Blockchain Insider Podcast by 11:FS

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 40. Dodgy Words from Binance, Vitalik Buterin Savages Faketoshi and Bluezelle's CEO Pavel Bains Apr 05, 2018

Show notes

Binance billionaire Changpeng Zhao makes a few very dodgy statements on a potential exchange that Simon and Sara both agree might be more than a little bit biased.

Ethereum falters with the influx of ASIC mining rigs in the market. Simon explains the new powerful miner and the pair wonder if the era of Ethereum making money for ordinary people is coming to an end.

Vitalik issues a scathing takedown on a man claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto without any real proof.

The SEC delivers a knockout blow to Mayweather endorsed ICO after the founders are charged with fraud and a host of false executives are uncovered. We discuss what thos means for other ICOs and how transparent the SEC is around these takedowns.

Bitcoin is still overvalued to the surprised of no-one in a recent study. Although Sara does appreciate the nuances addressed. Further damage to Bitcoin with Reddit refusing to accept the cryptocurrency any longer. Although if no-one’s using it can it really be called a currency?

John McAfee makes waves in the crypto space with news that he’s charging over $100K for promotional tweets for ICOs. It’s a funny story that’ll probably make you laugh but it’s noted that what McAfee’s doing affects real people and there a question mark over the legitimacy of these tweets.

Amber Baldet leaves JP Morgan in a positive way for both sides. It’s a loss for the investment bank but after establishing their blockchain platform Quorum, Amber is ready to set off on a new venture.

Rounding off the show we have an interview with Pavel Bains from Bluezelle

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe.
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, why not leave us a review on iTunes?

Special Guest: Pavel Bains.

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Ep. 39. Coinbase Goes ERC-20, Bitcoin’s Lightning Lift Off and Coinfloor’s Obi Nwosu Mar 29, 2018

Show notes

Kicking off the show, R3’s CEO declares blockchain a once in a lifetime opportunity for financial markets.

New opportunities chased by Deutsche Börse and HQLAx, the finance magnates are looking to build a securities lending platform on blockchain.

Coinbase opening up its platform? The exchange is finally implementing Ethereum ERC-20 support but no specific assets have been named just yet.

Lightning network gets its first lapp! Blockstream’s introduced FileBazaar, its first ever lightning app. What does the new e-commerce tool mean for blockchains future?

Intel throws its weight behind blockchain to try and develop a next-gen media rights manager. We discuss how this could work, what mistakes developers have made in the past that they need to avoid and are consumers ready to go back to paying for all their media content?

Google’s another blue chip working on blockchain. They’re working to integrate their cloud business and beat out the startups using the hyped tech to operate online in new ways. It might be possible with Google set to offer a distributed digital ledger to differentiate themselves.

G20 meeting in Argentina ends with no new cryptocurrency regulation to the surprise of absolutely no-one. We discuss how regulation can be made and where that authority will come from.

Polkadot’s looking to shake up the crypto market with a new playbook distributing power directly to token holders. We discuss what this means for crypto and Colin has some thoughts on Gavin Wood’s ties to the Parity hack and how secure this could be.

Finally we bring you an interview with CEO and Co-founder of Coinfloor, Obi Nwosu who has some great insights on where blockchain is headed.

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show!

Special Guests: Anthony Macey, Obi Nwosu, and Sara Feenan.

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Ep. 38. LIVE: Lightning Strikes Bitcoin and Binance Gets Its DEX on Mar 22, 2018

Show notes

Kicking things off on a special live episode, has Bitcoin solved its scaling issues? Lightning Network launches, more than doubling transaction speeds! Colin is keen to explain it all.

'Bitcoin investors are clueless' says Visa's CFO. Are cryptocurrencies just the new casino for unaware buyers to double or triple their cash in a low interest environment? But is all the future crypto potential on the enterprise side?

Payment rails should be very afraid! If cryptocurrencies can figure out how to scale up then there's no telling what they could do.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney thinks crypto has no risk to financial stability. At less than 1% of the global GDP at its peak and unable to function as a currency, Bitcoin isn't able to take on the financial system.

ICOs split opinions on the panel but one thing's for sure, both public and enterprise want a solid infrastructure.

Colin has some strong opinions on the future of cryptocurrencies, could they ever compete with banks or do they need to find a way past focusing on transactions?

Binance is keen to decentralise, but without a way of stopping scammers can it be used properly. Does decentralisation remove legitimacy for cryptocurrencies or will it make them stronger than ever?

We've got a fantastic interview with Preston Byrne, who also managed to snag tweet of the week, on block-chain versions of central-bank cash.

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can make it on to the show!

