on Dune  &nbsp; Basis Cash  CoinDesk   &nbsp; Luna Foundation Guard      &nbsp; Allegations against Do Kwon   Do moved funds to the Virgin Islands Seoul Police Probe  of Embezzlement by Terraform Staff South Korea Launches  into Company Behind Luna Crypto Crash        Kwon’s

Fat Man Terra Speaks: Do Kwon Is a ‘Sociopath’ and a ‘Charismatic Manipulator’ - Ep. 410

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry.&nbsp; Show topics: &nbsp;  Everyone’s impression of Laura’s interview with Do Kwon The importance to differentiate failure and fraud The Mango Markets hack and whether code is law What happened with the BNB hack and the concerns it raised about decentralization Magic Eden’s decision to enable optional royalties and the debate about NFT royalties How creators are going to find a way around the royalties, according to Robert Whether NFTs should be treated as securities    Hosts  , managing partner at Dragonfly Capital , managing partner at Robot Ventures , founder of Compound&nbsp; , general partner at Dragonfly Capital    Episode Links &nbsp; Laura’s interview with Do Kwon:  &nbsp; Hacks &nbsp;  Mango Markets  &nbsp;       &nbsp; &nbsp;  BNB  &nbsp;     &nbsp; NFT Royalties  Magic Eden       Tom’s : “turns out people don’t want to pay royalties” Robert’s  for a startup   Previous episodes of The Chopping Block debating NFT Royalties:

The Chopping Block: 'Code Is Law' Is 'Obviously Not How Anything Works Ever' - Ep. 411

Eric Wall, crypto blogger and investor, and Udi Wertheimer, a recovering Bitcoin maxi, discuss everything about Bitcoin Maximalism, whether BTC can survive, and whether Ethereum constitutes a threat for Bitcoin.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  how Eric and Udi got involved with Bitcoin what Bitcoin was like in the first days how Bitcoin maxis appear to have a script to engage in discussions the philosophy behind Bitcoin maximalism why Eric believes Bitcoin maximalism is like a “weird cult” how Eric thinks that the BTC community has an unspoken rule forbidding criticisms whether Bitcoin has lost intellectual power why people have recently been turning away from Bitcoin maximalism why the poor Bitcoin culture doesn't mean it's the end for Bitcoin, according to Eric the perception of the Lightning network and how people are not interested in faster blockchains whether Bitcoin should increase the use cases of the blockchain, like DeFi, NFTs, and stablecoins El Salvador's adoption of BTC and whether it had an impact what happens to internet subcultures and how the behavior of Bitcoiners could be predicted whether Ethereum is a threat to Bitcoin  Thank you to our sponsors!    &nbsp; &nbsp; Udi:    Eric:     &nbsp; Episode Links &nbsp; Previous Coverage of Unchained:   &nbsp;     &nbsp; Bitcoin Culture and Security   by Paul J. Dylan-Ennis  by David Chapman  by Peter Todd  on BTC security model   &nbsp;  &nbsp; El Salvador:  Previous Coverage of Unchained:   by Nelson Rauda  &nbsp; &nbsp;

Eric Wall and Udi Wertheimer on Why Bitcoin Maximalism Is 'Like a Shitcoin Community' - Ep. 412

Avraham Eisenberg, blogger at DeepFi Value – more commonly known as the Mango Markets attacker – shared his insights about the exploitation of code, his personal story, and why there’s hatred directed towards profitable traders.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  Laura’s description of the Mango Markets exploit the way in which code gets used in a different way from the original intention why Avi decided to return part of the funds he got from exploiting Mango Markets Avi’s clarification of a misconception regarding the bad debt of Mango Markets the difference between arbitrage trades and exploits why people making profitable strategies are hated, according to Avi how Avi got into crypto and the story of his failed online business&nbsp; whether it is possible to run non-zero-sum games what he thinks of Compound’s decision to pause activity on illiquid assets  &nbsp; &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!  Ava Labs &nbsp; Avi     &nbsp; Mango Markets exploit        Previous discussion of Mango Markets on Unchained:       &nbsp;  &nbsp;  &nbsp;

