CoinDesk Podcast Network

The top stories and best shows in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk.

Latest Episodes:

BREAKDOWN: Kevin Owocki on Gitcoin, Controversy and the Future of Open-Source Funding Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

Ever since announcing their fourth round of grants, Gitcoin has been a major subject of conversation across the Twittersphere. In addition to all the excited buzz from both technical projects and media creators vying for grants matched based on E. Glen Weyl and Vitalik Buterin’s quadratic funding model, there has been controversy. Some of that controversy has been from outside the Ethereum community, pointing to Consensys and Ethereum Foundation support as an example of centralization. Some of the controversy has come from within, as debates rage about what is or isn’t an acceptable use of “public” resources.

No matter what one’s position, it’s hard to deny that Gitcoin is one of the most interesting experiments in open source funding to date. Listen as @nlw askes the projects founder Kevin Owocki about the history of the project, the controversy, and what makes this round of grants such a big jump forward.

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Decentralization Philosophy Part 1 – From Buddha to the Conquistadors Jan 19, 2020

Show notes

The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss decentralization in blockchain projects, the historical context of decentralized organizations, the robustness it conveys but also the difficulties it engenders.

On today's podcast we apply concepts and stories from "The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a formational book on pre-blockchain decentralization written in the early 2000's, as the centralized US military struggled to effectively dispatch a much smaller decentralized force in Afghanistan. While the battlefield is different, the insight is perhaps even more relevant to the world of blockchain projects, their decentralized origins and ambitions.

Later, we discuss the similarities between decentralized organizations and the Buddha's concept of self.

Want more? Catch up on 7 years of Let's Talk Bitcoin!

This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com and eToro.com.

Original Photo by Ubaidhulla Adam on Unsplash

This episode featured Adam B. Levine, Stephanie Murphy, and Jonathan Mohan

Music for today's episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas.

Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com

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BREAKDOWN: Tyrone Ross on Why Financial Advisors Are Taking Notice Of DeFi Jan 17, 2020

Show notes

One man. Three piping hot takes. In this special interview episode of The Breakdown, financial advisor and crypto advocate Tyrone Ross shares his thoughts on:

Why Financial Advisors are the key to bringing in the next wave of crypto investors
Why DeFi is an even bigger deal than you think - and not just to the hackers and entrepreneurs building on it
Why Square’s CashApp - not Binance, not Coinbase, not any one else - is the most important company in Crypto

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BREAKDOWN: Why 'Crypto Dad' Is Building the Digital Dollar Foundation Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

As Libra continues to spur discussions among regulators around the world, and China’s digital yuan comes ever closer to fruition, the U.S. Federal Reserve seems disinclined to look seriously at a digital dollar. Ex-CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo - aka “Crypto Dad” - isn’t waiting around. He has teamed with Accenture to launch the nonprofit Digital Dollar Foundation.

As crypto continues to evolve, it does so in sometimes divergent directions. Gemini announced a new insurance company designed to make big institutions more comfortable with the space. Zcash, meanwhile, released an updated SDK to make it easier to shield transactions via mobile. Can the privacy-preserving side of crypto co-exist, ultimately, with the sanguine institutional side?

Finally, we revisit our discussion of personal tokens and ISAs, as well as look at the latest research from Coinmetrics on whether bitcoin is behaving like a safe haven asset.

Topics discussed:

Former CFTC head Giancarlo launches Digital Dollar Foundation

Gemini creates an insurance company with $200m limit to protect clients

Coinmetrics examines bitcoin safe haven narrative

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BREAKDOWN: Why Crypto's 'Rogue State' Narrative is a Risk to the Industry Jan 15, 2020

Show notes

Crypto tokens weren’t the only thing that saw a major pump yesterday. The total value locked in DeFi ascended to new heights. While part of this can be explained simply by the rise in ETH price, it also reflected traders turning to DeFi platforms as a way to get more exposure to the market action without selling their core assets.

For all the exciting price action, not everything is pointing in a positive direction. These market moves don’t seem to reflect new market participants, for example, and anecdotally, times remain tough for projects trying to fundraise.

In our final segment, we look at a blockchain conference in North Korea that the UN suggests simply attending may violate international sanctions, an Iran-focused hedge fund that uses cryptocurrency to work around international restrictions, and ask whether this sort of activity presents a narrative risk to the industry as a whole?

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BREAKDOWN: Mati Greenspan on the Technical and Macro Roots of Bitcoin’s Price Surge | January 14th, 2020 Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

Bitcoin is up more than 8% in the last 24 hours. BSV, meanwhile, is up nearly a whopping 100%. The question is, of course, why? Is it some larger macro context? A pump-and-dump? Or just the crypto markets being as crazy as they are. The Breakdown invited guest Mati Greenspan, former e-Toro analyst and now founder of Quantum Economics to give his take.

