Unconfirmed
170 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsEvents in crypto take place at warp speed. This weekly crypto podcast reveals how the marquee names in crypto are reacting to the week’s top headlines. With host Laura Shin, the guests also discuss what they’re thinking about these days and reveal what they believe is on the horizon in crypto. Disclosure: I'm a nocoiner.
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Episodes
How Useful Is the SEC's Guidance on ICOs? - Ep.067
April 05, 2019 07:30 - 25 minutesMarco Santori, the president and chief legal officer of Blockchain, discusses this week's big regulatory news — the SEC's guidance on initial coin offerings and its first no-action letter. We talk about what guidance actually means and how much weight it has in court, how much clarity this guidance actually brought, and how the framework could affect also future attempts at future fundraising/token distribution events and airdrops. We also cover the no-action letter and the ways in which the ...
Why Has MakerDAO's Dai Struggled to Keep Its Dollar Peg? - Ep.066
March 29, 2019 07:30 - 23 minutesRyan Todd and Matteo Leibowitz, research analysts at The Block, discuss why Dai has fallen below $1 in price, how the community has attempted to keep it pegged to $1 and how well that's been working. They also describe what the governance system looks like, how high participation is, and whether or not that's decentralized. And since 2% of al, ETH is locked up in Maker CDPs and Dai is the fuel behind the DeFi movement, we look at what type of role and risk it plays in Ethereum and the overall...
Why Ethereum 2.0 Could Fail and How It Could Be Fixed - Ep.065
March 22, 2019 07:30 - 28 minutesDelphi Digital recently released a report on Ethereum's short- and long-term prospects. It showed why there's been such high selling pressure on Ethereum, plus dived deeply into the economics of Ethereum 2.0, concluding that the current proposal leaves Ethereum with a shaky future. Medio Demarco and Yan Liberman, cofounders of Delphi, discuss how they think Ethereum could change its issuance in order to ensure the security of the network from the start and why the current plan will make valid...
How Uniswap Quickly Became One of the Most Popular Dexes - Ep.064
March 15, 2019 07:30 - 28 minutesHayden Adams, founder of the new decentralized exchange Uniswap, discusses how Uniswap differs from a traditional exchange based on order books, how market the contract determines the price of the tokens, and how market making on Uniswap is similar, in terms of payment, to participating in a mining pool. He covers under which conditions it is that a market maker will earn profit, what fees go toward in Uniswap, and how the contract functions as the dollar values of each token in a liquidity p...
Venue Announcement for Unchained Live
March 10, 2019 22:40 - 2 minutesGet 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!
How to Earn Money on Collateral in DeFi — and Why That's Risky - Ep.063
March 08, 2019 08:30 - 26 minutesDan Elitzer, investor at IDEO CoLab Ventures, describes a concept he describes as superfluid collateral made possible in the decentralized finance space. We talk about which DeFi projects make this possible, how one can make collateral liquid so that interest can be earned from it, and what kinds of tokens could both serve as debt and earn interest. (Surprisingly, even trading pairs, particularly on the Uniswap decentralized exchange, which exist as tokens, can do so!) Based on the growth of ...
After Massive Layoffs and Losses, What Are Bitmain's Future Prospects? - Ep.062
March 01, 2019 08:30 - 23 minutesBlockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow, who used to work at a competitor to Bitmain, discusses the recent news that the crypto mining manufacturer suffered a $500 million loss in the third quarter of 2018. He talks about possible reasons, including difficulties in selling its most recent miner and its stockpile of Bitcoin Cash, which has dropped more precipitously than Bitcoin during the last year. We also cover the extensive layoffs that the company has undergone in recent months, the...
How AirTM Hopes to Get Venezuelans to Use Cryptocurrency - Ep.061
February 22, 2019 08:30 - 31 minutesRuben Galindo Steckel, cofounder and CEO of AirTM, describes how his companies enables everyday Venezuelans the ability to escape the hyperinflation in their currency, the bolivar, to save in U.S. dollar accounts. He also describes how the company creates its own exchange rate, and why that got them in trouble with the Venezuelan government. He also describes a campaign the company is waging, AirdropVenezuela, an attempt to raise $1 million in cryptocurrency to give to everyday Venezuelans fo...
Unchained Live With Vitalik Buterin
February 20, 2019 00:24 - 3 minutesIn 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...
