CoinDesk Podcast Network

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BREAKDOWN: Coinbase’s New Policy – Anti-Woke or Just a Joke? Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

CEO Brian Armstrong’s letter has not just the crypto world but the larger world of tech and business talking about the role of corporations in society.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Monday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong published the innocuously titled “Coinbase Is a Mission-Driven Company.”

While the post talked a lot about Coinbase’s core mission, its real goal seemed to be to make clear Coinbase would not be engaging with any other social or political issues beyond that, and to the extent employees wanted to do so they needed to do it on their own time.

The reactions were intense, immediate and in many instances, totally opposite.

In this episode, NLW breaks down the entire social media reaction and the arguments for and against this policy.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Why Bitcoin's Longest Run Above $10,000 Matters Sep 28, 2020

Show notes

Bitcoin has been above $10,000 for even longer than the record 2017-18 run, giving confidence to long term HODLers in the process.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Today on the Brief:

After four weeks down, bitcoin bounces back on suspicions that recent bearishness was overblown
KuCoin exchange gets hacked for somewhere between $150 million and $280 million
Jack Dorsey outlines Twitter’s blockchain and bitcoin beliefs during Oslo Freedom Forum appearance

Our main discussion: Digging in to bitcoin’s 64-day run over $10,000

Bitcoin has been above $10,000 for longer than any time in its history. Its volatility is also at recent historic lows. In this episode, NLW puts this in the context of broader market movements and explains why new price floors are self-reinforcing.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SOB: The 51% Attack Nightmare Scenario (Isn't That Bad) Sep 27, 2020

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On this Speaking of Bitcoin episode, join hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy & Jonathan Mohan for an in-depth discussion about what’s really at risk when blockchains suffer the dreaded 51% attack.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

On today’s show we’re talking 51% attacks, the much discussed, infrequently seen and fairly misunderstood doomsday scenarios. It’s recently re-emerged as a topic of discussion as Ethereum plans its transition to Proof-of-Stake and fork Ethereum Classic is hit by its third in less than a month.

Although the numbers may change, basically any blockchain you can imagine is vulnerable to some form of the so-called 51% attack. By distributing the power within a protocol, say to miners instead of a corporate board, blockchains and other decentralized systems create and maintain a “Consensus Reality”, where what most of the network believes to be true is true, or becomes true for the entirety of the network.

If you think about it, this makes sense. Each blockchain creates a game with a distinct set of rules that need to be followed for the thing to work. It requires lots of people who don’t know each other to individually follow those rules and get rewarded by the system for doing so. The assumption underlying all of these systems is that most of the people are going to be compelled by the offered rewards to follow the rules. Even if a lot of people aren’t following the rules, they’re probably breaking them in different ways rather than working together.

In a 51% attack, that assumption is broken as most, or at least enough of the network is overcome by bad actors who aim to rewrite reality in their favor.

It’s a real problem, one of the biggest blockchains face, especially less popular ones… But even if you could pull one off, the outcome might not be as bad as many fear.

But what is actually at risk? What’s possible and what’s safe? Tune in to find out.

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War Sep 27, 2020

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Will the future of currency be led by the U.S., China, Bitcoin, or some combination we can barely imagine today?

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

This week’s Long Reads Sunday is a reading of “The Currency Cold War: Four Scenarios” by Jeff Wilsner – part of CoinDesk’s Internet 2030 series.

In it, Wilsner talks to experts about four scenarios:

A multi-currency scenario, where exchange is abstracted away via digital wallets
A China-led scenario
A U.S.-led scenario
A bitcoin/non-state currency-led scenario

In addition to reading, NLW gives his take on which scenario is most likely.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

RESEARCH: The One-Way ETH 'Burn' That Will Kick-Start Ethereum 2.0 Sep 26, 2020

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With the final preparations for the launch of Ethereum 2.0 soon to be underway, CoinDesk's Christine Kim spoke with Developers Raul Jordan and Eduardo Antuña Díez about what's left to do.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Lead developer at Prysmatic Labs Raul Jordan, who has been building Ethereum 2.0 software for over two years, explained his team would be wrapping up all feature development by October 15.

“At that time, it’s all hands on deck to just have good documentation, good user experience, fix-up security holes [and] basically prepare for launch. That’s where we are today if all remains on track,” said Jordan.

The final features currently in development by Prysmatic Labs and other software development teams include making sure different code implementations of Ethereum 2.0, also called “clients”, are interoperable and can be used interchangeably by a user without running the risk of losing validator rewards.

It’s not only client developers who are beginning final preparations for this network upgrade. Ethereum startups building hardware and tooling for users to participate in the Ethereum 2.0 launch are also working on adding last-minute features to their products.

Eduardo Antuña Díez, project lead at DAppNode, said, “The most important thing that we realized after the first [Ethereum 2.0] testnet is that people need to know the status of their validators. Having a good monitoring system to be able to know when your validator is down … we are working in that direction.”

