Unchained

It’s been a busy year for USDC issuer Circle, with several new product launches and partnerships, a crypto banking crisis to contend with, the entry of PayPal into the stablecoin business, and plenty of new global regulatory developments, including a bill in the U.S. now making its way through Congress. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire joins Unchained for an in-depth discussion on the reasons behind Coinbase’s investment in Circle, how Circle has emerged stronger from the banking crisis, what he thinks of PYUSD, what he likes and doesn’t like about the current U.S. stablecoin bill, and his thoughts on what the final bill will look like. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• why Circle and Coinbase created the Center Consortium and why Coinbase acquired a stake in Circle
• whether Circle is aiming to be acquired or become a public company, and why Jeremy is pursuing a "multi-decade" strategy
• why Circle partnered with MercadoLibre and the stablecoin usage in Latin America [may need to cut if embargo does not stick]
• how the company has been supporting developers to build applications
• why Circle is launching native USDC on so many new blockchains 
• what the purpose of cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) is and what the big problems with bridges are
• how Circle responded to Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and why the world began to feel that "it's not safe to be exposed to the US"
• Jeremy's thoughts on the launch of PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD
• why having stablecoin legislation is a "national priority," according to Jeremy
• why Jeremy is a proponent of a fully reserved banking system
• why he thinks the US needs to "aggressively" take action to preserve the global reserve currency status of the US dollar
• how China’s national digital currency is likely to develop
• how crypto can provide a better way of providing identity without giving up privacy
• why blockchain technology is much more than just a financial regulatory matter

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Toku
• LayerZero

• Jeremy Allaire, cofounder, Chairman and CEO of Circle
• Previous appearances of Jeremy on Unchained: 
• Crypto on Every Corner: Driving Adoption With Jeremy Allaire and Meltem Demirors
• Circle’s Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville on Why Crypto Will Be Bigger Than the Web
• Jeremy Allaire on Why the US Government Needs a New Category for Digital Assets

• Unchained: 
• Coinbase Acquires Equity Stake in Circle Amid USDC Updates and Market Challenges
• Will PayPal’s PYUSD Steal Market Share From Tether and Circle?
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
• 
  
• CoinDesk: 
• U.S. Stablecoin Bill Takes Big Step Despite Fight From Democrats, White House 
• Circle Seeks to Make Crypto Payments Easier With New 'Programmable Wallets'
• Written Statement of Jeremy Allaire Before the United States House Committee on Financial Services, “The Future of Digital Assets: Providing Clarity for the Digital Asset Ecosystem”
• South China Morning Post: Head of crypto firm Circle accepts ban in mainland China, but sees role for yuan-backed stablecoins 
• TechCrunch: Solana Pay integrates plug-in with Shopify for USDC payments 
• Decrypt: News Explorer — Circle Partners With Mercado Libre to Bring USDC to Chile 
• Jeremy’s comments on the launch of PYUSD

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and four co-authors published a paper describing a smart contract protocol called privacy pools that would enable crypto users to associate their funds with those being used for legitimate purposes versus those being used in criminal activity such as hacks or money laundering. The protocol addresses one of the main shortcomings of coin mixer Tornado Cash, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. government. 

Chainalysis chief scientist Jacob Illum, one of those co-authors, discusses the impetus for the paper, the technology behind privacy pools and how they would work in practice, who would provide some of the necessary organization to operate the pools, and some of the early criticisms of the paper.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what the current state of crypto privacy is and what the motivation was to write this paper
• what privacy pools are and how they work
• how zero-knowledge proofs are the key technology behind privacy pools
• what the role of association set providers is in making this new technology work
• what would happen in different potential scenarios, such as a "bad address" being discovered after a transaction has been made
• how the protocol would protect the privacy and identity of the users
• how law enforcement, credit score agencies and other organizations could have "special viewing privileges" of transactions, according to Jacob
• how the community has been reacting to the recently published paper
• Jacob’s response to criticisms the paper has received from industry players
• why Chainalysis participated in the paper given that many people see them as 'anti-privacy'

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO
• Toku

• Jacob Illum, chief scientist at Chainalysis

• Unchained: Tornado Cash Cofounder Arrested, Another Sanctioned by U.S. Government
• CoinDesk: Crypto-Mixing Service Tornado Cash Blacklisted by US Treasury
• Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium
• Matt Corallo’s tweet
• Crypto lawyer Preston Byrne’s tweet
• Previous coverage of Unchained on Tornado Cash:
• The Chopping Block: 'Code Is Law' Is 'Obviously Not How Anything Works Ever'
• The Chopping Block: Why DeFi May Be Over-Complying With Tornado Cash Sanctions
• Preston Van Loon on Ethereum’s Merge and His Lawsuit Against TreasuryGiven the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant?
• The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?
• Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the group sits down with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire to discuss how the USDC stablecoin issuer responded to the banking crisis that started at the end of 2022, what PayPal’s new stablecoin offering means for Circle and the rest of the industry, and whether central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) represent real competition for stablecoins. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how the collapse of FTX and other companies led to a de-banking crisis for the industry
• what the Circle Reserve Fund is
• how the banking crisis in early 2023 caused a "flight from safety"
• how regulatory clarity has improved in the aftermath of the banking crisis
• why Jeremy actually hopes PayPal's recently launched PYUSD is successful
• why Tarun believes Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are one of the most "boring concepts" within the industry
• whether CBDCs pose a threat to businesses that issue stablecoins such as Circle
• Whether the status quo on stablecoins in the U.S. of knowing-your-customer on redemption and minting, but not on holding, is likely to continue. 

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle

• The Chopping Block: Was Crypto Just Debanked?
• Will PayPal's PYUSD Steal Market Share From Tether and Circle?
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friend.tech, a decentralized social media platform in which you can buy and sell “keys” in your friends on X (formerly known as Twitter) whose value can go up and down, has become a viral sensation, racking up as many as 100,000 users since launching on August 10. Should keys be considered securities and thus regulated by the SEC? How should gains and losses be taxed? And how private should users assume their communications and transactions on the platform are? Securities and banking law professor at George Mason Law School JW Verret, and tax partner and co-head of the Digital Assets and Blockchain Practice at Fried Frank Jason Schwartz, share their thoughts. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how Friend.tech works and how the price of keys is determined
• how Friend.tech is different from many other past attempts at creating a decentralized social media platform
• whether the keys offered by Friend.tech could be deemed securities by the SEC
• what wrapped Friend.tech tokens are and whether these could be considered securities
• why the traditional approach to crypto taxation is bad for most Friend.tech taxpayers
• what the tax implications of Friend.tech airdrops are
• what Friend.tech users should assume about their privacy on the app
• what the future holds for Friend.tech

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Toku

• J.W. Verret, Associate Professor of Law at George Mason Law School
• Previous appearance on Unchained: Coinbase's Legal Action Against the SEC: How It Will Likely Unfold
• Jason Schwartz, tax partner and co-head of the Digital Assets and Blockchain Practice at Fried, Frank
• Friend.Tech Shows How Complicated Taxing Crypto Transactions Can Be by Jason Schwartz

• Unchained: 
• Friend.tech Threatens to Penalize Users That Move to Copies or Forks
• Friend.tech Clarifies That Database of 100,000 Users Was Not Leaked
• What Is SocialFi? A Beginner’s Guide
• The ‘Howey Test’ and the Debate Over Crypto's Legal Status - Crypto Security vs Commodity
• CoinDesk: Friend.tech Attracted NBA Influencers. So Why Does Everyone Think Crypto’s Latest Trend Will Die?

Decrypt: Friend.tech Renames Its Token—But Is It Even Legal?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s emphatic ruling in favor of Grayscale in its suit against the SEC to convert its massive bitcoin trust into an ETF generated plenty of hopium among the bitcoin faithful that a spot bitcoin ETF will get approved soon and open a flood of investment in bitcoin. What are the odds of that truly happening now, though, and if it did, how much additional money could wind up being invested in bitcoin as a result? Also, which companies’ applications would get approved first and how would the various products compete with one other? Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas separates the hype from the reality in answering these questions and more.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why Bloomberg increased the likelihood of a Bitcoin ETF being approved this year from 50% to 75%
• how the ruling exceeded the expectations of the legal analysts at Bloomberg
• why it's important that the ruling was a bipartisan decision
• whether, from a legal perspective, it's "weird" to deny a spot ETF but approve a futures one
• how a spot Bitcoin ETF would act as a bridge for Baby boomers to invest in crypto
• what the two most likely SEC responses to the ruling are
• what the likely timelines for an SEC spot Bitcoin ETF approval or disapproval would be
• whether Gary Gensler's agency will approve Ethereum futures ETFs in the U.S.
• why BlackRock's and Fidelity's ETFs are more likely to be approved first, according to Eric
• how the different ETFs would compete in the market
• why spot Bitcoin ETFs pose a serious threat to crypto exchanges' businesses
• Eric's estimate of how much additional money would pour into Bitcoin if a spot Bitcoin ETF is approved

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO
• Toku

• Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

• Previous coverage of Unchained on Grayscale and ETFs:
• Why Grayscale Is Suing the SEC Over Its Denial of a Bitcoin ETF
• Bitwise’s Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved
• DCG’s Dilemma: Should It Sell Its GBTC Holdings to Repay Gemini?
• Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
• ‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis
• Unchained: 
• Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against SEC Over Denial of Bid to Convert GBTC Into a Bitcoin ETF
• Bitcoin ETFs Explained: What Are They & How Do They Work?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra, chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang goes in depth with Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal to discuss Grayscale’s win in its court case against the SEC, Coinbase’s ongoing dust-up with the SEC, the onerous new crypto reporting regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury, and the unsettling legal arguments behind the government crackdown on Tornado Cash. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Paul considers the court ruling in favor of Grayscale in its case against the SEC “nothing short of monumental”
• how much it actually matters if a spot Bitcoin ETF gets approved
• what options the SEC has now to pursue its position
• why BlackRock may have applied for its spot Bitcoin ETF when it did
• how the SEC 'changed its tune' and went from approving Coinbase’s S1 to suing them in a federal court, according to Paul
• how the collapse of FTX may have affected the SEC’s view of Coinbase
• why Coinbase has decided to wage its battle against the SEC so publicly 
• when Paul expects a final decision to be made on the SEC’s lawsuit against Coinbase
• what Paul would do to regulate the digital asset industry if he were Gary Gensler
• whether the Treasury Department’s extensive proposed reporting regulations mean the crypto industry is “screwed” 
• why Paul believes that the government’s crackdown on Tornado Cash is "dead wrong on the law"

