Unchained

Coinbase has departed from its conservative roots and begun adding many more coins. Dan Romero, vice president of Coinbase, explains how its listing process works, how it tries to prevent insider trading, and why it's listed coins that had ICOs, even though the SEC has indicated all coins that were offered in ICOs at least started off as securities. He also talks about Coinbase's international expansion, how regulations around crypto differ in Japan vs. the U.S., and the importance of banking relationships for crypto companies. Plus, we dive into how Coinbase plans to weather competition on multiple fronts -- from Robinhood, Square and Binance on its consumer side, and from Fidelity and Bakkt on the institutional side -- how its decentralized projects could affect its current revenues and how it is staffing now for any future hype cycles that could increase crypto adoption by an order of magnitude.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Microsoft: aka.ms/unchained

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Altlending:  https://altlending.com

Episode links:

Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/

Dan: https://twitter.com/dwr

Coinbase Listing: https://listing.coinbase.com

Digital Asset Framework: https://listing.coinbase.com

Coinbase's new listing process: https://blog.coinbase.com/new-asset-listing-process-a83ef296a0f3

Announcement that they were exploring adding Cardano, Basica Attention Token, Stellar Lumens, Zcash and 0x: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-exploring-cardano-basic-attention-token-stellar-zcash-and-0x-9e44f0eb823f

News announced after we recorded: Coinbase considering offering 31 new assets: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-continues-to-explore-support-for-new-digital-assets-92ba4ab7f465

Interview with Will Warren of decentralized exchange 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Coinbase investigates insider trading of Bitcoin Cash: http://fortune.com/2017/12/20/coinbase-bitcoin-insider-trading/

Coinbase finds no insider trading of Bitcoin Cash: http://fortune.com/2018/07/24/coinbase-insider-trading/

Unchained episode on Coinbase/IRS case: http://unchainedpodcast.co/is-the-irs-justified-in-demanding-information-on-millions-of-bitcoin-users

Link to Alistair Milne's tracking of total Coinbase customer base: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NgvD2kFT69mSXuJPzPDu-Qv9SS1ck2iPt6Kw9a55z0k/edit#gid=0

Coinbase adding USDC: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-and-circle-announce-the-launch-of-usdc-a-digital-dollar-2cd6548d237

Unchained episode with Circle: http://unchainedpodcast.co/circles-jeremy-allaire-and-sean-neville-on-why-crypto-will-be-bigger-than-the-web-ep71

Unchained episode with Rune Christensen of MakerDAO: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable

Unconfirmed episode with Rune: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-on-its-15-million-from-andreessen-horowitz-ep039

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Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, explains why he likes how short-term trades concentrate risk in investment, why, "no matter what," he thinks Bitcoin is a good-value buy today, and how big university endowments investing in crypto now could eventually lead institutions to go from having a fear-of-loss attitude about crypto to having FOMO. He also dives into why he's not as excited about generalized mining as some of BlockTower's crypto fund peers and who he thinks is really well-poised in that space. We also discuss why Bitcoin futures didn't have a positive impact on the price and what effect Bakkt and Fidelity launching their crypto products could have. Plus, he responds to people who accused him of insider trading when a private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring enterprise blockchain startup Chain was released.

Thank you to our sponsors!

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Altlending: https://altlending.com

Episode links:

Ari Paul: https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul

BlockTower Capital: https://www.blocktower.com

Harvard, Stanford, MIT endowments invest in crypto: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/harvard-stanford-mit-endowments-invest-in-crypto-funds

Yale endowment invests in a16z and Paradigm: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/yale-investment-chief-david-swensen-jumps-into-crypto-with-bets-on-two-silicon-valley-funds.html

Bitcoin Cash hard fork recap: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/week-2-how-bitcoin-cash-hash-war-came-and-went-and-not-much-happened/

Unconfirmed episode on Bitcoin Cash hard fork with Aaron Van Wirdum: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/the-bitcoin-cash-hard-fork-bitcoin-abc-vs-bitcoin-sv-ep046

Unchained episode with Riccardo Spagni of Monero: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92

Unchained episode with Jake Brukhman and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92

Unconfirmed episode with Fidelity's Tom Jessop: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/fidelity-digital-asset-services-tom-jessop-on-why-its-serving-institutional-clients-first-ep043

Ari's private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring Chain: https://hackernoon.com/ten-questions-for-ari-david-paul-of-blocktower-capital-dcd8d81ef27e

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde's talk on the case for central bank digital currencies:

https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/11/13/sp111418-winds-of-change-the-case-for-new-digital-currency

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Connie Gallippi, the founder and executive director for BitGive, and Joe Waltman, the executive director of GiveCrypto.org, discuss charitable giving in crypto -- what problems in philanthropy it solves, what level of transparency they can achieve and how they measure impact. Connie explains why she has chosen to work with existing non-profits and Joe, why GiveCrypto is working on its own initiatives, and why its working thesis is that crypto will be especially helpful in places with broken money or broken government. They also dive into the tax implications of donating crypto directly -- namely that donors can offset taxes on gains, particularly by donating their oldest coins before the end of the calendar year. Connie talks about how BitGive needs to ensure it doesn't hold or convert money in order to avoid money transmitter regulations, and Joe, how GiveCrypto has to ensure it's not giving money to bad people, such as money launderers or people or entities under economic sanctions. Plus, the two discuss why a space that so often espouses the ideals of democratization of finance gives so little and what it will take for it to donate more.

Thank you to our sponsors!

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained

WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unchained

Episode links:

Bitgive: https://www.bitgivefoundation.org

GiveTrack: https://www.givetrack.org

BitGive Twitter: https://twitter.com/BitGiveOrg

GiveCrypto: https://www.bitgivefoundation.org

GiveCrypto Twitter - https://twitter.com/givecrypto?lang=en

BitGive's five-year report: https://d1i1964a5wuyjt.cloudfront.net/2018/11/5-year-deck-021118_compressed-1.pdf

Joe's work trial for GiveCrypto: https://medium.com/givecrypto/givecrypto-work-trial-a-new-financial-system-a-new-opportunity-7f564b65aff5

GiveCrypto's October report: https://medium.com/givecrypto/givecryptos-october-monthly-report-5c191bc03b56

Unconfirmed episode with Robert Opp of the UN World Food Programme: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/the-un-world-food-programmes-blockchain-based-food-vouchers-for-syrian-refugees-with-robert-opp-ep017

Episode with Elizabeth Rossiello of Bitpesa: http://unchainedpodcast.co/bitpesas-elizabeth-rossiello-on-necker-island

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Riccardo Spagni, the lead maintainer for Monero, describes the four pillars of Monero's privacy, makes the case for why it would still be valuable even if BItcoin were to adopt privacy, and explains the ways in which its privacy is stronger and weaker than Zcash's. He also discusses his new project, Tari, and how it could enable a new world of natively digital assets such as tickets, loyalty points and in-game assets, and how it will relate to Monero. He also explains his view on the fact that Monero is one of the top currencies used on the dark web and appears to have been in demand by bad state actors such as North Korea. Plus, he gives us his backstory, which includes gel-based nail polish and bikinis, and the origin of his nickname, Fluffypony.

Thank you to our sponsors!

CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained

Altlending: https://altlending.com

Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unchained

Episode links:

Riccardo Spagni: https://twitter.com/fluffypony?lang=en

Monero: https://getmonero.org

Tari: https://www.tari.com

Wired article on Monero's traceability: https://www.wired.com/story/monero-privacy/

Laura's listener mail episode: http://unchainedpodcast.co/listener-mail-laura-answers-your-questions-on-the-markets-velocity-privacy-and-more-ep88

Unchained episode with Zooko Wilcox of Zcash: http://unchainedpodcast.co/zcashs-zooko-wilcox-on-why-he-believes-privacy-coins-will-be-used-more-for-good-than-bad

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Jake Brukhman of CoinFund and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital discuss a new trend among crypto funds: generalized mining, also called mining 2.0, in which investors participate in the networks in order to seed activity on them. For instance, an investor might offer disk space on a file storage network or provide capital on a decentralized lending network. They explain why it makes more sense to do this in the early days of a network than when it's matured, whether this will lead away from a peer-to-peer vision for crypto toward more professionalization and how this affects the basic premise of the fat protocols thesis. We also discuss how this impacts how crypto funds hire, do their accounting and reporting and structure their LP agreements.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unchained

Altlending: https://altlending.com

WeTrust: WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unchained

Episode links:

Jake Brukhman: https://twitter.com/jbrukh?lang=en

CoinFund: https://coinfund.io

Tushar Jain: https://twitter.com/TusharJain_

Multicoin Capital: https://multicoin.capital

Jake's post on crypto borrowing: https://blog.coinfund.io/crypto-borrowing-and-staking-networks-e7d2d64a81a4

Tushar's post on generalized mining: https://multicoin.capital/2018/10/23/the-evolving-role-of-crypto-investors/

Jake on LivePeer as a case study: https://blog.coinfund.io/livepeer-cryptoeconomics-as-a-case-study-of-active-participation-in-decentralized-networks-19a932415e0e

Unchained episode with MakerDAO: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable

Unconfirmed episode with Rune Christensen of MakerDAO: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-on-its-15-million-from-andreessen-horowitz-ep039

Initial witness offerings, by Jake's partner Alexsandr Bulkin: https://blog.coinfund.io/iwos-with-adapt-a-creative-technological-solution-to-a-regulatory-problem-513b0bc811ff

