Unchained
658 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1.2K ratingsCrypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura Shin, an independent journalist covering all things crypto, talks with industry pioneers about how crypto assets and blockchains will change the way we earn, spend and invest our money. Tune in to find out how Web 3.0, the decentralized web, will revolutionize our world. Disclosure: I'm a nocoiner.
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Episodes
Why CoinMarketCap Launched Its Liquidity Metric - Ep.147
November 26, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourCarylyne Chan, chief strategy officer at CoinMarketCap, and Gerald Chee, head of research, discuss the history of CoinMarketCap, why the founder Brandon Chez initially focused on circulating supply to calculate market cap, how the ICO craze has changed the way CoinMarketCap defines circulating supply and how the kimchee premium on the Bitcoin price in Korea at the end of 2017 is influencing the future direction of the website. We cover why CoinMarketCap is branching out into other areas such ...
Why China Aims to Replace Cash With the Digital Yuan - Ep.146
November 19, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourMartin Chorzempa, research fellow the Peterson Institute, and Dovey Wan, founding partner at Primitive Ventures, discuss China's new blockchain push and the forthcoming DCEP. They cover how the blockchain initiative is part of an effort to set global blockchain standards, how it fits into the larger U.S.-China trade war as well as the threat from Facebook's Libra, and why part of the motivation behind the DCEP may stem from the shadow banking system in China. They also talk about how the DCEP...
Christopher Giancarlo on the Craziness of Becoming 'Crypto Dad' - Ep.145
November 12, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourFormer CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo talks about how his experience of the financial crisis piqued his interest in blockchain technology, why the CFTC thought the introduction of Bitcoin futures would help pop the 2017 Bitcoin bubble, and how "there's no simple answer" to explain when a token goes from being a security to a commodity. He discusses why he believes there needs to be a "refresh" of regulations written decades ago that are difficult to apply in a digital world, why he think...
A Libra Co-Creator on How Facebook Will Make Money From Calibra - Ep.144
November 05, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourChristian Catalini, co-creator of Libra and chief economist at Calibra, explains why Facebook made the design choices it made for Libra, reveals whether the team was prepared for the regulatory blowback it received after publishing the white paper, and talks about what it means for Libra now that nearly all the initial payment company members have left the Association. He describes how Facebook defined stability for Libra, whether the Chinese renminbi could ever be added to the reserve the wa...
Bitwise's Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved - Ep.143
October 29, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourHunter Horsley, cofounder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, and Matt Hougan, global head of research at Bitwise, describe their vision for Bitwise, its current funds and indices, as well as how it handles things like forks and airdrops. Then they give their reaction to and interpretation of the SEC disapproval of their Bitcoin ETF proposal, as well as what their focus will be now to try to get a Bitcoin ETF approved. We also discuss their general thesis around how the crypto space will dev...
Congressman Patrick McHenry: 'Bitcoin Will Be of Enormous Value' - Ep.142
October 22, 2019 07:30 - 31 minutesCongressman Patrick McHenry, or 'Mr. Fintech' to his peers in the House, is announcing the reintroduction of the Financial Services Innovation Act, a bill that would create what he calls "permanent beta testing," or many jurisdictions call "regulatory sandboxes," in which entrepreneurs can apply for regulatory approval to conduct innovative experiments. The bill is intended to get regulators into a position where their default leans more toward yes than no. He describes how this would affect ...
Think a DAO Will Automate Things? Think Again - Ep.141
October 15, 2019 05:30 - 1 hourMariano Conti, the head of smart contracts for MakerDAO and creator of SelloutDAO, and Peter Pan, the summoner for Metacartel DAO, discuss all things DAOs, including how Peter started Metacartel DAO after being rejected from MolochDAO, and why Mariano initially voted against Peter joining. (Peter eventually joined.) They also discuss how they came to form YangDAO, why Mariano almost rage quit MolochDAO after the YangDAO formed, and how other MolochDAO members felt about SelloutDAO, which Mari...
Fed Economist on the Prospect of the USD Losing Global Reserve Status: 'Who Cares?' - Ep.140
October 08, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourDavid Andolfatto, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, gives his thoughts on Facebook's Libra, including why regulatory issues will make it hard to compete with the US dollar, and why Bitcoin wouldn't have such issues. He also says, "who cares?" about the US dollar losing global reserve status, pointing out that many prosperous countries have currencies that don't function as global reserves. He tells us how he would design a central bank digital currency, and why, ...
