Unconfirmed: Insights and Analysis From the Top Minds in Crypto

Lea Thompson, aka Girl Gone Crypto, talks about what goes into producing her popular “The Crypto Minute” vlog, what initially got her into crypto, and her recent decision to quit her day job and go full time crypto. In this episode we discuss: what “The Crypto Minute” is all about, and all the crypto video content she produces (2:37) how Lea comes up with creative content such as wearing a whale costume to portray Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor (5:04) how long it actually takes to create “The Crypto Minute” (6:36) what goes into producing “The Crypto Minute” and which family member is behind the camera (7:05) the biggest challenges Lea faces when creating her videos and how she decides which stories make the final cut (8:56) Lea’s favorite bloopers including, but not limited to, rug pulls, sushi, an Amazon money printer, and a few fake $100 bills (10:28) how Girl Gone Crypto fell down the crypto rabbit hole and why her ukulele skills were instrumental to her crypto journey (12:54) the time when JK Rowling tweeted about Bitcoin, resulting in Lea’s viral “A Muggle’s Guide to Bitcoin” video (17:31) what type of crypto content works best on different social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok  (20:00) when Girl Gone Crypto stopped being a hobby and how it is going now that Lea is full-time crypto (21:46) how Lea is trying to educate people about crypto in a simple and approachable way… one ninja suit at time (22:34) Crypto News Recap (26:12)   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://bit.ly/3jzkTAD Download the Crypto.com app here: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/laurashinpodcasttesla The Sun Exchange: http://thesunexchange.com/unconfirmed   Episode links: Lea Thompson: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto Her YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GirlGoneCrypto Her TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@girlgone_crypto?source=h5_m Lea's personal website: https://www.lealovescrypto.com/   Video Examples 2020 Year in Review… News Vlog Style: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1344384717466914817?s=20  A Muggle’s Guide to Bitcoin: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1261445010832015361?s=20 Hardware Wallets Explained: https://twitter.com/girlgone_crypto/status/1329580439820849153?s=20   Miscellaneous Information Fair Use: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html Money Printer: https://www.amazon.com/Printing-Machine-Magician-Close-Up-Accessories/dp/B07XRBDCL8   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-300k-btc-by-eoy/  

Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Global, discusses Tesla’s purchase of $1.5 billion in bitcoin and Genesis’s new unit: Genesis Treasury. He also talks about how demand has shaped Genesis’ bitcoin and crypto offerings over the years, which events have acted as catalysts for institutional demand, and what Genesis is expecting in 2021. In this episode Michael covers: The significance of Tesla allocating $1.5 billion to BTC (1:08) How Tesla’s purchase is a result of the evolution of the asset class and why this is just the beginning How Genesis got its start as a regulated BTC trading desk in 2013 (2:56) What new products and services Genesis has launched since 2018 to meet institutional demand (6:11) How Genesis came to launch Genesis Treasury and what this unit does (8:00) Understanding the idea of bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset and how the stock market is rewarding companies for getting into crypto What the catalysts were in creating corporate demand for bitcoin and where corporate demand for bitcoin is coming from (10:52) How corporate interest in bitcoin correlated with Microstrategy’s Bitcoin for Corporations event (13:16) Why institutions have been interested in Bitcoin as collateral, and why that narrative is new How the conversation with institutions interested in buying bitcoin would be different in a bear market (16:00) How GAAP accounting rules affect the quarterly earnings reports of publicly traded companies that hold bitcoin (19:03 ) His projections for how 2021 in crypto will play out (21:44)   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com The Sun Exchange: http://thesunexchange.com/unconfirmed   Episode links: Michael Moro: https://twitter.com/michaelmoro   Genesis: https://genesis.global/  Genesis Treasury: https://genesistrading.com/treasury/   Recent institutional purchasing news: Tesla’s BTC purchase: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/02/08/bitcoin-surges-above-43000-to-a-record-after-elon-musks-tesla-buys-1point5-billion.html Twitter’s CFO considers Bitcoin: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/94459/twitter-cfo-bitcoin-btc-balance-sheet-comments  Microstrategy’s Bitcoin for Corporations event: https://www.microstrategy.com/en/bitcoin/videos/bitcoin-macro-strategy  Michael Saylor’s Unchained interview: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-michael-saylor-on-the-best-way-for-companies-to-buy-bitcoin/ Companies holding bitcoin: https://bitcointreasuries.org/  Genesis information: Michael Moro’s presentation at Microstrategy’s event: https://www.microstrategy.com/en/bitcoin/videos/genesis  Genesis Global background: https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/6024551/About%20-%20Genesis%20Global/About%20Genesis%20Global%20-%20Full%20Overview.pdf  Prime Brokerage Services: https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/6024551/About%20-%20Genesis%20Prime/About%20Genesis%20Prime%20-%20Full%20Overview.pdf  Q4 market observations: https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/6024551/About%20-%20Genesis%20Prime/About%20Genesis%20Prime%20-%20Full%20Overview.pdf  Miscellaneous: Crypto and GAAP accounting : https://www.forbes.com/sites/shehanchandrasekera/2020/05/21/how-are-cryptocurrencies-classified-in-gaap-financials/?sh=40ed4f9865b2  Coin Metrics report on institutional investing: https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/coin-metrics-state-of-the-network-330    Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/41-trillion-in-aum/

Mira Christanto, research analyst at Messari, recently wrote a comprehensive report on the crypto scene in Asia. In this episode, she covers cultural differences in crypto trading between East and West, plus gives us the latest on the diverse regulatory landscape within this large region. Some topics covered in this show include: why Asia is an important geography in crypto why Asia dominates the crypto futures trading markets why DeFi fits better with Western culture, and centralized services are more respected in the East the state of regulation across the region what makes crypto regulation in Hong Kong unique how the Chinese are approaching regulation, and how bitcoin is exchanged there how Japan's crypto industry differs from that of other companies and why penetration is still somewhat low why and how Korea is distinct from other crypto trading cultures why Singapore's regulatory framework for crypto is the most sophisticated what's happening in Southeast Asia and India  the status of crypto mining in China — and why the Western view of it is quite different from what it's like on the ground   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Sun Exchange: http://sunexchange.com/unconfirmed   Episode links: Mira Christanto: https://twitter.com/asiahodl Messari: https://messari.io   Messari's Asia Crypto Landscape report: https://messari.io/asia-crypto-landscape   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/25-billion-in-institutional-bitcoin-by-eoy/

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX, describes what happened between the Subreddit Wall Street Bets and hedge funds around the stock of GameStop this week. In this episode, he covers: what happened with the stock of video game retailer GameStop this week what that says about how to value a stock how the traditional financial establishment reacted how the events in GameStop this week are similar to the way crypto markets operate how a crypto financial system could affect the ability of investors to do what the hedge funds did with GameStop — shorting more shares of the stock than actually exist what led to FTX listing for tokenized versions of GameStop, Blackberry, AMC and Nokia, as well as a tokenized index fund of Wall Street Bets stocks how the tokenized stocks and index work on the back end why Robinhood restricted customers from purchasing shares in GameStop on Thursday what the inspiration was for FTX   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com The Sun Exchange: http://sunexchange.com   Episode links: Sam Bankman-Fried: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda FTX: https://ftx.com   Roundups of what happened with Gamestop:  NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/gamestop-wall-street-bets.html Vox: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22249458/gamestop-stock-wallstreetbets-reddit-citron Early Wired story: https://www.wired.com/story/gamestop-stock-wall-street-bets-short-squeeze/ NYT analysis: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/technology/gamestop-stock.html   Sam on what can determine an asset’s price: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1354790766313234432?s=20   Chamath Palihapitiya on CNBC discussing Gamestop — defending individual investors: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/chamath-palihapitiya-closes-gamestop-position-but-defends-individual-investors-right-to.html Videos: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/27/investor-chamath-palihapitiya-the-gamestop-story-is-pushback-against-wall-street-establishment.html https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/27/billionaire-investor-chamath-palihapitiya-on-gamestop-surge-and-rise-of-retail-investors.html   Gamestop price gyrations: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/gamestop-reverses-losses-and-surges-another-30percent-in-the-premarket-to-450-as-mania-continues.html    How many shares of GME are shorted: https://isthesqueezesquoze.com   FTX lists GME for tokenized spot and futures trading: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/92756/ftx-lists-gme-stock-for-tokenized-spot-futures-trading   FTX’s Wall Street Bets tokenized index fund: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1354790817060143114?s=20   Robinhood customers only being able to sell, not buy GME when Robinhood’s revenue biggest revenue source is sending order flow to hedge funds: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/robinhood-interactive-brokers-restrict-trading-in-gamestop-s.html   Matt Levine of Bloomberg on GameStop: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-28/knowing-when-to-sell-gamestop-stock-at-the-top-is-impossible?sref=m9L277rN   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-gamestop-is-like-crypto/