Jake's post on fat protocols not being an investment thesis: https://blog.coinfund.io/fat-protocols-are-not-an-investment-thesis-17c8837c2734

Unchained interview with Joel Monegro, the author of the fat protocols thesis: http://unchainedpodcast.co/placeholders-joel-monegro-on-the-fat-protocols-thesis-today-ep65

Videos that Jake mentions at the end of the show:

Generalized Mining, An Introduction & Primer by Jake Brukhman, CEO of CoinFund: https://youtu.be/ceex9CN2YZU

Panel #1: Supply Side Services | Generalized Mining and The Third-Party Economy: https://youtu.be/Cr6H2FcidjY

Panel # 2: New Role of Crypto Investors | Generalized Mining and The Third-Party Economy:  https://youtu.be/zakQc07GRXA

Panel #3: Staking Economic Design |  Generalized Mining and The Third-Party Economy:  https://youtu.be/ydViUpTZens

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After the ICO craze of 2017, such offerings have raised extremely little so far this fall, with total sales in October down 94% since February, according to Token Data. Why? And where to next? Andy Bromberg, president of CoinList, and Marco Santori, president and chief legal officer of Blockchain, discuss the changing nature of token sales. Andy reveals how the projects approaching CoinList have changed over the last year, how investors are changing their approach to due diligence in the space, and how CoinList complies with various regulations. Marco explains the origin of the SAFT framework, what laws would apply outside of securities regulation and why rulings in civil lawsuits and no-action letter are likely the next way we'll get regulatory clarity. We also discuss why the Civil token sale failed, why airdrops could be a better than ICOs for seeding usage on networks and how to figure out which wallets to target in an airdrop. Plus: Marco and Andy disagree on one aspect or how regulation could apply to airdrops.

Thank you to our sponsors!

WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unchained

Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unchained

Episode Links

Andy Bromberg: https://twitter.com/andy_bromberg

CoinList: https://coinlist.co

Marco Santori: https://twitter.com/msantoriESQ

Blockchain: https://www.blockchain.com

Autonomous Next data on September ICOs down 90% since January: https://next.autonomous.com/thoughts/crypto-september-icos-90-down-from-january-but-venture-funding-is-ray-of-hope

Token Data on October ICOs down 94% since February: https://twitter.com/TokenData/status/1057953301440983040

SAFT project: https://saftproject.com

Previous episode with Marco and Joshua Ashley Klayman including her concerns about the SAFT framework: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-crypto-and-blockchain-technology-should-be-regulated

SEC Director of Finance Bill Hinman's comments that ether is not a security (5:25): https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-announces-ether-not-security-162658147.html

Jay Clayton's comments that every ICO he's seen is a security: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-chief-clayton-every-ico-ive-seen-security/

Civil token sale: https://tokenfoundry.com/projects/civil

Blockchain's Airdrop program: https://www.blockchain.com/airdrop

CoinList's Airdrops program: https://airdrops.coinlist.co

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For this episode on the eve of the Bitcoin white paper's 10-year anniversary, Nathaniel Popper and Paul Vigna, reporters who cover Bitcoin and crypto for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, respectively, and who have written books about it, discuss wide-ranging questions regarding the first cryptocurrency. We explore why it succeeded where previous digital currencies failed, what role the financial crisis and Satoshi's disappearance played in its success and how it compares to the development of the internet. We also look at the "blockchain, not Bitcoin" debate, the scaling debate and the merits of on-chain governance, and how scandals involving centralized services such as the Equifax hack and the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica breach will affect its development. Finally, we discuss its potential as a global reserve currency, potential abuse of crypto assets by bad state actors, and whether and how regulators can regulate decentralized technologies. Plus, Paul and Nathaniel give their thoughts on the next 10 years.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unchained

Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com

WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unchained

Episode links:

Bitcoin white paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Nathaniel Popper: https://twitter.com/nathanielpopper

https://www.nytimes.com/by/nathaniel-popper?8qa

Digital Gold: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062572066/digital-gold/

Paul Vigna: https://twitter.com/paulvigna

https://www.wsj.com/news/author/7296

Age of Cryptocurrency: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551

The Truth Machine: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250114570

Edward Bernays' Propaganda: http://www.igpub.com/propaganda/

CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz's speech discussing how they would prosecute illegal prediction markets: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opaquintenz16

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While many companies like to use buzzwords like crypto, blockchain, AI and encryption, Numerai actually combines all these technologies in a novel way. Founder Richard Craib discusses how his hedge fund started off crowdsourcing good financial models from data scientists to optimize its trading strategies in global equities. He then explains how it airdropped a token, the Numeraire, to those data scientists, giving them the option to stake some Numeraire for models they were especially confident in, and how staked models have higher returns. He also describes Numerai's new Erasure protocol, which helps build a marketplace for predictions for sellers who could profit more from selling their predictions than trading on them, and for buyers who can now use the signal of staking to filter between good and bad data. We dive into the protocol's "griefing" process, in which buyers can punish sellers, as well as the thorny issue of whether selling predictions based on proprietary information could constitute insider trading. Plus, we explore whether or not other hedge funds would really want to buy a token created by another hedge fund, and what Numerai's plans are to become more decentralized.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com

Episode links:

Numerai: https://numer.ai

Richard Craib: https://twitter.com/richardcraib

My Forbes article on the Numeraire: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/02/21/this-is-the-worlds-first-cryptocurrency-issued-by-a-hedge-fund/#3cda45f360b6

Erasure: https://erasure.xxx

Announcement about Erasure: https://medium.com/numerai/numerai-reveals-erasure-unstoppable-peer-to-peer-data-feeds-4fbb8d92820a

Unchained episode with Olaf Carlson-Wee of Polychain Capital: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-the-first-employee-of-coinbase-launched-a-hedge-fund

Unchained episode with Joey Krug of Augur: http://unchainedpodcast.co/joey-krug-on-how-augur-is-like-any-other-tool-ep79

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This week, because I was busy with my TEDx talk and my book, I decided to do an episode in which I answer your questions. Thank you to everyone who submitted one, and I'm so sorry I didn't get to all your questions. In this episode, I talk about what's necessary to gain wider adoption, how I think the next bull run will manifest and how Bitcoin would behave in a serious financial crisis. Plus, I reveal which areas of the industry I think will blossom, and which areas I'm less optimistic about. I also answer what people who are just getting into the technology can do in the space, why the oracle problem is so challenging and how it can be resolved, and what the velocity problem is, and whether it applies especially to Ethereum. I also delve into privacy coins, whether or not the lower overall crypto market volatility we're seeing now will continue, and where this trend with stablecoins is going. There are a LOT of episode links -- be sure to check them out!

Thank you to our sponsors!

Altlending: https://altlending.com

Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/

Episode links:

Senate hearing on cryptocurrencies: https://www.c-span.org/video/?452837-1/senate-banking-panel-explores-cryptocurrencies-blockchains

Tweets with me, Nouriel and Vitalik: https://twitter.com/laurashin/status/1050782831859752960

My conversation with Soona Amhaz of Token Daily about Nouriel Roubini on Unconfirmed: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/how-were-misusing-the-word-decentralization-ep041

Milken Institute panel featuring Nouriel Roubini: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/videos/view/cryptocurrencies-irrational-exuberance-or-brave-new-world

Skeptics' Episodes:

Preston Byrne & Angela Walch: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-skeptics-episode-preston-byrne-and-angela-walch-on-what-the-industry-and-regulators-get-wrong-in-crypto

Meltem Demirors & Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

Singularity University episode discussing usbaility: http://unchainedpodcast.co/singularity-university-global-summit-how-do-we-get-consumer-adoption-ep83

My Forbes article on phone hijacking: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/20/hackers-have-stolen-millions-of-dollars-in-bitcoin-using-only-phone-numbers/#2ada233b38ba

USV blog post on apps and infrastructure: https://www.usv.com/blog/the-myth-of-the-infrastructure-phase

CryptoKitties episode: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-makes-a-cryptokitty-worth-140000-ep75

Token Foundry standards: https://blog.tokenfoundry.com/token-foundry-standards/

Civil: https://civil.co

Forbes magazine feature on blockchain not Bitcoin, featuring Chain: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2015/09/09/bitcoins-shared-ledger-technology-moneys-new-operating-system/#66bb2f4c7dd1

Recent episode with Barry Silbert: http://unchainedpodcast.co/barry-silbert-on-what-wall-street-says-privately-about-crypto-vs-what-it-says-publicly-ep87

Decentralized Finance series:

0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Dharma: http://unchainedpodcast.co/nadav-hollander-on-how-dharma-could-create-new-forms-of-debt-ep80

Compound: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-youll-earn-interest-on-your-crypto-with-compound-ep82

dYdX: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-dydx-allows-you-to-take-a-short-position-in-one-token-ep86

Institutional money:

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Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, which has invested in 130 crypto ventures worldwide, describes his company, its strategy for investing in the crypto space, and how his perspective on the development of the space has changed since he first launched in 2014. He also explains why he's not a big believer in decentralization, like many others in the space, why he's not bullish on ICOs, and why he also is a bigger proponent of Ethereum Classic than Ethereum. We also touch on regulation and how he thinks that will affect the development of crypto, why Grayscale launched an investment vehicle for a little-known cryptocurrency, and why he's excited about Decentraland. Plus, he reveals what Wall Street says publicly about crypto vs. what it says privately and reflects on his role in the New York Agreement -- a failed attempt to bridge a divide in the Bitcoin community.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Altlending: https://altlending.com

Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/

If you're interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed, email Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com.

