Word on the Block | Forkast.News
294 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsA weekly, 30-minute podcast interviewing leading CEOs, policymakers, and thought leaders in the world of blockchain. Produced from Asia by Forkast.News, and hosted by award-winning anchor Angie Lau, Word on the Block goes beyond the headlines in providing in-depth, 1:1 interviews with the newsmakers shaping the rapid innovation and impact of blockchain, crypto, and emerging technology on business, politics, and the global economy.
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Episodes
Derivatives will be crypto’s “next big thing” says 100x CEO (ft. Alexander Hötpner)
July 09, 2021 10:15 - 38 minutes - 35 MBAs Huobi winds down in China, Binance gets put in the regulatory doghouse in the U.K., and Bybit is slapped with enforcement action by, Canadian authorities — cryptocurrency exchanges around the world are feeling the heat of intensifying government scrutiny and crackdowns. Alexander Höptner, who became CEO of 100x Group — the holding group for crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX’s owner HDR Global Trading Limited — after BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed were c...
One day, we’ll just call Bitcoin ‘money,’ says crypto veteran (ft. Samson Mow)
July 02, 2021 11:32 - 36 minutes - 49.5 MBWhen El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, shared with the world that his “Bitcoin Law” had been approved by the nation’s Congress in a supermajority vote, it was a watershed moment for the original cryptocurrency, and for cryptos generally. The adoption of a crypto coin as a parallel currency was billed as a means of mitigating the Central American nation’s economic exposure to monetary policy made by another country’s central bank — the U.S. Federal Reserve — and of giving Salvadorans more...
Bitcoin not ideal for cyber crime, says Filecoin Foundation chair (ft. Marta Belcher)
June 25, 2021 11:44 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBBack in early May, a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline forced the company to pay the hackers US$5 million in cryptocurrencies. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the FBI had successfully recovered US$2.3 million of the ransom in Bitcoin. Those who really understood Bitcoin — and blockchain technology’s digital trail of crumbs that led to the crypto’s recovery — were gobsmacked. What could those cybercriminals possibly have been thinking? Pioneering block...
WazirX CEO: India’s crypto industry keeps “clean” for regulators
June 18, 2021 08:53 - 37 minutes - 50.9 MBIn India, the legal status of crypto and cryptocurrency trading remains a hot and murky topic. India’s divisions, differences in opinion and all-out tug-of-war over the legality of crypto have been on full display in recent years. First there was a central bank ban on banks doing business with crypto firms. Then the Indian Supreme Court overturned that banking ban. Earlier this year, India’s Parliament upped the ante by drafting a bill that would ban crypto outright. That crypto ban bill has...
WazirX CEO: India’s crypto industry keeps “clean” for regulators (ft. Nischal Shetty)
June 18, 2021 08:52 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBIn India, the legal status of crypto and cryptocurrency trading remains a hot and murky topic. India’s divisions, differences in opinion and all-out tug-of-war over the legality of crypto have been on full display in recent years. First there was a central bank ban on banks doing business with crypto firms. Then the Indian Supreme Court overturned that banking ban. Earlier this year, India’s Parliament upped the ante by drafting a bill that would ban crypto outright. That crypto ban bill h...
How the layer 2 race is scaling Ethereum before ETH 2.0 (ft. Alan Chiu)
June 11, 2021 09:26 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBIn the blockchain world, all eyes are on Ethereum and the roll-out of ETH 2.0 — which is expected to solve Ethereum’s scalability issues. But others, like Alan Chiu are trying to do the same sooner in a layer 2 race. Chiu, the founder and CEO of Enya.ai, says scalability in Ethereum is already making headway while the world waits for the next level Ethereum — a project already infamous for its many delays. “Ethereum has a rather limited capacity for computation and this has been a known pr...
Criticisms Tether’s reserves are unfounded, says Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino (ft. Paolo Ardoino)
June 04, 2021 07:10 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBAfter settling a 22-month investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office, Tether growth has exploded – dispelling trust concerns says Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino.
How FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried navigates the new normal of trading (ft. Sam Bankman-Fried
May 28, 2021 09:40 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBWhat really happened on crypto’s so-called “Black Wednesday” earlier this month — and what can we learn from it? On May 19, a day when tweets and headlines criticized Bitcoin’s environmental impact, the crypto market crashed. Bitcoin prices tumbled from euphoric highs of over US$55,000 to under US$40,000 that day, and in the days since continued to plummet, to bottom out at around US$30,800, according to CoinMarketCap data. But despite that volatility, crypto’s underlying fundamentals and ...
How FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried Navigates The New Normal Of Trading
May 28, 2021 09:40 - 56 minutes - 77.2 MBWhat really happened on crypto’s so-called “Black Wednesday” earlier this month — and what can we learn from it? On May 19, a day when tweets and headlines criticized Bitcoin’s environmental impact, the crypto market crashed. Bitcoin prices tumbled from euphoric highs of over US$55,000 to under US$40,000 that day, and in the days since continued to plummet, to bottom out at around US$30,800, according to CoinMarketCap data. But despite that volatility, crypto’s underlying fundamentals and t...
Digital dollar’s values to fortify USD hegemony(ft. David Treat & Christopher Giancarlo)
May 19, 2021 11:56 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBThe Digital Dollar Project — a private sector initiative by the Digital Dollar Foundation and Accenture — recently became a late entrant to the central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing grounds, announcing at least five pilots within the next year. But the United States Federal Reserve has yet to commit to the launch of a digital dollar, widening the gap between the US and other central banks — including China — in CBDC developments. Beijing, having already launched numerous pilot proje...
India’s crypto investing ‘growing like crazy’ since ban attempt (ft. Neeraj Khandelwal)
May 14, 2021 08:54 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBDuring the Indian Parliament’s Budget Session two months ago, all eyes were on a proposed bill to ban cryptocurrency trading in the world’s second-most populous country. The well-publicized bill sparked a large-scale campaign within the local industry encouraging the government to establish proper regulatory framework rather than an outright ban. Ultimately, the bill did not pass the parliament, leaving the state of India’s crypto industry uncertain. In an exclusive interview with Forkast.N...
R3 is growing Corda’s reach with China’s Blockchain Services Network (ft Yifan He & Todd McDonald)
May 07, 2021 10:04 - 39 minutes - 54.3 MBCryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are shaking up traditional finance and shifting the tectonic plates of investing, but the technology underlying digital assets — blockchain — may eventually have a bigger impact on the world. Today, most applications on public chains such as Ethereum are centered around the economic layers of cryptocurrencies, such as decentralized finance (DeFi). But for a country like China, where public chain applications may not always be aligned with local regulations, per...
How R3 is growing Corda’s reach with China’s Blockchain Services Network (ft Yifan He & Todd McDonald)
May 07, 2021 07:26 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBCryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are shaking up traditional finance and shifting the tectonic plates of investing, but the technology underlying digital assets — blockchain — may eventually have a bigger impact on the world. Today, most applications on public chains such as Ethereum are centered around the economic layers of cryptocurrencies, such as decentralized finance (DeFi). But for a country like China, where public chain applications may not always be aligned with local regulations, per...
Why more big investors are now seeking interest and yields in DeFi (ft. Alessio Quaglini)
April 30, 2021 09:39 - 29 minutes - 27 MBAs corporations plow billions in Bitcoin, a new business model involving DeFi is attracting more investors, says Alessio Quaglini of Hex Trust.
R3 Corda helping Thailand’s case for international trade dark horse (ft. Amit Ghosh)
April 23, 2021 11:45 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThailand’s crypto adoption is often overlooked, but one of its largest commercial banks has been leveraging permissioned blockchain Corda of R3 to digitize trade finance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “On the blockchain side and the crypto side, I believe they're a leading player globally. They don't probably get as much recognition for all the work that's happening in the ecosystem,” said Amit Ghosh, head of APAC for R3, the blockchain software firm, in an interview with Forkast.News...
Why institutional investment in crypto will continue to grow (ft. Justin Chow)
April 16, 2021 02:54 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBJustin Chow of Cumberland DRW explains why Asia has lagged behind the US in institutional interest in Bitcoin and other crypto—and why that will likely change soon. “The number of institutional investors that have gone public with their investments in crypto is actually only a fraction of the conversations we're still having,” said Justin Chow, global head of business development and relationship management at Cumberland DRW, in a video interview with Forkast.News.
Lawyer for 11,000 XRP holders pushing to fight SEC in Ripple lawsuit (ft. John Deaton)
April 08, 2021 04:15 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBAs Ripple and SEC intensify their legal warfare, attorney John Deaton and his clients want in. Will XRP investors get their day in court?