Before Ethereum 2.0 goes live, Jordan and Díez both noted that a new contract will be created on the current Ethereum blockchain to receive deposits of 32 ETH. Only once this contract accumulates a minimum of 524,288 ETH, which is worth roughly $181 million at time of writing, will the new Ethereum blockchain officially kick-start at midnight UTC the following day.

About the security of the deposit contract, Jordan said, “There’s no way to retrieve [funds]. … It’s considered a burn in the short term. It’s not like there’s any sort of admin key or any sort of way to take those funds out. There’s no way somebody can take all the ETH that is locked in there.”

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BREAKDOWN: Why the Stock Market is Poised for Its Worst September Since 2011 Sep 26, 2020

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Last week saw the third-biggest outflow from stock funds in history, and the dollar is the strongest it’s been since April. Here’s what’s going on.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

On this edition of The Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at the fourth painful week for traditional markets in a row.

He discusses the factors contributing to the trouble, including:

A normal correction from too-high valuations
The return of COVID-19 lockdowns
The end of easy recovery gains
Diminishing likelihood of a stimulus bill
Election volatility

This week on The Breakdown:

Monday | The FinCEN Files Show Banks Don’t Actually Care About Stopping Money Laundering

Tuesday |Marty Bent on Why Bitcoin and Big Energy Are Unlikely Allies

Wednesday | Violent Reflexivity: Why Market Movements Are More Aggressive Than Ever, Feat. Corey Hoffstein

Thursday | Did Corporate Insiders Perfectly Predict the Market Top?

Friday | Sven Henrich on the Ever-Weakening Economic Cycle

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Sven Henrich on the Ever-Weakening Economic Cycle Sep 25, 2020

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The founder and lead market strategist at NorthmanTrader explains how the Fed has boxed itself in and why our fundamental economic capacity fails to grow.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Sven Henrich is the outspoken founder and lead market strategist at NorthmanTrader. Well known for his appearances on CNBC, CNN Business and MarketWatch, Sven is also the host of the Straight Talk podcast.

In this conversation, he and NLW discuss:

The ever-weakening economic cycle
Why the Fed has boxed itself in
Why the asset price bubble is contributing to wealth inequality
How market capitalization-to-GDP reached all-time highs
What the election means for markets

Find our guest online:

Twitter: NorthmanTrader

Website: northmantrader.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Did Corporate Insiders Perfectly Predict the Market Top? Sep 24, 2020

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In August, the volume of personally owned stock sold by corporate executives reached its highest level since 2015, followed by a 10% decline in the S&P500 in September.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Today on the Brief:

Initial U.S. jobless claims up to 870,000
Partial lockdowns begin in earnest in Europe and Israel
The global demand for American stocks

Our main discussion: Did corporate insiders perfectly time the market top?

August saw the largest volume of insider selling since 2015, with more than 1000 corporate officers offloading $6.7B in stock. Subsequently, the market has seen a 10% decline since the S&P500 all time high of Sept. 2. What’s more, according to new statistics, insider selling is happening at the fastest pace since 2012.

The question is: What do these executives know that the rest of the market doesn’t?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Violent Reflexivity – Why Market Movements Are More Aggressive Than Ever, Feat. Corey Hoffstein Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

How the Fed and the rise of passive investing and volatility strategies have combined to make market movements faster and more severe.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Corey Hoffstein is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research LLC, a quantitative research and investment fund. He is also the host of the “Flirting with Models” podcast.

His most recent research is “Liquidity Cascades: The Coordinated Risk of Uncoordinated Market Participants.”

In it, he examines three popular narratives about what is driving radical swings in markets, including:

The increased role of the Fed
The rise of passive and index investing
The growth of volatility-correlated strategies

He finds that, individually, none could explain the radical market shifts we’ve seen. However, when combined, they create a market incentive loop that is causing markets to move and react to exogenous shocks more quickly and aggressively than ever before.

Find our guest online:

Twitter: @choffstein

Website: Newfound Research

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BREAKDOWN: Marty Bent on Why Bitcoin and Big Energy Are Unlikely Allies Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

Bitcoin mining can help big energy companies produce more efficiently, increasing American energy independence in the process.

This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.

Today on the Brief:

Where the digital euro fits in Lagarde’s economic integration plans
New stablecoin guidance from the OCC
Mnuchin and Powell head to the Hill

Our main discussion features Marty Bent.

Marty is the author of one of the best known daily bitcoin newsletters, as well as the host of “Tales From The Crypt” podcast. He also is one of the leaders of Great American Mining, a new project using bitcoin mining to make big energy more efficient and profitable.

In this discussion, we talk about how bitcoin and big energy are unlikely allies, how that alliance can bring more bitcoin mining back to America, and how it is working to reduce America’s energy dependence.

Find our guest online:

Twitter: @MartyBent

Twitter: @GAMdotAI

Website: gam.ai

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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