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase
• Previous appearances on Unchained: 
• Just a Coincidence? Coinbase and Polygon Lawyers See Bad Omens in SEC Crackdown
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’

• Unchained: 
• Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against SEC Over Denial of Bid to Convert GBTC Into a Bitcoin ETF
• SEC Issues Coinbase a Wells Notice
• Tornado Cash Cofounder Arrested, Another Sanctioned by U.S. Government
• Bitcoin ETFs Explained: What Are They & How Do They Work?
• Coinbase: We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead.
• TechCrunch: SEC settles first NFT enforcement case, fines LA media company $6M
• The Block: Treasury, IRS release proposed crypto tax reporting rules

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oracles are all about bringing important data (mostly asset prices) onto the blockchain. As such, they’re a key part of decentralized finance. But oracle provider Pyth sees room for improvement as it relates to being more real-time than crypto incumbents like Chainlink. Mike Cahill, the CEO of a brand new Pyth-linked firm called Douro Labs, joins the show to explain the opportunity he sees in building better oracles.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how Pyth Network works and what the upcoming Perseus upgrade consists of
• Mike’s background in traditional finance
• why oracles are necessary in crypto and what the challenges are for oracle providers
• whether it’s hard for traditional institutions to participate in crypto protocols
• what the four types of oracle solutions are and how they differ
• how Pyth determines which data providers are allowed in the network and how that will change if it becomes more decentralized
• why Mike compares the scalability of Pyth to how Facebook grew
• why Douro Labs is being launched and why it will be solely focused on Pyth for now
• the factors driving Pyth’s growth, according to Mike
• Mike’s opinion on the current state of the crypto market and what the endgame is for Pyth

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Mike Cahill, CEO at Douro Labs.

• What’s the Difference Between Pyth and Legacy Oracles
• Unchained: 
• What Are Blockchain Oracles?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, the U.S. Government indicted Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov for three counts of conspiracy involving a staggeringly large number: $1 billion in criminal proceeds. The U.S. Department of Justice attached North Korean hackers to a large portion of this sum, alleging that Tornado’s privacy tech enabled nefarious deeds. Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, joins the show to assess whether the U.S. Government got it right or is merely misguided in its understanding of how blockchain technology works. Should Tornado Cash devs be held to account for the criminal use of their software?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why the U.S. Government says the cofounders of Tornado Cash facilitated money laundering
• what the difference is between the concealment of potential proceeds of a crime versus the facilitation of that crime
• why Amanda believes that if the government understood the technology they wouldn’t be making these allegations
• whether the charges and the indictment will have implications for all software developers
• whether these allegations could mark the “end of DeFi” in the U.S.
• whether front-end applications in DeFi will need to mandate KYC checks for all users
• how the charges appear to contradict earlier FinCEN guidance
• how the DOJ will use the involvement of North Korean hackers to “make it look bad” for the jury
• what the future of the case will look like and whether there will be a motion to dismiss the indictment

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO

• Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer at DeFi Education Fund

• Previous coverage of Unchained on Tornado Cash:
• The Chopping Block: 'Code Is Law' Is 'Obviously Not How Anything Works Ever'
• The Chopping Block: Why DeFi May Be Over-Complying With Tornado Cash Sanctions
• Preston Van Loon on Ethereum’s Merge and His Lawsuit Against Treasury
• Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant?
• The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?
• Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?
• Unchained: 
• Tornado Cash Cofounder Arrested, Another Sanctioned by U.S. Government
• OFAC Updates Tornado Cash Sanctions To Include DAO
• Coin Center Sues the US Treasury Over Tornado Cash Sanctions
• Coin Center: New Tornado Cash indictments seem to run counter to FinCEN guidance

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak talks about the ambitious goals of Base, the new Optimism–based blockchain from the publicly traded crypto giant. With the viral success of Base-based Friend.Tech, Jesse discusses the Base team’s ambitious goals to onboard “a million builders, a billion users.” Is this the long-heralded path to scaling Ethereum?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Jesse says it’s still “day one” for Base
• the reason behind Base’s “one million developers, one billion users” slogan
• what the advantages of Base are compared to other layer 2 blockchains
• how Base accounts for the fact that it doesn’t have a token to incentivize developer activity
• how MEV bots represent a big part of the transactions on Base, especially with the emergence of Friend.Tech
• why Friend.Tech found early success despite being similar to previous efforts 
• Jesse’s response to the fact that fault proofs are not live on any of the OP Stack chains
• how much of the revenue generated by Coinbase’s sequencer will be distributed to Optimism
• whether Base and Optimism Mainnet compete with each other 
• how layer 2 chains are choosing different design paths and how that differentiates them

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest

• Jesse Pollak, lead contributor at Base

• Unchained: Coinbase Launches a New Layer 2 on Ethereum
• CoinDesk: Social Platform Friend.tech Gains 100K Users in Days Even in Depths of a Bear Market
• TechCrunch: Friend.tech hype is skyrocketing, but will it actually reach the stars?

Decrypt: Base Daily Transactions Outpace Ethereum on Friend.tech Frenzy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The height of the last bull run was when MakerDAO cofounder Rune Christensen felt most disillusioned by DeFi and DAOs. “I didn’t even see how Maker was going to survive,” Christensen tells Laura Shin in the latest episode of Unchained. Now Christensen is leading an effort to help DAOs escape their trough of disillusionment. He says the ambitious “Endgame Plan” for MakerDAO seeks to overcome “the central issue of voter apathy.” Will it work or are DAOs doomed to fail?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• the disillusionment that comes with the growth of DAOs and the need for a new approach
• Rune’s insights into the challenges that most DAOs face
• how Maker plans to implement alignment engineering through tools, gamification, and incentives
• what each phase of Maker’s “Endgame Plan” seeks to accomplish
• the strategy behind Maker’s rebranding, including the launch of new tokens while maintaining MKR and DAI
• the importance of governance boundaries in ensuring that participants follow the rules and contribute constructively
• the goal to reach a state of ossification and certainty, similar to Bitcoin
• the challenges of renaming tokens and the decision to keep the original brands
• why Rune believes that Phase 2 of the Endgame Plan will change the industry
• how SubDAOs will work to align incentives, improve the organization, and avoid ponzi schemes
• what Maker’s “Atlas” is and how it intends to set boundaries
• how Maker plans to use artificial intelligence 
• the role of delegates in the DAO and how users choose them
• the difference between “dovish” and “hawkish” governance
• what the motivation was for launching the Spark lending protocol
• why the DAI Savings Rate (DSR) is not offered to American investors and Rune’s take on DeFi regulation
• why South Korea and Japan are the best crypto environments in the world, according to Rune
• whether Maker should be doing more to mitigate the influence of “whales,” given that Rune owns about 10% of the MKR supply

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Rune Christensen, Cofounder of MakerDAO
• Previous appearances on Unchained:
• Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 1: How to Keep a Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoin Afloat
• Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 2: How Dai Stayed at $1 While ETH Crashed From $1,400 to $85 
• The Chopping Block: How to Manage MakerDAO, With Hasu and Rune
• Rune Christensen of MakerDao on Its $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz
• Why It's so Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable

• Unchained: 
• MakerDAO: The DeFi Protocol That Lets You Be Your Own Banker
• MakerDAO’s Spark Protocol Blocks VPN Users
• MakerDAO to Raise DAI Yield Amid Lower Demand for Stablecoin
• Maker Founder Proposes Changing DAI Savings Rate to 5% 
• The Defiant: Christensen Drops Radical Plan to Remake MakerDAO and Address 'Fundamental Problems',
• Christensen’s Twitter thread explaining Endgame

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawyer Brian Klein joins the show to explain why Sam Bankman-Fried being locked up makes it “much tougher” for his legal team. This week, the judge presiding over the case said SBF went too far in attempting to intimidate key witnesses – chief among them former Alameda Research co-CEO (and ex-flame) Caroline Ellison. Will a jail cell change SBF’s defiant tune ahead of a hotly anticipated October trial date? Klein weighs in.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why the detention of SBF changes the dynamics of the trial preparation
• why Brian believes that the appeal to the detention won’t prevail
• whether these new conditions will lead to a request for a delay of the trial
• whether the fact that SBF is now in jail will make him more interested in a plea deal                
• why both the prosecution and the defense have filed motions to limit allowable evidence and what that means for the trial
• what the short-term future of the trial looks like
• how long a trial like this would take to play out

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO

• Brian Klein, partner at Waymaker

• Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX:
• Will FTX Reboot? Here’s John Ray’s Internal Deadline for Making a Decision
• The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning? 
• How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing? 
• Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years
• The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He?
• Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
• Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
• Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
• The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater 
• Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
• The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
• Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC
• Unchained: 
• Sam Bankman-Fried Remanded to Jail Ahead of Fraud Trial
• Prosecutors Move to Include Caroline Ellison’s List of ‘Things Sam is Freaking Out About’ Into Evidence Against FTX Founder
• Prosecutors Allege SBF Used $100 Million User Funds for Campaign Contributions
• The New York Times: Prosecutors Detail Evidence Against Sam Bankman-Fried
• The Block: Former FTX exec Salame to plead the fifth about campaign finance schemes

