Bankless

Bankless Weekly Rollup Last Week of Nov. 2023 -----

The first think you need to know about crypto is, "what is money?"  The second is, "what is property?" and that is our topic for today. Joining us is notorious economist Hernando De Soto who is here to give us a masterclass on the world of property right and why we need to tokenize the world. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-hernando  -----

In case you weren't aware, last week and over the weekend, Bankless became crypto's main character. In today's episode, we share our reflections on the backlash we received. What happened? Did we deserve it? And why are we here?  -----

What is THORChain? Join David as we explore the liquidity protocol that allows swapping between BTC, ETH, and more without intermediaries. Chad Barraford is a core developer at THORChain, and Erik Voorhees is a Bankless staple who has found a deep resonance with THORChain's mission. Is THORChain helping build the Bankless future? Come find out. -----

Phil Daian is a crypto-economic researcher! Phil is the lead author behind the landmark paper, “Flash Boys 2.0,” which introduced and defined the MEV problem in the Ethereum landscape, over 4 years ago. He is the cofounder of FlashBots, which is a research and dev organization with the mission of mitigating the negative externalities of MEV. Andrew Miller is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, SGX Bull, and visiting researcher at Flashbots, and big believer in cypherpunk values through crypto-economic mechanisms.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-suave  Have you ever heard of Flashbots? Flashbots is the silent protector of Ethereum, a shield against the forces of centralization that silently sneak into our cryptosystems and turn them into TradFi. It's one of the unsung heroes of crypto. The guests we have on today are from Flashbots, Phil Daian, and Andrew Miller. They believe the biggest centralization threats in crypto still lie ahead. And they've got a new platform that's being built to defend against them. It's called “Suave”, and we've been hearing a lot about it recently - “Solving MEV” - “Decentralizing block building” - but going into this episode, we weren't sure exactly what it was. We found out during this episode.  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup 4th Week of November, 2023 ------

Sam Altman Has been fired as CEO of OpenAI, joining Microsoft this morning and sending the internet into a spiral. Here's everything you need to know about what went down and what it all means for the world. -----

Is software eating the nation state? Technologies like crypto and AI are about to fundamentally restructure society from the bottom up. We brought economist and writer, Sam Hammond on to predict how society will be reorganized under this new paradigm and how those in power will respond. Sam Hammond is an economist for the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank advising policies in DC whose slogan reads, “Build Tech. Promote Freedom.” Freedom and Tech. We like those two things on Bankless - and we're also concerned with the project of how to protect them in a world where software starts to eat the nation state (and the nation state feels threatened).  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-sam-hammond  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup 3rd Week of July, 2023 ------

In today's episode, we welcome a U.S. presidential candidate who just rolled out a pro-crypto policy. This is the first one we've seen. His name is Vivek Ramaswamy and he plans to protect these three core crypto freedoms: Plank 1 - Freedom to Code, Plank 2 - Freedom of Financial Self Reliance, and Plank 3 - Freedom from Regulatory Overreach. Vivek Ramaswamy is a 38-year-old Republican presidential candidate. He's an entrepreneur, he's worked in finance, he talks a lot about freedom - most importantly, he's brought us a new policy platform on crypto, that if elected - he will implement. That's why we're doing the show today. ------

Welcome back to Bankless Takes! Today we start with ETH, why is it lagging and where do we go next? Then to the culture, asking are we ETH Maxi's? And finally, how to navigate the bull market and why often times it's even more dangerous than the bear. ------

If Crypto Twitter can't provide a true reality of Solana, what is there left to do besides go to Breakpoint myself and get the vibes straight from the source?  Bankless Nation, here's everything I learned at Solana Breakpoint  -----

Welcome back to Bankless, Morgan Housel. Morgan has written "The Psychology of Money", and most recently "Same As Ever" which discuss the dynamics and psychology around money and markets. In this episode Morgan drops lesson after lesson that you can apply to your own investing strategies and life broadly. It's a masterclass that is sure to have you reflecting on the decisions you make as we enter what may possibly be the next bull market.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-morgan-housel  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup  2nd Week of November -----

In a brand new format, we discuss everything about Solana. From David's experience at the Solana Breakpoint conference, Solana vs Ethereum, and a mildly heated exchange with Chris Burniske, we try to wrap our heads around the big question: What does SOL look like in the upcoming Bull Market? How should we feel about it?