The Mango Markets Attacker on Whether His 'Trade' Was Ethical or Not - Ep. 413

Sterling Crispin, artist and software developer and Holly Herndon, host of the Interdependence podcast, talk about the problems that creators face, some potential solutions, and the debate over creator royalties.&nbsp; &nbsp; Show highlights:  how Holly and Sterling got into crypto how Holly used the Holly Plus Project to pay royalties how NFTs change the economic experience of being a creator how creators make money and why it is so difficult for most of them whether NFT royalties are necessary for artists why creators are the ones that should decide to charge royalties or not how the enforcement of royalties also occurs in the traditional art world whether NFT royalties only benefit big players vs. smaller creators what shifts could make paying royalties a norm, the way paying for music streaming became a norm over piracy other solutions to helping creators earn from their work besides NFT royalties whether NFT creators should use blocklists whether people objecting to blocklists can be hypocritical about decentralization&nbsp; whether creators can build their own marketplaces how a profit-sharing model among creators could work  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!    &nbsp; Sterling:    Blog post:   &nbsp; Holly:        Episode Links  Previous episodes of The Chopping Block debating NFT Royalties:         &nbsp; NFT Royalties  Magic Eden             Galaxy Digital report  that Nike and Yuga Labs earned the most in NFT royalties.    by   by foobar Kyle Samani  on verticalization    Potential solutions  Collector Royalties       Profit Sharing     &nbsp;  &nbsp;  &nbsp;

Are NFT Royalties the Way? How to Build a Sustainable Creator Economy - Ep. 414

The executive chairman of AngelList and partner at crypto hedge fund MetaStable explains how blockchains are changing the entrepreneurship model, his philosophy for crypto investing, and what kind of threat crypto could someday pose to governments. We also dive into why blockchains represent a new form of governance, his philosophy for investing in tokens and why he believes there will only be five or fewer winners among the money-like tokens. Show notes:&nbsp;http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/28/naval-ravikant-on-how-crypto-is-squeezing-vcs-hindering-regulators-and-bringing-users-choice/ AngelList:&nbsp;https://angel.co/ MetaStable:&nbsp;http://metastablecapital.com/ CoinList:&nbsp;https://coinlist.co/  https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/05/18/want-to-hold-an-ico-coinlist-makes-it-easy-and-legal/ Zcash:&nbsp;https://z.cash/ BlockStack:&nbsp;https://blockstack.org/  https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/09/05/blockstack-on-how-to-take-control-from-google-facebook-and-amazon/ Bitwise Hold 10:&nbsp;https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/10/02/new-crypto-index-fund-to-launch-with-backing-from-naval-ravikant/ &nbsp; &nbsp;

Naval Ravikant On How Crypto Is Squeezing VCs, Hindering Regulators And Bringing Users Choice

Olaf Carlson-Wee is the founder of Polychain Capital, a hedge fund that has invested $15 million into digital assets and has gotten backing from storied venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. In this episode, Carlson-Wee recounts war stories from the early days of bitcoin, including how he learned about bitcoin before his computer science professors, bought bitcoins with cash and created “the Bitcoin SAT” to make hires at Coinbase. He also describes how to separate cryptocurrency scams from legitimate ventures, how he plays blackjack against a smart contract and why launching a digital asset hedge fund means he can no longer earn and spend mostly in bitcoin. Read the  show notes.&nbsp; Other links:  Polychain Capital Coinbase Golem Tezos  This episode was sponsored by Onramp.