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy joins the show to discuss market making when the crypto markets are quiet. Plus, an analysis of Base’s prospects following a surge of early interest. Also: Do you think bank fraud is going to run rampant in the AI era?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• how prop shops like Wintermute view the current state of the crypto market
• how an organization like WIntermute interacts with DeFi platforms
• Tarun and Evgeny attempt to squash some past beef
• why Evgeny believes that some exchanges are “zombies”
• whether this is a good time to build an exchange and how Evgeny would do it 
• how Base accomplished a big surge in its TVL and daily volumes
• whether it’s possible for Coinbase to balance the decentralized nature of building a blockchain with a desire to minimize scams
• how L2 sequencers have the power to censor transactions and the analogy to proof-of-authority chains
• how friend.tech, the social app built on Base, works and why it got so much attention
• why the crypto cognoscenti seemed to like friend.tech but hated BitClout, which is basically the same thing
• what is the role of biometrics in securing crypto wallets and assets
• whether bank fraud will increase or decrease because of advances in AI

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute Trading
• Previous appearance on Unchained: How Traders Are Thinking About the Merge — and a Potential ETHPoW Chain

• Unchained: Coinbase Layer 2 Base Sees 80% Rise in Total Value Locked
• CoinDesk: Is Friend.tech a Friend or Foe? A Dive Into the New Social App Driving Millions in Trading Volume
• Halborn: Explained: The Wintermute Hack (September 2022)
• Forbes: Layer 2 Wars Heat Up As Coinbase Launches Base

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Educator Anita Posch has spent months on the ground in Africa onboarding new users into the world of Bitcoin. In the West, bitcoin may seem extraneous; but in her telling, bitcoin in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other African countries is essential. “Bitcoin can be one of the solutions for people who are disempowered, who are outlawed, the misfits,” says Posch. “Bitcoin is for them because no one can take it away from you.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• what Anita does for Bitcoin education and why she was inspired to do this
• how people in developing countries are constantly getting scammed
• how the Central Bank of Zimbabwe acts as an intermediary in business operations
• whether people in these countries use BTC or stablecoins for their day to day expenses
• what the differences are between the several Bitcoin communities around the world
• how in Zimbabwe people could get arrested for transacting in Bitcoin
• why Bitcoin is essential to human rights, according to Anita
• whether Bitcoin can help to tackle the issue of discrimination against women, particularly in finance
• why Anita is “very sad” about the launch of Worldcoin
• why she was against Bitcoin Ordinals in the first place and whether she has changed her mind
• what Anita’s new Bitcoin learning program aims to accomplish 

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Anita Posch, founder of Bitcoin for Fairness, author of (L)earn Bitcoin, and host of the Anita Posch show.
• Online Learning and Scholarship Program 
• Website
• 45min Documentary: How Bitcoin Enforces Human Rights 
• 13 min Keynote: Bitcoin empowers Africa and Africans empower Bitcoin

• Previous coverage of Unchained mentioned in the episode:
• Orb Outrage: Worldcoin Cofounder Defends Project Amid Backlash
• Why CoinFund Believes Worldcoin Could Become More Popular Than Bitcoin
• Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A major player has entered the stablecoin wars. PayPal went deeper down the crypto rabbithole this week with the launch of its Ethereum-based PYUSD. The dollar-backed stablecoin now puts PayPal in competition with the likes of Tether and Circle for quickly sending value around the world on-chain. José Fernández da Ponte, PayPal’s crypto SVP, joins the show to unpack how the fintech giant is building a long-term strategy around blockchain-based payments.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why PayPal decided to launch a stablecoin
• how long it will take for stablecoins to reach mainstream adoption and what the advantages of stablecoins are
• how PYUSD will differentiate from other giants in the stablecoin space such as USDT and USDC
• whether the U.S. stablecoin bill influenced the launch of PYUSD
• why stablecoins should be regulated at the state level
• whether PayPal plans to launch stablecoins pegged to other fiat currencies
• how Paxos will provide attestation reports for PYUSD
• why Jose thinks gaming is a huge opportunity for stablecoin payments
• what the rationale was for launching an ERC-20 on Ethereum
• how PayPal plans to monetize the stablecoin
• why PayPal’s expectations for PYUSD in the short-term are “moderate”

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO

•  José Fernández da Ponte, SVP of Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal

• Unchained: PayPal Launches PYUSD Stablecoin Built on Ethereum
• CoinDesk: 
• PayPal’s Real Stablecoin Strategy: It Wants to Earn Interest on Your Deposits
• Congresswoman Maxine Waters Says She’s ‘Deeply Concerned’ About PayPal’s New Stablecoin
• U.S. Stablecoin Bill Takes Big Step Despite Fight From Democrats, White House
• Paxos Has Other 'White Label' Stablecoin Opportunities in the Works in Addition to PayPal USD
• Blockworks: PayPal’s new stablecoin stirs centralization criticism 
• CNBC: PayPal is trying to drag its 435 million users into the $120 billion stablecoin market — here's why

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, a quiet conclusion to that Curve thing everyone was animated about. Plus, major developments from Web2 giant PayPal as it continues its journey down the crypto rabbithole. Also, is Maker’s juiced DAI Savings Rate the new Anchor? The gang discusses.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how The Chopping Block got that sweet, sweet Red Bull money
• what to make of the Curve hacker’s message after they returned the funds
• does Curve trying to dox the hacker proves that Arkham’s model is right?
• the lessons from the Curve situation and whether DeFi needs to change
• how DeFi protocols could prevent situations where a single entity holds a significant percentage of a token’s total supply
• how the enhanced DAI Savings Rate triggered PTSD from other stablecoins (ahem, Anchor)
• what the consequences are of increasing the DSR
• the gang’s prediction on how much PYUSD will be minted by the end of 2023

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Unchained: 
• $52 Million Drained in Curve Finance Pools Exploit
• Curve Founder’s Liquidation Could Trigger Chaos for DeFi
• Curve Exploit Results in Largest MEV Block Rewards in Ethereum’s History
• PayPal Launches PYUSD Stablecoin Built on Ethereum
• MakerDAO’s Spark Protocol Blocks VPN Users
• Curve Opens $1.85 Million Bounty to Identify Hacker 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Worldcoin is getting hit from all sides. Following a popular launch in late July, critics from the crypto community and public sector alike are coming out in droves with concerns about privacy, data protection, and tokenomics. Worldcoin co-founder Alex Blania joins the show to address the recent criticism and reiterate the project’s lofty goals. “It sounds crazy,” he said, “so you really need to understand the technology to understand why it’s not concerning. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• why Worldcoin believes in the idea of a universal basic income (UBI)
• how World ID actually works, from the initial “orb” scan to actually using the app
• Alex’s comments on the rise of a black market for World IDs
• whether Worldcoin is storing people’s biometric data
• how people don’t really understand the nuances of getting their irises scanned and why it’s fine that the “average person will not understand how crypto works,” according to Alex
• whether Worldcoin took into consideration the various regulations around the world
• what the purpose of the WLD token is
• why the project decided to launch the token with a low float 
• how Alex got convinced to join Worldcoin and become one of its leaders
• why Alex believes that Worldcoin will become a “very powerful technology” that will be the main project for onboarding people to crypto

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Alex Blania, cofounder of Worldcoin
• Previous appearances on Unchained: Is Sam Altman's Worldcoin the End of People's Privacy?

• Previous coverage of Unchained on Worldcoin: Why CoinFund Believes Worldcoin Could Become More Popular Than Bitcoin
• 
  
• Unchained: 
• Worldcoin Can Be More ‘Widely Distributed’ Than Bitcoin, CoinFund Executives Say
• Worldcoin Launches Token on Mainnet, Plans to Deploy 1,500 Eyeball Scanning Orbs
• Is Sam Altman's Worldcoin the End of People's Privacy?
• CoinDesk: 
• Worldcoin Could Enable Wider Distribution of Crypto Than Even Bitcoin, Says CoinFund 
• Worldcoin Releases Tokenomics, Report Geofenced for Some Countries  
• The Block: German authorities probe Worldcoin project over privacy: Reuters
• Reuters: Kenyan government suspends activities of Worldcoin in country
• Rest of World: Why are people lining up for Worldcoin eyeball scans? “Easy $50,” 
• What do I think about biometric proof of personhood? By Vitalik Buterin
• MIT Technology Review: Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users
• Ouriel Ohayon’s video

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While it’s now mostly contained, the Curve crisis has exposed some of the systemic risks in the world of DeFi. Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax Finance, joins the show to discuss what DeFi needs to do to get better – and what builders should learn from a novel attack that was ultimately about much more than $50 million in drained funds.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• how the Curve exploit occurred and why this hack is different 
• how the attack triggered a crisis in major lending platforms like Aave, Fraxlend, and Abracadabra
• what Curve founder Michael Egorov’s solution was to the potential liquidation of his several loans
• whether this situation proves that DeFi is not as good as promised
• what can be done to prevent these kinds of issues in the future, particularly with large loans in DeFi that could potentially bring down the ecosystem

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO
• Arbitrum Foundation
• Thales DAO

• Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax Finance

• Previous coverage on the Curve hack: The Chopping Block: Who’s to Blame for the Curve Hack?
• Unchained: 
• $52 Million Drained in Curve Finance Pools Exploit
• Curve Founder’s Liquidation Could Trigger Chaos for DeFi
• Curve Exploit Results in Largest MEV Block Rewards in Ethereum’s History
• CoinDesk: 
• Curve Founder Deploys New Liquidity Pool to Address FRAX Debt Situation
• Spooked by Curve Liquidation Threat, DeFi Protocols Shore Up Defenses
• Aave Should Block Curve Token Borrowing, Risk Management Firm Proposes
• After the Curve Attack: What's Next for DeFi? 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, Laurence Day, smart-contract sleuth and co-founder of Wildcat Finance, joins the show to discuss the ramifications of the Curve Finance exploit that has the DeFi world talking.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how Curve Finance, one of the most prominent DeFi protocols, got hacked
• why maintaining different coding languages and clients is so hard
• whether developers are responsible for this kind of attack
• whether Curve founder Michael Egorov’s loans in Aave and Fraxlend have put DeFi at risk
• how the loan in Fraxlend impacted the liquidation price of the Aave loan
• Tarun’s reaction to the situation, given that his firm Gauntlet has tried to mitigate these risks in the past
• how people in the community worked together to keep DeFi safe and resilient
• why Tarun got canceled on LinkedIn
• what happened with the BALD meme coin mania on Base