Special Guests: Jason Bates, Richard Crook, and Sara Feenan.

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Ep. 37. Sandra Ro, Women in Blockchain and Tracking Crypto Crime Mar 15, 2018

Show notes

First up, Binance are offering a $250,000 bounty for the arrest of hackers that tried to infiltrate the exchange earlier in March!

Is Bitcoin as untraceable as we think? The met police claim that Bitcoin is not anonymous and is easy to track! Simon and Colin discuss this one in great depth.

Next up, Bitfinex'd, the the pseudonymous blogger and persistent critic of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has lawyered up! An interesting saga to keep an eye on....

Following on from International Women's Day it was fitting that CoinDesk, one of the larger crypto publications wrote a great piece on encouraging and acknowledging Women in Crypto! We were super lucky to have Sandra Ro's insights on today's show as well!

From Bifinex'd to Utility Token Bill's, Wyoming's state legislature has cleared a bill that would exempt certain types of crypto assets from securities laws. Are crypto-assets creeping toward legitimation?

Now the next headline was controversial, but when Simon and Colin dogged deeper- it actually raised some interesting points. From The Verge, the headline read- 'Blockchain' is meaningless....

This wouldn't be a blockchain based show without mentioning the good folks of Ripple! According to Bloomberg Technology they have lost their bid to keep it's cryptocurrency fight in California. The dispute is over a staggering amount of XRP- once worth over $16 Billion, with R3.

Another headline grabber, the FT writes that SWIFT claim blockchain not ready for mainstream use! According to them, the tech needs to mature to handle high volume transactions.

From mainstream use to miners, Bitcoin miners have taken over a town in Seattle! This one was close to home for CGP (literally) so he gave us a good run down on this story. Staying with mining, Egypt are apparently forcing their citizens to mine cryptocurrency?! Simon and Colin had a lot to say about this questionable and slightly confusing headline!

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can make it on to the show!

Special Guest: Sandra Ro.

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Ep. 36. The Empire Strikes Bitcoin and an Exclusive Interview With Joe Lubin Mar 08, 2018

Show notes

First up, Coinbase is hit with not one but two class action Lawsuits! They've been accused of insider Bitcoin Cash trading and when you look at it's price chart, it doesn't help their case whatsoever...in brighter news though it plans that Coinbase may be planning to start a Crypto fund as the unicorn eyes further expansion. Sticking with the shady side of the law, TechCrunch founder's Crypto fund, Arrington XRP Capital, was subpoenaed by the SEC....let's see where this one goes!

Moving on from busy lawyers to governmental crackdowns, Quebec throws cold water on Bitcoin miners seeking cheap power. A spokesperson said “If you want to come settle here, plug in your servers and do Bitcoin mining, we’re not really interested,” also stating that cheap power wouldn't be available for those not adding value to society. Next up, Bank Of England governor Mark Carney says Crypto exchanges face regulatory clampdown! He said "The time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system". Staying in the UK, Shadow Secretary Diane Abbott has called Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme! She was quoted saying "If everyone took their bitcoin money and tried to buy a new car all at once the whole thing would collapse"...... well yes much like many financial markets but hey ho.

Moving on, US regional banks begin to cite crypto as a business risk...did somebody say disruption? On to Asia- Bitcoin's Kimchi premium has all but evaporated. During Bitcoin's run up to $20,000, South Korean traders were paying 10%+ premiums due to incredible demand...during the recent market correction that has all but diminished!

Finally, Credit Suisse and ING finalised the first live transaction using HQLAX securities lending app on R3's Corda blockchain platform......really interesting stuff!

Special Guest: Joe Lubin.

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Ep. 35. Get Bits or Die Tryin' and Ripple Explain XRP Mar 01, 2018

Show notes

First up, this week's big news that Circle (backed by none other than Goldman-Sachs) have acquired crypto exchange Poloniex. Is this Wallstreet's 'in' to Crypto?

Moving on to some regulatory news, NYC lawmakers claim that they are 'open' to revisiting the BitLicense regulation. What kind of impact would a reform have on the market and on blockchain innovation?

From Lawmakers to Lawbreakers, Craig Wright, who's infamously claimed to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is being sued for a whopping $10 billion!

Next, R3 pilots blockchain trade finance platform with global banks-aiming to develop a "fully interoperable" open-source trade finance network built with their distributed ledger technology (DLT) product Corda.

The blockchain space has largely been male dominated in recent years, however the NY times has rightly voiced the opinions of many brilliant female minds in the industry. Their title "Women in Cryptocurrencies Push Back Against ‘Blockchain Bros'" was widely shared, a quote that stuck out to us was “Women always question if they’re qualified-but look at these clowns around us.”