How Korea's Crypto Scene Differs From That of the US - Ep.060
February 15, 2019 08:30 - 27 minutesJoyce Yang, founder of Global Coin Research, discusses the crypto scene in Korea today. An epicenter of the crypto craze in 2017, Korea still has a number of young people pinning their hopes and dreams on crypto, as described in an article in The New York Times this week. Yang talks about the societal factors that have led to this trend, as well as the common practices in investing that make Korean VCs less shrewd investors, which, in turn, makes Korean crypto projects less competitive. Howev...
The QuadrigaCX Case: Taylor Monahan on What We Know From the Blockchain - Ep.059
February 08, 2019 08:30 - 30 minutesTo hear that a 29-year-old died of complications from Crohn's disease is shocking enough. But it's practically unbelievable when the person in question was in charge of a crypto exchange that held an estimated $150 million of customer funds and that he was the only person with access to the reserves. That's what many in the crypto community thought last week when news of the death of Gerald Cotten, the CEO of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, spread. Taylor Monahan, the CEO of MyCrypto, lo...
Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital on Why This Crypto Winter Is Different - Ep.058
February 01, 2019 08:30 - 24 minutesDan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital, explains why this crypto bear market is different from the previous one his firm endured, what he believes will give institutional money the confidence to enter the space, and how Pantera's investing approach has changed in this downturn. We also discuss what types of projects and companies Pantera is investing in, how regulatory uncertainty is affecting development of the space, and where innovation is happening. The answer may surprise you. Thank you t...
Why You Shouldn't Trust Crypto Exchange Reports for Your Taxes - Ep.057
January 25, 2019 08:30 - 25 minutesChandan Lodha, cofounder and CEO of CoinTracker, explains why reports from crypto exchanges could be insufficient for filing accurate tax returns to the IRS, how one should track one's crypto transactions in order to not over- or under-pay, and who can use the service. We also discuss how users should treat airdropped coins, new, comprehensive rules on crypto taxation for UK taxpayers and correlations in coin ownership that CoinTracker sees amongst its users. Thank you to our sponsor! Ciphe...
When Is a Token Decentralized Enough to Not Be a Security? - Ep.056
January 18, 2019 08:30 - 25 minutesThe newly formed Blockchain Association recently released a post outlining what it calls the Hinman Token Standard based on a speech given last summer by Bill Hinman, director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. The Blockchain Association's director of external affairs, Kristin Smith, breaks down what factors are part of the standard, how much weight should be given to remarks he gave at a conference and how decentralization can square with leadership. We also discuss the Token Taxo...
The Ethereum Classic 51% Attack: How It Happened and Why the Price Didn't Crash - Ep.055
January 11, 2019 08:30 - 27 minutesCharlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, discusses this week's 51% attack on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. He describes how the attacker was able to gain control of more than 51% of the network, why it was inexpensive for them to do so, how they profited from their attack and who loses money in such an attack. We talk about what types of blockchains are susceptible to these types of attacks, whether or not Coinbase or other exchange will de-list ETC and why the price of ETC hasn't dropped -- ...
Arjun Balaji on the Ways Bitcoin Will Improve in 2019 - Ep.054
January 04, 2019 08:30 - 28 minutesOn the 10th birthday of the Bitcoin network, Arjun Balaji, founder and managing partner at Shomei Capital, explains why doesn't worry too much about potential bugs in the code such as there was last fall, why we'll see improved scalability, privacy and fungibility in the top cryptocurrency in 2019, and why he believes the Lightning Network will foster more developer activity on Bitcoin. He also explains his view that governance tokens and token curated registries will be less popular than th...
How PowerLedger Aims to Boost Renewable Energy - Ep.053
December 28, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutesJemma Green, cofounder and chairman of PowerLedger, describes how the company, which won the 2018 Extreme Tech Challenge, spearheaded by Sir Richard Branson and CES, is using tokens to solve various energy problems. One is the principal-agent problem in which the landlords of residential buildings don't have an incentive to install renewables because the tenants are the ones who would recoup the savings. Another is that, as more people install renewables, the grid is becoming less robust and ...