Gregory Pepin, deputy CEO of Deltec Bank and Trust, responds to allegations in a blog post by the pseudonymous Crypto Anonymous, that Tether is a "highly probably fraud." In this episode, he covers: how Deltec accounts for its reserves, and why they didn't show up on Crypto Anonymous's blog post where the dollars backing Tethers are held how Tethers get created where Tether Ltd. keeps its cash equivalents why there's more demand for trading with USDT than with USD partially because of the arbitrage opportunity between East and West  how Tethers get created using Deltec why USDT gets minted in very round numbers as opposed to very specific numbers that USDC is minted in where the cash equivalents backing Tethers are held what type of due diligence Deltec conducted when it took on Tether Ltd. as a customer why the perception that Tether is unregulated compared to other stablecoins is false what Deltec thinks about the New York Attorney General office's investigation in to Tether why Deltec has a "large position in bitcoin"   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Gregory Pepin: https://twitter.com/dzrgreg Deltec Bank: https://www.deltecbank.com/?locale=en   Crypto Anonymous’s Medium post: https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3   Deltec having large position in bitcoin: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/91353/deltec-bitcoin-position-tether   Original video in which Deltec mentions its “large position in bitcoin”: https://www.deltecbank.com/2021/01/14/a-covid-year-in-review/   Deltec banking Tether: https://www.coindesk.com/deltec-chairman-says-tether-letter-on-bank-relationship-is-authentic   Tether not audited: https://www.coindesk.com/tether-review-claims-crypto-asset-fully-backed-theres-catch   Tether says it is fully backed: https://www.coindesk.com/tether-says-its-stablecoin-is-fully-backed-again   Tether current balances: https://wallet.tether.to/transparency?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=c035d054dd287020b16d6dbb4b70398ca7a99dcb-1611253376-0-AcOsT0Zqpd8Muzw5gnkSz6KKmTrN3WAssxGX8K-p_PkeZ2SUfW9EsAr-a2EkIojYzm5-3RA_1DHxpoK579d0YgtnxMYevlVRSS7RIAKh0sgk-ORzOZUDNgg_AvZjugdrxWVjTA9dCBf1hX4X83oU3-RTjQYn_qYukdRFJUq9a89BXyyDovL3bu4ohxSSVdworOR-cdxEiPURe4ZJrGIvuW3Ej2qJLJt3RDXfX6BfDANdpkVrU6O2KB4V0Or-HJjItS0uAu-L7KrTomXNv9anUv34_An8cH3VHYfB_OD-iyIvkgOh7RHd-Xafe-SJwPnUYg   What Tether is backed by: https://wallet.tether.to/transparency?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=c035d054dd287020b16d6dbb4b70398ca7a99dcb-1611253376-0-AcOsT0Zqpd8Muzw5gnkSz6KKmTrN3WAssxGX8K-p_PkeZ2SUfW9EsAr-a2EkIojYzm5-3RA_1DHxpoK579d0YgtnxMYevlVRSS7RIAKh0sgk-ORzOZUDNgg_AvZjugdrxWVjTA9dCBf1hX4X83oU3-RTjQYn_qYukdRFJUq9a89BXyyDovL3bu4ohxSSVdworOR-cdxEiPURe4ZJrGIvuW3Ej2qJLJt3RDXfX6BfDANdpkVrU6O2KB4V0Or-HJjItS0uAu-L7KrTomXNv9anUv34_An8cH3VHYfB_OD-iyIvkgOh7RHd-Xafe-SJwPnUYg   New York Attorney General’s office press release on investigation into iFinex: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-announces-court-order-against-crypto-currency-company   CoinDesk on NYAG investigation: https://www.coindesk.com/bitfinex-ny-prosecutors-tether-850-million-allege   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-8-trillion-could-do-in-bitcoin/

Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at Coinshares, and Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, join me at the Stacks conference to discuss Bitcoin layer 2s. In this episode, they cover:  why layers 2s exist how layer 2s, such as payment channels like Lightning, work what kind of throughput layer 2s have  how moving Bitcoin to layer 2 affects the price why people having moved $5 billion worth of Bitcoin to Ethereum how Bitcoin moving to Ethereum affects the price the most popular Bitcoin layer 2s Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Meltem Demirors: https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem Nic Carter: https://twitter.com/nic__carter Stacks: https://twitter.com/Stacks   Total value locked in Lightning: https://www.defipulse.com/lightning-network   Bitcoin on Ethereum: https://www.defipulse.com/btc   Stats on Lightning: https://bitcoinvisuals.com/lightning   What layer 2s mean for altcoins and base chain assets like Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/rise-of-layer-2s-altcoins-like-ethereum   Sovryn: https://sovryn.app RSK: https://www.rsk.co Liquid network: https://blockstream.com/liquid/   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/stupid-bitcoin-rich/

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, gives his predictions for what will happen in crypto in 2021. In this episode, we discuss: the big stories in crypto in 2020 how the market has changed in 2020 how the market differs from the 2017-2018 bubble what big traditional financial services firms and investment banks will do in crypto in 2021 how crypto exchanges will experiment with their fee structures how regulatory actions, such as the lawsuit against Ripple, will affect exchanges what might happen to privacy coins as regulators become more active what he expects to see from the upcoming Coinbase IPO and how that will affect the broader market   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Blocknative: http://blocknative.com/unconfirmed   Episode links: Frank Chaparro: https://twitter.com/fintechfrank The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com   The Block's 2020 year in review: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/promotions/2020-in-review/   Predictions from The Block's analysts: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/89788/2021-predictions-from-the-blocks-analysts   Unchained interview with Raoul Pal and Michael Novogratz: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/   Bittrex delisting privacy coins: https://twitter.com/BittrexExchange/status/1345056010981892096?s=20   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/1t-40k-1200/

For the holidays, I'm doing two AMAs. In the second of two, I cover: privacy blockchains my thoughts on the STABLE Act whether or not Facebook's Diem will have a positive or negative impact on crypto what I miss from pre-COVID about the crypto community how we can use blockchain and crypto to weed our propaganda and fake news the best pick and shovel plays in crypto what distinguishes a journalist from an entertainer my thoughts on the state of media and journalism in the US   Thank you to our sponsors! Blocknative: http://blocknative.com/unconfirmed Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Meltem Demirors on privacy in 2021: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-meltem-demirors-and-lyn-alden-on-the-perfect-conditions-for-bitcoin/ Jessie Liu episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-dojs-cryptocurrency-enforcement-framework/ Brian Brooks episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/ STABLE Act episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-rohan-grey-believes-stablecoin-issuers-need-to-be-banks/ Episodes on Coinbase: https://unchainedpodcast.com/will-coinbase-do-a-token-offering-when-it-goes-public/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/coinbase-in-turmoil-why-employees-walked-out/ Episode with Chad Cascarilla of Paxos: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chad-cascarilla-on-paxoss-partnership-with-paypal/

For the holidays, I'm doing two AMAs. In this first of two, I cover: how my book is going tips for aspiring podcasters what it's like being an independent journalist how I spent my time outside crypto if I send bitcoin to North Korea whether I own any crypto if I expect bitcoin will lose its weirdness as it becomes more widely adopted how much blockchain technology can disintermediate banks what black swans I see on the horizon for 2021 what trends I see for 2021   Thank you to our sponsors! Blocknative: http://blocknative.com/unconfirmed Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Links:   My previous AMA: https://unchainedpodcast.com/ama-with-laura-the-greatest-innovation-in-the-industry-right-now/ Whether North Koreans can benefit from bitcoin: https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/ Why North Korea is interested in cryptocurrency: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-north-korea-is-interested-in-cryptocurrency/ Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation: https://unchainedpodcast.com/alex-gladstein-on-a-world-without-bitcoin/ DeFi hacks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/ Why yield farming is risky: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-yield-farming-why-its-all-the-rage-but-risky/ Regulation: https://unchainedpodcast.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-looming-battle-over-privacy-in-crypto/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/laura-eoy-ama-pt-1/  

Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist also known as Beeple who has made an artwork every day for over 13 years, talks about the NFT auctions he held last weekend, after learning about crypto two months ago. In the show, he discusses: how he got into crypto two months ago, and made $3.5 million in NFT auctions last weekend how the objects on sale were more than just jpegs and what physical objects came with the NFTs what types of auctions he had, and why some pieces were available for $1 apiece how he previously made money as a digital artist how he believes digital artists will be able to make money in the future why people would pay to own an NFT if they can just get a digital file of the art why he incorporated physical objects into his sale whether or not this model would work for artists with smaller followings than he has, with his 1.7 million Instagram followers what his relationship was with the collector who paid $777,777 for the final piece sold in the auction why he chose Nifty Gateway among all the NFT sites how NFTs could also change business models for other types of creators besides visual artists   Thank you to our sponsors! Blocknative: Blocknative.com/unconfirmed  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Mike Winkelmann: https://twitter.com/beeple Video for auction: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIlNe6MAwVX/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet Instagram video showing the digital art displays: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CIrMctwgfJ1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link   Coverage of auctions:  https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/beeple-shatters-crypto-art-records-across-the-board/   https://cryptobriefing.com/digital-art-auction-raises-record-million/   https://decrypt.co/51270/beeple-nft-sale   https://twitter.com/niftygateway/status/1338268375156482050?s=20   Rapper Lil Yachty's NFT sale: https://www.coindesk.com/lil-yachty-collectible-fetches-16k-in-latest-string-of-high-profile-nft-auctions   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/3-btc-price-targets/  