Episode Links:

DCG: https://dcg.co

Barry Silbert: https://twitter.com/barrysilbert

Grayscale: https://grayscale.co

Genesis: https://genesistrading.com

CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com

New York state Bitlicense: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/legal/regulations/bitlicense_reg_framework.htm

Decentraland: https://decentraland.org

GBTC: https://grayscale.co/bitcoin-investment-trust/

Radar Relay: https://www.radarrelay.com

The Unchained interview with 0x, the decentralized exchange with which Radar Relay works: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Blog post announcing the New York Agreement: https://medium.com/@DCGco/bitcoin-scaling-agreement-at-consensus-2017-133521fe9a77

Unchained podcast on the failure of the compromise: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-bitcoins-history-says-about-its-future

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Antonio Juliano, founder of dYdX, explains how this protocol for derivatives will enable you to take a short position in a single token, why they are starting with protocols shorting and margin lending and how these protocols work vs. how shorting and margin lending work today. The former employee of Coinbase also discusses how the protocol determines the prices of the assets involved, how low liquidity affects the trading of the derivatives and who dYdX's users will be. He also talks about how the company, which has raised money from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital and others, plans to make money despite not currently having a token. Plus, we discuss dYdX's plans to create protocols for derivatives that are not fully collateralized and the risks that come with that.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/

Interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed? Reach out to Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com.

Episode links:

dYdX: https://dydx.exchange

Antonio Juliano: https://twitter.com/antoniomjuliano

dYdX white paper: https://whitepaper.dydx.exchange

Expo: https://www.expotrading.com

https://medium.com/dydxderivatives/introducing-expo-ffe74a328f85

Investments in dYdX: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/03/short-ethereum/

Unchained episode about decentralized exchange protocol 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Unchained episode about decentralized debt protocol Dharma: http://unchainedpodcast.co/nadav-hollander-on-how-dharma-could-create-new-forms-of-debt-ep80

Unchained episode about decentralized money market protocol Compound: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-youll-earn-interest-on-your-crypto-with-compound-ep82

Unchained interview with Josh Stein of Harbor: http://unchainedpodcast.co/harbor-and-trusttoken-on-why-they-dont-mind-being-unsexy-ep77

Unchained interview with CryptoKitties: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-makes-a-cryptokitty-worth-140000-ep75

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In this fascinating and compelling panel on Why Decentralization Matters at the Oslo Freedom Forum in New York, I spoke with Alejandro Machado, a researcher at Zcash; Amber Baldet, founder and CEO of Clovyr, a decentralized software and developer tools company; Andy Bromberg, cofounder and president of CoinList, a compliant token offering platform; and Megha Rajagopalan, correspondent for Buzzfeed and former China bureau chief.

In this discussion, we cover what is happening in authoritarian regimes like China and Venezuela that highlight the importance of decentralized technologies, how people in those countries are using crypto assets, and how technologists think about decentralization and censorship-resistance. We also talk about the usability issues of decentralized technologies and how people in authoritarian regimes can even get access to them. Plus, we also look at how bad state actors are also using the same technology to oppress people or evade sanctions.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com

Episode links:

PC Mag story on how cryptocurrency is both "an oppressor and a lifeline" in Venezuela: https://www.pcmag.com/feature/362486/in-venezuela-cryptocurrency-is-an-oppressor-and-a-lifeline

Naval on Unchained talking about how money is now speech: http://unchainedpodcast.co/naval-ravikant-on-how-crypto-is-squeezing-vcs-hindering-regulators-and-bringing-users-choice

Google's Dragonfly project: https://theintercept.com/2018/09/14/google-china-prototype-links-searches-to-phone-numbers/

For more on how decentralization and blockchain technology can help Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation on Unconfirmed: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-first-crypto-war-ep021

A previous interview with Amber Baldet on Unconfirmed: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/sxsw-episode-amber-baldet-blockchain-program-lead-at-jpmorgan-on-the-potential-clash-between-blockchains-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten

A previous interview with Andy Bromberg on Unconfirmed: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/coinlists-andy-bromberg-on-the-one-big-regulatory-issue-facing-crypto-ep030

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In this fast-paced and exhilarating conversation, Changpeng Zhao, aka "CZ," tells the pivotal business decisions that led users to flock to the brand-new Binance in the summer and fall of 2017, catapulting it from obscurity to become the world's most popular crypto exchange within five months. He also describes his regulatory stance, why he focuses on small jurisdictions and why he lets token teams hire their own lawyers to determine whether their coins are securities or not.  He explains the company's insider trading and market manipulation policies and how BNB coin works. Plus, he disputes the notion that stocks have better information due to disclosure rules, lays out Binance's current mission and delineates the differences in the crypto communities in North America, Europe and Asia.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Altlending: https://altlending.com

Blockdaemon: https://blockdaemon.com/unchained/

If you're interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed, reach out to Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com.

Episode links:

Binance: https://www.binance.com

CZ: https://twitter.com/cz_binance

Binance white paper: https://www.binance.com/resources/ico/Binance_WhitePaper_en.pdf

Unchained interview with Bobby Lee: http://unchainedpodcast.co/bobby-lee-ceo-of-btcc-on-why-the-chinese-probably-arent-using-bitcoin-to-evade-capital-controls

Unchained interview with Da Hongfei on China bad on ICOs: http://unchainedpodcast.co/from-blockchains-to-mooncakes-two-chinese-crypto-founders-on-the-ico-and-bitcoin-exchanges-ban

Epicenter BTC's interview with CZ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaxQneanIY

Binance's "creative" approach to regulation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/crypto-s-billionaire-trading-king-has-suddenly-run-into-problems

Unchained interview on crypto regulation in the US: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-chamber-of-digital-commerces-perianne-boring-and-amy-kim-on-why-us-crypto-regulation-is-complicated-and-confusing

Unchained interview with Coin Center: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-coin-center-is-helping-define-the-big-fuzzy-gray-area-of-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-law

Binance's purchase of TrustWallet: http://fortune.com/2018/07/31/binance-trust-wallet-acquistion/

Binance's $1 billion investment fund: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/01/binance-1-billion-investment-fund/

Forbes cover story on CZ: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamelaambler/2018/02/07/changpeng-zhao-binance-exchange-crypto-cryptocurrency/

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This is a recording of the full "blockchain block" of the Singularity University Global Summit in late August. It features a talk by me on the power of decentralization, Abra CEO Bill Barhydt on the evolution of Bitcoin, and Atlas Holdings Group CEO Mickey Costa on distributed autonomous organizations. Following are two panels. The first is on where we are in the development of crypto and how we get consumer adoption with Bill and Galia Benartzi of Bancor. The second is on blockchain for good, with Cara LaPointe of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and Anne Connelly of Singularity University. It was a great day for a lot of stimulating discussion on where we are in crypto's development and how we can steer it in the direction we want.

Thank you to our sponsor!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

Episode links:

Singularity Global Summit: https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/

Singularity University Global Summit 2018 program: https://su.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SUGS_PROGRAM_2018_AUGUST-21_V4-1.pdf

Bill Barhydt: https://twitter.com/billbarhydt

Abra: https://www.abra.com

Mickey Costa: https://twitter.com/mickeycosta

Atlas: https://atlas.money

Galia Benartzi: https://www.bancor.network

Bancor: https://www.bancor.network

Cara LaPointe: http://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/cara-lapointe/

Anne Connelly: https://su.org/about/faculty/anne-connelly/

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Robert Leshner, founder of Compound, describes how its protocol will enable people to earn interest on crypto assets, and why he thinks this will be crucial to crypto becoming mainstream. He also describes how the company is currently building an interest rate model -- a task so difficult that an early version "blew up" the Ethereum virtual machine -- and why using one of its smart contract-based money markets is both riskier and less risky than using an exchange. We talk about who will use Compound and how, which coins they're going to launch with, and how Compound plans to make money.

Thank you to our sponsors!