Bloomberg's Matt Leising on Why It Appears Tether Has Sufficient Dollar Reserves - Ep.052
December 21, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutesBloomberg reporter Matt Leising, who obtained bank statements from Tether's bank, Noble Bank in Puerto Rico, found that for those months, the number of dollars in the bank matched the amount of Tether outstanding. He talks about what this means, whether it matters that both Tether and Noble Bank were founded by Brock Pierce, and whether it matters that the statements are not the most recent. We also touch on other investigations involving Tether, including the CFTC's investigation into whethe...
Consensus: Invest 2018: Financial Products in 2019 and Beyond - Ep.051
December 19, 2018 08:30 - 22 minutesThis special episode is a recording of the closing fireside chat I had at Consensus: Invest, titled “Financial Products: 2019 and Beyond,” with Jan Van Eck, president and CEO of the Van Eck Securities Corporation, and Mike Belshe, cofounder and CEO of BitGo. During the talk, we discuss SEC chairman Jay Clayton’s comments earlier that day that the main barrier to a Bitcoin ETF was market manipulation. We dive into how well the problem of custody has been solved for potential financial product...
Why ConsenSys Is 'Shifting From Experimentation to Excellence' - Ep.050
December 14, 2018 08:30 - 24 minutesConsenSys's Andrew Keys talks about the company's recent pivot, called "ConsenSys 2.0," toward greater efficiency, accountability and focus on revenue, why it laid off about 150 people, and what areas it plans to generate revenue from. He explains what the company's mission and goals were in ConsenSys 1.0, how its new priorities will resemble those of more traditional companies, and whether it will retain its flat, unhierarchical structure. Plus, he reveals that the company has "years" of run...
How ConsenSys Got So Big But Accomplished So Little - Ep.049
December 07, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutesDespite having Joe Lubin's billions at its back, and despite having 1,200 employees to build apparently anything they wanted in the Ethereum ecosystem, ConsenSys has accomplished very little and has little revenue -- so it's finally facing the music and laying off 13% of its employees. Jeff Kauflin, staff writer at Forbes, who wrote a great story on how ConsenSys is flailing, discusses how the company got to this place. (Hint: asteroid mining and college diplomas on a blockchain are part of t...
Jackson Palmer of Why We're Not Decentralized Yet - Ep.048
November 30, 2018 08:30 - 31 minutesJackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin and the website Are We Decentralized Yet, explains why he thinks the markets suddenly took a nosedive, why it's hard for him to get data on these crypto assets for the Are We Decentralized Yet website -- unless there's a centralized company behind them -- and how Ripple and Initiative Q are somewhat similar. We also covered the perpetual question of how much of Ripple's social media support is real vs. bots, what "fair distribution" of coins means, why ...
Laura's TEDx Talk: How Crypto Could Allow More People to Be Their Own Boss - Ep.047
November 23, 2018 15:45 - 21 minutesIn lieu of a regular episode during this (U.S.) holiday, I'm releasing the audio from my TEDx San Francisco Talk. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unconfirmed Links: TEDx San Francisco: https://www.tedxsanfrancisco.com Video of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ew7PW4LCo M...
The Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork: Bitcoin ABC vs. Bitcoin SV - Ep.046
November 16, 2018 08:30 - 27 minutesBitcoin Magazine technical editor Aaron Van Wirdum breaks down what is going on with the Bitcoin Cash contentious hard fork: who is fighting, over what, and how this could play out, including the nuclear option of a proof of work algorithm change. We discuss whether the battle could deliver a verdict on the question of whether hash power follows price or vice versa, what this says about the strength of proof of work as an algorithm over proof of stake, and what Bitcoin Cash holders should do....
Emin Gun Sirer on the SEC/EtherDelta Settlement and Why Code Is Speech - Ep.045
November 09, 2018 08:30 - 34 minutesEmin Gun Sirer, Cornell professor, co-director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts (IC3) and the founder of Ava, talks about the settlement the SEC reached with the founder of EtherDelta, and what that could mean for the coders of decentralized systems. He also puts this action in the context of the history of peer-to-peer sharing and how the government used to prohibit encryption. We also discuss his main takeaway from DevCon4 last week -- hint, maximalism is probably...
Charlie Lee, aka Satoshi Lite, on the 10-Year Anniversary of the Bitcoin White Paper - Ep.044
November 02, 2018 07:30 - 27 minutesTo celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin white paper, Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, asks how Bitcoin can go from a speculative asset to real money (hint: the Lightning Network plays a role) and explains what he thinks is the significance of Fidelity getting into crypto and Bakkt launching. He also tells the story of how Poker Black Friday, when the government shut down online poker sites, demonstrates the need for Bitcoin, which leads us to discuss whethe...