Rohan Grey, assistant professor at Willamette Law, talks about the STABLE Act, which would require stable coin issuers to obtain a banking charter, require approval from the Federal Reserve and require issuers to have FDIC insurance. In this episode, Grey, an advisor to the bill, discusses: how the past history of financial innovation and events that have posed systemic risks necessitates the STABLE Act how he, not being a staff member of Congress, became involved in the bill  how the bill would prevent stablecoin issuers from committing crimes that banks have perpetrated by requiring them to become banks why he believes open source smart contracts enforcing rules and public audit-able blockchains are not a fundamentally new way to prevent the type of events that pose systemic risks that the STABLE Act aims to prevent why existing regulatory and licensing regimes are insufficient how he would answer people from countries like Argentina who have had their currency devalued by their government the STABLE Act, and who might say this bill exposes them to a different type of risk how much the rollout of Facebook's Diem, as opposed to existing stablecoins such as Tether, USDC or Dai, was a motivation for this bill whether, by focusing narrowly on systemic risk, this bill could squash crypto and fintech innovation that could help the un- and under-banked whether he sees any path forward for this bill to be passed   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Blocknative: https://www.blocknative.com/unconfirmed   Episode links: Rohan Grey: https://twitter.com/rohangrey STABLE Act: https://tlaib.house.gov/media/press-releases/tlaib-garcia-and-lynch-stableact    Introduction of bill:  https://www.coindesk.com/us-lawmakers-introduce-bill-that-would-require-stablecoin-issuers-to-obtain-bank-charters   Implications of the bill for running an Ethereum node: https://www.coindesk.com/stable-act-ethereum-node-illegal   https://www.coincenter.org/the-unintended-consequences-of-the-stable-act/   https://www.coindesk.com/stable-act-ethereum-node-illegal   Rohan Grey and Jeremy Allaire interviews on The Block Live: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OwxWVgmqyMJQ   Unchained interview with acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-mass-mutuals-btc-buy-is-so-significant/  

James Slazas, founder and CEO of LiquidStake and DARMA Capital, describes their retail and institutional offerings for customers who want to stake on Ethereum 2.0 but still access the locked-up capital. In this episode, we discuss:  what problem LiquidStake solves and how  what happens if the dollar value of someone’s stake drops below the amount that they’ve borrowed who keeps the ETH in a liquidation  how LiquidStake makes money  how they determine the price of ETH to make the loan and what it does in the event of a flash crash on an exchange how LiquidStake and DARMA Capital are also serving institutional clients how total return swap agreements with DARMA work  why they offer more tax and regulatory clarity why LiquidStake currently offers USDC for its stablecoin the pros and cons of a centralized loans on staked ETH 2 over decentralized ones  the other crypto systems LiquidStake is partnering with how LiquidStake and DARMA Capital are able to make these loans from a regulatory perspective   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com/   Episode links: James Slazas: https://twitter.com/DARMA_Slazas Liquidstake: https://liquidstake.com DARMA Capital: https://darma.capital   LiquidStake announcements: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-heavyweights-launch-liquidstake-loans-to-ease-eth-2-0-lockup https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/84277/eth2-liquidstake-borrow-eth-validators   LiquidStake blog post: https://liquidstake.com/blog/1   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-is-pushing-up-the-price-of-bitcoin/

This episode is a discussion from Stellar's Meridian conference, in which I moderated the panel, Crypto on Every Corner: Driving Adoption, featuring Jeremy Allaire, cofounder, chairman and CEO of Circle, and Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares. In this discussion, we cover: what adoption means and looks like  why cryptocurrency is at a particularly interesting inflection point how central bank digital currencies could affect that how blockchains will recede into the background how existing fintech payment apps will use blockchains and/or crypto where on the road to adoption the industry currently is  the significance of Crypto Twitter as a marketing tool what the crypto industry needs to do in the next year to grow the industry why it would have been easier to start a bank than a crypto business why the separation of money and state is one of the most interesting experiments in history  how we'll see new corporate-like organizations without any connections to any existing legal or financial systems driven by tokens what their favorite crypto adoption success story is Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Jeremy Allaire: https://twitter.com/jerallaire Circle: https://www.circle.com/en/ Meltem Demirors: https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem Coinshares: https://coinshares.com   PayPal offering crypto: https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/12/paypal-says-all-users-in-u-s-can-now-buy-hold-and-sell-cryptocurrencies/   Revolut offering crypto: https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/15/revolut-partners-with-paxos-to-bring-cryptocurrency-trading-to-the-us/

Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, and cofounder and chairman of Coin Metrics, explains  why the Bitcoin price has been rising without the retail bubble seen in 2017-2018. In this episode he covers: how this Bitcoin rally differs from the ones in 2017-2018 and why the market is much more mature how much the pandemic and other macro forces this year have helped propel Bitcoin what it says that the number of Bitcoin addresses with $10 or more worth of bitcoin are is at 18 million now, compared to 2014 in the 2017-2018 bubble the significance of realized cap, and why there's less pressure to sell now since the current cost basis of all bitcoins is much higher than in the bubble the significance of the fact that open interest in CME Bitcoin futures hit $1 billion this week — and why, even though they're cash-settled, they do impact the Bitcoin price what the appreciation of the Bitcoin price in other countries' currencies such as Turkish lira means what it means that the stablecoin free float has grown from $1.5 billion in the last bubble to $23 billion during this rally what he makes of the theory that Chinese miners are having difficulty to sell their BTC being a driver of the price rise   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Nic Carter: https://twitter.com/nic__carter Castle Island VC: https://www.castleisland.vc Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.io    Nic’s post: https://medium.com/@nic__carter/nine-bitcoin-charts-already-at-all-time-highs-78abbfe82804   Chinese miners unable to sell BTC: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-rally-supply-crunch-in-china  Dispute with this report: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1328893579515682816?s=20   CME Bitcoin open futures surpasses $1 billion: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/85045/cme-bitcoin-futures-1-billion-open-interest   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-info-will-come-out-in-the-binance-lawsuit/

Paxos CEO and cofounder Chad Cascarilla discusses his company's partnership with PayPal, which just opened up its crypto purchase and selling product to all its US customers. In this episode, he covers: how Paxos enables PayPal's crypto product the regulatory steps Paxos took to make this happen why $200 billion company like PayPal would partner with a small company like Paxos how Paxos Crypto Brokerage works  how Paxos provides the regulatory cover that PayPal needs for this offering, along with custodial and liquidity services why this product sources its coins on Paxos's ItBit exchange how the four crypto assets available on PayPal — bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash — were chosen what other tokens one might expect to be offered through Paxos Crypto Brokerage, and possibly by extension by PayPal how PayPal gets around the scaling issues on Bitcoin and Ethereum whether Paxos's stablecoin business might be used by PayPal if PayPal does acquire BitGo, what that would mean for Paxos offering custody for PayPal through its brokerage how Paxos's equity settlement platform is going, and where it could go over time how and why Paxos is applying to the SEC to become one of three clearing agents    Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Chad Cascarilla: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlescascarilla/   Paxos: https://www.paxos.com   PayPal now offers crypto purchases to all its customers: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/84398/paypal-opening-up-app-crypto-users   Original announcements about PayPal offering crypto purchases with Paxos: https://www.coindesk.com/paypal-new-york-conditional-bitlicense-paxos-cryptocurrency  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/81794/paypal-to-enable-crypto-purchases-with-the-help-of-paxos Paxos announcement: https://www.paxos.com/paypal-paxos-bring-crypto-to-millions-of-users/   Paxos Crypto Brokerage: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/paxos-introduces-paxos-crypto-brokerage-service-to-power-digital-asset-buying-and-selling-in-any-product-301093761.html   PayPal approved for conditional BitLicense: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202010211   Paxos’s stablecoin business: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/54254/a-deep-dive-into-the-paxos-stablecoin-ecosystem   PayPal rumored to be in talks to acquire BitGo: https://www.coindesk.com/paypal-said-to-be-in-talks-to-buy-crypto-firms-including-bitgo-bloomberg   Paxos working with Revolut: https://www.coindesk.com/uk-fintech-firm-revolut-brings-bitcoin-ether-trading-to-us-customers   Paxos equity settlement business: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/56494/paxos-equity-settlement-business-goes-live-with-credit-suisse-and-nomuras-instinet-as-first-clients   https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/44901/paxos-looking-to-upend-a-massive-corner-of-wall-street-credit-suisse-on-board-for-pilot   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/1st-paxos-interview-since-paypal-news/

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association and a board member of HODLpac, discusses how advocating for crypto will change under what is likely to be a new presidential administration. In this episode she talks about: what crypto advocacy typically entails how the approach will change under a Biden administration compared to what it was under Trump what appointments by Biden could most affect the crypto industry which issues are at the top of the agendas for both the Blockchain Association and HODLpac why regulators are particularly interested in stablecoins how a potentially Democratic-controlled Senate under a Biden administration might affect crypto what she's watching for from Cynthia Lummis, a Bitcoiner who won her Wyoming Senate race how anti-trust sentiment in Congress could affect crypto, and whether legislators see Web3 as an antidote to monopoly problems the divisions within the crypto industry around how to approach regulators, and how to resolve them the potential for a de minimus tax exemption, in light of PayPal integrating cryptocurrencies and how HODLpac used quadratic voting to decide which candidates to support   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/   Episode links: Kristin Smith: https://twitter.com/KMSmithDC Blockchain Association: https://theblockchainassociation.org HODLpac: https://www.hodlpac.org   Interview with acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/   Likely second runoff election in Georgia to determine control of Senate: https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1324360112190951424?s=20   Cynthia Lummis to become first US Senator who is also a Bitcoiner https://fortune.com/2020/11/04/wyoming-bitcoin-cynthia-lummis-u-s-senate/   Brad Sherman wanting to ban cryptocurrency: https://www.coindesk.com/congressmans-call-for-crypto-ban-sparks-social-uproar   Leaked Binance doc about whether Binance.US is a decoy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/10/29/leaked-tai-chi-document-reveals-binances-elaborate-scheme-to-evade-bitcoin-regulators/?sh=1d759bd2a926   More on quadratic voting: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-blockchains-can-help-create-little-democracies-everywhere/   Link to the Crypto News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-a-potential-biden-administration-could-mean-for-crypto/  