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Laurence Day, co-founder of Wildcat Finance

Disclosures

• Unchained:
• BALD Token Falls 90% Amid Rug Pull Allegations
• $60 Million in ETH Bridged to Coinbase Layer 2 Base
• Curve Founder’s Liquidation Could Trigger Chaos for DeFi
• $52 Million Drained in Curve Finance Pools Exploit
• Curve Exploit Results in Largest MEV Block Rewards in Ethereum’s History
• CoinDesk:
• Curve Founder Deploys New Liquidity Pool to Address FRAX Debt Situation
• Spooked by Curve Liquidation Threat, DeFi Protocols Shore Up Defenses
• Aave Should Block Curve Token Borrowing, Risk Management Firm Proposes
• After the Curve Attack: What's Next for DeFi?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CoinFund’s Jake Brukhman and Chris Perkins join Unchained to dissect their recent $158 million seed round and the transformation of the investment landscape following the 2022 crypto carnage. As backers of Worldcoin, they confront criticisms about the project's approach of distributing money to individuals who may not fully comprehend the underlying technology. They also delve into why the Coinbase lawsuit could potentially boost the industry, share their perspectives on current crypto legislation, and explore the intersection of AI and crypto.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how the fundraising crypto environment changed this past year after the 2022 carnage
• what the impact of FTX’s alleged fraud has been 
• why Chris and Jake believe that the SEC’s lawsuit against Coinbase is bullish for the industry
• why Jake believes there's no massive consumer application in web3 yet
• how institutions have been building during the bear market
• whether Worldcoin solves the sybil resistance problem in crypto and whether it could become more decentralized than Bitcoin
• Jake's response to the criticism surrounding the centralization and privacy issues in Worldcoin
• the ethical implications of giving free money to people who may not fully understand how their biometric data is being used
• what the Composite Ether Staking Rate (CESR) is and what are its two main applications
• how the foundational web3 + AI intersection is happening in the compute area
• why Chris believes that the crypto market structure bill is not perfect
• whether creating proper stablecoin legislation is a very important opportunity for the US
• how DeFi should be regulated to ensure that privacy gets protected

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Chris Perkins, President of CoinFund
• Jake Brukhman, Founder and CEO of CoinFund

• Unchained: 
• Worldcoin Launches Token on Mainnet, Plans to Deploy 1,500 Eyeball Scanning Orbs
• Is Sam Altman's Worldcoin the End of People's Privacy?
• CoinDesk: 
• Worldcoin Could Enable Wider Distribution of Crypto Than Even Bitcoin, Says CoinFund, 
• Worldcoin Releases Tokenomics, Report Geofenced for Some Countries  
• The Block: What exactly is CoinFund's new Composite Ethereum Staking Rate
• What do I think about biometric proof of personhood? By Vitalik Buterin
• CoinDesk Indices and CoinFund Announce CESR, the Benchmark Rate for Staking on Ethereum
• CoinFund Reinforces Commitment to Web3 Technology with the Close of $158M Seed IV Fund

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crypto markets are under the gun from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s ‘regulation by enforcement’ policy. Meanwhile, a divided political landscape creates gridlock on Capitol Hill. Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres (NY-15) claims regulators have overstepped their bounds, while generational divide in the Democratic party slows appropriate regulatory legislation from passing.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• Why stablecoins are less dangerous than fractional reserve banking
• How the current system fails to protect retail investors
• Why Democrats and Republicans have flipped traditional stances on regulation
• Increased skepticism after the FTX meltdown
• Regulation by enforcement an abuse of power
• If and when a digital asset is an investment contract
• What he views as Prometheum’s planned political stunt
• Resolving crypto’s long term problems responsibly

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO
• Ondo Finance
• Arbitrum Foundation

•  Ritchie Torres, U.S. representative

• Fortune: Ritchie Torres went from crypto ‘newbie’ to key ally in Washington. Now he could shape the industry’s post-FTX future
• NY Daily: A liberal case for cryptocurrency
• CoinDesk: Rep. Ritchie Torres: We've Seen a 'Weaponization of the SEC' From Gensler Against Crypto Industry
• U.S. Financial Service Committee: McHenry, Thompson, Hill, Johnson Release Digital Asset Market Structure Proposal
• Bloomberg Law: McHenry Says White House Torpedoed Bipartisan Stablecoin Deal
• NBC: Sen. Cynthia Lummis: Crypto regulation bill could prevent another FTX-style crisis
• Rep. Torres’s open letter to Gensler following the Ripple decision
• Rep. Torres’ speech

Previously on Unchained

• Why the SEC Doesn’t Want the Ripple Case to Go to the Supreme Court
• New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now?
• Why the SEC vs. Ripple Order Is Now About 2 Things: Coinbase and Congress

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they debate whether infrastructure is being over-invested in, explore the potential of UniswapX and the controversial launch of Worldcoin’s token, and dive into the curious world of hamster racing in crypto. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Tarun thinks EthCC Paris was much better than ETH Denver
• whether VCs are overinvesting in infrastructure
• why Haseeb believes that founders should focus on building applications rather than infrastructure
• whether the WRLD token is a new “Sam coin”
• what everyone thinks about Worldoin and the need to develop proof of personhood in crypto
• what is going on with hamster racing and whether this is the reason "normies hate crypto"
• UniswapX and its benefits (and tradeoffs) 
• whether there is a shift toward intents-based trading

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

 Links

• Unchained: 
• Worldcoin Launches Token on Mainnet, Plans to Deploy 1,500 Eyeball Scanning Orbs
• UniswapX Launches With MEV Protection and Gas Free Swaps
• Is Sam Altman's Worldcoin the End of People's Privacy?
• Decrypt: You Can Now Bet Crypto on Hamster Races. What Could Go Wrong?
• What do I think about biometric proof of personhood? By Vitalik Buterin
• Paradigm: Intent-Based Architectures and Their Risks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the doom and gloom, Placeholder VC partners Chris Burniske and Joel Monegro are highly bullish on the present moment. “We’re all going to look back on this period and remember it as fondly as we remember ‘18 and ‘19,” Monegro tells Laura Shin. The two long-term investors explain why the confluence of macroeconomic factors and crypto-native (and AI) innovations make this the ideal time to invest in a Web3 future. They cut their teeth on Bitcoin, they grew up with Ethereum; hear what they think is next.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• why Chris says crypto’s four-year cycle will likely play out once again
• the role of interest rates in asset valuation
• whether the crypto industry has learned its lessons from the “crypto carnage” of 2022
• whether there’s a future for KYC’d DeFi
• when failing in crypto should be considered a crime, as in the Do Kwon case
• what could happen with the rate hikes and how the macroeconomic environment affects the markets
• how the ruling in the Ripple case impacts the development of new crypto companies and user adoption
• whether Joel felt relieved by the ruling, considering Placeholder has invested in many tokens that were named as securities by the SEC
• what Joel thinks of the new crypto bill in Congress and how he wishes that smart contracts were used to self-regulate the industry
• what Joel and Chris think of the delicate situations of crypto giants such as Binance and DCG
• whether the fat protocol thesis still holds up and whether it colors Placeholder’s current investment thesis
• why most of the Layer 1s will become rollups, according to Chris
• why Chris is bullish on Solana, despite the massive collapse in value following the FTX debacle
• how NFTs will play a significant role in “establishing the provenance of content”
• whether AI agents will become crypto power users

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder VC
• Previous appearance on Unchained: 
• 2022 in Review + How Cobie and Chris Burniske Are Playing the New Year
• Cobie and Chris Burniske on How to Navigate a Crypto Bear Market
• How To Value A Crypto Asset
• Joel Monegro, partner at Placeholder VC.
• Placeholder’s Joel Monegro on the Fat Protocols Thesis

• Fat Protocols by Joel Monegro
• The Blockchain Application Stack by Joel Monegro
• Decred Thesis by Joel Monegro and Chris Burniske
• WSJ: 
• Binance Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees
• Binance Cuts Back Employee Benefits, Citing Decline in Profit
• CoinDesk: Unpacking the Latest Lummis-Gillibrand Bill Draft
• Reuters: US SEC accepts six spot bitcoin ETF proposals for review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the SEC wants to appeal last week’s judgment in the Ripple case, it better act fast. So says Bill Hughes, regulatory chief at Ethereum booster ConsenSys and one of the many crypto policy pros assessing the ramifications of U.S. district judge Analisa Torres’ decision. The regulatory agency’s decision to appeal hinges on a number of factors, Hughes says, including that this Supreme Court will likely be unkind to SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s interpretation of how to regulate crypto. But of course, a political calculus is also in play, and suddenly U.S. lawmakers have a slew of crypto bills and amendments to choose from. How will it play out?

Show highlights:

• whether the SEC is going to appeal the recent Ripple ruling and whether Judge Analisa Torres would allow it
• what the risks are for the SEC of taking the case to the Second Circuit
• why Bill believes that the SEC’s chances are not good at the Supreme Court
• what the motivation is behind the new DeFi bill in the U.S. Senate
• how that bill would impact the different stakeholders in a DeFi project
• why the crypto community should put its focus on the stablecoin and market structure bills first, according to Bill
• how the SEC has been dropping lawsuits days prior to Congressional debates about crypto

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO
• Ondo Finance
• Arbitrum Foundation

• Bill Hughes, senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters at ConsenSys.