ICO's just don't go away and Germany’s financial regulator BaFIN issues a letter titled "Supervisory classification of tokens or cryptocurrencies underlying so-called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as financial instruments according to securities supervision laws". So. Many. Words.

Next, the Venezuelan president has apparently asked central banks to mine their national cryptocurrency. If you though a country having a petrol backed token was strange enough, just imagine their banks mining it?

As always, on stories we didn't have time to cover: Elliott Management, a $34 billion hedge fund, described cryptocurrencies as 'one of the most brilliant scams in history', the Tezos board is reorganized and 50 cent admits in a bankruptcy document that he never actually owned any bitcoin. Right Fifty, whatever you say.

And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can make it on to the show!

Special Guests: Frank Müller and Marcus Treacher.

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Ep. 34. Vitalik drops crypto truth bombs, Ellen explains bitcoin and the Brooklyn project Feb 22, 2018

Show notes

First up on today's show from CNBC, the US government is nowhere near regulating Bitcoin. Rob Joyce emphasised the need to better understand the cryptocurrencies and our team discuss how this has been greeted positively by the trader community especially.

Next, Ellen Degeneres compares Bitcoin to a Goat (I know) to her rather large audience. Even though the price hasn't been as exciting for speculators recently, Bitcoin is still mainstream and won't go away!

Back to regulation, Switzerland's FINMA has released ICO guidelines and in the US the CFTC Chief has said the states should tread lightly on Crypto exchanges.

Keeping with ICO's, Telegram have raised $850 million so far for their billion dollar ICO. The mass frenzy has seen many keep a keen eye on Telegram, some with less positive sentiments. Charles Noyas of Pantera Capital wasn't keen on this massive ICO. He described the project's 132-page technical whitepaper as "essentially a wishlist of things they want to have, and how it will work assuming that their wishlist doesn't crash and burn." Damning to say the least...

Vitalik Buterin the father of Ethereum has tweeted a warning to his followers stating that "traditional assets" are a safer place to hold your live savings. He caught quite a lot of hate in the comments, but is this the way more blockchain figureheads should be acting in the crypto space?

Bitcoin is mainstream but it's position in asset classes is still not obvious. Divorce lawyers are finding this out the hard way and a UK based firm have claimed that they are dealing with multi-million dollar cases over centring around cryptocurrency assets.

Moving on- are Atari about to have their Kodak moment? The game-makers who created Pacman are planning an ICO because..it's 2018?

On to Bitcoin mining- with China cracking down, where is the best place to mine Bitcoin? Apparently Venezuela is the cheapest place to mine the cryptocurrency whereas South Korea was found to be the most expensive.

Finally, we follow up on dark pools after last week's episode, as a $30 million ICO could pave way for huge crypto traders.

As always there's so much news out there and we can't cover it all, so we had some stories we just couldn't squeeze in. These include: Ethereum Dev Yoichi Hirai Steps Away From Role As EIP Editor, Citi Bank and Credit Agricole buy a stake in SETL and R3 are training DLT lawyers.

In today's episode we also bring you an interview with Patrick Berarducci and Matt Corva from Consensys about Brooklyn Project. Exciting stuff!

Special Guests: Matt Corva and Patrick Berarducci.

Links:

Ep. 33. Blythe Masters Interview, hacks, non-hacks & Europe's crypto crackdown Feb 15, 2018

Show notes

Simon and Sara (no Colin this week) tackle the week's news stories
Kicking off with the biggest story: France and Germany's crackdown on crypto. France and Germany have put it to the G20 that the time has come to regulate IPOs and bitcoin. In a join statement they say they are aiming to:

Build a common understanding on the nature of tokens
Monitor the implications on market stability
Find better protections for non professional investors
Adopt a common approach on anti money laundering

Simon and Sara share their views on this one.

The second story this week covers JPMorgan Chase's report that, despite Jamie Dimon's infamous comments to the contrary, states that crypto is unlikely to disappear.

Our third biggest story is Binance's denial of their hack, despite claims and particularly tweets from John McAfee. This brings the team to discuss the impact of sentimentality and drama on the market's volatility. Even if a hack isn't real, if headlines are written claiming it has been, it still has an impact.

Sara and Simon also take on Ledger Nano's vulnerability to cyber attacks; Russians arrested for mining bitcoin, the Winkelvoss' latest bitcoin predictions, Litecoin's release of LitePay, Venezuela's backing of Petro, and bitcoin's popularity on the dark web.

Simon also speaks to Blythe Masters, all about Digital Asset Holdings, the differences between assets and currencies and how to get involved in the digital asset market.