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, discusses a milestone Bitwise reached this week -- hitting $100 million in assets under management. He also covered what has been driving interest in Bitwise products the two types of customers who have been especially interested in purchasing crypto assets this year and why what this says about the maturation of the industry compared to during the 2017 bubble how conversations with Bitwise customers have changed since then what impact this week's bullish JPMorgan research note about Bitcoin could have on investors and why it was so significant what the significance will be of the integration of bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies by PayPal next year  how Microstrategy and Square putting Bitcoin on their balance sheets will pave the way for other corporations to do so how the new Fed policy of targeting an average 2% inflation rate could affect Bitcoin how recent regulatory actions, such as with BitMEX, affect the likelihood of a Bitcoin ETF being approved in the next few years how a company like Bitwise, which interfaces with traditional investors, creates viable investment vehicles around DeFi for its clientele what a Trump win vs. a Biden win could mean for the crypto industry   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Matt Hougan: https://twitter.com/Matt_Hougan Bitwise: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com   Bitwise reaches $100 million in AUM: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitwise-surpasses-100-million-in-assets-under-management-due-to-rising-demand-for-crypto-from-hedge-funds-and-financial-advisors-301161317.html?tc=eml_cleartime   JPMorgan research note on Bitcoin: https://fortune.com/2020/10/26/jp-morgan-chase-bitcoin-predictions-analyst-jpm-cryptocurrency/ https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP/status/1319703750450302980?s=20   Matt's piece on the significance of the OCC letter giving banks the authority to custody crypto assets: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthougan/2020/07/27/the-occs-notice-on-crypto-is-a-really-big-deal/   Matt's essay on how the Fed's new approach to inflation could affect Bitcoin: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthougan/2020/09/22/this-new-fed-policy-could-be-a-game-changer-for-bitcoin/   Matt's post on DeFi: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthougan/2020/07/13/why-ethereum-has-valuethe--opportunity-in-programmable-money--defi/#67e88a364818   News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-binance-decoy-for-us-regulators/

Willy Woo, on-chain Bitcoin analyst and writer of “The Bitcoin Forecast,” a market intelligence newsletter, discusses how the Bitcoin markets have been changing amidst what may be a forthcoming ebbing of derivatives exchanges and a revival of the importance of spot exchanges. In this episode, he covers: what the PayPal news means when there are currently only 23.4 million holders on chain, and only 101 million active unique accounts at centralized exchanges why "old hands" in Bitcoin have been changing their behaviors recently, selling at bottoms, rather than tops how derivatives exchanges have influenced Bitcoin price action  why price moves in Bitcoin are likely to be less volatile going forward how he's detecting the purchase of Bitcoin off spot exchanges by whales and corporate treasuries how these shifts are affecting crypto infrastructure players how the price of Bitcoin moves for every dollar invested and what his projection is based on that why, as the price of BTC rises, he's currently seeing HODLers holding tighter than ever by when he believes we'll see sovereign wealth funds investing in Bitcoin by when he says we'll see a $50,000 Bitcoin why the Bitcoin NVT ratio indicates it's an "extremely great time to buy Bitcoin" why he doesn't focus much on ether, how he thinks it will perform under Ethereum 2.0 and why things could change if Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 is implemented and transaction fees end up being burned   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links: Willy Woo: https://twitter.com/woonomic The Bitcoin Forecast: https://willywoo.substack.com His charts and models: http://charts.woobull.com   PayPal news: https://www.reuters.com/article/paypal-cryptocurrency/update-1-paypal-to-open-up-network-to-cryptocurrencies-idUSL1N2HC0PL   Willy's tweet about dormancy: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1318154088635224065   Willy on how coins on spot exchanges are dropping: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1313798080236380160?s=20   Willy on NVT ratio: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1315839269148086272 Willy on ETH: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1313099814041653248?s=20

Jessie Liu, partner at Skadden and the former US attorney for the District of Columbia, headed up the team that has prosecuted what some believe is the greatest number of cryptocurrency crimes worldwide — Welcome to Video, Dark Scandals, Helix, North Korea, Hamas/Al Qaeda and ISIS. In this episode, she discusses: how she came to create a Threat Finance Unit that focuses on the intersection of cybercrime that threatened national security what the DOJ's new cryptocurrency enforcement framework means and what the significance is of the framework  what parts of the framework crypto startups should pay attention to whether the DOJ will continue to act in concert with other agencies, as it did recently with its indictment of four executives at cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX in conjunction with an enforcement action by the CFTC against the same exchange how DOJ can claim jurisdiction over exchanges located outside the US, on a practical level, go after entities located outside  how the FATF global standards will affect enforcement in the US the DOJ's stance toward "anonymity-enhanced" cryptocurrencies, or privacy-preserving coins the DOJ's disagreement that EU's privacy law, GDPR, can be used by some crypto exchanges to keep the DOJ from obtaining data from those exchanges how willing foreign countries are to coordinate with US law enforcement and whether cryptocurrency criminals could engage in jurisdictional arbitrage   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links:  Jessie Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessie-k-liu/ Skadden bio: https://www.skadden.com/professionals/l/liu-jessie Press release about cryptocurrency enforcement framework: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-barr-announces-publication-cryptocurrency-enforcement-framework Cryptocurrency enforcement framework: https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1326061/download   Unchained podcast about FATF rules: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/   CoinDesk on how the enforcement framework is a warning shot to offshore exchanges: https://www.coindesk.com/doj-crypto-framework-warning   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/bitcoin-whale-rocket-chart

Freelance reporter and audio producer Chris Harland-Dunaway speaks about his long investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun after his acquisition of BitTorrent. In this episode, Harland-Dunaway describes: how after his acquisition of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent Justin Sun straddled the China-West divide  Sun's background, his early success and how he got into cryptocurrency how he treated the US-based employees differently from those based in China how Sun made a threat to kill an employee's family over an anonymous employee question about what would happen is TRX went to $0 an incident in which Sun hit an employee how Sun handled ethical issues that cropped up around scammers on the app store on Tron, with piracy on BitTorrent product BT Movie and with dark web-style content on BT Live why he believes Sun's biggest liability is his lack of empathy as both a manager and entrepreneur   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links:  Christopher Harland-Dunaway: https://twitter.com/ChrisHDeee Justin Sun: https://twitter.com/justinsuntron Tron Foundation: https://twitter.com/Tronfoundation   Chris's article on Justin in The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/21459906/bittorrent-tron-acquisition-justin-sun-us-china   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-has-never-been-healthier  

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, discusses a controversial blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about how the company intends to take an apolitical stance, the pushback it received afterward, and the company's offer of generous exit packages for employees who disagree: why CEO Brian Armstrong wrote the blog post stating it would be taking an apolitical stance during these socially and politically tumultuous times why the company then offered a generous exit package to employees who disagreed with it which social and political issues caused the divisions at Coinbase how a question about Black Lives Matter at a a company all-hands back in June began the series of events that resulted in this blog post why employees walked out earlier this summer why Armstrong did tweet about the Black Lives Matter movement how the stance Armstrong took in the blog post is not a surprise to those who know his personality  why the reactions to the blog post were so wide-ranging how this affects Coinbase's place in the wider world of investment, which has seen a greater interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing why Coinbase's plans to go public in the next year or so might have affected Armstrong's decision to take the apolitical stance what happened in another all-hands meeting on Thursday to discuss this issue plus, we talk about the DOJ and CFTC charges against BitMEX, how Frank talked with BitMEX cofounder and CEO Arthur Hayes last night, and whether it seemed Arthur had any awareness this was coming   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org   Episode links:  Frank Chaparro: https://twitter.com/fintechfrank The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com   Coinbase blog post: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-a-mission-focused-company-af882df8804?gi=2f36a2277d05   CoinDesk on the blog post: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-has-drawn-a-line-in-the-sand-for-its-activist-employees   What sparked the walkout: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79517/a-question-about-black-lives-matter-sparked-an-employee-walkout-at-coinbase-this-summer   Erica Joy’s tweet thread on the Coinbase engineering walkout: https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/1310741842594426880   Paul Graham’s tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1310583298666696705?s=20   Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s response to Brian’s blog post: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1311423420274372608?s=20   Axios article: https://www.axios.com/coinbase-controversy-b707973c-0f24-4d1e-9690-78ac5fdb94e7.html   Coinbase offers severance package https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79247/coinbase-offers-exit-package-for-employees-not-comfortable-with-its-mission   How Coinbase's apolitical stance could affect its IPO: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79127/a-blog-post-by-coinbases-ceo-has-raised-a-fury-will-it-affect-a-potential-ipo   The Interface on Brian’s blog post: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/coinbase-bans-politics-281784   Links from news recap:  https://unchainedpodcast.com/up-to-10-years-in-prison/  

Jake Brukhman, cofounder and CEO of CoinFund, explains why people are excited about non-fungible tokens, how they can be used, and what new behaviors and businesses they might enable. He discusses: what a NFT or non-fungible token is how they can be "liquid intellectual property" what kinds of digital assets can be turned into NFTs what new types of behaviors and new products and services can be created based off NFTs why consumers would prefer to use an NFT photo or song vs. one from Shutterstock or Spotify why someone would want to buy an NFT when it's so easy to make digital copies of things like art or ebooks or mp3s how disputes over digital objects could be adjudicated in a global marketplace how NFTs enable fractionalized ownership how NFTs can be used as collateral to manage risk how NFTs are combining with DeFi to create NFTFi how NFTs and NFTFi bring non-crypto people in to the space and expose them to finance why the NFT space is much bigger than people probably expect, and how it's drawing a new crowd to crypto   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org   Episode links:  Jake Brukhman: https://twitter.com/jbrukh CoinFund: https://coinfund.io   CoinFund’s NFT thesis: https://blog.coinfund.io/all-digital-content-is-going-on-chain-ae26a7071657   Rarible: https://rarible.com   Unchained show about Aragon: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-aragon-hopes-to-improve-on-democracy/   The LAO: https://www.thelao.io   https://twitter.com/thelaoofficial?lang=en   Yield farming on digital collectibles: https://www.coindesk.com/yield-farming-expands-from-finance-to-digital-collectibles-rarible-nfts   NFTFi: https://tokentuesdays.substack.com/p/defi-x-nfts-nftfi   Aavegotchi: https://aavegotchi.com   $MEME: https://medium.com/@dontbuymeme/nft-farming-guide-how-to-stake-meme-and-earn-crypto-collectibles-ac8121e93e8   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-uni-could-be-a-security/  