Why The First Employee Of Coinbase Launched A Hedge Fund

Love Unchained? Please take this extremely brief survey to help us find more sponsors:&nbsp;https://survey.libsyn.com/unchained Growing up in Argentina, Wences Casares saw his family lose all their money three times due to actions by the government. The so-called "patient zero" of Bitcoin in Silicon Valley explains why he believes that experience predisposed him to seeing the potential in Bitcoin earlier than most people, why it's so hard to explain Bitcoin to Americans and why the company he founded, Xapo, isn't just a Bitcoin vault and wallet company but his best effort at helping to ensure that Bitcoin succeeds. He talks about why he isn't scared of all the new competitors to his service, including Coinbase Custody, why Xapo hasn't branched out into any other crypto assets, and why he believes there's a more than 50% chance that Bitcoin is worth $1 million in five to ten years. Additionally, he still believes the attempt to accommodate more transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain with the SegWit2x fork, which he backed, was wrong -- even though the fees after its failure skyrocketed to as high as $60. Plus -- he reveals what it would look like if Bitcoin became a global standard of value, and why that vision doesn't threaten governments. Xapo: https://xapo.com/ Wences's Facebook Live with Dan Schulman of PayPal:  https://www.facebook.com/DanSchulmanPayPal/videos/1419329821528449/

Xapo's Wences Casares on How Bitcoin Makes a Fairer World

Arthur Hayes, CEO of Bitmex, describes how traders on his platform can make great gains but experience limited losses, how Asia's crypto markets differ from those in the U.S., and why he makes money whether or not crypto prices go up or down. He also describes why ICOs are crap now but why he fully supports the idea in theory and how they should get back to their roots. He also explains why he believes governments will issue digital cash, and why he believes everyday people will be surveilled through these transactions, but will give up this privacy for the sake of convenience. And where does he see this leaving cryptocurrencies? To become needed to transact privately. Bitmex: https://www.bitmex.com/ Arthur Hayes: https://www.bitmex.com/app/aboutUs Bitmex blog, with detailed research reports: https://blog.bitmex.com/ Arthur's Crypto Trader Digest:  https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=db45c09bdf20e1866bb32123f&amp;id=ac43da8d18 Thank you to our sponsors! Blockchain Warehouse: https://www.blockchainwarehouse.com/ Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/

Arthur Hayes of Bitmex on Why Countries Will Turn to Digital Cash - Ep.63

Joel Monegro, partner at crypto VC firm Placeholder Ventures, describes how well his seminal blog post, "Fat Protocols," is holding up, why he and his partner Chris Burniske opted to found a crypto VC firm as opposed to a hedge fund, and what main factors they think will determine the success of a blockchain. He also describes how crypto and blockchains fit into the evolution of technology, how the business models in the crypto space will be built, and why their first publicly known investment was in Decred. Plus, he reveals why their firm is called Placeholder. Placeholder: https://www.placeholder.vc Joel: https://twitter.com/jmonegro The Placeholder investment thesis:  https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZL4eT1gxnE168Pmw3KyejW6fUfMNzMgeKMgcWJUfYGRj/Placeholder%20Thesis%20Summary.pdf The Fat Protocols Thesis: https://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols Decred investment thesis:  https://www.placeholder.vc/blog/2018/5/12/decred-investment-thesis Blog post on information technology cycles:  https://monegro.org/work/2018/2/20/information-technology-market-cycles-a-brief-history Joel's blog post on the shared data layer of the blockchain application stack:  http://joel.mn/post/104755282493/the-shared-data-layer-of-the-blockchain and on the blockchain application stack:  http://joel.mn/post/103546215249/the-blockchain-application-stack Two episodes featuring his partner, Chris Burniske:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-to-valuate-a-crypto-asset-s3e08  http://unchainedpodcast.co/want-higher-returns-invest-in-bitcoin-say-arks-chris-burniske-and-coinbases-adam-white Another episode that I forgot to mention during the show, the interview with Bill Tai, which contains ideas that overlap quite a bit with Joel's:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology Thank you to our sponsors! Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/ Blockchain Warehouse: https://www.blockchainwarehouse.com