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: 
• Why the SEC vs. Ripple Order Is Now About 2 Things: Coinbase and Congress 
• New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now?
• The Chopping Block: Should XRP Holders Really Be Rejoicing?
• The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know 
• Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low
• CoinDesk: Ripple's Legal Win Means It's Time for Crypto to Stand Up to the SEC
• Unchained: 
• U.S. Senate Bill Calls for Strict KYC and AML Regulations for DeFi
• SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security
• Bill’s thread on the Lummis-Gillibrand amendment
• S.Amdt.712 to S.2226 - 118th Congress (2023-2024)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

XRP isn’t itself a security; it depends on how it’s sold. So said a federal judge last Thursday in the SEC vs. Ripple case and the implications are significant. Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association, and lawyer Kayvan Sadeghi, partner at Jenner & Block, join the show to discuss two major ramifications. One: U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres dealt a major blow to the legal theory underpinning the SEC’s case against Coinbase. Two: This order really “lights a fire” under U.S. lawmakers to act on a pair of crypto bills in Congress.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• why this is an “extraordinary victory” for the industry, according to Jake
• whether Judge Torres made the right decision
• how the SEC could seek an interlocutory appeal to halt the case, though it’s unlikely
• what are the pending items in the case that need to be resolved
• why the order that Judge Torres issued is not a final judgment
• why it is more important to look at the transaction, not at the nature of the asset, to determine whether something should be deemed a security
• whether the SEC has the authority to call digital assets securities
• the significance of the “major questions doctrine”
• how the order in the Ripple case will affect other cases like the Coinbase one
• whether exchanges should re-list XRP
• why this case could be instrumental in steering the direction of crypto regulation in the U.S.
• whether other crypto tokens like SOL or MATIC should feel relieved with this new ruling
• why Jake says that this case will speed up the chances of crypto legislation getting passed
• what the differences are between the current crypto bills that are being proposed
• whether SEC Chair Gary Gensler should recuse himself from enforcement actions in the crypto industry

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049

• Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association
• Previous appearances on Unchained: The Chopping Block: Jake Chervinsky on How the SEC Has Lost Credibility
• All Things Crypto Regulation With Jake Chervinsky
• Everything You Need to Know About the Looming Battle Over Privacy in Crypto
• Can Crypto Be a Force in the Midterms? Yes, Say Kristin Smith and Jake Chervinsky
• Kayvan Sadeghi, partner at Jenner & Block and co-chair of the fintech and crypto assets practice.

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: 
• New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now?
• The Chopping Block: Should XRP Holders Really Be Rejoicing?
• The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know 
• Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low
• SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security

• CoinDesk:
• Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP
• Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray
• The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push
• Chair Gensler Must Recuse Himself From Digital Asset Enforcement Decisions - Blockchain Association

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, crypto lawyer Stephen Palley joins an emergency live show to unpack Thursday’s judgment in the Ripple case. Crypto markets are pumping after a judge handed Ripple Labs a partial victory in its fight against the SEC. But is the jubilation warranted? “I can understand why people are happy,” said Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP. “I’m just a little more cautious on what happens next.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Judge Analisa Torres ruled that retail sales of XRP do not violate U.S. securities laws
• how the court denied summary judgment on some issues relating to Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen
• why “Footnote 16” of the ruling was so “surprising,” according to Stephen
• whether the SEC will appeal the case and how that process could unfold
• why Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges re-listed XRP and whether that’s a safe step
• whether Coinbase will cite the Ripple judgment in its lawsuit against the SEC 
• how this ruling does not represent a binding precedent
• why, even though this is a win for Ripple, it shouldn’t be used for investment strategy
• why Haseeb thinks the SEC should “fire their press department”
• whether the SEC’s case is “stronger than people on Twitter might like to believe”
• how, if proven, the allegations against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky are “straight-up fraud” 
• why Stephen says that a lot of the enforcement activity focused on DeFi was an “absolute misuse of resources”

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Stephen Palley, litigation partner at Brown Rudnick

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: 
• New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now?
• The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know 
• Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low
• Unchained: 
• SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security
• Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Arrested in New York - Unchained Crypto
• CoinDesk:
• Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP
• Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray
• The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SEC and Ripple have been locked in a legal tug of war for years, stirring up waves of controversy and debate in the crypto community. Finally, Judge Analisa Torres has given an order establishing that XRP buyers trading on exchanges were not, in fact, engaging in a securities transaction, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the industry. Lewis Cohen, co-founder of DLx Law, unpacks the details of this pivotal case and what it might mean for the future of cryptocurrency regulation.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why the SEC lawsuit against Ripple has such historical significance in the crypto industry
• how Judge Torres split the case into two categories 
• why the 'programmatic buyers' did not meet the four prongs of the Howey test
• why the institutional sales constituted an investment contract 
• what makes the Ripple case different from the Kik and Telegram cases
• whether the new ruling by Judge Torres will have an impact on how other crypto projects deal with their offerings
• why, in the event of an appeal, Lewis expects a Second Circuit decision to take at least one year
• whether Judge Torres' decision will impact the ongoing cases against crypto exchanges like Coinbase
• why Lewis thinks the XRP order will not change the likelihood that spot bitcoin ETFs get approved
• how there's no way to deal with information asymmetries in digital assets now

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO
• Ondo Finance
• Arbitrum Foundation

• Lewis Cohen, Cofounder DLx Law
• Previous appearances on Unchained: The Lummis/Gillibrand Crypto Bill: Is the ‘Ancillary Token’ Approach the Best

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: 
• The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know 
• Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low
• CoinDesk: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP
• The Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law: Why Fungible Crypto Assets Are not Securities
• Paradigm Files Amicus Brief in SEC’s Lawsuit Against Ripple
• The Block: Lummis, Gillibrand to introduce revised comprehensive crypto bill 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. This week, the crew is joined by Goldfinch co-founder Blake West to talk about the momentum around asset tokenization. Whether it’s private credit (what Goldfinch specializes in) or U.S. Treasurys (what Robert’s new venture Superstate will tackle), real-world assets (RWAs) are en vogue among the crypto set. What’s driving this fresh interest in an old concept that has failed to take off?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• how Blake got into RWAs
• why Robert launched his new company Superstate
• why Robert hates the term “real-world asset”
• why the only actual RWA in the blockchain space is the U.S. dollar, aka stablecoins
• why other non-native crypto assets have struggled to migrate onto blockchains
• how having on-chain T-bills could push demand for stablecoins
• why private credit is a good thing to bring on chain, according to Blake
• what the not-so-obvious benefits of bringing these things onto blockchains are
• whether Arkham’s model of de-anonymizing people goes against the ethos of crypto

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Blake West, cofounder of Goldfinch

• Unchained:
• Compound Founder Creates ‘Superstate’ to Bridge TradFi and Blockchains
• Arkham Launches Bounty Marketplace to Trade Crypto Wallet Intel
• MakerDAO Mulls Proposal to Allocate $750 Million More to US Treasuries
• MakerDAO Has Brought in Real World Assets. Is It Worth the Risk?
• CoinDesk:
• Tokenized U.S. Treasurys Surpass $600M as Crypto Investors Capture TradFi Yield

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent months, ChatGPT, Bard and other new artificial intelligence (AI) products have revolutionized numerous industries. But how this nascent technology can work with crypto and blockchain technology is still relatively unexplored. In this episode, Illia Polosukhin and Jason Warner delve into the transformative potential of AI and crypto coming together. 

They explore a wide array of applications, from AIs managing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), to DAOs being used to help open source AIs, to blockchain technology making the inner workings of AIs more transparent. 

Tune in to this episode for a deep dive into the fusion of AI and crypto.

• Illia's and Jason’s backgrounds, including how Illia’s work in artificial intelligence (AI) got him into crypto
• what AI actually encompasses and how to define it
• why Jason says that "it works right now, it's machine learning and if you're raising money, it's AI"
• how blockchains can facilitate the provision of resources for training data 
• the problem of attribution in training AI models
• how OpenAI and Midjourney hold a lot of power at the moment, according to Illia
• why open source code helps build better AI systems
• how LLMs are being used to audit code in the blockchain ecosystem
• up to what point AI can be used for crypto trading
• why misinformation is a human problem, not an “AI problem,” and how blockchain technology can help solve this issue
• how blockchains can be used to verify facts to combat misinformation
• whether AI can help mitigate attacks on DeFi protocols
• how DAOS and AI can work together and whether AI can coordinate a company
• what’s missing in terms of infrastructure for DAOs to thrive with AI
• how to structure regulation with this rapidly evolving technology

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049
• OKX

• Illia Polosukhin, cofounder of NEAR.
• Previous appearance on The Chopping Block: The Chopping Block: Why AI Will Change the Course of History in Crypto
• Jason Warner, founder at Poolside. 

• Op-ed by Illia: Blockchain can save the media - Blockworks
• CoinDesk: 
• AI Can Generate a Trading Edge in Crypto Markets
• 10 Ways Crypto and AI Can Make Each Other Better (or Maybe Worse)
• Blockchain May Offer Answers for AI Challenges
• Former FTX.US President Brett Harrison's New Venture Is Seeking to Harness AI for Crypto Trading
• Blockchain Developer Platform Alchemy Releases AI-Powered Tools for Web3 Builders
• When AI and Blockchain Merge, Expect the Mundane at First
• Imagining the Future AI and Web3 Can Build
• World Economic Forum: Blockchain can help combat the threat of deepfakes. Here's how
• Cointelegraph: DAOs: Where humans may fail, AI could succeed
• Forbes: Convergence Of Web3, AI And Metaverse: Navigating The Great Reset For Investors, 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2022, crypto crime hit an all-time high. A staggering $3.8 billion in crypto was stolen, with DeFi protocols bearing the brunt of these thefts, accounting for 82% of the total losses. Amid this alarming scenario, has a beacon of hope emerged in ERC-7265? 