David Kinitsky, CEO of Kraken Financial, talks about Kraken's news that it is launching a bank, after receiving approval to form a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) from the state of Wyoming. He discusses: why Kraken decided to become a crypto bank, and what it will be able to do with this status how this status will affect the consumer experience for crypto users  what kinds of crypto assets it will be able to deal with  how quickly it will list coins, such as those DeFi coins that quickly balloon to billion-dollar market caps what its designation, special purpose depository institution (SPDI) means, and why that has special meaning for crypto users what "bailment" means, and why that's significant for crypto users interested in using a crypto bank and how that would affect users in the event any coins were stolen or lost how Kraken Financial's status as a crypto bank will affect the longstanding problem in the industry of obtaining and maintaining bank relationships how this overlaps and works in conjunction with other recent regulations that have affected the crypto industry, such as the OCC saying banks can custody crypto assets how its SPDI status will affect how Kraken Financial is regulated in New York State where the BitLicense is in effect why Kraken, which has a reputation for pushing back on what it deemed to be overreach by regulators, decided to pursue the SPDI how Kraken Financial will make money, despite keeping 100% reserves David's extensive background in cryptocurrency the timeline going forward for Kraken Financial    Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Cosmos: http://five.hackatom.org   Episode links:  David Kinitsky: https://twitter.com/Kinitsky Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/en-us/   Kraken announcement about Kraken Financial receiving the SPDI title from the Wyoming Banking Board: https://blog.kraken.com/post/6241/kraken-wyoming-first-digital-asset-bank/   CoinDesk story: https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-crypto-exchange-secures-bank-charter-under-wyoming-law   The Block story: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/77804/kraken-crypto-bank-launch-wyoming   Kraken Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori tweet storm on the significance: https://twitter.com/msantoriESQ/status/1306236234675740672?s=20   Previous episode of Unchained on crypto friendly regulations in Wyoming: https://unchainedpodcast.com/eth-denver-fireside-chat-with-2-of-the-most-crypto-friendly-governors-in-the-nation/   OCC allowing banks to offer cryptocurrency custody services: https://www.coindesk.com/us-banking-regulator-suggests-federal-licensing-framework-for-crypto-firms https://www.coindesk.com/banks-in-us-can-now-offer-crypto-custody-services-regulator-says https://www.coindesk.com/occ-crypto-custody-years   Conference of State Bank Supervisors’ new regulatory regime: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-regulators-crypto/u-s-crypto-fintech-firms-to-benefit-from-slimmed-down-regulatory-process-idUSKBN2661OA   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/half-a-billion-dollars-overnight/  

0xMaki, a cofounder of SushiSwap explains how and why he got involved in this project forked from SushiSwap, why he thinks his view of decentralization differs from that of many centralized teams that being such projects, and what the benefits of the SushiSwap vampire mining scheme have been. He discusses:  how and why he got involved in SushiSwap why he feels his view of decentralization differs from that of teams such as Uniswap who he believes the other cofounders are, demographically why cofounder Chef Nomi cashed out to take $13 million after a week's worth of work on the project  how it was decided to hand the admin key to SushiSwap over to Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX and Alameda Research how SushiSwap proved that liquidity is not a moat, although trading volume might be why he doesn't own $SUSHI how he feels about taking code from Uniswap the vision for SushiSwap going forward whether or not SushiSwap will be built on another blockchain where he got his $YFI sweatshirt and $YAM pants how SushiSwap introduced a lot of people to being liquidity providers for the first time, and why that's beneficial for DeFi in general  why, despite Chef Nomi cashing out, he thinks people will still trust anonymous devs going forward   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io Cosmos: five.hackatom.org   Episode links:  0xMaki: https://twitter.com/0xMaki SushiSwap: https://sushiswapclassic.org SushiSwap stats: https://sushiswap.vision/home    The Defiant’s pre-migration recap of the SushiSwap saga: https://thedefiant.substack.com/p/sushiswaps-vampire-scheme-hours-away   How the SushiSwap migration went down: https://www.coindesk.com/sushiswap-migration-defi-protocol-politicians  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/77324/sushiswap-initiates-migration-of-over-800m-in-liquidity-funds-from-uniswap    Forbes interview with Sam Bankman-Fried on the SushiSwap drama: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/09/06/exclusive-sbf-speaks-out-on-defis-sushi-saga/#55e447d65145    Chef Nomi’s explanation of why he or she decided to cash out: https://twitter.com/NomiChef/status/1302214292792422401?s=20   Reaction to Chef Nomi cashing out: https://twitter.com/alistairmilne/status/1302246157628956672?s=20   Sam Bankman-Fried’s proposal to build out SushiSwap on Solana: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EParJnqmYs1TJ1qX2q8nnyPeKCA1pF10zLCLYoDxTL8/edit   In the end, the total amount of liquidity across both AMMs is greater than before SushiSwap was created: https://twitter.com/koeppelmann/status/1303784413864636417?s=20    Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-key-metric-that-jumped-82-in-august/

Nadav Hollander, cofounder and CEO of Dharma, discusses the war currently being waged between Uniswap and SushiSwap, how this is driving up fees on Ethereum, and how Dharma's product can get around them. In this episode we discuss: why he conceptually supports SushiSwap and fair launch coins whether or not fair launch coins really are fair why SushiSwap makes him nervous why the battle between SushiSwap and Uniswap is a so-called "vampire attack," which is actually driving up the total value locked on Uniswap  how the SushiSwap yield farming works whether or not Uniswap will release Uniswap v3 in time to compete with SushiSwap whether he thinks Uniswap or SushiSwap will win what factors matter when it comes to which will win out between two nearly identical protocols how Dharma's product enables users to yield farm without paying the high gas fees on Ethereum, but what fee users will pay instead   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Nadav Hollander: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander Dharma: https://www.dharma.io   Uniswap: https://uniswap.org SushiSwap: https://sushiswap.org   Introducing SushiSwap:  https://medium.com/sushiswap/the-sushiswap-project-c4049ea9941e   Total value locked in SushiSwap: https://sushi.zippo.io   The rise in SushiSwap: https://www.coindesk.com/uniswap-defi-pulse-tvl-leader-sushiswap https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/76419/uniswap-fork-sushiswap-700-million-total-value-locked   The frenzy of trading in $SUSHI: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1300703418688864262?s=20   Technical issues/red flags raised around SushiSwap: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1300625235427782657 https://twitter.com/AdamScochran/status/1300887520172019713?s=20 https://twitter.com/AdamScochran/status/1301243267636396032?s=20    What factors could help determine who wins: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1300313617137500162?s=20   How Dharma is helping with high fees on Ethereum: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1301006789081575424?s=20    Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-yield-farm-without-the-hassle/  

Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys and cofounder of Ethereum, discusses ConsenSys's acquisition this week of JPMorgan's blockchain solution, Quorum. In this episode, he talks about: why JPMorgan sold Quorum to ConsenSys, and how that fits into ConsenSys's larger enterprise offerings who Quorum's clients are and what it is used for whether or not ConsenSys is also acquiring the Quorum team  how the acquisition fits in with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and its standards-based approach to blockchain enterprise development how much JPMorgan invested into ConsenSys how much ConsenSys is raising  how the Quorum acquisition fits into ConsenSys's larger restructuring into two main arms focused on software development and venture activity how the pandemic has affected ConsenSys's business the recent outcry over MetaMask's changes to its licensing structure and how it may eventually monetize with a token his thoughts on Ethereum's five-year anniversary and where it is headed with Ethereum 2.0   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Joe Lubin: https://twitter.com/ethereumJoseph ConsenSys: https://consensys.net ConsenSys Quorum: https://consensys.net/quorum   Announcement about acquisition of Quorum: https://consensys.net/blog/news/consensys-acquires-jpm-quorum/ https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75947/consensys-jpm-quorum-announcement The Block’s earlier reporting: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/74687/jpmorgan-consensys-investment-deal Initial report about deal by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jp-morgan-blockchain-exclusive/exclusive-jpmorgan-in-talks-to-merge-blockchain-unit-quorum-with-startup-consensys-sources-idUSKBN2051AW   Interbank Information Network: https://www.jpmorgan.com/solutions/treasury-services/payments-and-cross-currency-solutions/iin   ConsenSys receives money from Payroll Protection Program: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/70511/ledgerx-consensys-tendermint-crypto-ppp-trump   MetaMask licensing: https://decrypt.co/39514/metamask-tightens-license-in-response-to-crypto-browser-boom   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/fidelity-and-the-next-best-thing-to-a-bitcoin-etf/