We also look at two stories around the growing crypto derivative markets: the launch of the CME’s options on bitcoin futures and CFTC Chair Heath Tarbert’s comments yesterday that regulated derivatives will bring legitimacy to the space. Finally, we look at a just-released Investor Alert from the SEC on IEOs.

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Narrative Watch: The Hunt for Crypto's Killer App | January 13th 2020 Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Starting today, accredited investors will be able to part of $13.5m in tokenized bonds connected to the contract of Brooklyn Nets Point Guard Spencer Dinwiddie. The first-of-its-kind offering took months of negotiation with the NBA but marks a seminal moment for both crypto and the larger idea of Income Share Agreements.

In this podcast, we discuss how big a deal Dinwiddie’s offering is and whether Income Share Agreements could be a breakout use case for crypto. We also discuss other contenders for “crypto killer app,” including undercollateralized DeFi loans and NFT-based games. Finally, we discuss whether crypto’s actual killer app has already arrived - in the form of using bitcoin to escape local political and economic controls.

Topics Discussed:

Spencer Dinwiddie tokenizes $13.5m NBA contract

What Income Share Agreements have to do with crypto

Bitcoin’s mainstream use case isn’t mainstream

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'The Internet Was Illegal' and Other Early Stories With Zooko Wilcox Jan 12, 2020

Show notes

The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week, the Let's Talk Bitcoin! show enlisted CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen and early cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox for a conversation on the history, challenges and long term development path of early, formative technologies. which we often hear modern blockchain movements compared against.

From the pre-internet days, through the free/open source movement, linux's successes and challenges on the desktop, the peer-to-peer movement, cypherpunks, linux maximalism, fundamentalism as a concept as well as some brief excursions through some history and politics of the time... Later, we'll discuss how AI and lawyers have more in common than you'd think, and what kind of protections we may need as autonomous agents become ubiquitous.

This episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Brave.com, eToro.com, and Purse.io Original Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash. This episode featured CoinDesk Reporter Leigh Cuen and Zooko Wilcox. Music for todays episode was provided by Jared Rubens, and general fuzz, with editing by Jonas. Have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com - And with luck we’ll be back next week with full host discussions.

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BREAKDOWN: The Global Game of Coins Heats Up | January 10th, 2020 Jan 10, 2020

Show notes

China’s digital currency project continues to move ahead aggressively, with a new paper from the People’s Bank of China suggesting that a core design is complete. Whatever stage of development the currency actually is, it’s clear that China wants the world to see it as ahead of the curve in the digital currency race.

In other parts of the world, crypto companies face a never-ending game of regulatory arbitrage. Derebit has moved from the Netherlands to Panama, citing a new burden from AMLD5 compliance. In the U.S., New York wants to give its crypto regulators (even) more teeth while Illinois recognizes the legality of blockchain-based contracts.

Topics Discussed:

PBoC paper claims “top-level” design of crypto currency complete. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/52616/chinas-central-bank-says-it-has-completed-top-level-design-of-digital-currency

Zuck leaves out Libra in Faceboook 2030 vision

https://www.coindesk.com/facebooks-zuckerberg-highlights-digital-commerce-but-not-libra-in-2030-vision

Derebit leaves the Netherlands for Panama due to AMLD5 compliance concerns

https://www.coindesk.com/dutch-derivatives-exchange-deribit-to-move-to-crypto-friendly-panama

Gov Cuomo wants to give NYFDS more teeth

https://www.coindesk.com/new-york-governor-proposes-giving-financial-watchdog-more-teeth

Illinois recognizes legality of blockchain-based contracts

https://www.coindesk.com/illinois-legalizes-blockchain-contracts

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NARRATIVE WATCH: Will DAOs Break Out In 2020? | January 9th, 2020 Jan 09, 2020

Show notes

The aftershock of the 2016 The DAO hack meant that DAOs weren’t nearly as hyped as ICOs and later some other aspects of the web3 movement. In 2019, however, DAOs came roaring back and start 2020 with the wind at their sails.

In this episode, we look at the 2019 DAO tale of the tape - what people thought would happen and what actually did happen, including the launch of Moloch, MetaCartel, Ethereum’s MarketingDAO and more than 1000 DAOs on Aragon. We also hear from Aragon founder Luis Cuende who discusses 1) why the newly launched Aragon courts expand what DAOs can do; 2) examples of the need for subjective human intervention in DAOs; and 3) why 2020 is poised to be DAOs best year yet.

RELATED STORY: Aragon courts begin recruiting jurors

DAO Platform Aragon Begins Recruiting Jurors for Tokenized 'Court'

RELATED STORY: Ryan Zurrer’s new for profit DAO

Former Polychain Partner Ryan Zurrer Is Leaving Web3 to Start a DAO

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