Fidelity Digital Asset Services' Tom Jessop on Why It's Serving Institutional Clients First - Ep.043
October 26, 2018 07:30 - 23 minutesFidelity Digital Asset Services president Tom Jessop explains why its new crypto offering for institutional clients is focused on custody and trade execution, why it's decided not to launch its own exchange, and what kinds of trading capabilities from traditional financial services they plan to build out in the space. He also describes Fidelity's journey to this point -- how it started mining Bitcoin in 2015, had employees buy what must now be some of the world's most expensive bagels in the ...
Why the Tether Situation Brought Up Memories of Mt. Gox - Ep.042
October 19, 2018 07:30 - 23 minutesDan McArdle, cofounder of Messari and the creator of OnChainFX, discusses why tether lost its dollar peg, how the Gemini USD traded at above $1, and how this was similar to the time before Mt. Gox imploded. We also discuss the significance of the Fidelity news, plus McArdle's thesis on how Bitcoin would behave in a recession -- which isn't the conventional wisdom. Thank you to our sponsors! Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/ OnRamp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Episode links: D...
How We're Misusing the Word 'Decentralization' - Ep.041
October 12, 2018 07:30 - 29 minutesSoona Amhaz of Token Daily talks about how we've misused the word decentralization and stretched it to the point of meaninglessness. She discusses how certain companies misrepresent being decentralized and walks us through some misleading graphs put out by Ripple and EOS. She also explains why, when a good metric becomes a target, people will then game it, and why we should be open to projects becoming decentralized over time. We also talk about tribalism, and why it's bad in only some insta...
How Abra Enables You to Buy $5 of an ETF-Like Token of the Top 10 Cryptos - Ep.040
October 05, 2018 07:30 - 28 minutesBill Barhydt, founder and CEO of Abra, describes its new product, the BIT10, which it created in partnership with Bitwise Asset Management (full disclosure: Bitwise previously sponsored my podcasts). He outlines the way the token is similar to an ETF -- for instance, it rebalances monthly -- and the ways in which it differs. We also compare and contrast it to similar offerings announced by Coinbase and Circle. Bill also explains Abra's overall strategy and recent pivot, why it is built on Bit...
Rune Christensen of MakerDao on Its $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz - Ep.039
September 28, 2018 07:30 - 27 minutesRune Christensen, founder and CEO of MakerDao, explains what Andreessen Horowitz's $15 million investment in its Maker token means for the ecosystem and why they chose to work with a16z and its general partner Kathryn Haun. He also responds to criticism that the process took place behind closed doors despite the fact that MakerDao has a notably open, transparent system otherwise, and concerns about the seeming discount of 40% that the a16z team got. He also talks about whether or not MakerDao...
Why 'Ethereum Killers' Will Have a Hard Time Attracting Its Developers - Ep.038
September 21, 2018 07:30 - 28 minutesLinda Xie, cofounder at Scalar Capital, talks about what she saw at ETHBerlin, why it made her think Ethereum's first-mover advantage may be hard for other smart contract platforms to overcome and how the crypto community in Berlin differed from that of Silicon Valley. She also talked about why Scalar Capital is focused on privacy coins, how her experience at Coinbase informed that, and what impact it would have on her investments if a more widely used coin like Bitcoin adopted privacy featur...
Alex Sunnarborg of Tetras Capital on Why He's Bearish on Ether - Ep.037
September 14, 2018 07:30 - 27 minutesAlex Sunnarborg, founding partner of Tetras Capital, describes the three core buckets his fund is investing in, how they're investing during this bear market, and why the firm has decided to short ether. He also describes why he thinks dapps could take off, but the value of ether may not rise anyway, and gives us some insight into how he thinks psychology plays into market rhythms. Plus, he explains why he's long Ethereum but short ETH. Alex Sunnarborg: https://twitter.com/alexsunnarborg Te...
Shapeshift's About-Face: Why Now? - Ep.036
September 07, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutesKatherine Wu, director of business development and community at Messari, talks about the news that everyone on crypto Twitter was discussing this week: Shapeshift's decision to require customer accounts. The well-known crypto-to-crypto exchange has long been known for enabling anonymous transactions, and CEO Erik Voorhees is a noted libertarian who prefers less rather than more regulation, so the reversal was surprising to many in the crypto community. Katherine explains her theory as to why ...
Pamela Morgan on How to Pass Your Crypto Assets On to Your Heirs - Ep.035
August 31, 2018 07:30 - 24 minutesPamela Morgan, a lawyer in the blockchain space and the author of Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning, explains how you can pass on your crypto assets to your heirs without them or anyone else getting ahold of them beforehand. Surprisingly, the first step begins with a letter. She explains what information to put in that letter, how to choose helpers, and how to protect your private keys. We also discuss what you should do legally to help the process along and what kind of tax prep you should f...
Joe Lubin and Jimmy Song Work On the Terms of Their Bet on Dapps — and Trash Talk the Other’s Coin - Ep.034
August 24, 2018 07:30 - 44 minutesJoe Lubin, cofounder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys, and Jimmy Song, partner at Blockchain Capital and founder of Programming Blockchain, pick up the bet they started at the Consensus conference in May. The challenge was on whether or not we would see several decentralized apps with real user traction five years from now, with Joe taking the yes side of the bet and Jimmy taking the no side. However, the terms of the agreement were still to be worked out. On Unchained, Jimmy proposed tha...
How Crypto Will Give You More Flexibility in Your Work - Ep.033
August 17, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesSilicon Valley capitalist and longtime crypto investor Bill Tai discusses some interesting theories about how crypto is changing money and work. He starts by talking about the shift from oil- to electron-based currencies. He also describes how people have worked flexibly, as individuals, for most of human history and only recently have they become cogs in a wheel, beholden to one employer. Crypto, he believes, will shift us back to more flexible work models. We also talked about a new projec...
Why the ICE/Bakkt News Makes Some Crypto Investors Nervous - Ep.032
August 10, 2018 07:30 - 28 minutesCaitlin Long, who’s working on a book about Wall Street and crypto assets and is the cofounder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, discusses the significance of the creation of Bakkt, a new federally regulated market for Bitcoin, by ICE, Microsoft, Starbucks and investment firms Fortress Investment Group, Eagle Seven, and Susquehanna International Group. She explains why she thinks the price of bitcoin didn't jump after the news, what this move could mean for institutional players getting in...
A Place Where People May Be Using Crypto For More Than Speculation - Ep.031
August 03, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesTricia Martinez, director of the Dala Foundation and founder and CEO of Wala, describes how cryptocurrency Dala is being used in Africa and how it hit 100,000 new wallets and 2.5 million in transactions in two months, with an average transaction size of around $0.27. She talks about how 94% of transactions in Africa are still being done in cash, why the problem she's trying to solve needs its own cryptocurrency and can't use bitcoin or ether, and how Wala's users are using Dala. Plus, she exp...
CoinList's Andy Bromberg on the One Big Regulatory Issue Facing Crypto - Ep.030
July 27, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesCoinList founder and president Andy Bromberg talks about why the ICO services firm has worked with only five out of 2,500 token projects, how tokenomic models are changing to ensure the viability of the network and also avoid incurring regulatory action, and why one of the biggest regulatory questions remaining is when a token shifts from being a security to a non-security. We also discuss why there's such a race in the stablecoin space, why there's been a shift toward building infrastructure...
Token Economy's Stefano Bernardi on How DAOs Could Create a Less Capitalist World - Ep.029
July 20, 2018 07:30 - 30 minutesIn this wide-ranging conversation, the Token Economy newsletter coauthor Stefano Bernardi talks about fully digital security tokens -- security tokens with no relation to real world securities like companies and real estate, but that represent securities from DAOs and other purely crypto entities. He also discusses a new evolution in cryptoeconomics -- multiple-token economies that utilize different tokens to incentivize various behaviors on a network. For instance, one system might have a se...
Special Episode with CNBC's Crypto Trader: Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why This Crypto Winter Is Different From Previous Ones - Ep.028
July 16, 2018 18:31 - 44 minutesIn this special episode I hosted with CNBC Crypto Trader, Ran Neu Ner and I talk with Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of crypto hedge fund Polychain Capital. We discuss his early career, what sets this crypto downturn apart from previous ones and why we see hardcore tribalism in the crypto space. He also explains what types of investments and technologies he looks for, why we won't see one dominant breakthrough and why "no one cares about incrementally faster bank settlement but paradigm sh...