AltLending: https://altlending.com

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

Episode links:

Compound: https://compound.finance

Robert Leshner: https://twitter.com/rleshner

Intro to Compound: https://medium.com/compound-finance/introducing-compound-the-money-market-protocol-4b9546bac87

TechCrunch article on Compound: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/cryptocurrency-compound-interest/

Unchained interview with Nadav Hollander of Dharma: http://unchainedpodcast.co/nadav-hollander-on-how-dharma-could-create-new-forms-of-debt-ep80

Unchained interview with Joey Krug of Augur: http://unchainedpodcast.co/joey-krug-on-how-augur-is-like-any-other-tool-ep79

Unchained interview with Danny An of TrustToken, which is creating TrueUSD: http://unchainedpodcast.co/harbor-and-trusttoken-on-why-they-dont-mind-being-unsexy-ep77

Unchained interview with Will Warren of 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Unchained interview with Vitalik Buterin: http://unchainedpodcast.co/vitalik-buterin-creator-of-ethereum-on-the-big-guy-vs-the-little-guy

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Founder and CEO of Adamant Capital Tuur Demeester explains what factors he considers when valuing crypto assets, why this has led him to become a Bitcoin maximalist, and why he doesn't think Ethereum can scale. We also discuss why he doesn't have much faith in any of the smart contract platforms that are vying in this space. He also describes why he believes proof of work is superior to proof of stake, and why he's excited about the Lightning Network and the apps being built on top.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode Links:

Tuur Demeester: https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester

Tuur's critique of proof of stake: https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/critique-of-buterins-a-proof-of-stake-design-philosophy-49fc9ebb36c6

Why Tuur is bearish on Ethereum: https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/im-not-worried-about-bitcoin-unlimited-but-i-am-losing-sleep-over-ethereum-b5251c54e66d

https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/why-im-short-ethereum-and-long-bitcoin-aee5b1c198fd

Unchained interview with David Vorick of Siacoin, Nebulous and Obelisk: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-asics-may-be-better-than-gpus-even-if-they-tend-toward-mining-centralization-ep67

For a recap of the battle between big and small block factions in Bitcoin: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-bitcoins-history-says-about-its-future

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Nadav, founder of Dharma protocol, explains how it enables the borrowing and lending of crypto assets, what would happen in the case of default, and why it would make sense to do it in a decentralized fashion rather than using one of the many fintech companies in the lending space. He talks about what effect he thinks decentralized credit markets could have on the market capitalization of all debt, why it will likely enable forms of debt currently unimaginable, and who could benefit most from this protocol. He also dives into why Dharma doesn't currently have a token, how or whether it could work on a non-Ethereum blockchain and ways the for-profit company could someday make money.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Nadav Hollander: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander

Dharma protocol: https://dharma.io

The Dharma white paper: https://github.com/dharmaprotocol/WhitePaper/blob/master/DharmaWhitepaper.pdf

To understand the similarities with Dharma, check out the 0x interview with Will Warren: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

New types of debt possible with Dharma: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1032754247341756416

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Joey Krug, cofounder of Augur and co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, talks about what Augur is and is not, why it’s difficult to create new financial markets today and whether or not Augur markets could curb fake news. He explains why the teams burned its escape hatch key and whether he’s worried that Augur’s crowdsale would be considered an unregistered securities offering, plus answers whether he would benefit financially if assassination markets pop up on Augur. We also discuss what he sees happening in the market in his role as co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, what problems he think need to be resolved before Augur and dapps can take off, and which projects he believes have the greatest potential to democratize finance.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Start Engine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com/

Episode Links:

Joey Krug: https://twitter.com/joeykrug?lang=en

Augur: https://www.augur.net/

Pantera: https://www.panteracapital.com/

Joey on Unconfirmed: https://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/joey-krug-on-how-to-create-a-regular-cryptocurrency-ep022

Augur FAQ: https://www.augur.net/faq/

Predictions Global: https://predictions.global/

Assassination markets on Augur: https://www.coindesk.com/the-first-augur-assassination-markets-have-arrived/

SEC action against Sand Hill Exchange: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-123.html

Listen to the Unchained interview with 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

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Dfinity's Dominic Williams talks about how Dfinity is an internet computer that can host our software and data, instead of it being held by centralized services. He describes the consensus algorithm, threshold relay, and why he believes Dfinity will be much more secure than Bitcoin. We also dive into Dfinity's governance mechanism, the "blockchain nervous system." Williams, who has written about the "AI-managed environment provided by the blockchain nervous system" and talked about how Dfinity upgrades the "code is law paradigm" to "the AI is law paradigm," explains on the show that the blockchain nervous system is not an AI and is manually controlled by users.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Dfinity: https://www.dfinity.org

Dominic: https://twitter.com/dominic_w?lang=en

Dfinity as decentralized cloud: https://medium.com/dfinity/the-decentralized-cloud-vision-of-the-dfinity-blockchain-f68449c49be2

Dfinity consensus algorithm: https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-white-paper-our-consensus-algorithm-a11adc0a054c

Threshold relay: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/threshold-relay-blockchain-stanford.pdf

Posts where Dominic has described Dfinity's governance system as an AI:

https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-in-a-nutshell-a-non-technical-introduction-ec45ec5967c1

https://medium.com/dfinity/the-dfinity-blockchain-nervous-system-a5dd1783288e

Phi: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/phi-dfinity-extended-v2.pdf

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Josh Stein, CEO of Harbor, and Danny An, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, talk about security tokens and tokens backed by real-world assets, often called an unsexy area of crypto. They explain the strategies their teams are using to tackle the tokenization of what currently constitute $250 trillion in assets, what kinds of new behaviors and business opportunities "faster, cheaper, more liquid" assets could open up, and how they'll comply with regulations across all jurisdictions for markets that are global and trade 24/7/365.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Harbor: https://harbor.com

Trust Token: https://www.trusttoken.com

True USD: https://www.trusttoken.com/trueusd/

An overview of security tokens: https://medium.com/@apompliano/the-official-guide-to-tokenized-securities-44e8342bb24f

More on Harbor and security tokens: http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/security-token-harbor-ce

More on True USD: https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/18/trusttoken-readies-sale-of-more-trueusd-asset-based-tokens/

The PICO: https://medium.com/harborhq/introducing-the-private-ico-pico-3e8b782924c1

Episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

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In July in San Francisco, I moderated a panel at "Distributed 2018: Unlocking the Global Power of Decentralized Business." The title of our discussion was "Innovate or Reinvent?" and the panelists were Amber Baldet, cofounder and CEO of Clovyr, Matt Roszak, cofounder and chairman of Bloq, and Lily Liu, cofounder of Earn.com. We had a wide-ranging discussion, which included topics such as how the "Crypto 50" combined have more budget for blockchain development services than Fortune 50 companies,  how developing in the blockchain space and revolutionize an existing market requires that the new offering be many times better than existing options, and why enterprise needs to wait to get permission rather than ask for forgiveness, which doesn't hinder new projects. We also discussed how government is also a competitor in the space, that building entities don't include only decentralized projects and corporations, and how regulation could affect the development of the space.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Quantstamp: https://www.quantstamp.com

The Sun Exchange:  https://www.thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Distributed conference: https://2018.distributed.com

Amber Baldet: https://twitter.com/AmberBaldet

Clovyr: https://clovyr.io

Matt Roszak: https://twitter.com/MatthewRoszak

Bloq: https://www.bloq.com

Lily Liu: https://twitter.com/calilyliu

Earn.com: https://earn.com

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Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties, and Benny Giang, Dapper Labs’ head of Asia, describe how employees at venture studio AxiomZen came up with the idea for CryptoKitties, what problems it exposed in crypto (beyond scaling!), and how CryptoKitties can teach people the value of decentralization. They also defend the $140,000 price tag on one kitty, explain how they plan to grow from the current 300 users per day that the blockchain is logging, and surmise that if it weren't for user experience issues, CryptoKitties could have been 100 times bigger. Plus, they talk about the Kittyverse.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

CryptoKitties: https://www.cryptokitties.co

AxiomZen/Dapper Labs: https://www.axiomzen.co

Roham Gharegozlou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roham

Benny Giang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennygiang/

The $140,000 CryptoKitty: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/cryptokitty-auction.html

Fundraising news: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/cryptokitties-raises-12m-from-andreessen-horowitz-and-union-square-ventures/

CryptoKitties on HTC's new phone: http://fortune.com/2018/07/11/cryptokitties-app-htc/

Listen to previous episodes of Unchained with these CryptoKitties investors:

Chris Dixon: http://unchainedpodcast.co/chris-dixon-on-how-trust-is-the-best-lego-block-ep70

Naval Ravikant: http://unchainedpodcast.co/naval-ravikant-on-how-crypto-is-squeezing-vcs-hindering-regulators-and-bringing-users-choice

Bill Tai: http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology

William Mougayar: http://unchainedpodcast.co/icos-why-people-are-investing-in-this-380-million-phenomenon

"Developers all the way down" -- Unchained episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

Listen to my previous interview with Arianna Simpson on Unconfirmed about CryptoKitties: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/arianna-simpson-of-autonomous-partners-on-privacy-cryptokitties-and-crypto-regulation

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In this hilarious skeptics' episode, Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, and Jill Carlson, an independent consultant, explain why they think crypto needs fewer moral arguments and more empirical evidence, and how there's too much focus on financial engineering, but not enough focus on winning hearts and minds. They also explain why people are not machines where "you put in a token and get out an action," what the "sh*tcoin waterfall" is, and why cryptoeconomics isn't anything new. Plus, they give their tips for working in the space.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

Episode links:

Meltem on Twitter: https://twitter.com/melt_dem

On Medium: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem

Jill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_jillruth

AirTM: https://www.airtm.io

Fat protocols thesis: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Amber Baldet's tweet about the finger guns guy: https://twitter.com/amberbaldet/status/1006286345122275331

Meltem's tips on working in crypto: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/so-you-want-to-work-in-crypto-57961ca074c4

Jill's tips on working for yourself: https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/working-alone-165ababeafc2

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Kathleen Breitman, CEO of Dynamic Ledger Solutions, the company behind the Tezos protocol, and Ryan Jesperson, president of the foundation, discuss the Tezos initial coin offering, which was the largest ICO at the time of sale. Kathleen explains why she wouldn't do anything differently, except for the choice of foundation head, Johann Gevers, with whom Kathleen and her co-creator and husband, Arthur Breitman, ended up in multiple disputes. She muses as to why many people initially praised Gevers and then later revealed that he was not liked or that he'd defrauded them when they'd worked for him. Ryan and Kathleen also explain how they will attempt to help Tezos compete in the competitive smart contract platform space, despite the fact that Tezos is built in less well-known computer languages, and they explain why they've chosen delegated proof of stake as their consensus protocol, despite the criticism that it could create a plutocracy.

