On The Brink with Castle Island

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**On The Brink with Castle Island**

Hosts Matt Walsh and Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures explore news and deals in the public blockchain space and talk to some of the leading experts in the industry. Learn more and stay up to date at CastleIsland.vc and follow on twitter @CastleIslandVC

Latest Episodes:

Weekly Roundup 03/03/23 (Silvergate in trouble, Oasis hacks back, Regulation by Blog Post) (EP.402) Mar 03, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back for news and deals of the week. In this episode:

Is Yuga Labs' NFT collection on Bitcoin genuine?
Will the environmentalist attacks on PoW move to other industries?
FTX' Nishad Singh pleads guilty
Ramnik Aurora maxed out donations to George Santos
Silvergate is in trouble
Why concentration risk makes it difficult for smaller banks to bank crypto firms
UK banks are curtailing their crypto exposures
Oasis returns $140m stolen from Wormhole to Jump
NY Mag's piece on Arthur Hayes
Gensler continues to make vague threats against the crypto space
Gensler's regulation by blog post
Greyscale's case against the SEC is moving to oral arguments
Can Bitcoin just change the code and move to PoS?

Matt Cutler (Blocknative) on block building and the economics of MEV (EP.401) Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

We host Matt Cutler, CEO and co-founder of Blocknative, in this episode to discuss the intricacies of block building and his thoughts on the future of MEV. We cover:

The phenomenon of certain block builders subsidizing transactions
The requirements for operating a competitive block builder
Margins required for sustainable block building
MEV redistribution and balancing interests of users vs. validators.

You can follow Matt @mcutler on Twitter and learn more about Blocknative here.

Weekly Roundup 02/24/23 (SEC vs Terra, Stables as Securities, the CoinBASE L2) (Ep.400) Feb 24, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back for the 400th episode of OTB! In this roundup:

Nic's Vespa story
More on Ordinals
Is embedding non-economic data in Bitcoin Satoshi's vision?
How Ordinals accelerates efficiency improvements in Bitcoin
More FTX crime family news
SBF is hit with four new criminal charges
Augustin Cartens claims that crypto has lost the battle against fiat
NYAG vs Coinex
The SEC alleges that UST is a security - does this implicate other stables?
What can Congress do about Choke Point 2.0 or SEC overreach
Rep. Emmer introduces an anti-CBDC bill
Matt's baseball card collection
Silvergate is the most shorted stock right now
The SEC blocks Binance.US' purchase of Voyager assets

Casey Rodarmor on Ordinals, Inscriptions, and Digital Property Rights (EP.399) Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor joins us to talk ordinals, inscriptions, and digital collectibles on Bitcoin. In this episode:

What is an ordinal? Why the name?
The history of ordinals and inscriptions
How does ordinal theory work exactly?
How to participate in ordinals and do you need Ord
The interaction between inscriptions and Bitcoin fees
Should inscriptions be compressed? How should this happen?
Why did Casey not use Counterparty?
How Bitcoin is the most premium blockspace for NFTs
Inscribed content property rights on Bitcoin versus Ethereum
Will Bitcoin state just be pruned?
Who will store inscription data?
How bitcoin data availability might be improving over time
How ordinals affect Bitcoin's security budget
Why NFT traders are looking at Bitcoin for the first time
Where the inscription 400kb limit comes from
'Ripping a 4 megger'
Is Casey concerned about out of band transactions
Do ordinals actually increase the possible efficiency of operating a full node?
The primary bottlenecks in running Bitcoin Core and how inscriptions affect that
Will ordinals catalyze more pruning in Bitcoin Core?
Might ordinals make rollups more likely on Bitcoin?
Do inscriptions dilute Bitcoin's primary purpose as a monetary system?
Transporting other NFTs to Bitcoin with teleburns
What Casey is most excited about with ordinals

Further reading:

Ray Hindi & Jake Lynch (L1 Digital) on Crypto Funds, RWAs and DAOs (EP.398) Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

Ray Hindi and Jake Lynch of L1 Digital join the show. In this episode we discuss:

L1 Digital's origin story and early path into the crypto ecosystem.
The firm's approach to investing in managers and making direct investment.
The evolution of crypto funds including views on structure, strategy, focus.
The fundraising landscape – how pensions/larger pools of capital think about crypto investing.
Views on the impact of FTX.
Thoughts on the current regulatory landscape.
Real World Assets (RWAs) and how L1D is exploring this thematic area.
DAOs and how this framework is evolving.