Placeholder's Joel Monegro on the Fat Protocols Thesis Today - Ep.65

Jeremy Allaire, cofounder and CEO of Circle, and Sean Neville, cofounder and president, discuss why they think the internet of value will be even bigger than the internet of information and how all assets will be tokenized. They also talk about why they're launching a stable coin, how their services in payments, exchange and investing will compete against decentralized versions of the same, and how they chose the assets for Circle Invest -- and why XRP didn't make the cut. They also address the investor presentation circulated that claimed the SEC would not pursue enforcement against Poloniex for prior activity and explain why Circle took investment from Bitmain despite negative sentiment against the mining equipment manufacturer. And they explain how Circle could compete once Wall Street incumbents begin to offer competitive services in crypto. Thank you to our sponsors! Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/ Links: Circle.com: https://www.circle.com/en/ Circle's plans around a federal banking license and brokerage and trading registration:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-06/circle-in-talks-with-u-s-to-become-licensed-bank-trading-venue Acquisition of Poloniex:  https://blog.circle.com/2018/02/26/circle-acquires-poloniex/ XRP in a screenshot of Circle Invest, but offered after launch:  https://www.coindesk.com/circle-adds-monero-crypto-investment-app/ The Circle Asset Framework:  https://www.circle.com/marketing/pdfs/en/circle-asset-framework.pdf Nathaniel Popper's tweet showing the Circle investor deck indicating the SEC won't pursue action against Poloniex:  https://twitter.com/nathanielpopper/status/968202570719117313?lang=en Circle's stable coins + Bitmain investment:  https://blog.circle.com/2018/05/15/circle-announces-usd-coin-bitmain-partnership-and-new-strategic-financing/ Unchained episode on stable coins:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable Unchained episode with David Vorick, which includes some comments on Bitmain:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-asics-may-be-better-than-gpus-even-if-they-tend-toward-mining-centralization-ep67

Circle's Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville on Why Crypto Will Be Bigger Than the Web - Ep.71

In this hilarious skeptics' episode, Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, and Jill Carlson, an independent consultant, explain why they think crypto needs fewer moral arguments and more empirical evidence, and how there's too much focus on financial engineering, but not enough focus on winning hearts and minds. They also explain why people are not machines where "you put in a token and get out an action," what the "shitcoin waterfall" is, and why cryptoeconomics isn't anything new. Plus, they give their tips for working in the space. Thank you to our sponsors! DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/ Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com Episode links: Meltem on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/melt_dem On Medium: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem Jill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_jillruth AirTM: https://www.airtm.io Fat protocols thesis: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols Amber Baldet's tweet about the finger guns guy:  https://twitter.com/amberbaldet/status/1006286345122275331 Meltem's tips on working in crypto:  https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/so-you-want-to-work-in-crypto-57961ca074c4 Jill's tips on working for yourself:  https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/working-alone-165ababeafc2

Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson on the Shitcoin Waterfall - Ep.74

Josh Stein, CEO of Harbor, and Danny An, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, talk about security tokens and tokens backed by real-world assets, often called an unsexy area of crypto. They explain the strategies their teams are using to tackle the tokenization of what currently constitute $250 trillion in assets, what kinds of new behaviors and business opportunities "faster, cheaper, more liquid" assets could open up, and how they'll comply with regulations across all jurisdictions for markets that are global and trade 24/7/365. Thank you to our sponsors! StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com Episode links: Harbor: https://harbor.com Trust Token: https://www.trusttoken.com True USD: https://www.trusttoken.com/trueusd/ An overview of security tokens:  https://medium.com/@apompliano/the-official-guide-to-tokenized-securities-44e8342bb24f More on Harbor and security tokens:  http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/security-token-harbor-ce More on True USD:  https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/18/trusttoken-readies-sale-of-more-trueusd-asset-based-tokens/ The PICO:  https://medium.com/harborhq/introducing-the-private-ico-pico-3e8b782924c1 Episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