Tezos: https://tezos.com

Kathleen Breitman: https://twitter.com/breitwoman

Ryan Jesperson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-jesperson-23b0053a/

Thank you to our sponsors!

Preciate: https://preciate.org

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

The Sun Exchange: https://www.thesunexchange.com

Podcast links:

Wired story on Tezos: https://www.wired.com/story/tezos-blockchain-love-story-horror-story/

Unconfirmed episode with Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of the Wired cover story: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/behind-the-tezos-scandal-conflicts-of-interest-self-dealing-and-bullying-ep024

Unconfirmed with Caitlin Long on Wyoming blockchain laws: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/behind-the-tezos-scandal-conflicts-of-interest-self-dealing-and-bullying-ep024

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Yaya Fanusie, director of analysis at the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Tom Robinson, chief data officer and cofounder of blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, discuss how common money laundering is in crypto, how jihadist groups are using it, and how privacy coins (really Monero) affect their work. (The reason why the dark markets haven't much used Zcash surprised me.) We also discuss bad state actors using cryptocurrency, such as Venezuela's efforts with the metro and North Korea's alleged Bitcoin ransomware attacks, and how, leaving aside bad state actors, central bank cryptocurrencies would compete with decentralized ones. Plus, we discuss what impact OFAC blocked addresses list will have.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Preciate: https://preciate.org

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

Yaya Fanusie: https://twitter.com/SignCurve

Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/csif

Tom Robinson: https://twitter.com/tomrobin   

Elliptic: http://www.elliptic.co

Yaya and Tom's report on Bitcoin laundering: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/content/uploads/documents/MEMO_Bitcoin_Laundering.pdf

New AML regulations on cryptocurrencies in Europe: https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/5th-aml-directive-eu-regulation-cryptocurrency

Money laundering in ICOs: https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/ico-risk-why-aml-compliance-matters

Yaya's op-ed on the Venezuelan metro in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-investors-stay-away-venezuelas-petro/

Russia's blockchain plans: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/346476-blockchain-technology-may-give-russia-its-next-sputnik-moment

What jihadists are doing with crypto assets: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/exclusive/international/terrorist-networks-eye-bitcoin-cryptocurrencys-price-rises

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column/private-sector/the-new-frontier-in-terror-fundraising-bitcoin

Yaya's essay on self-policing in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-community-must-use-blockchain-self-police/

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Jeremy Allaire, cofounder and CEO of Circle, and Sean Neville, cofounder and president, discuss why they think the internet of value will be even bigger than the internet of information and how all assets will be tokenized. They also talk about why they're launching a stable coin, how their services in payments, exchange and investing will compete against decentralized versions of the same, and how they chose the assets for Circle Invest -- and why XRP didn't make the cut. They also address the investor presentation circulated that claimed the SEC would not pursue enforcement against Poloniex for prior activity and explain why Circle took investment from Bitmain despite negative sentiment against the mining equipment manufacturer. And they explain how Circle could compete once Wall Street incumbents begin to offer competitive services in crypto.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr

Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/

Links:

Circle.com: https://www.circle.com/en/

Circle's plans around a federal banking license and brokerage and trading registration: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-06/circle-in-talks-with-u-s-to-become-licensed-bank-trading-venue

Acquisition of Poloniex: https://blog.circle.com/2018/02/26/circle-acquires-poloniex/

XRP in a screenshot of Circle Invest, but offered after launch: https://www.coindesk.com/circle-adds-monero-crypto-investment-app/

The Circle Asset Framework: https://www.circle.com/marketing/pdfs/en/circle-asset-framework.pdf

Nathaniel Popper's tweet showing the Circle investor deck indicating the SEC won't pursue action against Poloniex: https://twitter.com/nathanielpopper/status/968202570719117313?lang=en

Circle's stable coins + Bitmain investment: https://blog.circle.com/2018/05/15/circle-announces-usd-coin-bitmain-partnership-and-new-strategic-financing/

Unchained episode on stable coins: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable

Unchained episode with David Vorick, which includes some comments on Bitmain: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-asics-may-be-better-than-gpus-even-if-they-tend-toward-mining-centralization-ep67

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Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, talks about the new $300 million crypto fund he is leading with Kathryn Haun, the new general partner of Andreessen, and how a16z came to hire its first female GP. The long-time crypto entrepreneur also discusses his theory of how crypto will grow -- and why Cryptokitties was one example of how that might happen -- his nights-and-weekend theory of technological change, and his view that writing software and smart contracts is similar to writing a novel. Additionally, he explains how someday, it will seem funny we didn't have concepts of ownership and money in the digital world, why Andreessen is investing almost exclusively in crypto-first projects and why he believes that the ability to create trust software will be the best Lego block for building things like money, finance, digital goods and more.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Blockchain Warehouse: https://www.blockchainwarehouse.com

Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr

Preciate: https://preciate.org

LINKS:

The a16z $300 million crypto fund: https://a16zcrypto.com

Katie Haun's appointment as GP: https://a16z.com/2018/06/25/katie-haun/

My previous interviews with Katie Haun -- Unchained: http://unchainedpodcast.co/federal-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-how-criminals-use-bitcoin-and-how-she-catches-them

Unconfirmed: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/sxsw-episode-former-doj-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-what-the-sec-subpoenas-and-fincen-letter-likely-mean

Chris on decentralization: https://medium.com/@cdixon/why-decentralization-matters-5e3f79f7638e

On how tokens can reverse the centralization of the internet: https://medium.com/@cdixon/crypto-tokens-a-breakthrough-in-open-network-design-e600975be2ef

Chris mentioned Placeholder Ventures -- if you haven't heard my interview with the firm's Joel Monegro, check it out: http://unchainedpodcast.co/placeholders-joel-monegro-on-the-fat-protocols-thesis-today-ep65

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In an episode of strong positions, Blockchain Capital  partner and Bitcoin educator Jimmy Song explains why private blockchains will never work, why smart contracts will never work, and why Bitcoin will be the one and only valuable cryptocurrency. He also gives his definition sound money, describes why Bitcoin is sound money, and talks about how he finds new companies to invest in if he believes Bitcoin is already the winner. Plus, he recounts the story of his buzz-generating debate with ConsenSys's Joe Lubin at the Consensus conference, which ended with a challenge to come up with a bet in Bitcoin, and what terms Jimmy would like to make the bet on. Lubin, it's your move.

Jimmy Song on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimmysong

Medium: https://medium.com/@jimmysong

Blockchain Capital: http://blockchain.capital/

Programming Blockchain: http://programmingblockchain.com

Off Chain with Jimmy Song on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFJVYNiPp8xeIUyfaPCPQw

Medium post on smart contracts: https://medium.com/@jimmysong/the-truth-about-smart-contracts-ae825271811f

Jimmy's rebuttal to the responses to his post: https://medium.com/@jimmysong/crypto-keynesian-lunacy-16bb9193a58

Video of Amber Baldet, Joe Lubin and Jimmy's panel at Consensus -- video 31 under Day 1: https://www.coindesk.com/events/consensus-2018/videos/

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This is a live recording from a panel I moderated at the World Economic Forum Industry Strategy Meeting. The speakers included Shwetha Shetty Senior Director, Corporate Strategy Group, of SAP, Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain, Brian Behlendorf, executive director of HyperLedger the Linux Foundation and Sheila Warren, project head of blockchain and distributed ledger technology at the World Economic Forum.We dive into the pros and cons of using blockchains for elections. which types of problems are best-suited to be solved by blockchain, why B2B applications of blockchain might come before B2C products and what kinds of identity-related data might be safe to put on a blockchain. Plus, Adam reveals some entertaining anecdotes about Silicon Valley safaris and how old World’s Fair tickets could have an analog to blockchain systems today.

Episodes I referenced during the discussion in case listeners want to dive more into the elections topic:

Tomicah Tillemann episode on the blockchain voting pilot in West Virginia: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/battling-corruption-with-blockchain-technology-tomicah-tillemann-of-the-blockchain-trust-accelerator-ep018

Alex Gladstein episode with more on blockchain-based voting: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-first-crypto-war-ep021

Tweets about blockchain-based voting:

Matt Blaze’s objecton to blockchain-based voting: https://twitter.com/mattblaze/status/1002921011854143488

Vitalik’s response: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1004203105611726849

Tomicah Tillemann’s response: https://twitter.com/TomicahTD/status/1004325810252197888

To address the question at the end about blockchain-based passports: 

2 Katie Haun episodes on using blockchain-based systems to solve the problems of "breeder documents" and fraud, waste and abuse:

Fraud, waste and abuse: http://unchainedpodcast.co/live-from-inforum-at-the-commonwealth-club-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-the-basics-with-kathryn-haun

Breeder documents: http://unchainedpodcast.co/federal-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-how-criminals-use-bitcoin-and-how-she-catches-them 

Episode with Vinny Lighal, founder of Civic, which is working on a blockchain-based identity solution: http://unchainedpodcast.co/bitcoin-oracle-vinny-lingham-on-why-bitcoin-is-overpriced 

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David Vorick, CEO of Nebulous, which operates Siacoin and a new subsidiary, Obelisk, describes what he's discovered in his exploration of the mining industry, including why he's decided that specialized chips like ASICs are preferable to generalized chips like GPUs, even if they tend to bring out mining centralization. He also describes Obelisk's new service, Launchpad,which secures exclusive deals to create a custom proof-of-work algorithm for a coin and also the mining equipment for it, in exchange for being the only miner on the market at launch or for a period. He explains why he thinks proof of work is the only really viable type of consensus algorithm and doesn't even see any other potentially workable ones on the horizon. Plus, he has some sharp criticisms of Bitmain and claims that several groups were secretly mining Monero, though he can't reveal how he knows.  