In this episode, I answer some questions submitted to me via Twitter. I take the audience behind the scenes at Unconfirmed and Unchained to discuss: how I started learning about crypto my pre-interview ritual and how I prepare for interviews the toughest interview I have done so far what I dislike about being a crypto journalist my interests outside of crypto what my recording setup and environment are like the storyline to my upcoming book who I consider to be the top five leaders in crypto  what the layer 1 blockchain future looks like whether my conviction in the crypto industry has grown over the years what I believe the next tech revolution will be what I think of the trends in dapps, alts and DeFi  how relevant fundamentals will be in the upcoming bull cycle whether I find time to reflect on how fast things are moving in the space   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Laura Shin: https://twitter.com/laurashin Unchained Podcast: https://unchainedpodcast.com/ Unchained and Unconfirmed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/UnchainedPodcast/   Newsletter link: https://unchainedpodcast.com/ama-with-laura-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-my-shows/  

Andreas Antonopoulos, speaker, educator and author of "Mastering Bitcoin" and "Mastering Ethereum," dives into the ETH supply debate that raged over the last week. In this episode, he talks about: why the question about the ETH supply is a "silly gotcha" what technical features of the Ethereum blockchain make it less straightforward to calculate the supply of ether how the shift to Ethereum 2.0 and a proof of stake system will affect the value of ETH as money why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not natural competitors and will continue to coexist how macro forces will affect Bitcoin, and whether it will ever be used as a medium of exchange in addition to a store of value whether the full Ethereum 2.0 transition will happen in time to meet DeFi demand why Bitcoin gives Ethereum the freedom to experiment why Bitcoin Cash shows that offering scaling with no community isn't enough to take market share why he supports diversity and inclusion efforts in the space   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Andreas Antonopoulos: https://aantonop.com On Twitter: https://twitter.com/aantonop   Andreas's tweet storm: https://twitter.com/aantonop/status/1292877311570857990?s=20 Summary of the debate: https://www.coindesk.com/how-much-ether-is-out-there-ethereum-developers-create-new-scripts-for-self-verification   Andreas's video on the Lion and the Shark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0x6CtD8iq4   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/from-0-to-500m-to-0-in-48-hours/  

Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments, talks about the strong growth in investment in its products, with inflows in Q2 totaling more than $900 million, bringing assets under management to over $5 billion. He discusses how Grayscale: saw more than $900 million in investment in Q2, up from $500 million in Q1 why the macro environment is causing investors to focus on crypto why investors are expressing growing interest in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust how 80% of Grayscale investors have exposure to more than one asset which types of investors are coming in what developments within the crypto space are also leading to the increased inflows into Grayscale products Grayscale's filing of a Form 10 for the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which will enable it to become an SEC-reporting company why it is doing so for the Ethereum Trust as opposed to Ethereum Classic how the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin Trusts will soon by publicly trading what metrics they use to determine whether to bring a digital asset to market who are attracted to the Grayscale Digital Large Cap fund (GLDC) how Grayscale grew to have $5 billion in assets under management   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Michael Sonnenshein: https://twitter.com/Sonnenshein   Grayscale: https://grayscale.co   Grayscale's filing of the Form 10 for the Ethereum Investment Trust: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/08/06/valuable-sec-data-on-20-institutional-bitcoin-investors-could-soon-disappear/#27352c561de2   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-99-drop-in-value/

Dmitry Buterin, father of Vitalik Buterin and cofounder of BlockGeeks, discusses Ethereum at 5 years old. In this episode, he talks about: how he feels upon Ethereum's 5th birthday how he introduced Vitalik to Bitcoin what he thought when Vitalik dropped out of college to explore Bitcoin more his thoughts on Vitalik's initial idea and white paper for Ethereum what he thought of the ICO craze whether or not he worried about the SEC charging Ethereum or Vitalik with securities violations how Steven Nerayoff told Vitalik he should be worried about the SEC coming after him whether he tried to help Vitalik with the social challenges in growing Ethereum how Vitalik has changed through his work with Ethereum what he looks forward to as Ethereum shifts to 2.0 what he thinks should happen with ether's monetary policy under Ethereum 2.0 Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Dmitry Buterin: https://twitter.com/BlockGeekDima BlockGeeks: https://blockgeeks.com   Ethereum: https://ethereum.org/en/   Unchained interview with Vitalik on Ethereum's 5-year anniversary: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-surpassed-10k/  

Haseeb Awan, CEO of Efani, a secure and private cell phone service, talks about how he became acquainted with hackers who took over prominent accounts on Twitter last week. He describes: the underground industry that steals cell phone numbers and why who the main players, Kirk, lol and "ever so anxious" are what the hackers did when they took hold of prominent accounts, such as those of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and those of crypto companies such as Binance and Coinbase what the hackers could do with the information that they obtained with the accounts they took over why this was likely not a pre-planned attack what happened to the security of the Twitter accounts, and why their second-factor authentication protections did not keep their accounts from being hacked what lessons crypto people can take away from the Twitter hack and how they can protect themselves   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:    Haseeb Awan: https://twitter.com/haseeb   Efani: https://www.efani.com   The New York Times story detailing the hack: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/twitter-hackers-interview.html?searchResultPosition=3   Chainalysis analysis of the Bitcoin obtained in the hack: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/twitter-hack-july-2020-update   Twitter’s account of the hack: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/an-update-on-our-security-incident.html   Analysis by Krebs on Security: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/whos-behind-wednesdays-epic-twitter-hack/   The recounting by the holder of the @6 account: https://medium.com/@lucky225/the-twitter-hack-what-exactly-happened-d8740d33c1c   Coinbase preventing customers from sending money to the hackers: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/72200/coinbase-says-it-prevented-over-1000-customers-from-sending-280000-worth-of-bitcoin-to-twitter-hackers   Fortune on why the attackers will have a hard time cashing out: http://links.info.fortune.com/e/evib?_t=5c2d888702774d17aa3d0350287b6d73&_m=4ecf0f55469542a782a36f0ec9d8df09&_e=EaRX5Sk3zpaQLYk6z4FZ9OwiLdl6CTboSs0AyX9UekCl-VWvzN8z8oZ2pelKQ5oGqAiv5DUuK6FhjOY1tputGIU-mTcXNHxotHGTm1cA2_L6YhT_jsJ_DRRCpdFSGEbh    Convo between two of the hackers: https://i.imgur.com/aJUDLrI.png   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/dear-bank-hodl-my-crypto/  

Nate Maddrey, senior research analyst at Coin Metrics, discusses a report on the rise of stablecoins over the last few months that Coin Metrics published in conjunction with Bitstamp. He covers:  why a stablecoin supply that grew over five years has doubled in the last four months  why demand has grown, specifically for Tether, especially after Black Thursday why that demand caused Tether's price to rise above $1 post-Black Thursday why Tether is the most dominant stablecoin how traders were making money off that arbitrage opportunity and why the arbitrage stayed in place so long where Tether is popular why Tether's price goes up when the free float supply is high and why it goes down when the free float supply is low why the stablecoins have varied in their ability to stay stable and how individual stablecoins have reacted which types of users are holding stablecoins and various types of users are doing with it why it is that stablecoins appear to have different median exchange values and why stablecoins have higher velocity than bitcoin and ether Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Nate Maddrey: https://twitter.com/natemaddrey Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.io The Rise of Stablecoins report: https://coinmetrics.io/the-rise-of-stablecoins/   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-brazen-bitcoin-heist-on-twitter/

Jeff Roberts, senior reporter at Fortune and author of "King of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street" talks about the news this week that Coinbase may go public later this year. We talk about: how Coinbase may offer an additional token offering in addition to a traditional listing how the firm has been laying the legal groundwork for an innovative offering Coinbase's new chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, who is a former federal judge who has ruled over the Google-Oracle and Apple-Samsung trials and who was the deputy general counsel at Facebook what a direct listing, as opposed to a traditional IPO, could mean for Coinbase's investors what a Coinbase IPO would generally mean for the crypto industry why Coinbase's $8 billion valuation would likely go up in an IPO how the fact that overall interest in Bitcoin and crypto are down compared to the highs of 2017/2018 will affect a Coinbase listing   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:   Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffjohnroberts Kings of Crypto audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-of-Crypto/dp/B085PY7S7H Kings of Crypto print book: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Crypto-Startups-Cryptocurrency-Silicon-ebook/dp/B085TRJY8X   Reuters story: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coinbase-ipo-exclusive/exclusive-crypto-exchange-coinbase-readies-landmark-stock-market-listing-sources-say-idUSKBN24A21W   Unconfirmed interview with Jeff Roberts about his book on Coinbase: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-brilliant-asshole-who-almost-blew-up-coinbase/   Coinbase’s recent legal hire: https://fortune.com/2020/07/08/coinbase-lawyer-paul-grewal-crypto-law/ Bitcoin interest is down: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/70437/data-shows-that-mass-adoption-is-still-nowhere-to-be-found?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss   Links from news recap:https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-most-pivotal-event-in-all-of-crypto/

Ben Celermajer, index manager at Coin Metrics, talks about a new metric Coin Metrics introduced this week, called free float supply. In this episode, he explains:   what problems in general Coin Metrics is trying to resolve with its various new metrics when it comes to blockchain-based tokens what other new metrics it has introduced what free float supply is what types of tokens and token holders it excludes from the free float how market caps change for some of the biggest coins when compared to the traditionally reported supply how using free float changes other valuation methods such as NVT and MVRV what other products Coin Metrics plans to build on these metrics   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io   Episode links:  Benjamin Celermajer: https://twitter.com/CelermajerB Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.io Coin Metrics blog post on free float supply: https://coinmetrics.io/introducing-free-float-supply/ Coin Desk on the new metric: https://www.coindesk.com/coin-metrics-offers-more-rigorous-measure-of-crypto-market-supply   Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-popular-bitcoin-theory-is-debunked/