What do Hong Kong’s regulations mean for crypto exchanges and investors?
March 30, 2021 07:13 - 32 minutes - 44 MBHashKey Group COO Angelina Kwan, a former regulator who helped write the laws that crypto firms are subjected to now, explains all.
What do Hong Kong’s regulations mean for crypto exchanges and investors? (ft. Angelina Kwan)
March 30, 2021 07:12 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MBThe Hong Kong government’s proposed legislation to ban crypto trading for retail investors and require virtual asset service platforms (VASPs) to obtain licenses to operate has caused great concern among the territory’s crypto community. Fears are that Hong Kong might cede its position as a regional fintech hub to neighbors such as Singapore, or fall behind other centers in the U.K. or U.S., by unduly stopping retail investors from trading while allowing the wealthy to continue. HashKey Gr...
Justin Sun: Next generation traders will prefer NFTs and DeFi (ft. Justin Sun)
March 26, 2021 09:42 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBThe new generation of investors are not like those who came before them. Everything is going digital — even valuables like one-of-a-kind art. They won’t be shouting buy orders from the mosh pit of a trading floor; more likely, their investing will happen in a home office or on the living room couch. Justin Sun, 30, is part of this new generation. After narrowly missing out on buying digital artist Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” non-fungible-token (NFT) collage in a recent US$69 m...
Why ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver prefers Bitcoin Cash to the original BTC
March 24, 2021 05:14 - 37 minutes - 51.8 MBEarly crypto investor and promoter Roger Ver tells Forkast.News how faster transactions and lower fees are fueling Bitcoin Cash adoption over Bitcoin.
Why Roger Ver prefers Bitcoin Cash to the original BTC (ft. Roger Ver)
March 24, 2021 05:14 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBEarly crypto investor and promoter Roger Ver tells Forkast.News how faster transactions and lower fees are fueling Bitcoin Cash adoption over Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is currently the 13th most popular cryptocurrency in the world, with a US$9.6 billion market capitalization that is just a fraction of Bitcoin’s US$1 trillion. But the transaction volume on the Bitcoin Cash network is outpacing transactions on the Bitcoin network at a 10:1 ratio, according to blockchain analytics engine Blockchai...
JPMorgan’sis redefining payments in banking with blockchain (ft. Christine Moy & Naveen Mallela)
March 19, 2021 09:42 - 32 minutes - 44.5 MBFor over five years, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been advancing blockchain technology in the banking sector. Its JPM Coin — a wholesale payment stablecoin that is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar — is now transacting billions of dollars every day. JPMorgan’s open information sharing network Liink — formerly known as Interbank Information Network — now has over 400 banks. Just last October, after JPMorgan sold Quorum, its blockchain protocol to the Brooklyn-based blockchain software firm ConsenSys, ...
How JPMorgan’s Onyx is redefining payments in banking with blockchain (ft. Christine Moy & Naveen Mallela)
March 19, 2021 09:40 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBFrom JPM Coin to payments on Ethereum in outer space, JPMorgan’s Onyx division is pushing out the traditional banking world’s blockchain frontiers For over five years, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been advancing blockchain technology in the banking sector. Its JPM Coin — a wholesale payment stablecoin that is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar — is now transacting billions of dollars every day. JPMorgan’s open information sharing network Liink — formerly known as Interbank Information Network — now ...
Will DeFi upend traditional finance and democratize capitalism? (ft. Amber Ghaddar)
March 12, 2021 07:39 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBThe GameStop saga shows the changing power dynamics between big money and small investors. Here’s why one former banker thinks ‘DeFi is going to absorb traditional finance’ in the next 10 years.
Blockchain advocates pause FinCEN’s ‘crypto wallet rule’ in its tracks (ft. Perianne Boring)
March 04, 2021 07:16 - 31 minutes - 43.5 MBPerianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, discusses the controversial ‘crypto wallet rule’ and how the industry pulled together to force FinCEN to consider more public comments. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) proposed “crypto wallet rule,” which had been championed by former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, is currently on hold so the agency can gather more public comments. But the blockchain, crypto and digital asset industry’s sentiments ar...