Harbor and TrustToken on Why They Don't Mind Being Unsexy - Ep.77

In this fast-paced and exhilarating conversation, Changpeng Zhao, aka "CZ," tells the pivotal business decisions that led users to flock to the brand-new Binance in the summer and fall of 2017, catapulting it from obscurity to become the world's most popular crypto exchange within five months. He also describes his regulatory stance, why he focuses on small jurisdictions and why he lets token teams hire their own lawyers to determine whether their coins are securities or not. &nbsp;He explains the company's insider trading and market manipulation policies and how BNB coin works. Plus, he disputes the notion that stocks have better information due to disclosure rules, lays out Binance's current mission and delineates the differences in the crypto communities in North America, Europe and Asia. Thank you to our sponsors! Altlending: https://altlending.com Episode links: Binance: https://www.binance.com CZ: https://twitter.com/cz_binance Binance white paper:  https://www.binance.com/resources/ico/Binance_WhitePaper_en.pdf Unchained interview with Bobby Lee:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/bobby-lee-ceo-of-btcc-on-why-the-chinese-probably-arent-using-bitcoin-to-evade-capital-controls Unchained interview with Da Hongfei on China bad on ICOs:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/from-blockchains-to-mooncakes-two-chinese-crypto-founders-on-the-ico-and-bitcoin-exchanges-ban Epicenter BTC's interview with CZ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaxQneanIY Binance's "creative" approach to regulation:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/crypto-s-billionaire-trading-king-has-suddenly-run-into-problems Unchained interview on crypto regulation in the US:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-chamber-of-digital-commerces-perianne-boring-and-amy-kim-on-why-us-crypto-regulation-is-complicated-and-confusing Unchained interview with Coin Center:  http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-coin-center-is-helping-define-the-big-fuzzy-gray-area-of-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-law Binance's purchase of TrustWallet:  http://fortune.com/2018/07/31/binance-trust-wallet-acquistion/ Binance's $1 billion investment fund:  https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/01/binance-1-billion-investment-fund/ Forbes cover story on CZ:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamelaambler/2018/02/07/changpeng-zhao-binance-exchange-crypto-cryptocurrency/

How Binance Became the Most Popular Crypto Exchange in 5 Months - Ep.84

Ameen Soleimani, CEO of Spankchain, comes on the show to discuss his latest effort to fund Ethereum development through the decentralized autonomous organization MolochDAO. He describes how it works, plus we cover competition in the smart contract space and whether we're seeing the emergence of Ethereum maximalism. Full show notes are back on Forbes.com! See the full recap of this week's recap of the episode at &nbsp;http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2019/03/18/how-could-ethereum-development-be-funded-perhaps-through-this-decentralized-autonomous-organization/. Thank you to our sponsor! CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained Episode links: MolochDAO website: MolochDAO.com MolochDAO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MolochDAO MolochDAO white paper:  https://github.com/MolochVentures/Whitepaper/blob/master/Whitepaper.pdf Moloch Github: https://github.com/molochventures/moloch State of Ethereum 2.0 report:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PS0k9MaKPdPwEw3Uh9rq7USjq7LcSpT6ICQUXRij4YE/edit#heading=h.kdbgcss2wsc Ameen's tweet storm on MolochDAO:  https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1084652403889065989?s=19 MolochDAO tweetstorm with update on members, etc.:  https://twitter.com/MolochDAO/status/1100516720563806209?s=19 MolochDAO presentation at ETHDenver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abTRJZcmPwI &nbsp;Post by Dino Mark, Vlad Zamfir and Emin Gun Sirer, A Call for a Temporary Moratorium on the DAO:  http://hackingdistributed.com/2016/05/27/dao-call-for-moratorium/ Ameen on the importance of ETH price:  https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1090319128810815489 Ryan Zurrer's position on ether fund recovery:  https://medium.com/@rzurrer/evolution-dogma-a-proposed-path-towards-ether-fund-recovery-9810f213e8ee r/Ethereum decision on moderators:  https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/azyqdu/a_statement_call_for_discussion_from_some_of_the/ Ameen on the timeframe for developing Ethereum 2.0 relative to development on potentially competitive chains like Polkadot:  https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/ajc9ip/ama_we_are_the_eth_20_research_team/eewscyf/