David Vorick: https://twitter.com/DavidVorick

https://medium.com/@davidvorick

Siacoin: http://sia.tech

Blog.sia.tech

Obelisk: https://obelisk.tech

Blog.obelisk.tech

David on why Siacoin chose ASICs: https://medium.com/obelisk-blog/choosing-asics-for-sia-4b11695df051

David's long post about the state of cryptocurrency mining: https://blog.sia.tech/the-state-of-cryptocurrency-mining-538004a37f9b

Announcement about Obelisk:

https://medium.com/obelisk-blog/introducing-obelisk-launchpad-b78756eaa74c

Zooko's recap of his conversation with Jihan Wu, CEO of Bitmain: https://forum.z.cash/t/so-i-had-a-videochat-with-jihan-wu/29379

Bitmain's tweets being transparent (account currently disabled): https://twitter.com/BITMAINtech/status/1001376036985028608

Bitmain's blog post about being transparent: https://blog.bitmain.com/en/antiminer-z9-mini-shipments-experiment-radical-transparency/

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This is a recording of a panel discussion I participated in with a couple other reporters and crypto PR people at Consensus. (It was at the same time as Jack's talk, so it's totally understandable if you missed it. Also, the room was freezing. I was shivering the entire time.) The other panelists were Leigh Cuen of CoinDesk, Avi Salzman of Barron's (and my old classmate from grad school!), Jill Richmond of Spark PR, Trey Ditto of Ditto PR, and the discussion was moderated by Frank Chaparro of Business Insider. We discussed whether or not crypto projects and publications should engage in pay to play (I would have hoped the answer to this would obvious to everyone, but alas), coverage that could cause investors to lose money, whether or not the business model of the media industry drives clickbait headlines and why journalists have a responsibility to include more of the nuances in crypto. We also dish up some practical tips and insider info, like how crypto projects can get media coverage, what factors reporters use in deciding whether or not to write about a project they're pitched, and whether or not crypto teams should hire crypto-specific PR firms.

Apologies that there was no mic for the questions from the audience. I've left the questions in, as you can sometimes hear them faintly. I tried my best to have someone or myself recap each question.

For the question about our favorite stories, these were the articles we named

My favorite of mine: my phone hijacking story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/20/hackers-have-stolen-millions-of-dollars-in-bitcoin-using-only-phone-numbers/#464b730d38ba

Leigh liked a series I did exposing fake advisors: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/01/alex-tapscotts-crypto-vc-firm-going-public-with-100m-cad-falsely-touted-4-blockchain-stars-as-advisors/#483d3ff31b1f

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/03/cibc-walks-from-tapscotts-nextblock-global-after-falsehoods-revealed-more-misrepresentations-found/#724de0e13cbf

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/11/05/alex-tapscotts-crypto-vc-firm-aborts-public-listing-will-return-money-after-falsehoods-revealed/#1d4de0a62e27

Leigh's favorite stories: Cryptocurrency in Iran: http://www.ibtimes.com/bitcoin-adoption-rate-iran-surges-despite-censorship-protests-2636607

http://www.ibtimes.com/initial-coin-offerings-are-coming-iran-2653474

Cryptocurrency for sex workers: http://www.ibtimes.com/beyond-bitcoin-blockchain-tokens-sex-industry-2601252

Avi's favorite story: https://www.barrons.com/articles/bitcoin-storms-wall-street-1512188427

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Joel Monegro, partner at crypto VC firm Placeholder Ventures, describes how well his seminal blog post, "Fat Protocols," is holding up, why he and his partner Chris Burniske opted to found a crypto VC firm as opposed to a hedge fund, and what main factors they think will determine the success of a blockchain. He also describes how crypto and blockchains fit into the evolution of technology, how the business models in the crypto space will be built, and why their first publicly known investment was in Decred. Plus, he reveals why their firm is called Placeholder.

Placeholder: https://www.placeholder.vc

Joel: https://twitter.com/jmonegro

The Placeholder investment thesis: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZL4eT1gxnE168Pmw3KyejW6fUfMNzMgeKMgcWJUfYGRj/Placeholder%20Thesis%20Summary.pdf

The Fat Protocols Thesis:

https://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Decred investment thesis: https://www.placeholder.vc/blog/2018/5/12/decred-investment-thesis

Blog post on information technology cycles: https://monegro.org/work/2018/2/20/information-technology-market-cycles-a-brief-history

Joel's blog post on the shared data layer of the blockchain application stack:

http://joel.mn/post/104755282493/the-shared-data-layer-of-the-blockchain

and on the blockchain application stack: http://joel.mn/post/103546215249/the-blockchain-application-stack

Two episodes featuring his partner, Chris Burniske:

http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-to-valuate-a-crypto-asset-s3e08

http://unchainedpodcast.co/want-higher-returns-invest-in-bitcoin-say-arks-chris-burniske-and-coinbases-adam-white

Another episode that I forgot to mention during the show, the interview with Bill Tai, which contains ideas that overlap quite a bit with Joel's:

http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology

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This recording is of Blockchain vs. the Surveillance State, a series of talks and a panel from the Oslo Freedom Forum put on by the Human Rights Foundation. In this session, hear presentations from Ryan Shea of decentralized technology platform Blockstack; Galia Benartzi of smart token platform Bancor; Steve Waterhouse of surveillance-free internet project Orchid; and Arthur Breitman from smart contract platform Tezos. Afterward, I moderate a panel among the four speakers that touches on the ways in which blockchains can be used to curb human rights abuses -- but also how bad actors can also use them for nefarious purposes.

Oslo Freedom Forum: https://oslofreedomforum.com

Human Rights Foundation: https://www.hrf.org

The four presentations:

Ryan Shea https://twitter.com/ryaneshea of Blockstack: https://blockstack.org

(Also check out his interview with cofounder Muneeb Ali on Unchained: http://unchainedpodcast.co/blockstack-on-getting-independence-from-google-facebook-and-amazon)

Galia Benartzi https://twitter.com/galiabenartzi of Bancor https://www.bancor.network/discover

Steve Waterhouse https://twitter.com/deseventral of https://orchid.com

Arthur Breitman https://twitter.com/arthurb of https://tezos.com

Be sure also to listen to the Unconfirmed podcast episode with Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation -- not to be missed if you're interested in the topics discussed during Blockchain vs. the Surveillance State! http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/alex-gladstein-of-the-human-rights-foundation-on-the-first-crypto-war-ep021

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Arthur Hayes, CEO of Bitmex, describes how traders on his platform can make great gains but experience limited losses, how Asia's crypto markets differ from those in the U.S., and why he makes money whether or not crypto prices go up or down. He also describes why ICOs are crap now but why he fully supports the idea in theory and how they should get back to their roots. He also explains why he believes governments will issue digital cash, and why he believes everyday people will be surveilled through these transactions, but will give up this privacy for the sake of convenience. And where does he see this leaving cryptocurrencies? To become needed to transact privately.

Bitmex: https://www.bitmex.com/

Arthur Hayes: https://www.bitmex.com/app/aboutUs

Bitmex blog, with detailed research reports: https://blog.bitmex.com/

Arthur's Crypto Trader Digest: https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=db45c09bdf20e1866bb32123f&id=ac43da8d18

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Jonathan Levin, cofounder and chief operating officer for blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, describes how the company was born out of questions he had while a grad student, how they began mapping the Bitcoin blockchain to certain entities, and how their customers, which include government agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS, Europol and others, use Chainalysis to help solve Bitcoin crimes. He also reveals what level of detail the software tracks, how privacy coins could affect their work, and what new developments in the technology could decrease current crimes, such as physical extortion of crypto holders. Plus, he answers the question of whether or not Chainalysis's work destroys the fungibility of Bitcoin.

Chainalysis: http://chainalysis.com/

Jonathan Levin: https://twitter.com/jony_levin

Chainalysis report on the changing nature of crypto crime: https://www.chainalysis.com/static/Cryptocrime_Report_V2.pdf

Forbes article on Chainalysis: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/04/05/snooping-on-bitcoin-is-big-business/#234e6792d198

Usage of Chainalysis by IRS: https://www.thedailybeast.com/irs-now-has-a-tool-to-unmask-bitcoin-tax-cheats

Threats of violence against bitcoin and other crypto holders: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/technology/virtual-currency-extortion.html

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Jesse Powell, CEO of crypto asset exchange Kraken, explains why he publicly rejected then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's request for information from crypto exchanges, why he felt it was a publicity stunt and why Kraken, which stopped serving New York customers after New York's Bitlicense was introduced, doesn't see the market as a top priority. He also talks about why Kraken decided to stop operations in Japan after further regulations were imposed and discusses Kraken's $1 million donation to Coin Center (and its $1 million match). Plus, he gets into why he named the exchange after a Norse sea monster, the dangers of the exchange's margin trading product, and what steps he recommends everyone in crypto take to keep their tokens safe.