How blockchain advocates stopped FinCEN’s ‘crypto wallet rule’ in its tracks—for now (ft. Perianne Boring)
March 04, 2021 06:51 - 31 minutes - 29 MBPerianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, discusses the controversial ‘crypto wallet rule’ and how the industry pulled together to force FinCEN to consider more public comments. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) proposed “crypto wallet rule,” which had been championed by former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, is currently on hold so the agency can gather more public comments. But the blockchain, crypto and digital asset industry’s sentiments a...
Will new CasperLabs token take a bite out of high gas fees? (ft. Medha Parlikar)
February 24, 2021 14:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBCasperLabs, a new layer-1 smart contract network that recently joined China’s nationwide blockchain network, announced today that its CSPR token will be open for sale from March 23 to 26 to “accredited investors.” Casper network is an enterprise-focused layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain protocol aiming to solve the issues of scalability, security and decentralization that have plagued other smart contract blockchains such as Ethereum. Although Ethereum has launched Ethereum 2.0 in hopes of ...
In Singapore, bitcoin is challenging gold as a store of value (ft. Eugene Ng)
February 22, 2021 06:24 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBIn ancient China, small golden or silver ingots were used as currency. Its weight in taels — a weight measurement unit in regions of East and Southeast Asia — determined its value. Now, bitcoin — which has broken its all-time high record yet again, now exceeding US$56,500 in price and US$1 trillion in market value — is emerging as modern-day “gold 2.0” — especially in Singapore. Eugene Ng of Gemini, the Winklevoss-backed exchange that recently expanded into Singapore, explains why the Lion ...
Don Tapscott’s “personal call” to President Biden on blockchain technology (ft. Don Tapscott)
February 17, 2021 03:35 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBThere is a transition underway from an “internet of information” to an “internet of value” with blockchain as its foundation, Blockchain Research Institute Executive Chairman Don Tapscott said in an interview with Forkast.News. According to the blockchain think tank’s new report — which outlines recommendations for the Biden administrations on how to approach, regulate and lead blockchain technology — any failure by the U.S. government to embrace and sensibly regulate crypto would sap the na...
How blockchain and DLT could combat misinformation and manipulation in the media (ft. Jim Nasr)
February 15, 2021 06:22 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBBuried under headlines of Covid-19, U.S.-China trade war and controversial elections, 2020 also saw journalism under attack around the world. Under threat of misinformation, manipulation and rising distrust in the media, could blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) help bolster legitimate journalism?
CasperLabs wants to help “morph” China’s BSN into the AWS of blockchain (ft. Mrinal Manohar)
February 11, 2021 02:06 - 33 minutes - 31 MBAlthough Microsoft Azure has been gradually closing the gap, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has topped the world’s cloud infrastructure services in market share again in Q4 of 2020 — a peek into the future potential of how CasperLabs can help “morph” China’s Blockchain Service Network into the AWS of the blockchain industry in the Web 3.0 era. “People watch Netflix all the time,” said CasperLabs CEO Mrinal Manohar in a video interview with Forkast.News. “Almost the entire infrastructure is on AW...
How crypto forensics traced $32 million worth of ‘lost’ bitcoin (ft. Benjamin Sauter)
February 05, 2021 06:36 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBIs crypto use totally anonymous? Think again. The Cubits/Dooga case shows how easy it is to trace crypto transactions compared to fiat.
How crypto forensics recovered $32 million worth of ‘lost’ bitcoin (ft. Benjamin Sauter)
February 05, 2021 06:28 - 24 minutes - 33.7 MBA common misperception is that lost bitcoin is gone forever. But as blockchain forensics continues to evolve, recovering lost crypto assets may have already become easier than traditional asset recovery.
Cardano, Hoskinson, aim high for Fortune 500 (ft. Charles Hoskinson)
January 22, 2021 06:28 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBComparing nations like Ethiopia to “China in the 80s,” IOHK founder Charles Hoskinson explains Cardano’s Africa strategy and why Fortune 500 companies looking to do more global business in developing countries need cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is “better form of value” than fiat, says Binance CEO CZ (ft. Changpeng Zhao)
January 18, 2021 03:36 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBBinance CEO CZ says bitcoin’s advantages over fiat have become, while sharing his thoughts on the future of DeFi and Binance in an interview with Forkast.News.