David sits down in person at Solana Breakpoint 2023 with Solana's Founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, and Austin Federa, Solana Foundation's Head of Strategy.  The three chat about Breakpoint's Evolution, Solana vs. Ethereum, and exciting new releases/products coming out of Solana. 

This is our first time ever covering a TradFi stock! However, Coinbase is a different beast… Coinbase is a behemoth of a company, growing since May of 2012. CEO Brian Armstrong has been on Bankless a number of times. Today, we're bringing on two analysts–independent researcher Jay (0xJaypeg) and Delphi Digital analyst Michael Rinko. Today's episode will not be a history lesson on Coinbase, if you're looking for that, we'll highly recommend checking out Coinbase's documentary: COIN: A FOUNDER'S STORY Today's episode is all about $COIN the asset. Down from its ATH of $342/share in Nov. 2021 to $85 today—and with a current market cap of $17.8B— are you bullish $COIN? Why or why not?  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-coin-bull-case  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup  First Week of November -----

Alex Thorn is head of Research at Galaxy Digital, leading a team of researchers focused on unpacking the market developments in crypto, producing information for both internal and external audiences. Before Galaxy, Alex was Director of Blockchain Research at Fidelity, so he's a veteran of straddling TradWorld and Crypto.  Today we talked to Alex about the bull vs. bear case for the BTC ETF.  -----

Many of our listeners are familiar with Li Jin, an investor and co-founder of Variant Fund and is one of our favorite thinkers on crypto and the creator economy. Li is also joined by Eugene Wei. He's a web2 product visionary. Listeners may be familiar with some of his incredible blog posts such as, “Status as a Service”, “Invisible Asymptotes”, “Why Information Grows” and more.  In today's episode, these two gigabrains, one from web2 social, one from web3 crypto, talk about the future of status as a service, psychological ownership, and the future ties between social and crypto.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-li-jin-eugene-wei  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup (Halloween Special) Final Week of October -----

Chainlink's community is anything but weak. Today we brought on two of Chainlink's most prominent community members, ChainLinkGod, a Chainlink Community Ambassador and FishyCatfish, a miner, investor, and all around crypto enthusiast. The two of them are here to give us the bull case for $LINK.  -----

On the show today is Ledger! Ledger is no stranger to market cycles and is here to answer the question... Are we back? Join us as we walk through charts, discuss market catalysts and get a full break down on how ledger is navigating these market conditions. -----

When we think of people to walk us through the history of money and where it's all headed, it's hard to think of a guest more qualified than Lyn Alden.  This episode is a masterclass where we answer seemingly simple questions like "What is Money?" to the future of money and how Lyn thinks the next great transfer of wealth will play out.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-lyn-alden-and-the-history-of-money  -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup 3rd Week of October -----

Joining us today from Hong Kong is Sandy Peng. Sandy is here to tell us what crypto is like on the other side of the world, walking us through regulations, adoptions and bringing us fully up to speed on the landscape in Hong Kong.  For many of us this episode is a 0 to 1 moment in understanding around crypto in Hong Kong and more broadly China. -----

The rollup wars are alive well! Scroll just launched their zkEVM to Ethereum mainnet. We invited Scroll's Co-Founder, Sandy Peng and Scroll's Senior Researcher, Toghrul Toghrul Maharramov on the show.  In today's episode, we discuss why Sroll is exciting, how it is different than other rollups. what's next, and of course, wen token.  -----