Jesse Powell: https://twitter.com/jespow

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/

Past Unchained episode with Brock Pierce who also had a pre-Bitcoin career involving video game currency (Jesse and Brock were competitors): http://unchainedpodcast.co/this-vc-is-sure-venture-capital-is-about-to-be-disrupted

Kraken's position on regulation (discussion of New York AG request and Japan + guidance for regulators): https://blog.kraken.com/post/1561/krakens-position-on-regulation/

Kraken donation to Coin Center: https://blog.kraken.com/post/1591/kraken-donates-1m-to-coin-center-with-an-additional-1m-matching-during-may/

Kraken down for 40 hours: http://fortune.com/2018/01/12/bitcoin-price-ripple-kraken-down/

Past Unchained episode on taxation of crypto: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-tax-rules-that-have-crypto-users-aghast

Kraken blog post on phone numbers being hijacked: https://blog.kraken.com/post/219/security-advisory-mobile-phones/

My article on the same topic: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/20/hackers-have-stolen-millions-of-dollars-in-bitcoin-using-only-phone-numbers/#1d79923338ba

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This recording of a panel I moderated at Ethereal with Ethereum researcher Vlad Zamfir and GovernX founder Nick Dodson covered the topic that it seems everyone in crypto is discussing these days: governance. We talk about how the community should decide whether or not to unlock the funds frozen by bugs, on-chain governance, what role the Ethereum Foundation plays and what it means that nearly all the people who write Ethereum's code are men.

Nick Dodson: https://twitter.com/iamnickdodson

Vlad Zamfir: https://twitter.com/VladZamfir

If you liked this discussion, also be sure to check out my recent episode with Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation: http://unchainedpodcast.co/aya-miyaguchi-of-the-ethereum-foundation-on-who-makes-the-final-call-ep59

And this Unconfirmed episode on blockchain ethics with Cara LaPointe of Georgetown: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/from-the-bellagio-blockchain-summit-blockchain-ethics-with-georgetowns-cara-lapointe-ep016

Thank you to Ethereal for hosting a great event! https://etherealsummit.com/

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The newly appointed head of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya Miyaguchi, talks about her background as a teacher, at Kraken, helping the Mt. Gox trustee unwind that mess, and the closed process by which she was plucked for her current role. She also describes her goals with the Ethereum Foundation, how the EF believes the Ethereum community should make decisions, how it defines community and more. She also talks about how she hopes to push more financial inclusion with Ethereum, and what she thinks needs to be done to get more women involved in crypto.

Aya Miyaguchi: https://twitter.com/mi_ayako

Ethereum Foundation: https://www.ethereum.org/foundation

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In this show, recorded without the participation of Ripple (explanation included in the show), Ryan Selkis, CEO and founder of Messari and Matt Leising, Bloomberg reporter, discuss Ripple's XRP, the third-largest coin by market cap. We go over whether or not it plays an essential role in Ripple's products, why banks are unlikely to adopt it, and why it's centralized. We also discuss whether or not it's an unregistered security (although the class-action lawsuit alleging XRP is an unregistered security being sold in a "never-ending ICO" came out after we recorded -- link below). We also discuss recent attempts by XRP to get it listed on top crypto exchanges, and how, as Selkis puts it, there's a fine line between some of its business activity and bribes. We also ponder the question: If XRP is meant for banks and financial institutions, why should everyday people own XRP?

Ryan Selkis: https://messari.io/

https://twitter.com/twobitidiot

Matt Leising: https://twitter.com/mattleising

https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AGfq0QVqo0I/matthew-leising

Full text of class-action lawsuit against Ripple: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5938711a9de4bb74f63b4059/t/5aebc4112b6a28e0ef4a0381/1525400594617/Coffey+v+Ripple+Labs+Complaint.pdf

Bloomberg article on lawsuit: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-04/ripple-hit-with-class-action-suit-over-never-ending-ico

Matt's article on why big banks have no interest in using XRP: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-25/ripple-wants-xrp-to-be-bitcoin-for-banks-if-only-the-banks-wanted-it

How Ripple tried to buy its way onto crypto exchanges: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-04/ripple-is-said-to-struggle-to-buy-u-s-listing-for-popular-coin

Ryan's post on XRP: https://medium.com/@twobitidiot/i-still-see-you-xrp-815369a539ea

Izabella Kaminska's article on XRP: https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/01/05/2197220/the-ripple-effect/

CoinDesk article on XRP: https://www.coindesk.com/ripples-xrp-giving-third-largest-cryptocurrency-second-look/

XRP chat post by David Schwartz: https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/5280-valuation-models-xrp-the-digital-currency-vs-ripple-the-company/?tab=comments#comment-50182 

Another post by David Schwartz on how XRP is not required: https://www.quora.com/Is-XRP-not-required-for-the-Ripple-Swift-replacement/answer/David-Schwartz-9

Bitmex post on XRP: https://blog.bitmex.com/the-ripple-story/

The dueling lawsuits between Ripple and R3 over XRP: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/09/08/blockchain-enterprise-firms-r3-and-ripple-sue-each-other-over-1-billion-of-cryptocurrency/

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Here is the second special episode from the Time Summit, a Bridge Alternatives event, on how institutional investors can do operational due diligence. Suna Said, founder and CEO of family office Nima Capital, Eddie Duszlak of Texas Children's Hospital, and Joel Gantcher of Gantcher Family Partners discuss how they invest in the nascent Web 3.0. They discuss why a year of experience in crypto is so valuable, how they determine who the serious players are in the space and why the speed of disruption from the internet revolution gives them motivation to get into the crypto markets.

Thank you to the Time Summit, a Bridge Alternatives event! https://timesummit.org/

http://bridgealternatives.com/

Suna Said: https://timesummit.org/2018/04/18/suna-said/

Eddie Duszlak: https://timesummit.org/2018/03/06/eddie-duszlak/

Joel Gantcher: https://timesummit.org/2018/04/19/joel-gantcher/

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This talk is from a panel I led on infrastructure in the crypto space at the Time Summit, by Bridge Alternatives, featuring Kayvon Pirestani of director of institutional sales at GDAX, Tim McCourt, CME Group’s managing director and global head of equity products and alternative investments, Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Trading and Genesis Capital, and Hu Liang, founder and CEO of Omniex. We discussed what infrastructure tools need to be built to get institutional players comfortable with the space, how custodying a digital asset differs from custodying a traditional asset, why they can see institutional players dealing in stablecoins and trading on decentralized exchanges at some point in the future, and what needs to be built out in terms of trading infrastructure for institutional players. (Hint: it turns out Excel and Google Sheets are the biggest competitors for crypto trading infrastructure services.) We also talk about the challenges of building out infrastructure for trading that can suddenly double or quadruple in volume and for a market that runs 24/7/365.

Thank you to Bridge Alternatives and the Time Summit for the panel!

https://www.bridgealternatives.com/

https://timesummit.org/

Kayvon Pirestani: https://timesummit.org/2018/03/19/kayvon-pirestani/

Michael Moro: https://timesummit.org/2018/04/21/michael-moro/

Tim McCourt: https://timesummit.org/2018/03/15/tim-mccourt/

Hu Liang: https://timesummit.org/2018/03/23/hu-liang/

The episode with Mike Belshe where we discuss custodying digital assets and qualified custodians: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future

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Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain, cofounders of Multicoin Capital, dive deeply into their sometimes controversial and unpopular opinions on how the crypto revolution will play out. They describe why they don't think the technology that a team develops early on will play nearly as big a role as some think, why there will be a spectrum of blockchains offering different features with different tradeoffs, and why they're bearish on stablecoins. They discuss why they disagree on whether or not the Lightning Network is revolutionary (and therefore why they disagree on whether Bitcoin is failing). Samani and Jain also explain how they decide whether or not to invest in a token, their strategies for trading and why they don't have to be invested in a project to help out.

Multicoin: https://multicoin.capital/

Kyle Samani: @KyleSamani

Tushar Jain: @TusharJain_

A blog post that came out after we recorded in which Kyle expands on his contention that technical features will matter less in the long-term success of a network than people think: https://multicoin.capital/2018/04/25/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/

Kyle's post on the outlook for coins for store of value, utility tokens and stablecoins: https://multicoin.capital/2018/03/15/paths-to-tens-of-trillions/

More Multicoin thinking around stablecoins: https://multicoin.capital/2018/01/17/an-overview-of-stablecoins/

Previous Unchained episode: Why It's So Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable

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Paul Walsh had long ago predicted that internet scams would migrate from email to private messaging platforms, but it wasn't until crypto mania took off that his thesis was proved right -- in a big way. In the summer of 2017, the founder and CEO of MetaCert discovered many crypto Slack channels were being overrun by scammers capitalizing on FOMO to get people to inadvertently give them their ether and other tokens. Now, the company has several products to help prevent crypto enthusiasts from being scammed and it also decentralizing its work so the whole world can help classify bad links and proven others from being scammed. In this talk, he describes how the scams work, how Metacert tries to keep people from falling victim, and how best you can protect your own crypto.