To learn more about L1 Digital visit L1.Digital.

Weekly Roundup 02/17/23 (BUSD Wells notice, Howey vs Reves, the SEC's custody guidance) (EP.397) Feb 17, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

Is peak FUD in?
Is this the 'custody rule rally'?
OTB is keeping the deals of the week
House is probing the connections between FTX and the SEC
SBF is banned from using a VPN
Is SBF a secret sports fan?
SBF's bail cosigners are unmasked
SBF VC investors are hit with a class action lawsuit
SEC sends Paxos a Wells notice
Circle dispells Wells notice rumors
Is the SEC going after all stablecoins or just BUSD?
What does Reves say about stablecoins being securities?
Tether is the beneficiary of the crackdowns in the US
Can US regulators really go after Tether?
How Paypal deposits are like stablecoins
What's in the SEC's custody rules?
Changes to market structure if the SEC's custody rules go through
Binance suggests that they are ready to settle up with US regulators

Weekly Roundup 03/10/23 (Choke Point 2.0, staking in the crosshairs, ordinals take off) (EP.396) Feb 10, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

Kraken winds down their staking as a service product
The SEC asks all staking as a service providers to register
Does 3rd party staking pass all of the prongs of Howey?
The FT's article on the final days of FTX
Did the FTX executives leave the labradoodles in the Bahamas?
Ordinals are bringing NFT enthusiasts to Bitcoin
Matt has had a tough week
Kyle and Su launch OPNX
So what's the deal with the crypto-focused Chokepoint 2.0?
Major crypto-facing banks are cutting back their crypto practice
What will be the fate of the Wyoming SPDIs?
The boys review Bad Boys
We discuss Colombia's hippo problem
DCG reaches a provisional agreement with creditors
Our Storybook Brawl conspiracy

Content mentioned:

Nic in Pirate Wires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs

Sponsor notes:

Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Josh Benaron (Bundlr) on the Importance of Permanent Storage and Provenance (EP.395) Feb 06, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, we were joined by Josh Benaron, founder of Bundlr, a scaling protocol built on top of Arweave. Josh shares his views on:

Censorship resistant and permanent storage
The importance of provenance in attributing and distributing value
Why Arweave's approach to decentralized storage is elegant
How Bundlr addresses trade offs in Arweave and makes it more usable

Follow Josh Benaron here. Learn more about Bundlr here.

Weekly Roundup 02/03/23 (Ordinals frenzy, Charlie Munger, Tether truthers are back) (EP.394) Feb 03, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

Nic's Proof of Reserves for Policymakers
Charlie Munger attacks crypto
The academic Tether truthers are back
We unveil a new bad boy
New allegations about Celsius surface
The problem with exchange tokens
How do you retire a token?
The paradox of issuing tokens via an offshore foundation
SBF is allegedly tampering with witnesses
Did Sam really believe in EA?
We review Mel Gibson's Apocalypto
Were the Maya really that bad?
What on earth is going on with Ordinals?
Are Bitcoin NFTs a DOS attack?
A conflict of visions in Bitcoin reemerges
Matt keeps tearing his shirts
VC dress codes

Content mentioned in this episode:

Ark Invest Big Ideas 2023 Report
Coin Metrics' report on MEV
Dennis Porteaux, Illegitimate Bitcoin Transactions
Nic Carter, Proof of Reserves for Policymakers

Julien Niset (Argent) on Improving Self Custody with Account Abstraction (EP.393) Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

We host Julien Niset, co-founder of Argent in this episode on account abstract and smart contract wallets. We cover:

Building the first smart contract wallet on Ethereum
Why smart contract wallets improve the non-custodial experience
Standardizing contract wallet implementations on L1s retroactively and on L2s natively
Comparing and contrasting contract wallets and MPC (multi-party computation) wallets
Capabilities (social recovery, gas abstraction, transaction batching) unlocked by smart contract wallets

Follow Julien Niset here. Learn more about Argent here.

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