Angel investor and writer Tony Sheng explains what yield farming is, why it's been such a craze, and whether or not the trend is sustainable. We discuss: how yield farming works how people could potentially earn 100% in annual percentage yields from it why people can earn more from lending or borrowing certain tokens vs. others how people can earn from borrowing at all how much leverage people are playing with the three ways people can lose their money while trying to yield farm and what the long-term significance is of yield farming for crypto Unchained is hiring!  Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here! Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Tony Sheng: https://twitter.com/tonysheng Tony's newsletter: https://www.tonysheng.com Beware illiquid markets: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/beware-illiquid-markets-lessons-from Yield farming is the new GPU mining: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/yield-farming-is-the-new-gpu-mining How to earn 100% annual interest yield farming: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274393189231689728 How you might lose your funds yield farming: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274780457729617920?s=20 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-chamath-palihapitiya-believes-in-bitcoin/

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, discusses the launch of the COMP token this week, including: why the price of COMP tokens popped how this now meant that the governance of the Compound protocol was now in the hands of the community whether liquidity mining in DeFi is similar to or different from transaction mining on centralized exchanges what the price jump in COMP on day 1 means for a future DeFi bull market why Kain believes he is already seeing Bitcoin flowing into alts and DeFi tokens what this means for VCs who invested in layer 1 projects Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Kain Warwick: https://twitter.com/kaiynne Synthetix: https://www.synthetix.io Tweet storm on what he got wrong about COMP: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1272875213319856129 Governance of Compound now in hands of the community: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-community-ownership-ee0ed1252cc3 Tushar Jain’s tweet: https://twitter.com/TusharJain_/status/1272696517258883072  Why Kain thinks COMP popping on its first day is a harbinger of a DeFi bull market: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1272723560260198402?s=20 DeFi Weekly: https://defiweekly.substack.com/p/comp-lessons-and-learnings-651 Deribit on how this can create network effects: https://insights.deribit.com/market-research/supercharging-network-effects-in-crypto/ Tweet storm on the BTC dominance cycle: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1269792683616120833?s=20  Tom Shaughnessy tweet on how there’s no more competition between layer 1s — it’s more about DeFi: https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119/status/1272373784616542209 Similar thoughts by Spencer Noon: https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1273403731586023431?s=20 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/make-5x-on-day-1/

Robby Greenfield, the CEO of Emerging Impact and the former head of social impact and diversity programming at ConsenSys, talks about how the crypto community handles issues of diversity and inclusion. We discuss: why he thinks many in the community want to change everything but systemic racism why many in the community turned a blind eye to racist posts retweeted by cryptographer Nick Szabo how people in the crypto community responded to his recent essay on racism why cryptocurrency would not exist without black people his social impact work at ConsenSys how blockchain technology and crypto can help address issues of racism why blacks are underrepresented in crypto despite expressing more interested in it than other demographics Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Robby Greenfield: https://twitter.com/RobTG4 Emerging Impact: http://emergingimpact.com  Robby’s essay in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/the-crypto-community-needs-to-stand-up-and-fight-racism Robby’s tweet storm on why cryptocurrency would not exist without black people: https://twitter.com/RobTG4/status/1269430232861175808 Unconfirmed interview with Steven McKie: https://unchainedpodcast.com/look-for-opportunities-to-increase-diversity-in-crypto/ Robby's campaign, Crypto for Black Lives: http://chng.it/KFn7vnk5 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/you-cant-buy-bad-press-like-that/

Steven McKie, CEO and founding partner at Amentum Capital, discusses the incidents involving Amy Cooper and George Floyd and the resulting protests, and how systemic racism affects black entrepreneurs in crypto. In this episode we discuss: His personal story from a childhood in poverty to running a crypto hedge fund How companies that want to hire from underrepresented groups have to change their habits to reach out to those communities Why underrepresented communities can be easily left behind at the time of technological revolutions Why Black Americans express more interest in crypto than white Americans and yet are still underrepresented What he says when people say that underrepresented groups choose not to be involved in crypto since there are no barriers Take our survey! Tell us what would you like to see from Unchained! Please take a moment to fill out the survey to let us know what you’d like from the show: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a chance to win a metal MCO Visa card — and Crypto.com will stake these cards indefinitely! Ten lucky winners will enjoy card benefits including free Spotify, free Netflix and 3% back on all spending, and they’ll earn extra interest on their crypto deposit and more!  Thanks, Crypto.com! Again, take the survey now: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Unchained is hiring! Come work at Unchained! We have an opening for a remote editorial assistant — find out more about the gig and apply here: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Steven McKie: https://twitter.com/Steven_McKie Amentum: https://amentum.org Steven's personal story:  https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i-started-from-the-bottom-bitcoin-investor-went-from-poverty-to-launching-a-hedge-fund-2017-12-18 Coinbase Reports: Black Americans and Crypto: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-reports-black-americans-crypto-97e54cc89f84 Weekly News Recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/where-the-bitcoins-are/

Sergio Lerner, the head of innovation of IOV Labs and the creator of the Rootstock side chain, describes a pattern he discovered in early Bitcoin mining that he called Patoshi and why people are talking about it now. In this episode he explains: what the Patoshi pattern is what connection it has to Satoshi why the pattern exists how the pattern is being used now in a current court case in which Craig Wright is claiming he is Satoshi Nakamoto how the Patoshi pattern was used this week to evaluate a set of transactions involving early bitcoins signed with the statement, "Craig Steven Wright is a liar and fraud" how it can be determined whether or not recent transactions were mined under the Patoshi pattern Take our survey! Tell us what would you like to see from Unchained! Please take a moment to fill out the survey to let us know what you’d like from the show: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a chance to win a metal MCO Visa card — and Crypto.com will stake these cards indefinitely! Ten lucky winners will enjoy card benefits including free Spotify, free Netflix and 3% back on all spending, and they’ll earn extra interest on their crypto deposit and more!  Thanks, Crypto.com! Again, take the survey now: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Unchained is hiring! Come work at Unchained! We have an opening for a remote editorial assistant — find out more about the gig and apply here: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://www.deversifi.com/ Episode links:  Sergio Demian Lerner: https://twitter.com/SDLerner First blog post about the Patoshi pattern: https://bitslog.com/2013/04/17/the-well-deserved-fortune-of-satoshi-nakamoto/ Block 3654: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/block/3654 Photo of where block 3654 fits against the Patoshi pattern: https://twitter.com/nic__carter/status/1263130214726582272/photo/1 More background on the Craig Wright case: theblockcrypto.com/linked/66657/plaintiffs-in-craig-wright-case-present-new-evidence-that-he-fabricated-his-list-of-bitcoin-addresses-and-blocks  https://www.coindesk.com/craig-wright-called-fraud-message-signed-bitcoin-addresses-satoshi The addresses moved this week: https://www.reddit.com/r/bsv/comments/gq8ao1/more_than_100_addresses_with_unmoved_bitcoin/ https://paste.debian.net/plain/1148565 BitMEX Research on the recent transactions:  https://twitter.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1264989743139500033?s=20 Stephen Palley's take on what this means for Craig Wright's claim: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1265739610434473984?s=20  Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-15-year-old-with-a-private-jet-account/

Jeff Roberts, staff writer at Fortune and author of the recent Audible book, “Kings of Crypto: Coinbase and the Coming Disruption of Finance,” discusses Coinbase's past, present and future. In this episode, we cover:  when Coinbase duped Apple with its app and eventually got kicked out of the App Store when Coinbase's hot wallet got hacked how CEO Brian Armstrong handled challenges like the Bitcoin block size debate and an IRS summons on all its customers' activities for years how it handled the competition from Binance why that led to "screaming in the board room"  the "complete mercenary" and "brilliant asshole" who tore the leadership ranks apart and led to a number of departures by top execs why Brian and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon met privately where Coinbase goes from here Take the Unchained survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020 Apply for the editorial assistant job at Unchained! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/ Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io Episode links:  Jeff Roberts: https://twitter.com/jeffjohnroberts Kings of Crypto on Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-of-Crypto/dp/B085PY7S7H Harvard Business Review edition: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Crypto-Startups-Cryptocurrency-Silicon-ebook/dp/B085TRJY8X Jeff’s interview with Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam at Consensus: Distributed: https://www.coindesk.com/video/the-kings-of-crypto-an-inside-look-at-the-history-of-coinbase  JPMorgan banks Coinbase: https://www.wsj.com/articles/jpmorgan-extends-banking-services-to-bitcoin-exchanges-11589281201 Brian Brooks becoming acting comptroller of the Office of the Currency: https://www.coindesk.com/a-former-coinbase-lawyer-is-about-to-become-acting-head-of-us-bank-regulator Coinbase going remote-first: https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-will-be-a-remote-first-company-cdac6e621df7 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/90-million-down-the-toilet/

Yan Liberman, cofounder at Delphi Digital, breaks down all kinds of data from the Bitcoin blockchain to give a snapshot of where Bitcoin is at this point in its development and glean where it might go in its future. We discuss:  Bitcoin's wealth distribution and how that has changed over time what whales have been up to recently and how that compares with their behavior in previous bull and bear markets what data on multi-sig transactions tells us what companies serving the institutional and retail markets are seeing in terms of customer demand activity to and from exchanges, and what those trends mean what unspent transaction outputs tell us about investors' mindset now and the market value to realized value (MVRV) — what it is and what the current MVRV says about where Bitcoin is in terms of this investment cycle Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Yan Liberman: https://twitter.com/YanLiberman Delphi Digital: https://www.delphidigital.io/ Delphi's State of Bitcoin 2020: https://www.delphidigital.io/halving Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/where-is-the-eth-going/

Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital, talks about the coronavirus and its impact on the economy and on Bitcoin. We discuss:  why he thinks the US won't have a V-shaped recession how the government's monetary and fiscal policy will affect the recovery how this looks similar to what he saw when he traded in Japan in the early 1990s why tokens are outperforming venture whether or not Bitcoin is uncorrelated or if that narrative is changing where he thinks Bitcoin will go — and whether the rest of the crypto market will go with it and what he thinks will happen after the halving and why his projection is that Bitcoin could reach $115,000 in 2021 Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Dan Morehead: https://twitter.com/dan_pantera Pantera Capital: https://www.panteracapital.com Pantera's April 2020 newsletter: https://medium.com/@PanteraCapital/macro-impact-on-bitcoin-pantera-blockchain-letter-april-2020-1fdc792d4f33 Pantera's March 2020 newsletter: https://medium.com/@PanteraCapital/crypto-in-this-crisis-pantera-blockchain-letter-march-2020-4c73af3aaaf7 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/paul-hodl-jones/

Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, explains why he believes Bitcoin is revolutionary, has begun to cement its status as a digital version of gold and is becoming less of a risky investment and more of a way to lower one's risk in a portfolio — but why he doesn't view it as a payment system. He describes how he expects the halving to affect the price of Bitcoin, why the on-chain metrics vs. price seem to him strong signs of adoption and why he views Ethereum as "just another one of the 5,000 cryptos out there." Plus, he talks about why increased usage of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies will only be bullish for Bitcoin.  Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Mike McGlone: https://twitter.com/mikemcglone11 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mcglone-a8442513/ Bloomberg's Crypto Newsletter: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/crypto-newsletter/ April 2020 outlook: https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/Bloomberg-Crypto-Outlook-April-2020.pdf January 2020 Crypto Outlook: https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/Bloomberg-Crypto-Outlook-January-2020-edition.pdf Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-case-for-bitcoin-on-ethereum/

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of Dragonfly Capital, describes how the Lendf.me attack happened, why imBTC was involved in that hack and a $300,000 hack involving Uniswap the day before, and how the ERC-777 token standard was involved. He also recounts what happened after the attack, including messages sent to and from the hacker, how the Chinese and Western DeFi communities had different responses, and how the hacker ended up returning the funds. Plus, he goes into the details of what he knows about why the attacker did so.  Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Haseeb Qureshi: https://twitter.com/hosseeb Dragonfly Capital: https://www.dcp.capital The Block on the exploit: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/62346/multicoin-capital-backed-defi-protocol-dforce-loses-25m-total-locked-value-in-an-exploit  News about dForce bringing imBTC to Lendf.me: https://medium.com/imtoken/dforce-brings-imbtc-to-defi-lending-c739b5cc0643 More about imBTC: https://token.im/blog/en-us/articles/360037559114  Compound CEO Robert Leshner’s comment referring to how dForce stole Compound’s code: https://twitter.com/rleshner/status/1251717261888385025?s=20 More on imBTC attack on Uniswap: https://defirate.com/imbtc-uniswap-hack/ Medium post on whether or not the ERC-777 standard is to blame: https://medium.com/@provablethings/is-a-new-token-standard-really-to-blame-for-the-imbtc-uniswap-and-dforce-attacks-31c62e2bc799  The Block on the new token standard: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/62568/ethereum-token-standard-open-finance-exploits Larry Cermak tweet about centralized tokens: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1251953291891802112 Su Zhu on the hacker perhaps being exposed via VPN: https://twitter.com/zhusu/status/1252479842261450753?s=20  Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/unbelievable/

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill and chair of the firm’s technology, media and distributed systems practice group, explains what the 11 recent class-action lawsuits against ICO issuers from 2017 and exchanges were about, who brought them, who the defendants are, and what hurdles they face, especially regarding jurisdiction. He also discusses why some prominent individuals in crypto, such as Changepeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.One, Arthur Hayes, CEO and cofounder of BitMEX, among others, were named, and how the "control person" theory of liability will play a role in the claims. We also dive into the lawsuit for $28 million against Maker Foundation over Black Thursday losses, and the attempt by MKR governance token holders to force Maker participants to agree to indemnify the Maker Foundation.  Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Stephen Palley: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/ The Block article on lawsuits: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/60930/top-crypto-exchanges-token-issuers-named-in-friday-barrage-of-u-s-class-action-lawsuits Offshore Alert on lawsuits: https://www.offshorealert.com/class-action-complaints-against-cryptocurrency-firms-alleging-unregistered-sale-of-securities.aspx CoinDesk article summarizing the lawsuits: https://www.coindesk.com/top-crypto-firms-including-binance-civic-tron-targeted-in-flood-of-lawsuits The Block on lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/61797/maker-foundation-class-action-lawsuit-black-thursday CoinDesk article on class-action lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-users-sue-stablecoin-issuer-following-black-thursday-losses Indemnity vote: https://vote.makerdao.com/polling-proposal/qmwfvvguaf8rz8xwgv2cqnzzt9t5h6epzh17qmk2ue99y4 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/covidbnsdcep/

Matthew Graham, the CEO of Sino Global Capital, describes how the economy has changed in China due to the coronavirus, how it is affected as business opens back up and how the government is managing it. He explains why the DCEP project is continuing apace and described how he thinks the coronavirus will impact the crypto industry, how it will affect entrepreneurship, and how he thinks startups should approach this time. We also cover the Bitcoin halving and why he thinks that miners in China will make it through the halving fine despite the price volatility in recent weeks. Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Matthew Graham: https://twitter.com/mattysino Sino Global Capital: https://www.sinoglobalcapital.com/ China's economy as it comes out of the first coronavirus outbreak: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/business/economy/coronavirus-china-economy-stimulus.html China's crypto startup scene post-coronavirus: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/08/start-up-crash-reveals-china-post-coronavirus-economy-luckin-coffee-fraud/ China going for digital yuan: https://www.coindesk.com/china-will-undoubtedly-pursue-digital-yuan-central-bank-says The benefits China could reap from DCEP: https://fortune.com/2020/04/07/china-us-digital-currency-coronavirus/ Links from news recap:  https://unchainedpodcast.com/flashbacks-to-2016-2017/

Kevin Kelly, macro strategist at Delphi Digital, discusses how the coronavirus's impact on the economy will affect Bitcoin and the crypto markets, including the ripple effects of the US fiscal stimulus package and historically high jobless claims. He explains how Bitcoin compares to traditional financial assets, what the recent Bitcoin price action says about the theory that Bitcoin serves as a macro hedge, and why it looks like newer buyers, rather than long-term holders, have been selling Bitcoin in recent weeks. We also look at the timing of the coronavirus on the upcoming Bitcoin halving, plus dive into a proposal by his colleague that Maker should hold some MKR in reserve rather than relying on token burns for system income. Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Episode links:  Kevin Kelly: https://twitter.com/Kevin_Kelly_II Delphi Digital: https://www.delphidigital.io Delphi's March 2020 Bitcoin Outlook: https://twitter.com/Delphi_Digital/status/1243955823904280578?s=20 Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-coronaviruss-impact-on-startups-mining-stablecoins/

Antoine Le Calvez, blockchain data engineer at Coin Metrics, explains what happened during the Bitcoin liquidation spiral on March 12, why it was so significant for the Bitcoin markets, and how a DDOS attack affected trading on BitMEX and the Bitcoin price during a period of high liquidations. We also discuss how Bitcoin liquidity has changed since Black Thursday, why that might be, and also what the coronavirus is showing us about Bitcoin's correlation to traditional financial assets.  Thank you to our sponsors!  eToro: https://www.etoro.com Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://kelman.law Episode links:  Antoine Le Calvez: https://twitter.com/khannib Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.substack.com Coin Metrics’ BitMEX post: https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/coin-metrics-state-of-the-network-bf8 BitMEX on the DDOS attack: https://blog.bitmex.com/how-we-are-responding-to-last-weeks-ddos-attacks/ BitMEX Insurance Fund: https://blog.bitmex.com/bitmex-insurance-fund-your-questions-answered/ Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-jaw-dropping-events-of-black-thursday/

Emily Parker, cofounder of Longhash, reads from an essay she wrote about a problem that is probably relatable to everyone in the crypto industry: how you explain blockchain technology to other people. She goes into the three main reasons why the industry has this problem, including the fact that the decentralized nature of the space means there's no designated marketer, that many in crypto don't know what story to tell, and how many actors in the space prefer to engage in petty infighting vs. communicating to outsiders. Plus, she has a few suggestions on what the industry could do to tell its story better and get more people on board. Thank you to our sponsors!  eToro: https://www.etoro.com Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://kelman.law Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/who-was-selling-on-black-thursday/

Noelle Acheson, director of research at CoinDesk, discusses the effect that coronavirus has been having on the traditional financial markets, Bitcoin and why Bitcoin is not turning out to be the uncorrelated asset it was touted to be. We also talk about why Bitcoin had a safe haven to begin with, the role traders played in changing how Bitcoin behaves as an asset, and why we can expect Bitcoin to become even more volatile in the short term. We cover how this could affect Bitcoin miners' ability to survive the upcoming halving, and whether Bitcoin will start to decouple from the other crypto assets.  Thank you to our sponsors!  eToro: https://www.etoro.com Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://kelman.law Episode links:  Noelle Acheson: https://twitter.com/NoelleInMadrid CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-uncertainty-and-the-ultimate-narrative https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-bonds-and-gold-why-markets-are-upended-in-a-time-of-fear https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-investment-research/is-bitcoin-a-safe-haven Links from news recap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/our-only-good-option/