On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Weekly Roundup 11/17/22 (John Ray's FTX filing, will FTX political contributions be repaid, what's wrong with effective altruism?) (EP.372) Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

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

Matt's blog post, 'It's Time to Grow Up'
The Alameda - FTX relationship was always sketchy
Would FTX ever have been able to go public?
Why don't we have decent disclosure for token emissions?
How do we put this crisis to use?
John Ray's Day 1 filing about the state of affairs at FTX
So what in the hell happened to the client funds at FTX?
Will funds donated to politicians be clawed back?
What's wrong with utilitarianism?
How effective altruism is like Stalinism
One theory on how Alameda lost money on Luna
Some lending firms kicked out Alameda after the summer credit crisis
Is Serum forking out coins which are due to FTX creditors?
Why has the DOJ been so passive so far?
We introduce some new bad boys
Su Zhu and Kyle are trying to redeem themselves
Do Kyle and Su have a new venture underway?
Rep. Tom Emmer is elected as the GOP Whip in the House
Will the Republican led House subpoena Gensler?

Content mentioned in this episode:

Matt Walsh in Medium, It's Time to Grow Up
FTX CEO John Ray's Day 1 filing

Sponsor notes:

Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Garrett Weaver (Juke) on Digital Collectibles (EP.371) Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

Garrett Weaver, the co-founder and CEO of Juke joins the show.

In this episode we discuss:

Garrett's career as an entertainment industry executive and the path that led him to starting Juke.
How Hollywood intellectual property works and how blockchains can open up revenue opportunities for studios.
The use cases for NFT technology and the innovation on the horizon in the industry.

To learn more about Juke visit www.juke.io

Read about Juke's launch

Weekly Roundup 11/10/22 (FTX fiasco, Su Zhu and Do attempt comebacks, Proof of Reserves redemption) (EP.370) Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

Nic and Matt return for one of the craziest weeks in crypto history. In this episode:

Coin Metrics makes a key on-chain discovery regarding FTX's insolvency
Will Castle Island buy the naming rights to the Miami Heat arena?
What in the hell happened to FTX/Alameda?
How big is the hole in FTX' balance sheet
Was FTX/Alameda insolvent as early as Q2?
How this is reminiscent of the Bitfinex/Tether transaction?
What did CZ see that caused him to catalyze the attack on FTX?
How did FTX pass an audit?
Who will be affected by the FTX collapse?
How this will affect the already impaired crypto lenders
We revisit some of the recent departures from FTX/Alameda
This explains why FTX was bailing out the lenders in Q2
Will FTX US be firewalled off here?
Could this crisis have been forecasted?
Did Sam perjure himself in front of Congress?
Gensler's responsibility in the FTX fiasco
Su Zhu is trying to do a redemption arc
Why is Su Zhu surfing?
Possible regulatory consequences
What are the midterm consequences for crypto?
A failure of corporate governance at FTX
Some venture funds were attesting to the solvency of FTX while withdrawing funds
FTX is selectively processing withdrawals to Bahamanian entities
Silver linings from the crisis
Proof of Reserves is having a moment
Sam's crypto agenda in DC is thankfully dead
SBF was somehow an LP in Sequoia and Paradigm
Setting the record straight on Tom Brady

Sponsor notes:

Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Josh Schwartz and Dima Kogan (FORDEFI) on Building Institutional Custody for DeFi (EP.369) Nov 08, 2022

Show notes

Josh Schwartz and Dima Kogan, co-founders of Fordefi, join the show. In this episode we discuss:

MPC custody: what it is, its academic roots and how MPC works.
The tradeoffs and considerations that have led to the growth in popularity of MPC custody.
Josh and Dima's backgrounds and the path that led them to founding Fordefi.
The institutional custody landscape and some of the challenges that firms face when engaging with DeFi protcols.
How Josh and Dima think about the security risks associated with smart contract platforms.
The types of customers that Fordefi is currently serving.
Their fundraise announcement and what is next.

To learn more visit fordefi.com

Weekly Roundup 11/04/22 (Fidelity Crypto Launches, Alameda's balance sheet, SDNY looks at Tether) (EP.368) Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

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

Bitwise is moving into active management
What's the deal with Uber on the blockchain?
The boys review House of the Dragon
The history of land-based blockchain bets
Fidelity launches no-fee retail trading for trading BTC and ETH on their platform
Matt reminisces on Fidelity's crypto journey
Google announces blockchain node engine
Nic's 2-year pending transaction on Venmo
SBF continues to wrangle with CT
Sam's debate with Erik Voorhees
Alameda's questionable balance sheet is leaked
Can FTX buy its way into respectability despite the existence of Alameda?
What's the deal with the MAPS token?
Is it far for FTX to start offshore and buy way into the regulated system?
Elon's schemes for Twitter
Coinbase and the Blockchain Association are supporting Ripple in their case against the SEC
The Tether case is reopened at the SDNY
Tether rips us off with their own bootleg FUD Dice
What happens to Chinese Tether holders if Tether has to unwind
If Tether fails, do funds flow back into BTC?
The mining sector is deeply distressed
Why the mining bankruptcies may cause concentration in who controls hashrate
Circle delays their SPAC
Coin Metrics releases a taxonomy with Goldman and MSCI
Protos' weird hatchet job on Nic's tungsten cube infatuation
Did we manipulate the market for tungsten?