‘Crypto Mom’ Hester Peirce calls for more regulatory coordination (ft. Hester Peirce)
January 12, 2021 21:17 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBThe U.S. government needs to provide more clarity and guideposts for crypto regulations — and better cross-agency coordination is needed, said U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce in an exclusive interview with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau.
How DLT is fighting the information war in Syria and saving lives (ft. Mance Harmon)
January 05, 2021 06:15 - 18 minutes - 17.4 MB“The world we live in today is that the video, the pictures, deep fakes, people in general now understand that technology can make them see things that never happened,” Mance Harmon, CEO and co-founder of DLT developer Hedera Hashgraph, tells Forkast.News.
Current Forkast #44: Year in Review: the 5 biggest blockchain and crypto stories of 2020
December 23, 2020 07:07 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBHere are the hottest blockchain news and trends that dominated Forkast.News headlines over the past 12 months. Let the countdown to 2021 begin!
Current Forkast #43: MassMutual jumps into bitcoin. DBS bank backs crypto exchange. Sweden's CBDC
December 16, 2020 07:14 - 17 minutes - 24.6 MBOther top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: Fine art goes digital with NFTs. Hong Kong in talks to pilot test China’s DCEP digital yuan.
Current Forkast #43: MassMutual jumps into bitcoin. Singapore’s DBS bank backs crypto exchange. Will Sweden switch to CBDC?
December 16, 2020 07:06 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBOther top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: Fine art goes digital with NFTs. Hong Kong in talks to pilot test China’s DCEP digital yuan.
Why DeFi platforms need better KYC to curb money laundering (ft. Charles Day & Gunnar Jaerv)
December 15, 2020 05:15 - 21 minutes - 30.1 MBDeFi and cryptocurrency exchanges should take heed of examples such as BitMEX and improve KYC standards, say experts.
Why DeFi platforms need better KYC to curb "insidious" money laundering practices (ft. Charles Day & Gunnar Jaerv)
December 15, 2020 02:06 - 21 minutes - 20 MBDeFi and cryptocurrency exchanges should take heed of examples such as BitMEX and improve KYC standards, say experts. blockchainDefiDecentralizedartificial intelligenceKYCAMLCryptoTokensDigital assetes
Ethereum 2.0’s Beacon Chain is a testing ground, says Infura GM (ft. Michael Godsey)
December 10, 2020 02:47 - 26 minutes - 21 MBEthereum 2.0 has transformed to proof of stake, but sharding, smart contracts and other features will have to wait for Eth2's future phases.
Current Forkast #42: Visa embraces USDC. US lawmakers' STABLE Act. China’s biggest DCEP.
December 09, 2020 10:00 - 15 minutes - 21.1 MBOther top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: S&P Dow Jones to launch crypto index. Walmart leads $700 million investment in Indian payment platform.
Current Forkast #42: Visa hops on USDC’s Eth2 wagon. US lawmakers want to tighten Tether’s tether. China’s new DCEP digital yuan in biggest test yet.
December 09, 2020 08:00 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBOther top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: S&P Dow Jones to launch crypto index. Walmart leads $700 million investment in Indian payment platform.
Current Forkast #41: Visa and Guggenheim embrace bitcoin. Libra 3.0 rebrands as Diem.
December 02, 2020 11:00 - 18 minutes - 15 MBTop blockchain and cryptocurrency news: Bank of International Settlements considers stablecoins. China jails PlusToken scam’s ringleaders.
Current Forkast #41: BlockFi and Visa to launch bitcoin rewards credit card. Are investors like Guggenheim fueling bitcoin’s record prices? Libra 3.0 rebrands as Diem.
December 02, 2020 09:06 - 18 minutes - 15 MBTop blockchain and cryptocurrency news: Bank of International Settlements considers stablecoins. China jails PlusToken scam’s ringleaders.
Could blockchain help launch space industry startups into orbit? (ft. Jeff Garzik)
December 02, 2020 04:10 - 26 minutes - 21.3 MBThe multibillion dollar sector could go hand in hand with blockchain technology's immutability and transparency says SpaceChain's Jeff Garzik.
Institutional investors blast bitcoin prices to new stratosphere (ft. Trent Barnes)
December 01, 2020 10:16 - 27 minutes - 22 MBAs bitcoin break new records, is the party almost over? Trent Barnes of Zerocap says it’s not too late as respected market institutions rather than scammy ICOs are fueling bitcoin’s rise this time.