Special Guests: Blythe Masters and Sara Feenan.

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Ep. 32. Jameson Lopp, the Market be down but Enterprise is up Feb 08, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, Simon, Colin and guest Sara Feenan dissect the week's news and we have a fantastic interview from Jameson Lopp!

Kicking off with the biggest story of the... year?
The market be down: prices have tumbled 50% from all time highs, is this a disaster or must what goes up, always come back down?
Lloyds have banned customers buying bitcoin on credit cards. Is this sensible or over-protecting of customers, and also protecting themselves? Colin and Sara say you should never buy crypto on credit card, for the risks involved, never invest your money if you don't have it in the first place - the price falling shows how much people can lose.

They also talk regulation as the SEC and the CFTC begin to give testimony, the State of Wyoming tries to ring fence token sales out of securities law, and Canadian regulators approve their first Blockchain ETF.

Does the Wired article "The Big ICO Swindle" mean the tech purists have turned their back on ICOs? Colin thinks no one has every done anything meaningful from an ICO, excepting Ethereum. Can you think of any examples? @Bchaininsider if so.

GSass is back with a vengeance when it comes to the Puerto Rico "bitcoin bros" in their crypto "utopia', Colin does not hold back his opinions on this one!

Additionally, one of Colin's 2018 predictions seems to be coming into fruition as Enterprise blockchain finally seems to be breaking out, and everyone is very enthusiastic about this, are the tools developers have been working on finally coming to the fore?

And finally UNICEF asks PC gamers to mine Ethereum and donate to Syrian children - while well meaning, is anyone actually doing this? The team discuss.

We also speak to Jameson Lopp, a massive presence in the Bitcoin and Blockchain world, software engineer at BitGo, creator of statoshi.info and founder of bitcoinsig.com.

Special Guests: Jameson Lopp and Sara Feenan.

Links:

Ep. 31. South Korea's ban, Japan's hack, Robinhood and the future of crypto Feb 01, 2018

Show notes

We begin with big news from South Korea, as they announce that 6 major banks will facilitate data sharing with Cryptocurrency exchanges. Money laundering and tax evasion have been large governmental concerns with regards to crypto and it seems South Korea have taken the first steps to mitigate under the counter activity. Moving on, Japanese Cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck will refund the $400m worth of NEM that was stolen from them by hackers. This isn't the first time we've seen big hacks on Japanese exchanges.....(cough, cough, Mt. Gox).

On to something more positive in the crypto-sphere, Robinhood, the app that lets you make zero-fee stock trading is going to allow its users to trade Cryptocurrencies. Robinhood users will be able to trade both Bitcoin and Ethereum with no transaction fees, with more coins on the horizon. Next, a Hong Kong based blockchain investment fund has acquired Bitcoin startup BTCC, who's mining pool accounts for 3.2% of Bitcoin's hashing power.....big news! Sticking with acquisition-BitGo Inc., a closely held crypto-security firm, agree to buy Bitcoin custodian Kingdom Trust as it seeks to attract $20 Billion worth of institutional investors.

Telegram has been a hotly discussed topic and Silicon Valley VCs are reportedly lining up to invest in the Russian messaging app. Back to Japan, the BOJ have come out with more regulatory talk stating that it will be incredibly difficult to create cross-border regulatory protocol for Cryptocurrency trading. Now regulation in this space will be important- but how do we protect innovation? The chairmen of the CFTC and SEC, Christopher Giancarlo and Jay Clayton, have co-authored an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal about what their agencies are doing in relation to cryptocurrency and token markets. It seems mostly positive, as both have focussed on the technology- potentially encouraging governments to understand just how big blockchain could be.

Now lots of Ripple enthusiasts claim that XRP could become the Bitcoin for banks, but do banks want it? A story coming from Bloomberg claims that banks have absolutely no interest in XRP. Current and former executives at seven global banks—some of whom have partnered with Ripple—say there was scant chance they would ever entrust their corporate clients’ payments to a cryptocurrency. Damning to say the least.

We leave you with our Bull masks on, as hedge funds have swung their bitcoin-futures bets to the bullish side for the first time, according to recent figures. What will this mean for crypto markets going forward?

As always there are several stories we didn't have time to cover. They include: Prodeum ICO Exits with a Prank-No Real Haul, How blockchain could kill both cable and Netflix, OpenDoor scores $10 million funding and Golden Kitty Awards Winners just missed out on some further discussion.

We also bring you two fantastic interviews - Malcolm Lerider from NEO and Adam Ludwin from Chain!

We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe.

Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, why not leave us a review on iTunes?

Special Guests: Adam Ludwin and Malcolm Lerider.

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