Cryptodollars are the new Eurodollars. What are Eurodollars, though? Well, we get into that in today's episode with 8-time repeat Bankless guest, Nic Carter. Nic is a partner at Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity alumni, co-founder and board member of Coin Metrics, and a prolific writer of editorials and academic articles alike, Nic is also a believer that the halvening is always priced in, he's a stablecoin connoisseur, an onchain wizard, and an unlicensed vespa driver.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-nic-carter-stablecoins  There's over $10 trillion dollars worth of Cryptodollars out there and Nic believes that number could grow even bigger. Stablecoins are often called crypto's killer app, however, Nic thinks we aint seen nothing yet! -----

Bankless Weekly Rollup 2nd Week of October -----

Today we welcome to the show today Mike (Rainbow) Demarais. The co-founder of Rainbow Wallet who is here to walk us through Rainbow's newest creation, the browser extension. -----

Last week was unprecedented, to say the least. Several, yes that's right, not 1, not 2, but several ETH Futures ETFs launched last week for the first time in the U.S.!  What does this mean for crypto? Volumes have been surprisingly low. Is it a surprise? Will volumes pick up? Regardless, of whether they do or don't, what do all of these ETH ETFs mean for crypto? Are Bitcoin ETFs next?  We brought on Eric Balchunas to help us answer the above and much more.  is an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence focused on exchange-traded funds. Eric is an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence focused on exchange-traded funds.  -----

Danny Ryan is a coordinator at the Ethereum Foundation. He's been on Bankless many times before. Usually, we're talking about the Ethereum roadmap and what's coming next. This time we're talking about something different…a risk to Ethereum that Danny sees. A little over a year ago, Danny wrote a blog post titled “The Risk of LSDs”... discussing the various risk vectors that a dominant LSD presents to Ethereum…even naming Lido specifically in the process.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-danny-ryan  ------ A lot of people have decided that liquid staking with Lido is the place to do it. At the time of recording Lido has over 30% of all staked Ether. Does this present a systemic risk to Ethereum? We did an episode called, “In Defense of Lido” with researcher Hasu who argued that Lido does not pose a systemic risk to Ethereum. In fact, Lido's dominance is better than many other alternatives. We left that conversation half-finished when we published it in August 2023.  In today's episode, we cover part two of that debate with Ethereum researcher and guest Danny Ryan who argues the opposite. Lido is a systemic risk to Ethereum and what to do about it. We believe our role as podcasters for issues like this is to voice both sides of the argument in long-form conversations and healthy debate. It is exactly the kind of thing you don't get on Twitter. That's why we've given voice to both sides of this issue.  We think there are good actors who care about this ecosystem at Lido and in the broader Ethereum community and we're sure this episode won't be the last word on this subject. -----

WRU 1st Week of October -----

Joining us today is the Head of Research at Coinbase, David Doung, and macro is on the menu.  We're talking yield curves, election fears, US equities, and if macro economics is even real.  And finally, David walks us through the recession. Is it delayed, is it cancelled, is it already here? -----

Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink. Chainlink, you might know as the price oracles for DeFi… providing DeFi with the data it needs to know prices. More ambitious than just prices, Chainlink is aiming to become the interoperability layer between all of TradFi and all of DeFi, acting as a gateway between onchain and offchain data. We're going to explore that vision today on Bankless.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-sergey-nazarov-chainlink  -----

WRU Last Week of September ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables

Joining us today from Fidelity are Chris Kuiper and Jack Neureuter who recently released their Ethereum Investment Thesis report. On this episode we're asking are the institutions serious about Ether? Has Ether passed through the gauntlet…like BTC? And what does it look like for institutions to actually begin investing in Ether the asset. Fidelity manages $4.5 trillion dollars, that's many multiples higher than the entire crypto market cap. This is worth paying attention to. ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables

In today's episode, we're exploring the frontier of the multi-chain Ethereum roadmap. Synthetix has been leading this charge as it pertains to the application layer of Ethereum.  David is joined by Synthetix's Founder, Kain Warwick in person in David's Brooklyn studio. “Synthetix, A New Hope,” is a recent blog post Kain wrote and is a main focus for today's episode.  ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables

The overnight fed funds rate is 5.3% but how much are you getting from that in your bank account? How much are you getting from your stablecoins?  Today on the show Martin Carrica walks us through a world in which we can tokenize treasuries instead of just dollars. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-onchain-t-bills/  ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables

WRU 4th Week of September  ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables

Solana on Ethereum? Solana has a virtual machine called the SVM. Proponents say it's much better than the Ethereum EVM…multi-threaded execution…now it's coming to Ethereum in the form of an L2.  Today on the show, we brought on CEO & Co-Founder of Eclipse, Neel Somani. Eclipse is not only a new L2 on the scene, it's also an L2 framework, kind of like the OP Stack. It's a superchain contender.  This poses some very interesting questions….who wins? Does this kill Solana?  ------

Vitalik live from Permissionless! On this Episode we discuss what's next for Ethereum. What type of use cases can we create because of the unique properties of crypto? What would Vitalik's new startup be? And we explore what it will look like to successfully navigate the next bull market. This episode was filmed at permissionless. For the full episode in video form, check out the recording here: https://blockworks.co/event/permissionless-2023/livestreams?room=37736  ------

Dom, aka Domothy, is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation who is working on the research and development of some key Ethereum protocol upgrades like EIP4844, danksharding, and MEV Burn. We last had Dom on Bankless about that last one, MEV Burn, and this time we're bringing him around to fully understand an incoming new property of Ethereum that EIP4844 is going to introduce… a new resource market… called BLOBspace…  kind of like Blockspace… but for Blobs! What are blobs? What is Blobspace? How is it different from blockspace and blockspace markets? What will it do for Ethereum and its rollups? These are the questions we explore with Dom today.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-blobspace  You know how we say blockchains sell blocks? Well, soon Ethereum's going to be selling more than just blocks. It's going to be selling blobs too.  We're just a few months out from the biggest Ethereum release since the merge and no one's fully mapped out the implications. But it's going to be huge.  - Ethereum's getting a new product to sell… it's called Blobspace - The cost of transacting on L2s is about to drop toward zero… - The economics of ETH gas and the burn are about to change forever… Blobspace, EIP4844, proto-danksharding…that's what the geeks call this new ETH feature upgrade.  This is everything you need to know about Blobspace with Ethereum Researcher Domothy in this absolute banger of an episode.  ------

MetaMask just released MetaMask Snaps at Permissionless II. Why is this such a big deal? Is this crypto's “Chrome extension” moment? Is this how we onboard crypto's next billion users? We welcome creator and Co-Founder of MetaMask, Dan Finlay on the show to help us explore all of these questions and much more.  ------

WRU 3rd Week of September Live From Permissionless! ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool Claimables

Seth Hertlein, VP Global Head of Policy at Ledger, and Michael Mosier, Co-Fouder of legal boutique Arktourous, Build Exante - FinCEN, Treasury, and Chief Technical Counsel at Chainalysis join us on today's show to explain the modern financial surveillance apparatus. FATF, FinCEN, AML/KYC, OFAC...the blacklists, the greylists. How does it all work? Who makes the rules? ------

On today's episode we welcome Bryce Patrick and Steve Dakh from the Ethereum Attestation Service. EAS is a new public good, open, permissionless, and token free. Is this the key unlock for decentralized identity through crypto?  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-eas/  -----

FULL ARTICLE: https://www.bankless.com/davids-takes-burning-man David just got back from the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, where, for one week of the year, tens of thousands of people congregate for the annual Burning Man festival. The parellels Crypto and Burning Man are strong, but it's not until participating in both that you can concretely grasped why. So, David went to Burning Man to go see what all of the excitement was about. And Bankless Nation… like Crypto, Burning Man is a rabbit hole.  -----

WRU 2nd Week of September -----

Today we're joined by Mike Ippolito, co-founder at Blockworks, who's here to breakdown his take on the Blockchain trilemma and how Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos chains all attempt to solve it. This wide ranging interview asks great questions and shines a light on what a multi-chain future might look like. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-blockchain-trilemma/  -----