Sponsor notes:

Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Jeff Park (Bitwise) on Active Management in Crypto (EP.367) Nov 01, 2022

Show notes

Jeff Park, an active Portfolio Manager at Bitwise joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

The state of active crypto asset management.
How Bitwise approaches the active management opportunity.
The taxonomy of strategies that Jeff observes in the market.
Perspectives on MEV and other crypto specific opportunities.
The institutional LP landscape for active management vs. passive.

To learn more about Bitwise visit bitwiseinvestments.com and see their announcement of new active strategies.

Brian Venturo and Brannin McBee (CoreWeave) on Building an Industrial Scale GPU Cloud (EP.366) Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

CoreWeave's Brian Venturo (CTO) and Brannin McBee (CSO) return to On The Brink for a discussion of their journey through the merge and beyond. In this episode:

Are they relieved that the merge finally happened?
Will there be some form of non-Bitcoin PoW in the future?
Could Ethereum conceivably return to PoW?
The effect of PoS on ETH's censor resistance
What quantity of ETH miners shifted to other PoW chains and what portion went elsewhere?
What is the best use of capital for former ETH miners now?
Did the merge really reduce global electricity consumption by 0.2%?
Brannin's estimate for precise electricity reduction from the merge
How feasible is it for former ETH miners to get into GPU clouds?
How Core Weave built their cloud product
What it takes to be competitive in the high performance computing sector
Why the generalized providers of cloud can't just win when it comes to rendering and ML/AI
Why the HPC market is exploding right now
How open source communities behind text and image models contributed to the explosion in use cases
The importance of Stable Diffusion versus Open AI
The explosive growth of Stable Diffusion and Stability AI
How the growth in infrastructure contributed to the emergence of these newer image models
New directions in AI models like video creation
Will generative AI be attacked by environmentalists?
Can cloud data centers handle interruptible loads like Bitcoin miners can?
How industrial compute will play a role in emerging metaverses
Use cases Brannin and Brian are excited about
Why hardware is actually a constraint to the number of metaverse users today

Learn more about CoreWeave here.

Roundup 10/28/22 (Bitcoin's hashrate spike, Miner insolvencies, Lightning v Rollups) (EP.365) Oct 28, 2022

Show notes

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

Full time crypto haters
What's the deal with the nocoiner think tank?
Eric Wall and Udi vs Bitcoiners
Did Bitcoin put all of its eggs in the LN basket?
Scaling isn't LN versus big blocks any more
Is there just one scaling solution for blockchains?
What are the prospects for ZK Rollups on Bitcoin?
Spam attacks on BSV and Zcash
Bitcoin Miners are going bankrupt
How did the Ethereum merge affect Bitcoin miners
What's the deal with Bitcoin's hashrate spike?
Are non-economic Bitcoin miners killing the free market for mining?
What's the deal with miner lenders?
Synthetic Bitcoin stablecoins
Is Twitter fairly priced at the deal price?
Matt Levine's 40k word article on crypto
Is the pivot finally in?

Sponsor notes:

Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Mike Cahill (Pyth) on Solving the Oracle Problem (EP.364) Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

Mike Cahill, Director of the Pyth Data Association joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

The origin of Pyth and how the project is addressing the 'Oracle Problem'.
How Pyth works and how companies and protocols are using the product today.
Mike's views on how equities on chain will evolve, and how Pyth is positioned in this market.
The recent Mango Markets exploit and the future of on-chain market manipulations in DeFi.
Pyth's network of partners and how the network is growing in 2022.

To learn more about Pyth visit Pyth.Network.

Weekly Roundup 10/21/22 (Aptos launch, crypto vigilantes, FTX's regulatory draft) (EP.363) Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode:
Why USDC is suffering redemptions but not USDT
Some new 3AC shenanigans are unearthed
The SEC and CFTC are investigating 3AC
Details from the Voyager bankruptcy filing
Avraham Eisenburg is crypto's hottest new villain Is the Mango exploit against the law?
Is there a vigilante group out to get Do Kwon?
SBF is criticized for his regulatory draft proposal
The Texas securities regulators are investigating FTX
FTX shareholders at odds with FTT holders?
Aptos' controversial launch
Have we forgotten how to do a fair launch?
How Ethereum's merge put pressure on Bitcoin miners
Reuters' Binance investigation
Unstoppable domains deprecates over 100k .coin domains
Is Bitcoin finally decorrelating from risk assets?

Sponsor notes:

Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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