The proposal aims to create a 'circuit breaker' safety layer for DeFi contracts, potentially revolutionizing security measures in the crypto space. Could this be the key to bolstering security and paving the way for mass adoption of DeFi? Will it essentially centralize protocols? Tune in to find out.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what ERC-7265 is meant to do and why they called it a 'circuit breaker’
• how the idea would actually work on chain
• how this ERC could make DeFi applications more centralized, rather than decentralized
• what can be done to prevent small teams from seizing funds
• how different teams will be able to design the circuit breaker as they want
• what unsafe arbitrary calls and unprotected flows are
• why Philippe believes that this proposal will help newer teams improve their security
• how the ERC can pave the way for a more decentralized protocol 
• what will it take for protocols to start adopting the new standard

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO
• Ondo Finance
• Arbitrum Foundation

• Philippe Dumonet, Cofounder of DeReg

• Chainalysis 2022 report
• The Block: Ethereum community proposes new standard to mitigate DeFi hacks
• Philippe’s thread on ERC-7265

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ERC-721 token standard on Ethereum ignited the frenzied world of NFTs. Yet, as the dust settled, their limitations became apparent. Enter ERC-6551, a new standard designed to overcome these challenges.

Benny Giang and Jayden Windle, cofounder and founding developer of Future Primitive, respectively, delve into the transformative potential of ERC-6551, a standard which allows every NFT to have a smart contract wallet associated with it. They discuss the exciting new possibilities it unlocks in the spheres of gaming, the metaverse, identity, messaging, and more.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what ERC-6551 is and how the idea was born
• the differences between NFT token standards
• the four big categories of applications for this new token standard
• why Benny thinks that "network playable characters" will solve many of the problems in the digital space
• how the token bound accounts work and whether they can interact with existing wallets
• the security implications of using ERC-6551
• what Future Primitive does in the web3 space
• how creators can benefit from this new development
• whether it's possible for soulbound tokens to work with token bound accounts
• how blue chip NFT collections are using ERC-6551, if at all
• what could go wrong with token-bound accounts that are combined with AI
• what new things are being envisioned with this new standard

• Crypto.com
• Arbitrum Foundation
• TOKEN2049
• OKX

• Benny Giang, cofounder of Future Primitive 
• Jayden Windle, founding developer of Future Primitive
• Previous appearance on Unchained: Your NFTs Can Do Much More Than You Think

• ERC-6551: Non-fungible Token Bound Accounts
• Tokenbound
• ERC 6551 — Token Bound Accounts. Every NFT will have their own wallets… by Benny Giang
• Unchained: 
• How Soulbound Tokens Could Reduce Speculation and Improve DAO Voting - Quadratic Funding
• Could Account Abstraction Make Self-Custody Easier for Crypto Users?
• Ethereum Implements Account Abstraction With ERC-4337
• What Can You Do in the Metaverse?
• Exploring the NFT blue chips
• What is the metaverse?
• What Is an NFT Marketplace?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From “hush money” allegations to a prospective FTX relaunch, it’s been a crazy week for those following the legal saga of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire. Perhaps few are following it more closely than 507 Capital founder Thomas Braziel, who specializes in the trading of bankruptcy claims. He explains the significance of a spate of recent headlines and shares newsworthy tidbits from his meeting with new FTX honcho John J. Ray III.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what the Daniel Friedberg lawsuit revealed about the whistleblowers of FTX
• how FTX used allegedly false claims in its Series C funding round
• whether Friedberg’s former law firm, Fenwick & West, will suffer legal consequences
• how John Ray is prosecuting the allegedly fraudulent transactions made by FTX
• what stood out to Thomas in his personal dealings with John Ray
• what the timeline is for filing a reorganization plan for FTX
• what the odds are of an FTX 2.0 relaunch, according to Thomas
• why Thomas says that FTT won’t play a role in the potential FTX recovery 
• whether the decision to redact the identities of FTX customers was right

• Crypto.com
• Proton
• Railgun DAO

• Thomas Braziel, Founder of 507 Capital
• Previous appearances on Unchained
• Will FTX Customers Ever Recover Their Assets? Two Insolvency Experts Weigh In
• Will Celsius Survive the Bankruptcy Process?
• How Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Buyers Will Profit From the Collapse of FTX

• Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX:
• The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning? 
• How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing? 
• Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years
• The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He?
• Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
• Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
• Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
• The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater 
• Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
• The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
• Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC
• CoinDesk: FTX Customers Have Until End-September to Submit Bankruptcy Claims
• Unchained:
• FTX Sues Former Compliance Chief Who Allegedly Silenced Whistleblowers
• FTX Stops Sale of $500 Million Stake in AI Firm Anthropic: Report
• FTX Recovers $7 Billion in Assets in Liquid Assets
• WSJ: FTX Begins Talks on Reboot Amid Regulatory Crackdown on Crypto Exchanges 
• Bloomberg: Bankman-Fried's FTX Halts Sale of $500 Million AI Startup Anthropic Stake

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• why the Azuki new NFT collection 'Elementals' caused such a controversy among holders
• why Robert bought an Elemental and what was he expecting
• who the Michael Milken of NFTs is, according to Tarun
• how BitGo 'pulled a Binance' on Prime Trust
• how Prime Trust, a crypto custodian, collapsed and was put into receivership
• whether what Prime Trust did can be considered fraud and how the situation highlights DeFi's 'long term advantage'
• why the majority of blockspace is EVM-compatible
• what the problems are with current Layer 2 rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum
• why rollups are so 'political' in the Ethereum ecosystem
• what makes Arbitrum better than Optimism, according to Tarun
• what shared sequencers are and whether they will be the future in crypto
• Why Haseeb is not so bullish on the app-chain thesis

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Unchained:
• Polygon Cofounder Proposes Upgrading PoS Chain to zkEVM Validium
• The Block: 
• Azuki NFT collections ends Elemental mint with $37.5 million
• Fidelity preparing to submit spot bitcoin ETF filing: Source
• CoinDesk:
• Azuki NFT Prices Slide 44% After Creator Releases 'Basically Identical' Elementals
• Nevada Files to Place Crypto Custodian Prime Trust Into Receivership
• Azuki’s thread on its situation

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaron Kaplan, co-CEO of Prometheum, the trading platform that recently acquired a special-purpose broker dealer license for digital asset securities, has become a major lightning rod in the crypto community. Does the firm represent, as Kaplan has argued, a compliant path forward for crypto in the United States? Or, as Paradigm Special Counsel Rodrigo Seira maintains, does it only demonstrate that the SEC’s crypto regime is simply unworkable? The two join the show to debate the specifics – and it certainly gets heated.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• whether it is even possible to compliantly register a crypto exchange in the U.S. following SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s recent public statements
• which tokens Prometheum can list, if any
• why Rodrigo and Aaron disagree over what constitutes a security
• whether the Howey Test applies in secondary market transactions for tokens sold pursuant to a SAFT
• why Aaron says that Paradigm should reassess its entire thesis and that the status quo benefits venture capital firms like Paradigm
• why Rodrigo says Prometheum has a license, but not a business
• who would be responsible for providing required disclosures for a decentralized network like Ethereum
• how many tokens Aaron expects to list on the Prometheum platform
• whether Aaron and Prometheum had specific discussions with the SEC about what tokens are securities
• Aaron’s response to allegations that the Chinese Communist Party is infiltrating the U.S. financial system through Prometheum
• whether Aaron had previewed the questions he was asked by representatives in his Congressional hearing
• what they believe should be included in disclosures about tokens if federal securities laws didn’t exist and guidelines for disclosures were written from scratch
• what Aaron has to say about the Blockchain Association’s recent FOIA request
• whether Prometheum is open to being acquired by other entity

• Crypto.com
• TOKEN2049
• OKX

• Aaron Kaplan, co-CEO and co-founder of Prometheum.
• Previous appearance on Unchained: 
• These 2 Crypto Trading Platforms Agree With SEC Chair Gary Gensler
• Aaron’s written testimony
• Rodrigo Seira, special counsel at Paradigm.
• Rodrigo’s thread on Prometheum

• Unchained: 
• Crypto Community Unearths Questionable History of SEC-Aligned Prometheum
• Former SEC Cyber Chief Calls the Agency’s Way of Labeling Tokens Securities ‘Not Fair’
• Investopedia: Schwab and Fidelity-Backed Crypto Exchange EDX Goes Live, Adds More Backers
• CoinDesk: 
• Gary Gensler’s Catch-22 Vision of ‘Regulated’ Crypto Brokers
• Key Takeaways From House Hearing on Future of Digital Assets
• The Crypto Basic: Prometheum Founder Says SEC Will Win Ripple Lawsuit, XRP Community Reacts
• Digital Asset Investor’s video on SEC setting up a Chinese back door into crypto
• Thread from Blockchain Association’s Marisa Coppel
• Adam Cochran points out a slew of details that call Prometheum into question.
• Matt Walsh questions how Kaplan can be called a securities expert since the law school he earned his degree from is now unaccredited by the American Bar Association.
• A clip from Aaron’s exchange with U.S. Rep Mike Flood 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. With BTC topping $30,000, the gang tackles the apparent surge in institutional bitcoin interest, with BlackRock’s spot ETF application spawning a bumper crop of similar bids. Why did all these TradFi players act at the same time? That, plus a look at the drama surrounding SEC-friendly Prometheum’s Congressional testimony and what Haseeb and Robert see as the trading platform’s many “red flags.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• the not-so logical reasons why the markets are up
• whether GBTC’s ETF conversion will also get approved if BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF gets the SEC go-ahead
• how all the applications were ready and were “waiting for some sign,” according to Robert
• whether Grayscale will have to sell the underlying assets of its GBTC trust
• why a bitcoin spot ETF is more retail-friendly than a bitcoin futures one
• how plausible it is that London becomes a leading crypto hub
• the drama around Prometheum’s testimony before Congress
• the “shady” details of Prometheum’s track record, according to Haseeb
• why Tarun says that the venture-funded exchanges have “completely failed on many different levels” and what tokens he would list
• what happened with Curve founder Michael Egorov’s loan on Aave and why Gauntlet, Tarun’s company, advocated freezing the CRV market in the lending protocol
• why the Aave community rejected the proposal