Willy Woo on Why He Thinks We're Nine Years Away From Half the World Using Bitcoin - Ep.027
July 13, 2018 07:30 - 27 minutesIndependent crypto analyst Willy Woo, who blogs at Woobull.com, talks about where he sees the price of Bitcoin going over the next six months. (Hint: He uses the word "sideways.") He also describes his concept of NVT Ratio, the Bitcoin equivalent of price-to-earnings ratio, and how that helps determine whether bitcoin and certain other coins are over- or undervalued. We also discuss his 10,000-year view of cryptocurrency, and why he believes we're only nine years away from half of the world u...
Demian Brener, CEO of Zeppelin, on Which Smart Contract Platform Will Win - Ep.026
July 06, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutesDemian Brener, the cofounder and CEO of Zeppelin discusses a dilemma he's seeing investors be concerned about: whether blockchains should be immutable forever or whether it should be possible to upgrade smart contracts over time. He explains why he doesn't see it as a dilemma, how it could be possible to have an upgradeable, immutable blockchain. We also cover another trend he's seeing: would-be ICO issuers instead turning to airdrops as a way to avoid some regulatory issues. Now that Tezos B...
Multicoin's Kyle Samani on Why He Believes Bitcoin Governance Doesn't Accommodate the Real World - Ep.025
June 29, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesKyle Samani, managing partner of Multicoin Capital, talks about what got him really excited at this week's Zcon0 conference for Zcash -- primarily, technologies that could make possible a future of massively scalable blockchains featuring default private transactions that would still make possible selective viewing to, say, auditors. He also recaps the major incidents around EOS's launch and how the community plans to change its governance, by trying out a new ethos of "intent of code" is law...
Behind the Tezos Scandal: Conflicts of Interest, Self-Dealing and Bullying - Ep.024
June 22, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutesGideon Lewis-Kraus, a contributing writer at Wired, came out with a cover story in the magazine earlier this week that investigated the actions of both sides in the Tezos boardroom battle. Lewis-Kraus walks us through the accusations on both sides and explains how the balance of the blame seems to lie with foundation head, Johann Gevers, who had numerous conflicts of interest, proposed an unjustified payment for himself and appears to have tried to revive his faltering company Monetas by ridi...
Coinbase's Adam White on a Momentous Day in Crypto - Ep.023
June 15, 2018 07:30 - 25 minutesAdam White, vice president and general manager of Coinbase, explains why he believes the SEC's statement Thursday that ether, in its current form, is not a security, is a historic moment in crypto. Also, from his vantage point of being steeped in the industry but interacting regularly with institutional investors and regulators, he describes where crypto is right now and why he believes it will be moving from an investment phase to a utility phase. He also discusses Coinbase's many recent ann...
Joey Krug on How to Create a Regular Cryptocurrency - Ep.022
June 08, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesJoey Krug, cofounder of Augur and chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, talks about the upcoming Augur launch, and why we haven't yet seen a regular, non-deflationary, non-stablecoin cryptocurrency -- and how to create one. For instance, he says, an inflationary currency could distribute the inflation to particular groups. He also explains what the "impossible trinity" is and how an independent monetary policy in crypto might work. We also discuss new ways crypto projects are trying to...
Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation on the First Crypto War - Ep.021
June 01, 2018 07:30 - 26 minutesThink Bitcoin and crypto assets are just vehicles for speculation? They're already having both a positive impact and negative impact when it comes to human rights, says Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation. Gladstein talks about how he first became enamored with Bitcoin because of its potential to solve hyperinflation, and why he believes Venezuela is the site of the world's first crypto war. He also covers why repressive governments are excited by centralize...
Jill Carlson on How Crypto Is Replicating Wall Street -- And Not in a Good Way - Ep.020
May 25, 2018 07:30 - 27 minutesBlockchain consultant, Jill Carlson, who has worked with 0x, dydx, Algorand, Tezos, O1 Labs, and the IMF, discusses why Blockchain Week to her seemed to be too much about Lambos and how crypto has reached its "illogical conclusion" and is replicating Wall Street's misbehaviors. Hence, the Department of Justice's investigation into the price manipulation of Bitcoin. However, she sees a bright spot in decentralized exchange, but believes blockchain-based credit is an area that needs further dev...