Crypto in China: What It Really Looks Like - Ep.139
October 01, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourEmily Parker, cofounder of Longhash, describes what the company, which has an Asia-focused incubator and data media site does, how she ended up launching an Asia-focused company, why she’s seeing US crypto teams and ICOs going to Singapore, why the Chinese government cracked down on crypto, and what misconceptions she sees about crypto in China. She explains how the Chinese still trade Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies despite the ban, why Tether plays a big role, how the China ban has affected cr...
Spencer Bogart on the $20 Trillion in Store-of-Value Assets - Ep.138
September 24, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourSpencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital, the first VC firm to tokenize one of its funds, talks about how well offering tokenized shares has worked out, why it didn't do so for the following fund, the appeal of security tokens generally and what advantages tokenized securities offer over non-blockchain platforms like Second Market, in which investors can trade shares in private companies. He also explains what entrepreneurs are looking for from VCs now that they have more ways to...
Olga Feldmeier on Why Switzerland Has Welcomed Crypto - Ep.137
September 17, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourOlga Feldmeier, CEO of SmartValor, describes how her upbringing in Ukraine when it was undergoing 10,000% and 5,000% annual inflation helped her understand the potential in Bitcoin years later, and helped her connect with Wences Casares, CEO of Xapo. She also talks about how Xapo was able to get regulated in Switzerland, without having to get a banking license, and why she believes Switzerland has been open to the crypto industry. She explains why she is now focused on security tokens and tok...
Why LocalBitcoins Stopped Cash Trades and Has a New CEO - Ep.136
September 10, 2019 07:30 - 59 minutesSebastian Sonntag, the new CEO of LocalBitcoins, and Mika Impola, software developer at LocalBitcoins, explain why the peer-to-peer bitcoin trading company has a new CEO, why it stopped cash trades and what kind of response they've received from the community about it. They describe how the service works, how it has changed over time, the range of payment options available amongst sellers on the site, and how peer-to-peer trading differs from country to country. Plus, we cover why it suspende...
How Aragon Hopes to Improve on Democracy - Ep.135
September 03, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourLuis Cuende, the CEO of Aragon One, describes the Aragon Network, how it aims to create new systems better for human coordination and the roles of the various parts of the ecosystem, such as Aragon One, the Aragon Association, the Aragon Court, Aragon Nest and the Aragon Network token. He describes the various parts of the Aragon Network, such as a finance app and voting app, how the network can be used both by decentralized organizations as well as centralized companies, and how he thinks de...
After Years of Secret Work, Decred Adds a New Feature: Privacy - Ep.134
August 27, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourJonathan Zeppettini, international ops lead and chief evangelist for Decred, aka "Decred Jesus," announces the launch of the coin's privacy feature. He first describes how Decred came out of some developers' frustrations of trying to work with Bitcoin Core developers, and how that led them to realize a couple of issues with Bitcoin's governance around the funding of development and giving other stakeholders a say in the development of the coin. He explains how Decred addresses those issues, h...
Sandra Ro: Why Crypto-Friendly Laws Are Coming in the US - Ep.133
August 20, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourSandra Ro, the CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council and former head of digitization at CME, explains what the GBBC does, how it chooses partners, and what level of involvement they have with projects under the GBBC umbrella. We discuss some of the more controversial projects, such as the Voatz pilot that conducted election voting using blockchain technology, as well as how she responds to people saying many "blockchain" projects could instead use a database. She also reveals why she ...
The IMF on How to Design Central Bank Digital Currencies - Ep.132
August 13, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourDong He, deputy director of the monetary and capital markets department of the IMF, and Yan Liu, Assistant General Counsel at the legal department of the IMF, talk about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs): the current level of interest among central banks in issuing them, what concerns they need to address when designing them, and how commercial banks might be affected, depending on the design of the CBDC. We discuss how privacy could be built into such a currency while also fulfilling a...
All Things Crypto Regulation With Jake Chervinsky - Ep.131
August 06, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourJake Chervinsky, general counsel at Compound, goes over a plethora of crypto regulatory issues, such as those related to securities law such as the SEC vs. Kik case, Ripple, stablecoins, no-action letters, Blockstack and more. We also discuss whether there should be one regulator for crypto matters in the US, whether it makes sense to create a new category for digital assets instead of applying laws for securities, commodities, etc., to digital tokens, and why he thinks Libra will likely not ...
LedgerX on the Reasons to Trade Bitcoin Options - Ep.130
July 30, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourJuthica Chou, chief operating officer of LedgerX, talks about the company's new license to offer its derivatives to retail investors and the resulting platform, Omni. She walks through what call and put options are, how they work and why people and companies purchase them as opposed to just buying or selling bitcoin directly. We discuss why LedgerX believes physically settled bitcoin options are superior to cash-settled ones, how LedgerX handles hard forks, and other contracts focused on the ...
Pantera Capital: How Bitcoin Could Reach $356,000 in a Few Years - Ep.129
July 23, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourDan Morehead, founder and CEO of Pantera Capital, and Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer of Pantera and founder of Augur, discuss where we are in the development cycle of blockchain technology, how Bitcoin, if stays on past trend lines, could hit $42,000 by year's end and $356,000 a couple years after that, and why the biggest challenges now are around scaling and onboarding. We also cover what the adoption of the technology will mean long-term — how creating assets and markets will no lo...
How to Keep Your Crypto From Being Stolen Via Your Phone - Ep.128
July 16, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourRich Sanders, cofounder and chief security officer of CipherBlade, and Harry Denley, director of security of MyCrypto.com, discuss the phone porting phenomenon: who's behind these thefts, how they perpetrate them, who is targeted, how to recognize the signs you're a victim and how to the hackers are adapting to people protecting themselves. They cover how you can protect yourself, which accounts to protect, what kinds of email addresses and numbers to set up, how to set them up, how to separa...
How the Caribbean Got on the Road to Central Bank Digital Currencies - Ep.127
July 09, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourGabriel Abed, founder of Bitt.com and Vice President of the board of directors, describes how he went from mining Bitcoin to persuading governors of central banks to not quash Bitt's goal to create central bank digital currencies in the Caribbean and getting the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to pilot one starting next year. He tells the tale of how Overstock came to invest in Bitt, how he brought on a new CEO to take over the company he founded, and how he teamed up with Polymath to create a...
How Asia's Trading Culture Results in a Vastly Different Crypto Scene - Ep.126
July 02, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourLuis Buenaventura, founder of Bloom Solutions, and Leo Weese, president of Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, discuss the crypto scene in Asia — how it differs from that of the West, and how it differs within the region. We also cover the regulatory climate there, how Korean traders occasionally stuff their pockets with cash and hop flights to Hong Kong, and whether the Hong Kong protests have had any impact on interest in BItcoin. Leo and Luis also talk about Binance and what they think are t...
Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation on the 3 Reasons Bitcoin Matters - Ep.125
June 25, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourIn recent years, the Human Rights Foundation and Alex Gladstein, its chief strategy officer, have become forces in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency community. In this episode, he discusses why Bitcoin is important for human rights, its three most important characteristics, and why Facebook's Libra project should be helpful to the adoption of the technology, at least in the short-term. He also describes how Bitcoin is just part of other movements that have become more open, such as governments s...
Not Sure a Cryptoeconomic System Will Work? Gauntlet Can Help - Ep.124
June 18, 2019 09:00 - 1 hourTarun Chitra, cofounder and CEO of Gauntlet, describes how his company enables crypto teams to run through simulations to see how their design choices will affect the project once it is trading. Using the cofounders' background in quantitative finance and high-frequency trading, Gauntlet uses tools from behavioral economics as well as game theory, plus real-world information such as exchange data to model outcomes after 100,000 blocks. We discuss how it makes its assumptions, how proof of sta...
Oslo Freedom Forum 2019: Protecting Financial Freedoms in the Digital Age - Ep.123
June 11, 2019 07:30 - 55 minutesIn this panel, recorded at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2019, I moderated what an attendee described as a "lively" discussion on the relationship between finances and freedom with Bitcoin author and educator Jimmy Song; Alena Vranova, Head of Strategy at Casa; and Coin Center founder Jerry Brito. We talked about what it's like to live under a regime where people don’t have a lot of financial freedom, how the move to a cashless society is leading to a surveillance state, and how we're seeing the eme...
Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, on Its Dark Pool, Crypto Lending Operation and Intention to Go Public - Ep.122
June 04, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourPeter Smith, the CEO of Blockchain, discusses how the company got started, why the company is focused on users owning their own private keys and how that is what enables all the most interesting applications of blockchain technology. He talks about the full range of customers and markets they serve, their lending business and their dark pool. We also discuss regulation, SegWit, nation-states getting involved in crypto and why Blockchain plans to go public. Read more on Forbes.com: http://ww...
Kin Sets Up $5 Million DefendCrypto.org to Take on the SEC - Ep.121
May 28, 2019 10:00 - 1 hourTed Livingston, CEO of Kik and the founder of the Kin Foundation, and Patrick Gibbs, partner at Cooley, announce the formation of the $5 million DefendCrypto.org fund at Coinbase Custody to fight the SEC in court. Kik and Kin are hoping that a lawsuit would eventually result in a new Howey test for crypto tokens, to determine which ones are a security. In this episode, they explain has happened so far between them and the SEC to bring them to this point and what their main arguments are. Plus...
How to Trade on Crypto Exchanges Without Fear of Hacks - Ep.120
May 21, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourSharon Goldberg, CEO of Arwen and Boston University computer science professor, describes how the protocol enables people to trade on crypto exchanges without making their coins vulnerable to exchange hacks, how this differs from trading on a decentralized exchange, and how Arwen would function if the exchange you were using on was hacked during a trade. She also discusses how Arwen works with any custody solution, how they choose which coins to support and what other features they are consid...
Parity's Jutta Steiner and Gavin Wood on Polkadot, Substrate and the Frozen Funds - Ep.119
May 14, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourJutta Steiner, CEO of Parity, and Gavin Wood, who goes by the title "chief white space officer," describe the network Parity plans to launch later this year, Polkadot, how it aims to solve scalability, interoperability and security and when a developer would choose to build a dapp on Ethereum vs. a parachain on Polkadot. We also discuss another one of their products, Substrate, which enables developers to easily customize blockchains, and perceived competition between Ethereum and Polkadot. P...
How Tagomi Makes Large Crypto Trades Cheaper and More Efficient - Ep.118
May 07, 2019 07:30 - 54 minutesJennifer Campbell and Kevin Johnson, cofounder and COO, respectively, of Tagomi, describe how Tagomi helps institutional players make larger crypto trades more efficiently and at the best price possible, plus analyze how that was executed. They contrast it with the pre-Tagomi process for doing large crypto trades, how their software, which functions as a sort of "Kayak.com" for crypto trading, works on the backend, and how they keep funds held on exchanges secure. Plus, we compare today's cry...
Want to Connect Blockchains? Cosmos Has Tools for Coders - Ep.117
April 30, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourJae Kwon, founder and CEO of Tendermint and president of the Interchain Foundation, and Ethan Buchman, cofounder of Tendermint and Cosmos and technical director of the Interchain Foundation, discuss the various technologies that form the Cosmos/Tendermint system. When the Cosmos network launched on March 13, it was built on what is the blockchain equivalent of an operating system, a consensus algorithm called Tendermint, Cosmos is like the world wide web (for blockchains) built on top, and th...
Charlie Lee on How Litecoin Can Be Truly Successful - Ep.116
April 23, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourCharlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin and aka SatoshiLite, discusses how he came to launch Litecoin, how the "fair" launch may have helped its success, why he didn't work on it for a stretch, and what inspired him to devote all of his time to it — but not own any litecoins. We also discuss his vision for Litecoin, why he believes stablecoins aren't superior, why he's considering enabling private Litecoin payments, and how he feels about the perception that he sold his litecoins near the all-ti...
Why Beam Thinks Businesses Will Use Its Cryptocurrency - Ep.115
April 16, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourAlexander Zaidelson, the CEO of Beam, a cryptocurrency being built on the MimbleWimble protocol, talks about how he came to start Beam, how it differs from Grin, another cryptocurrency being built on MimbleWimble and what types of users the cryptocurrency is targeting. See the full show notes at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2019/04/16/how-businesses-might-one-day-use-cryptocurrency/ Interested in a weekend of yoga, nature, healthy food and talking crypto? Then join me, Meltem Demi...
Grin: A More Private, Lighter Bitcoin - Ep.114
April 09, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourDaniel Lehnberg and Michael Cordner, core team members of Grin, discuss the first implementation of the MimbleWimble protocol, named after a tongue-tying curse in Harry Potter. We discuss the many ways in which Grin is similar to Bitcoin: its origin story, its goal to be "digital cash," as Satoshi's paper was subtitled, and even its emission schedule. We discuss how Grin is private, how it is lighter weight than the Bitcoin blockchain, and the philosophy behind Grin, which stands in stark con...
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on Why You Shouldn't Have to Be Rich to Get Rich - Ep.113
April 02, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourIn a fireside chat I moderated with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce held by the Blockchain Digital Asset Forum, in conjunction with the NYU Stern Executive MBA program, on March 26, 2019, she explained where her reputation as 'Crypto Mom' comes from — a desire to look at the world with fresh eyes and say, are there things we can do things better? We also discussed a Bitcoin ETF and the prospects for one after Bitwise released a report showing a health legitimate market, as well as initial coin...
Vitalik Buterin on Whether or Not Ethereum Is 'Blowing It' - Ep.112
March 26, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourAt the first Unchained Live, Vitalik explained why he thought it was "inevitable" Ethereum would lose some of its lead, when he would be upset if Ethereum were overtaken by a competitor, and whether the Ethereum 2.0 road map was too long. We also discussed why a strain of Ethereum maximalism is emerging, how the foundation sets its funding priorities, whether or not the community should adopt inflation funding for development of the blockchain and why he thinks the MolochDAO experiment likely...
MolochDAO: Could This Decentralized Autonomous Organization Help Ethereum Scale Faster? - Ep.111
March 19, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourAmeen Soleimani, CEO of Spankchain, comes on the show to discuss his latest effort to fund Ethereum development through the decentralized autonomous organization MolochDAO. He describes how it works, plus we cover competition in the smart contract space and whether we're seeing the emergence of Ethereum maximalism. Full show notes are back on Forbes.com! See the full recap of this week's recap of the episode at http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2019/03/18/how-could-ethereum-development-be...
How Binance Could Become the First Decentralized Autonomous Corporation - Ep.110
March 12, 2019 07:30 - 1 hourTushar Jain and Kyle Samani, managing partners of Multicoin Capital, discuss Binance, Binance Chain and BNB token, and why they believe Binance will become the first centralized company to successfully decentralize itself and migrate the value in itself to its token. We cover what Binance, the centralized company has so far achieved in terms of trading volume, fiat on-ramps, and regulatory arbitrage, and whether the company has any more regulatory risk than any other exchange. We also look at...
Venue Announcement for Unchained Live
March 10, 2019 22:38 - 1 minuteGet your tickets now for Unchained Live with Vitalik Buterin! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unchained-live-with-vitalik-buterin-tickets-56189456176 It will take place March 20th at 6pm at Columbia Journalism School in the Joseph D. Jamail Lecture Hall. Hope to see you there! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Melon Could Make Asset Management Easier - Ep.109
March 05, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourMona El-Isa, the cofounder and CEO of Melonport, explains how Melon, the asset management protocol which recently launched on Ethereum, makes launching a fund easier and less expensive, plus gives investors even more transparency into the manager's decisions. She describes who will be using Melon, how the funds using Melon access liquidity if the protocol only connects to decentralized exchanges, what happens if bugs are found in the protocol's smart contracts, and how know-your-customer proc...
How Blockchains Can Help Create Little Democracies Everywhere - Ep.108
February 26, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourGlen Weyl, a political economist and social technologist, the coauthor of Radical Markets and a principal researcher at Microsoft, and Santiago Siri, the founder of Democracy Earth, discuss how blockchains can be used to create borderless democracies that can reach any citizen on earth and can be used not just by nation-states but in all kinds of communities such as the workplace, church or a social network like Facebook. We cover concepts such as quadratic finance and quadratic voting, and l...
Unchained Live With Vitalik Buterin
February 20, 2019 00:22 - 1 minuteIn case you haven’t heard, I’m doing a live podcast recording with Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum. What is a live podcast recording? It's a podcast performed by me and the guest on a stage, in front of an audience. Vitalik and I will be discussing Ethereum 2.0, Polka Dot, Substrate, what happened with Afri this week and more. And you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions. It’ll be in New York City the evening of March 20th, which is one month from today. The doors open at 6, t...
Why Future Perfect Ventures Did Not Invest in ICOs - Ep.107
February 19, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourJalak Jobanputra, founder and managing partner of Future Perfect Ventures, talks about how, in 2014, her experience as an investment bank and VC, her global background, and her observation that new streams of data were becoming available led her to launch her first fund, which ended up being 70% invested in blockchain. She describes what it was like selling LPs on the nascent technology in 2014, how her latest fund, which will be more than $50 million, is different and how it's drawing LPs wh...
How Casa Makes It Harder for Someone to Steal Your Bitcoins - Ep.106
February 12, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourJeremy Welch of personal key security system Casa describes the company's various services and products, including its $10,000-a-year premium service for HODLers of at least $500,000 worth of cryptocurrency and the Casa node. He explains how he came to start Casa, why using seed phrases for managing security of crypto hardware devices is so problematic, and how customers should set up the keys in their possession for the company's multi-signature solution, in which any transaction requires th...
Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 2: How Dai Stayed at $1 While ETH Crashed From $1,400 to $85 - Ep.105
February 05, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourRune Christensen, CEO and cofounder of MakerDAO, explains how multicollateral Dai will work, what happens if one type of collateral fails, and what happens when someone's collateralized debt position with multicollateral Dai needs to be liquidated. He also discusses who gets to participate in the various levels of governance with the MKR token, who owns those tokens and what the purpose of the Maker Foundation is. We also cover whether the CFTC would consider collateralized debt positions to ...
Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 1: How to Keep a Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoin Afloat - Ep.104
January 29, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourRune Christensen, CEO and cofounder of MakerDAO, explains the intricacies of the MakerDAO system, which includes the stablecoin Dai, which is pegged to $1, backed by collateral, and whose governance is managed by holders of the MKR token. He describes how the current version of "single-collateral" Dai, is backed by ether, how Dai is created with a collateralized debt position and what happens when the value of the collateral falls too low. He also talks about the roles of various players in t...
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss on Being the 'Fastest Tortoise in the Race' - Ep.103
January 22, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourGemini's Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who serve as chief executive and president, respectively, discuss their new ad campaign -- what they mean when they say crypto needs rules, why they agree in certain respects with some of their critics, and what the general reaction has been. They discuss why they launched a stablecoin, why they chose the stablecoin structure of dollar reserves and GUSD's role in an arbitrage involving a Chinese exchange and a competing stablecoin. They also explain how ...
Asia Edition: Mining, a Crypto Yuan and the Two Main Reasons the Chinese Are Interested in Crypto - Ep.102
January 15, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourIn this wide-ranging episode, Eric Meltzer and Dovey Wan of Primitive Ventures describe how Asia is weathering the crypto downturn: how have the low prices affected miners, how has this affected Bitmain's prospects for an IPO and how, despite a ban on crypto exchanges, Chinese crypto users have been trading. We also discuss more broadly how crypto projects and startups differ between China and the U.S., how crypto is upending Silicon Valley's dominance, and how differences in regulation are a...
Ledger on How Consumers and Institutions Should Be Safeguarding Their Private Keys - Ep.101
January 08, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourEric Larcheveque, cofounder and CEO of Ledger, and Demetrios Skalkotos, global head of Ledger Vault, describe the company's three main offerings: its hardware wallets, the new software-as-a-service product for institutions, and an Internet of Things offering for transactions involving physical assets. They also describe how the company scaled for a massive increase in demand in 2017, who their customers are and how the company has responded to vulnerabilities found in its products. Plus, they...
100th Episode: Past Guests and Listeners Take Over the Show - Ep.100
January 01, 2019 08:30 - 1 hourTo celebrate the 100th episode of Unchained, I talk a little about what this podcast means to me and thank everyone who's helped me with it. Then I let past guests and listeners take it away with their comments and predictions for 2019. Thank you to everyone who sent in submissions -- and to the listeners and sources who've helped me along the way! Thank you to our sponsors! TokenSoft: https://www.tokensoft.io Microsoft: https://twitter.com/MSFTBlockchain CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.c...