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Unchained:
• 3AC Founders Launch Venture Capital Firm
• Binance.US Briefly Displays Bitcoin Price at $138,000
• Invesco and WisdomTree Follow BlackRock, Reapply for Bitcoin ETFs
• ​​BlackRock Files for Bitcoin Spot ETF - Coinbase 
• WSJ: Crypto Exchange Backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity, Schwab Starts Operations
• Cointelegraph:
• Blockchain Assoc. requests info on Prometheum over ‘suspicious’ approval
• Aave proposal to freeze alleged Curve founder’s loans draws controversy
• CoinDesk: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Chooses U.K. as Destination for First Office Outside U.S.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SEC has swatted down so many spot bitcoin ETF applications that crypto diehards simply gave up caring. Then comes TradFi giant BlackRock – at the height of the SEC’s crypto crackdown, no less – with an ETF application that has seemingly changed the calculus. Bloomberg Intelligence ETF watcher James Seyffart joins the show to unpack the odds of BlackRock being the first to win approval, and what it would mean for other players in the space chasing down TradFi’s “holy grail.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why the SEC rejected all of the previous bitcoin spot ETF applications
• what makes the application from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, different 
• what a 19b-4 filing is and how it relates to the BlackRock application
• whether BlackRock “knows something,” considering the recent enforcement actions against major crypto exchanges
• why being a first mover is a considerable advantage in the ETF market
• whether BlackRock choosing Coinbase as a custodian is a risk, given that the SEC is in a legal battle with Coinbase
• what’s different about a spot bitcoin ETF, and why a bitcoin futures ETF is not enough 
• what are the differences between the applications filed by BlackRock, Invesco, WisdomTree and Valkyrie
• which are the applications that are most likely to be approved, according to James
• what the impact will be of Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC over the denial of its proposal to convert GBTC to an ETF
• why James says that Gary Gensler could be thinking like a politician as it relates to spot bitcoin ETFs 

• Crypto.com
• Copilot Money
• ProtonMail

• James Seyffart, Research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the topic:
• Grayscale v. SEC: Who Won This Week’s Hearing?
• Why Grayscale Is Suing the SEC Over Its Denial of a Bitcoin ETF
• $5 Billion in AUM: Why Growth at Grayscale Exploded in the Last Quarter
• Bitwise’s Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved
• DCG’s Dilemma: Should It Sell Its GBTC Holdings to Repay Gemini?
• 
  
• The Block: BlackRock ETF launch would put pressure on Grayscale's valuation: Bloomberg analyst
• CoinDesk: A Straightforward Explanation for Why Financial Giants Want to Issue a Spot Bitcoin ETF
• Unchained:
• Invesco and WisdomTree Follow BlackRock, Reapply for Bitcoin ETFs
• ​​BlackRock Files for Bitcoin Spot ETF
• Valkyrie Applies for Bitcoin Spot ETF ‘BRRR’
• Reuters: 
• Cboe files with U.S. SEC for third time to list ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
• US court questions SEC's rejection of Grayscale's bitcoin fund proposal
• Barron’s: ETF: Invesco, WisdomTree Join Push. Why It Might Happen.
• Blockworks: BlackRock, then Bitwise — How the spot bitcoin ETF filings differ

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The announcement of the upcoming launch of Uniswap v4 sparked fresh versions of old debates. Is it OK for DeFi’s leading DEX to not be fully open source at launch? What counts as composability and what counts as plagiarism? Is Uniswap’s dominance a threat to decentralization? Founder Hayden Adams joins the show to respond to the critics and explain the novel features of Uniswap v4. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• how Uniswap was born and how it has evolved since 2018
• how the SushiSwap vampire attack was a win for Uniswap 
• whether the new version of Uniswap brings it closer to the true ethos of Ethereum
• what the problems were with the previous fee model and how the new v4 approaches fee tiers
• an explanation of “hooks,” the most important feature of the new code
• what Hayden thinks the most common uses of hooks will be
• how v4’s time-weighted average market maker (TWAMM) feature works 
• whether Hayden is worried that hooks will be engineered to do rug pulls
• what Hayden thinks about v4’s new “singleton” approach
• how EIP-1153 (if implemented) will make Uniswap v4 more efficient 
• when Hayden estimates that the v4 code will be deployed 
• why Uniswap decided to go with a four-year business license
• Hayden’s response to allegations that Uniswap plagiarized Crocswap for its v4 code
• whether there’s a risk that U.S. authorities blacklist certain transactions on v4
• whether it is possible to add KYC and AML compliance into v4 pools
• why Hayden is sad about the U.S. approach to regulating crypto
• why he believes that Uniswap will not become a centralizing force

• Crypto.com
• TOKEN2049
• OKX

• Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap

• Unchained:
• Uniswap Releases Draft Code for V4
• Uniswap V3 Forks Are Now Legal After BSL Expiry
• Liquidity Pools: How DEXes Allow Trading
• Uniswap: Our Vision for Uniswap v4
• EIP-1153: Transient storage opcodes
• v4-core/LICENSE at main · Uniswap/v4-core · GitHub
• Frax Finance’s Sam Kazemian tweet
• TWAMM - Paradigm

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has a reputation in the industry for being more supportive of crypto than her peers. After a rough year for the industry, Peirce weighs in on whether the agency was right in recently naming several crypto tokens as securities, the state of the current regulatory framework, and the slow pace of change. “All I can say is that I’ve been at the agency for over five years, and it’s very frustrating to me that in that time we haven’t done something more productive,” Peirce tells Unchained. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what would Peirce do to regulate crypto if she were chair of the SEC
• whether the SEC was right in alleging that SOL, ADA, MATIC, and more are securities
• why Peirce says the SEC’s current approach will take many years to find a resolution
• whether special purpose broker-dealer licenses are a solution 
• why Peirce believes that the existing regulatory framework is not enough to oversee digital assets
• her views on the pressing need to find a way to make existing regulations comport with a technology that doesn’t require intermediaries
• whether the fact that many SEC employees worked on the Hinman speech reflects the opinion of the agency as a whole
• why Peirce is “very frustrated” after five years of working at the SEC
• why she’s been seen as the “Crypto Mom” and why she thinks it’s so important to provide a clear regulatory framework

• Crypto.com
• Copilot Money
• Proton

• Hester M. Peirce, SEC Commissioner

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the topic:
• The Chopping Block: Jake Chervinsky on How the SEC Has Lost Credibility
• These 2 Crypto Trading Platforms Agree With SEC Chair Gary Gensler
• ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer
• Gary Gensler vs. Crypto: What Will the SEC Attack Next?
• Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
• Unchained:
• SEC Sues Coinbase for Breaking Securities Laws
• SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Including the Mishandling of Funds, Sale of Unregistered Securities
• SEC Calls Solana, Polygon, Algorand and Other Tokens Securities but Misses Ether in Binance Lawsuit
• US House Republicans Propose Bill That May Give Crypto Assets a Path to Becoming Commodities
• Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition
• The Block: 
• Ripple calls for investigation into former SEC official after document release
• Former SEC director Hinman's plan to call Vitalik Buterin revealed in suit
• SEC comments on Hinman speech released in Ripple Labs filing
• WSJ: Who Is Brian Armstrong? Coinbase CEO Is Taking On the SEC

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, Robert stirs the debate over Hinman's 2018 speech and what it means for the debate at the SEC over whether BTC and ETH should be considered securities, the similarities between Ethereum and Solana, and how Binance.US is dealing with a move to freeze its assets. Moreover, the group kicks off with a brief history lesson on the infamous PEPE meme!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• where the PEPE meme comes from
• whether Mark Zuckerberg and the project Libra played a role in the animosity toward crypto
• why Robert says that Hinman's speech in 2018 was crafted with broad inter-agency work, in contrast to what the SEC has been saying
• how the documents show that the SEC didn't believe there was enough clarity to classify ETH as a security
• whether these documents diminish Gary Gensler's claims that almost everything in crypto is a security
• the similarities between Ethereum in 2017 and Solana at the moment
• what the drama is in Solana around forking Alameda coins
• what the new features of the Uniswap V4 draft code are
• whether the 'hooks' in the new code facilitate rug pulls and introduce much more complexities
• how Binance.US has dealt with the SEC lawsuit and request to freeze its assets
• Robert's crazy idea to use Uniswap V4 and why Tarun killed it
• what extreme sports represent crypto more accurately

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Unchained:
• SEC Anticipates Responding to Coinbase Petition in 120 Days
• Binance.US and SEC Work On Deal to Avoid Total Asset Freeze: Report Binance.US Says SEC’s Request to Freeze Assets Would End Crypto Exchange
• Binance, Coinbase and Binance.US Record $4 Billion in Weekly Outflows
• Uniswap Releases Draft Code for V4
• The Block: 
• Ripple calls for investigation into former SEC official after document release
• Former SEC director Hinman's plan to call Vitalik Buterin revealed in Ripple lawsuit
• SEC comments on Hinman speech released in Ripple Labs filing