MetaCert the company: https://metacert.com

MetaCert the protocol: http://metacertprotocol.com/ 

Story on phone hijackings:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/20/hackers-have-stolen-millions-of-dollars-in-bitcoin-using-only-phone-numbers/#7125f2f738ba

Link to episode where Mike Belshe and I discuss physical crimes against crypto people: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future

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In this live recording of a panel discussion at the CoinAlts Fund Symposium, Marco Santori, president and chief legal officer of Blockchain, managing director at Grayscale Investments, and Barbara Minuzzi, cofounder and managing partner of Ausum Ventures take stock of the 2017 year and discuss a range of trends they're seeing in the industry. Santori describes what the ICO wave was like from his seat as one of the most in-demand lawyers for ICOs, and why he doesn't actually think that securities (such as a SAFT) can later transform into something that is a non-security. He also talks about how big corporations are thinking about use blockchain technology -- and why we haven't yet seen much activity on that front in the market. We talk about the current clouds over the industry -- custody and regulation -- and Sonnenshein explains why investors choose Grayscale's investment products, such as the Bitcoin Investment Trust, rather that investing in the coin directly, and 

Blockchain.info: https://blockchain.info

Grayscale Investments: https://grayscale.co

Ausum Ventures: https://www.ausum.vc

Thank you to the CoinAlts Fund Symposium for hosting the panel: https://www.coinaltsfundsymposium.com

For more on regulatory issues, check out these past episodes:

Perianne Boring and Amy Kim of the Chamber of Digital Commerce on crypto regulation: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-chamber-of-digital-commerces-perianne-boring-and-amy-kim-on-why-us-crypto-regulation-is-complicated-and-confusing

The Tax Rules That Have Crypto Investors Aghast: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-tax-rules-that-have-crypto-users-aghast

How Crypto and Blockchain Technology Should Be Regulated: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-crypto-and-blockchain-technology-should-be-regulated

Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center: http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-coin-center-is-helping-define-the-big-fuzzy-gray-area-of-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-law

Caitlin Long on How 'Utility Tokens' Are Now Legal in Wyoming: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/caitlin-long-on-how-utility-tokens-are-now-legal-in-wyoming

Former DOJ Prosecutor Kathryn Haun on What the SEC Subpoenas and FinCen Letter Likely Mean: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/sxsw-episode-former-doj-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-what-the-sec-subpoenas-and-fincen-letter-likely-mean

For more on custody issues, check out the episode with Mike Belshe of BitGo and its acquisition of Kingdom Trust: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future

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If U.S. crypto regulation seems incredibly convoluted, this is the episode for you. Perianne Boring, the founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and its global policy director and general counsel Amy Kim, discuss why U.S. regulation calls crypto assets currency, property, commodities and securities, and how that results in agencies enforcing their own laws without a higher level understanding of the technology. They also discuss what they call the "failure" of the regulatory regime that requires certain types of crypto companies to get licenses from 53 different states and territories and why no firms have so far even gotten close. They also advocate for the technology to be taxed more like currency than property, claiming that the current classification stifles usage of cryptocurrencies as currencies. We also dive into juicy questions like whether ether, which was sold in what we would now call an initial coin offering, is a security and what self-regulation of the crypto space could look like.

Chamber of Digital Commerce: https://digitalchamber.org/

Token Alliance: https://digitalchamber.org/initiatives/token-alliance/

Previous episodes on Unchained and Unconfirmed that touched on regulation:

Live from SXSW: Michael Casey and Paul Vigna, Co-Authors of The Truth Machine, on Why the SEC Has Issued Subpoenas to ICOs

http://unchainedpodcast.co/live-from-sxsw-michael-casey-and-paul-vigna-co-authors-of-the-truth-machine-on-why-the-sec-has-issued-subpoenas-to-icos

Caitlin Long on How 'Utility Tokens' Are Now Legal In Wyoming

http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/caitlin-long-on-how-utility-tokens-are-now-legal-in-wyoming

SXSW Episode: Former DOJ Prosecutor Kathryn Haun on What the SEC Subpoenas and FinCen Letter Likely Mean

http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/sxsw-episode-former-doj-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-what-the-sec-subpoenas-and-fincen-letter-likely-mean

The Tax Rules That Have Crypto Users Aghast

http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-tax-rules-that-have-crypto-users-aghast

How Crypto And Blockchain Technology Should Be Regulated

http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-crypto-and-blockchain-technology-should-be-regulated

Is The IRS Justified In Demanding Information On Millions Of Bitcoin Users?

http://unchainedpodcast.co/is-the-irs-justified-in-demanding-information-on-millions-of-bitcoin-users

Federal Prosecutor Kathryn Haun On How Criminals Use Bitcoin -- And How She Catches Them: http://unchainedpodcast.co/federal-prosecutor-kathryn-haun-on-how-criminals-use-bitcoin-and-how-she-catches-them

How Coin Center Is Helping Define The 'Big Fuzzy Gray Area' Of Blockchain And Cryptocurrency Law

http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-coin-center-is-helping-define-the-big-fuzzy-gray-area-of-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-law

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Through Inforum at the Commonwealth Club, I recently moderated a sold-out discussion on the basics of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. My guest was Kathryn Haun, a former federal prosecutor who is now teaching a class on cryptocurrency at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and serves on the boards of Coinbase and Hacker One. We go through all the elementary questions most newbies have: what is bitcoin, what is a blockchain, what is Ethereum, what is mining, etc., and give real examples of how this technology could be used. I think it's a perfect primer for people new to crypto -- whether you're listening for tips on how to explain these concepts to your friends and family, or you're a newbie yourself and want a dead-simple explainer. This is the first in a series of talks with Inforum on blockchain and crypto, so stay tuned for future events.

Kathryn Haun: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/kathryn-haun

Inforum at the Commonwealth Club: http://inforumsf.org/

http://inforumsf.org/upcoming-events/2018/4/12/blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-the-basics

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Valery Vavilov and George Kikvadze of Bitcoin mining and blockchain software company Bitfury discuss why the firm has partnered with the publicly traded Hut 8, how it plans to branch out into mining other crypto assets, and how it chooses where to open mining operations. They also explain how low the bitcoin price can go before mining will be unprofitable for them, what their new blockchain analytics tools Crystal can do, and why they often choose people outside the blockchain/crypto industry to attend the Blockchain Summit they co-host on Richard Branson's Necker Island. Vavilov also tells the story of a childhood experience that has influenced Bitfury's decision to work so much with governments and regulators, and he and Kikvadze describe the company's new blockchain analytics tool, Crystal, plus its hand in launching other blockchain-and-government-focused organizations such as the Blockchain Alliance and the Blockchain Trust Accelerator.

Bitfury: http://bitfury.com/

Bitfury's origin story as told by Bill Tai: http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology 

Hut 8: https://www.hut8mining.com/

Exonum: https://exonum.com/

Necker Blockchain Summit: http://www.neckerblockchainsummit.com/

Blockchain Alliance: http://blockchainalliance.org/

Blockchain Alliance on Unchained: 

http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-the-blockchain-alliance-helps-law-enforcement-with-bitcoin-crime-and-developments-like-the-dao

Crystal: https://crystalblockchain.com/

Blockchain Trust Accelerator: https://trustaccelerator.org/

Pilot with Coca-Cola and State Department: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-coca-cola-labor/coca-cola-u-s-state-dept-to-use-blockchain-to-combat-forced-labor-idUSKCN1GS2PY

Emercoin: https://emercoin.com/en

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In an intermittent series on cryptoeconomics, Olaf Carlson-Wee and Ryan Zurrer of crypto hedge fund Polychain Capital describe what cryptoeconomics is, what goals it typically helps networks accomplish and what behaviors token systems might someday incentivize. We discuss when cryptoeconomic models don't make sense, how the type of consensus algorithms a blockchain chooses can affect behavior in that system and which consensus mechanisms excite them now. We also dive into whether or not it's desirable for a cryptoeconomic system to depend on a small number of knowledgeable participants, how to manage on-chain governance so networks don't vote themselves into a "black hole," and what disciplines are helpful in designing smart cryptoeconomic systems.

Polychain Capital http://polychain.capital/

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Zooko Wilcox, the founder and CEO of the Zcash company, explains why he wanted to create the privacy coin Zcash, why he believes privacy is essential to decentralization, and how encryption is the way censorship-resistance can be created on a technical level. We talk about the revelation that the NSA was targeting Bitcoin users by gathering details on their devices and how even Zcash users could be targeted the same way, but why Zooko believes most people are more concerned about other threats. We also delve into the Facebook/Cambridge Analytics news and why people don't see to care about privacy and why so few people choose to transact privately in Zcash. He also describes he would feel if he knew that criminals were using Zcash for horrible crimes.

Zcash company: https://z.cash/

Matthew Green's bitter tweet about Cryptokitties raising $12 million when he had to beg VCs to give Zcash a fraction of that amount: https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/976298627759972353

The transaction that Zooko and I dissect during the episode: https://explorer.zcha.in/transactions/eed1d3993e52863fd33f9961672a22d016ca2a63f1e452b7d27fc41f5a2f2664

The Intercept article about the NSA tracking Bitcoin users: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/20/the-nsa-worked-to-track-down-bitcoin-users-snowden-documents-reveal/

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Arianna Simpson, managing partner of investment firm Autonomous Partners, discusses this week's news that Cambridge Analytica had used data from Facebook to perhaps manipulate the 2016 election and whether that could create an opening for blockchain-based decentralized social networks. We also cover the announcement that Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and top individual investors invested $12 million in Cryptokitties and why Simpson thinks the area of digital collectibles could take off.

The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica story: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html

Cryptokitties: https://www.coindesk.com/a16z-leads-12-million-funding-for-ethereum-app-cryptokitties/

Why Arianna isn't worried about the downturn: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-smart-money-isnt-worried-about-the-bitcoin-selloff-2018-03-19?siteid=rss

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