MolochDAO: Could This Decentralized Autonomous Organization Help Ethereum Scale Faster? - Ep.111

Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis, the parent company of Fold and Keep, describes the just-launched tBTC, his plan for a censorship-resistant Bitcoin-Ethereum bridge. He explains his personal reasons for wanting such a platform, why tBTC is different from other versions of Bitcoin on Ethereum, and how it works -- including the process of becoming a signer in minting tBTC, how the system will handle crises, the reason for high collateralization levels, why staking assets are limited, and the necessity of a work token, Keep. He also discusses the economics behind tBTC-backed tBTC, his vision for DeFi, how tBTC could buffer an ETH crash, and the reasoning behind minimal governance mechanisms -- playing into why institutions trust BTC more than ETH. Plus, he contrasts the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities and talks about the possibility of tBTC2.0.&nbsp;&nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!&nbsp; :  Kraken:  Episode links:&nbsp; Matt Luongo:  Thesis:  Keep:  Fold App:  tBTC white paper:  Initial reveal:  Announcement on Keep blog:  Some criticism of tBTC:  Matt on the Breakdown podcast:  Matt on Sendwyre podcast:  How tBTC works:  The Block on tBTC:  Keep raises $7.7 million:

tBTC: What Happens When the Most Liquid Crypto Asset Hits DeFi? - Ep.169

Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital and chairman of Virgin Galactic, talks about a wide range of issues, including Bitcoin, COVID, civil unrest, and broad economic trends and forecasts. We discuss:  Whether his economic forecasts have shifted throughout COVID Why he believes a debt crisis will occur How he views the success of BTC as a hedge against the ruling class How the economic pendulum will swing back toward consumers Why he doesn't mind if big corporations and hedge funds get wiped out Whether he subscribes to the thesis that Bitcoin is uncorrelated&nbsp; Why the pandemic has not spurred institutional adoption of crypto Why he sees no merit in Ethereum How the economy will become more decentralized in the future and whether blockchain will be a part of it&nbsp; Why he prefers SPACs over ICOs Why he started capital as a service&nbsp; Why he believes the government should bust up large corporations  Unchained is hiring! I'm looking for a remote editorial assistant. If you love crypto and have journalism experience, get in touch!  Thank you to our sponsors!&nbsp; :  Stellar: &nbsp; Kelman Law: &nbsp; Episode links:&nbsp; Chamath Palihapitiya:  Social Capital:  Turmoil at Social Capital:    2019 interview with Kara Swisher: https:// Chamath on Recode Decode in 2020:  Fed buying up to $250 billion in individual corporate bonds:  CNBC interview where he says Bitcoin is an uncorrelated hedge: &nbsp;  SPAC:  China’s blockchain efforts:  Capital as a service:&nbsp; &nbsp;  2019 investor letter:  At Stanford GSB:

Chamath Palihapitiya: Why Bitcoin Will Be 'the Category Winner' - Ep.178

In this episode, Dan Tapiero, founder of 10T Holdings and Gold Bullion International, and Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO at ARK Invest, discuss the long election week in the U.S. and how they believe Bitcoin will behave in a post-election world. They also talk about:  how a changeover from a Trump to a Biden administration could affect Bitcoin how the prospect of legal challenges from the Trump administration might affect Bitcoin whether they think the presidential election influenced Bitcoin’s precipitous price jump in the first week of November what it takes to change the mind of a Bitcoin skeptic in the investment world whether gold investors are becoming more resistant or more embracing of Bitcoin whether Democratic control of the Senate would affect Bitcoin how they expect the new wave of rising coronavirus cases and lockdowns to affect economies and Bitcoin the new inflation policy introduced by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and how it will affect Bitcoin the recent Bitcoin halving and how they expect Bitcoin to perform over the next year how banking will change over the next few years and how that will affect Bitcoin their thoughts on central bank digital currencies and how an increase in CBDCs might affect Bitcoin what factors they are looking at right now when thinking about what could happen with Bitcoin over the next year  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsor!&nbsp; :  &nbsp; Episode links:&nbsp; Cathie Wood:  Ark Invest:  Yassine Elmandjra:  &nbsp; Dan Tapiero:  10T Holdings:  Gold Bullion International:  &nbsp; Unchained with Brian Brooks:  &nbsp; Jerome Powell speech on targeting inflation of 2%:  &nbsp; Bitcoin-gold correlation:  &nbsp; Bitcoin-S&amp;P 500 correlation:  &nbsp; Forbes profile on Cathie Wood:  &nbsp; ARK Invest Bitcoin white papers:   &nbsp;

Why Bitcoin Now: Bitcoin Under a Biden Administration - Ep.198

Michael Saylor, CEO and founder of Microstrategy, explains how he decided the publicly traded business data firm needed to put its excess cash in bitcoin and what happened afterward. In this episode, we discuss:&nbsp;  why Microstrategy decided to buy Bitcoin, and how the pandemic spurred that whether his previous experience with Microstrategy stock imploding after accounting irregularities were revealed had any bearing on the company's decision to buy bitcoin the reactions of the officers and board members to his suggestion to invest in bitcoin why they put all the excess cash into bitcoin as opposed to some percentage what parts of the bitcoin industry could be improved to better serve corporate interests whether Microstrategy intends to take any money off the table at the top of any future bubbles and reinvest when the price hits a new low whether it hurts Microstrategy that GAAP rules require the company to mark Bitcoin down to the lowest price it traded at during the quarter how his life has changed since Microstrategy bought bitcoin what he thought of Citi downgrading Microstrategy stock what he thinks of Renaissance Technology being the third-largest buyer of Microstrategy stock since the summer what will happen to Microstrategy stock in a bitcoin bear market whether or not there was any further conversation after his tweets with Elon Musk what types of companies, and how many, have been talking with him, expressing interest in buying bitcoin what will happen at the Bitcoin for Companies conference what type of bitcoin data products they are contemplating offering what he thinks will happen to the USD’s global reserve currency status what it would take for him to sell any bitcoin  &nbsp; Thank you to our sponsors!&nbsp; :  1inch:  &nbsp; Episode links:&nbsp; Michael Saylor:  Microstrategy:  Bitcoin for Corporations:  &nbsp; Microstrategy purchases an additional $10 million in bitcoin: &nbsp;   &nbsp; Unchained interview with Saifedean Ammous:  &nbsp; August 11, 2020: Microstrategy adopts Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset:  &nbsp; August 11, 2020: Microstrategy makes tender offer to purchase up to $250 million of its common stock:  &nbsp; September 11, 2020: Microstrategy to purchase $60.5 million of common stock:  &nbsp; Plan to offer $550 million in convertible notes:  &nbsp; Microstrategy announces over $1 billion in Bitcoin purchases in 2020:  &nbsp; Michael Saylor’s 2013 tweet on Bitcoin:  &nbsp; Forbes expose on unusual accounting practices by Microstrategy back in 2000:  April 2000 profile of Michael in The New Yorker:  SEC enforcement action against Microstrategy:  Forbes profile after the SEC enforcement action:  Forbes announcing Microstrategy would restate earnings after its expose:  Summary of SEC action:  &nbsp; Citi downgrading MSTR:  &nbsp; Renaissance Technologies has been third-largest buyer of Microstrategy’s stock since the summer: &nbsp;  Microstrategy contemplating bitcoin data products:

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