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 1, Hong Kong implemented new crypto regulations to license exchanges. Two experts – Angelina Kwan, CEO of Stratford Finance (and former COO of BitMEX), and Adrian Lai, founder and managing partner of Newman Capital – weigh in on the new rules in Hong Kong, which tokens can be listed, recent reports that China may be sanctioning this activity, and how the crypto community is responding so far. Plus, they dissect the latest developments of the digital yuan, whether China will ever embrace public blockchains, and the shifting global regulatory landscape for crypto, and more.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• Angelina’s and Adrian’s backgrounds in crypto in Hong Kong
• how crypto in Hong Kong has evolved over the years
• what the new Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) rules consist of, including which tokens will be allowed in the newly licensed exchanges 
• how the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has taken onboarding crypto companies in the banking system very seriously 
• why Angelina says that crypto companies have already stopped leaving Hong Kong
• how some people are worried how a potential crackdown on crypto in China could affect Hong Kong
• why the SFC has committed to issuing a paper on tokenization and why it is particularly interested in real estate 
• the importance of the development of the digital yuan
• whether the new regulations in Hong Kong mean that China is prepared to adopt crypto in the mainland
• how China is 'excelling' at adopting real-world use cases, according to Angelina
• why you can't say “NFTs” in China and why the metaverse represents a “huge problem,” according to Adrian
• whether China will let public blockchains succeed 
• how the global regulatory landscape has been changing and what it means for the future of digital assets
• whether Africa is the next frontier of growth and what role the Middle East is playing

• Crypto.com
• TOKEN2049

• Angelina Kwan, CEO of Stratford Finance
• Adrian Lai, founder and managing partner of Newman Capital

• CoinDesk: 
• Hong Kong Securities Regulator to Accept License Applications for Crypto Exchanges Starting June 1
• How Hong Kong Is Gearing Up to Regulate Stablecoins
• Cointelegraph: 
• Hong Kong’s regulatory lead sets it up to be major crypto hub
• China doles out millions in digital yuan in bid to boost adoption: Report
• Chinese city public servants to receive digital yuan salaries starting May
• TechCrunch: 
• Hong Kong’s crypto rules help it fit in more than stand out, but experts say that’s good
• A peek into China’s stance on web3
• CNBC: One country, two crypto systems: Hong Kong harbors crypto hub ambitions despite China’s crackdown
• Bloomberg: Hong Kong’s Crypto Hub Ambitions Win Quiet Backing From Beijing
• Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission: SFC concludes consultation on regulation of virtual asset trading platforms
• South China Morning Post: Hong Kong’s crypto market will not have ‘light-touch regulation’, HKMA chief says as city prepares new rules
• Forkast: China: Zhengzhou City proposes metaverse plan

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, it was Binance. On Tuesday, Coinbase. Electric Capital General Counsel Emily Meyers joins the show to read between the lines of an action-packed week for Gary Gensler’s SEC. Meyers lends her lawyerly eye to the key differences between the two lawsuits, the SEC’s potential strategy, and whether federal legislation will beat the courts in providing clarity. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why Emily thinks the SEC’s actions don’t represent the end of crypto in the U.S.
• what the similarities and differences are in the lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance
• why it’s fundamental to the SEC’s allegations that the court determines that at least one of the named tokens is in fact a security
• whether Coinbase and Binance will file motions to dismiss
• whether allegations against Binance are comparable to those against FTX
• whether Gary Gensler’s interactions with Binance in 2019 raise ethical questions about his involvement in the case 
• why Emily thinks that Gensler’s approach to crypto is not aligned with the SEC’s mission to protect investors
• why the SEC allowed Coinbase to go public and is now suing them
• how the SEC sued Coinbase only after the exchange sued the agency first
• whether the Third Circuit will press the SEC to issue the rules that Coinbase has petitioned for
• why Emily believes that there’s not an effective path for crypto companies to properly register in the U.S.
• why the SEC has listed large-market-cap tokens such as SOL, ADA, and MATIC but has not gone after ETH

• Crypto.com
• Copilot Money
• Proton

• Emily Meyers, general counsel at Electric Capital

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the topic:
• The Chopping Block: Jake Chervinsky on How the SEC Has Lost Credibility
• These 2 Crypto Trading Platforms Agree With SEC Chair Gary Gensler
• Coinbase's Legal Action Against the SEC: How It Will Likely Unfold 
• ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer
• Gary Gensler vs. Crypto: What Will the SEC Attack Next?
• Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
• LINKS
• Unchained:
• SEC Sues Coinbase for Breaking Securities Laws
• SEC Files Motion to Freeze Binance’s Assets, Asks for ‘Sworn Accounting’
• SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Including the Mishandling of Funds, Sale of Unregistered Securities
• SEC Calls Solana, Polygon, Algorand and Other Tokens Securities but Misses Ether in Binance Lawsuit
• US House Republicans Propose Bill That May Give Crypto Assets a Path to Becoming Commodities
• Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition
• CoinDesk: 
• SEC Seeks Temporary Restraining Order to Freeze Binance.US Assets
• Crypto Exchange Binance Says Gensler Once Offered to Be an 'Informal Advisor'
• Binance Redirected $12B to Firms Controlled by CEO Changpeng Zhao, SEC Says
• Fortune: Former Coinbase employee and his brother settle with the SEC, which again dodges proving whether cryptocurrencies are securities

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, the Blockchain Association’s Jake Chervinsky breaks down the cases against Binance and Coinbase – and how they are different from FTX – what it means for the crypto industry, and who may be next.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• Why Jake believes that the Binance lawsuit didn’t present major surprises
• Whether the SEC is trying to ban the crypto industry by enforcement
• How Binance has been allegedly doing a huge amount of wash trading
• Whether Gemini is next on the SEC’s enforcement action list
• How CZ and Coinbase CEOs have responded to the complaints
• How the market reacted to the lawsuits
• What the differences are between the Binance case and FTX
• Why the SEC is alleging that Coinbase is operating as an unregistered broker, exchange, and clearing agency
• Whether token issuers can bring action against the SEC for harming their business or reputation
• Whether the crypto industry doesn’t take the SEC seriously
• Whether the EOS settlement in 2019 shows how inconsistent the SEC has been in its crypto enforcement actions 
• Whether these cases will have an impact in Congress and accelerate legislation 
• What would happen if Gary Gensler stops being the chair of the SEC

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association
• Previous Unchained Appearances:
• Can Crypto Be a Force in the Midterms? Yes, Say Kristin Smith and Jake Chervinsky
• Everything You Need to Know About the Looming Battle Over Privacy in Crypto
• All Things Crypto Regulation With Jake Chervinsky

• Unchained:
• SEC Sues Coinbase for Breaking Securities Laws
• SEC Files Motion to Freeze Binance’s Assets, Asks for ‘Sworn Accounting’
• SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Including the Mishandling of Funds, Sale of Unregistered Securities
• SEC Calls Solana, Polygon, Algorand and Other Tokens Securities but Misses Ether in Binance Lawsuit
• US House Republicans Propose Bill That May Give Crypto Assets a Path to Becoming Commodities
• Fortune: Former Coinbase employee and his brother settle with the SEC, which again dodges proving whether cryptocurrencies are securities

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wallet security was in the spotlight after the announcement of Ledger Recover, but the crypto community doesn’t need to “freak out,” according to Itai Turbahn, co-founder and CEO of Dynamic Labs, and Ouriel Ohayon, CEO of ZenGo. The two CEOs join the show to talk about the challenges of bringing self-custody to the masses. For many, “not your keys, not your coins” is actually “your keys, your problem.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• the problems that may arise when managing your own keys
• the misconceptions that people have about hardware wallets
• why Ouriel says that Ledger is going in the right direction but made a major mistake
• how multi-party computation can be a solution to the problem of securing your own keys
• what are other ways to solve it, such as Shamir’s secret sharing (SSS) and multisigs
• the tradeoffs between security and user experience
• how Dynamic Wallet works by linking multiple wallets to a single account
• whether “passwordless authentication” is the future of security
• how can users protect themselves from “bad transactions” and what are companies doing to help
• whether open source contributes to more security in the wallet landscape
• how account abstraction will change the user experience
• whether security is the key to the future of crypto

• Crypto.com

• Itai Turbahn, cofounder and CEO of Dynamic Labs
• Ouriel Ohayon, CEO of ZenGo
• Previous appearance on Unchained: ZenGo: A Self-Custodial Wallet Minus the Risk of Losing Your Keys

• The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service

• What is ZenGo Recovery Kit?
• Cointelegraph:
• Multiparty computation could offer increased protection for crypto wallets
• I run a Ledger competitor — But I support it in blow-up over keys
• Unchained: ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users
• Tweet from Ouriel that explains the differences between ZenGo and Ledger
• Solving the crypto adoption problem: making crypto *actually* usable
• Multi-Party Computation (MPC) Technology Can Ensure Effective Fraud Detection | Nasdaq
• Web3 Auth 101: What is wallet-based authentication?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, the gang answers audience questions, digs into the discourse around rollups, and debates whether modular blockchains will vanquish existing monoliths.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• How someone asked people to just give them money, and raised over $1 million
• Answering audience questions from Twitter, including ‘what’s Tarun’s favorite drug?’
• Whether there’s tension between Haseeb and Tarun
• How the incoming generations of crypto people (e.g. “Class of 2017”) have changed over the cycles
• The five-level explainer on what a rollup is 
• Why everyone’s debating the ontology of rollups and why Haseeb still thinks blockchains are like religions
• Tarun’s take on the modular blockchain thesis and why Haseeb is skeptical
• Whether app chains like the ones in Cosmos will become dominant
• Whether one of the top 4 chains will be modular in the next five to 10 years

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

• Binance Feed: Bored Ape NFT Holder Ben.eth Launches Third Crusade of Memecoin Psychopathy
• Rollups, Rigor, and Reality by Kelvin Fichter
• Rollups Are L1s (& L2s) a.k.a. How Rollups *Actually Actually Actually* Work by Jon Charbonneau
• Haseeb’s question on Twitter
• Previous episode of The Chopping Block on the L1 debate: Why Are We Still Building Layer 1s?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices