On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

OTB Live! Weekly Roundup 09/23/22 (EU's MiCA regulation finalized, XRP lawsuit, SEC dings Balina, Audience Q&A) (EP.352) Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

Nic and Matt sit down for a special live recording of OTB in front of an audience at the Boston Blockchain Week. In this episode:

Ian Balina is dinged by the SEC for Sparkster
The SEC's weird argument for standing over all of Ethereum
Is XRP a prediction market on Ripple's case against the SEC
Wintermute is hacked for $160m via a bad vanity generator
Several Senators file an amicus brief to support Custodia's lawsuit against the Fed
What the Congressional crypto agenda should look like
Europe finalizes their MiCA regulation
Europe discourages Dollar stablecoin usage in the EU
Exchanges and token issuers in the EU will have to make disclosures
Jesse Powell steps down from Kraken
NASDAQ is launching a crypto custody business
Helium strikes a deal with T Mobile
Audience Q&A

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

Steven Goldfeder (Offchain Labs) on Building Arbitrum (EP.351) Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

Steven Goldfeder is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Offchain Labs, the team building Arbitrum. In this episode we discuss:

Steven's academic background, and his work at Princeton University.
BlockSci, an early blockchain forensics/search product that Steven co-founded.
The evolution of MPC custody and the exciting developments in that category.
The Flash Boys 2.0 paper and the current state of MEV.
Steven's views on the evolution of L1 smart contract platforms and how L2 scaling is shaping up.
The design choices and considerations that went into the choice of optimistic vs. zero-knowledge rollups on Arbitrum.
The future of ZK systems on blockchains.

To learn more about Arbitrum and follow Steven visit www.offchainlabs.com

Weekly Roundup 09/16/22 (Merge makes it, Chainalysis crypto adoption report, Starbucks NFTs, Coinbase grades Congress) (EP.350) Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

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

The Merge takes place without incident
Will the Merge silence Ethereum critics on the left?
Will the ESG narrative around crypto get louder?
FTX takes a stake in Skybridge
Castle Island is not an island
If you make an NFT of a diamond and destroy the diamond, do you still have a diamond?
CME launches Ether options
Starbucks launches an NFT loyalty platform
Tungsten cubes are selling off
South Korea issues an arrest warrant for Do Kwon
The thin line between visionary and scammer
What Terra teaches us about why disclosures matter in capital markets
Huobi delists privacy coins
Can you take delivery of Tornado Cash-dusted Ether?
Coinbase launches their Crypto Action Network
Matt and Nic evaluate the ratings members of Congress are getting from Coinbase
Chainalysis releases their 2022 global crypto adoption index
Hodlnaut's CSW case begins
The NSA Bitcoin lab leak hypothesis
OTB goes live!

Mentioned in this episode:

Jake Chervinsky's thread on Tornado Cash
Chainalysis 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Report

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 and read their Mapping out the Merge report

Dan Mottice (Ansible Labs) on Building the Offramp for Web3 (EP.348) Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

Dan Mottice, CEO and Co-Founder of Ansible Labs, joins the show to talk about a new payment gateway for web3.

Dan's personal background and how he ended up in financial services
The Visa Network, Visa Direct Payouts and Visa Crypto
Ansible Labs' raise and what's ahead
Off-ramps and why they matter
North stars in fintech
The consumer experience in a b2b sales cycle
Navigating turbulent markets and how to build to win

Learn more about Ansible here.

David Hoffman (Bankless) on Everything About the Merge (EP.349) Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

Bankless' David Hoffman joins Matt and Nic for a special episode to cover Ethereum's highly-anticipated Merge. In this episode:

How David came to Ethereum and the Bankless origin story
The story behind the Bankless DAO
Whether David would ever consider focusing on other blockchains
What could cause David to abandon Ethereum
The Coinbase OFAC filtering debate
Why proposer-builder separation might make validator-driven censorship harder
Filtering transactions at the pool layer versus undertaking a 'Treasury Activated Soft Fork'
Under what conditions would social slashing of major validators make sense?
How embedded is the social slashing consensus into Ethereum's social fabric?
The significance of the new supply dynamics stemming from the Merge
Is the unlock something to worry about?
Is there a 'crowding out' effect from staked Ether becoming a risk free rate?
Does MEV pose a concentration risk post Merge?
Are MEV-driven yields for stakers perverse?
Is MEV an inescapable feature of richly stateful blockchains
Why the notion of Certified-Toxic-MEV-free blocks might emerge
How is Ethereum's roadmap determined?
What's the deal with the Surge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge?
What are the strongest narratives coming out of the Merge?
Probabilities of the Merge success
Why the Merge may not be fully priced in

Follow David on Twitter and learn more about Bankless.

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan's Collage #344

Weekly Roundup 09/09/22 (Stablecoin wars, White House energy report, Gensler attacks) (EP.347) Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

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

Nic's shoe problem
Web3 merch for OTB?
The White House releases a report on crypto asset energy usage
Why the US should encourage mining within its borders
Coinbase is funding a lawsuit against OFAC
Binance is converting USDC into BUSD on their platform
Poolin is having liquidity problems
Russia considers crypto for cross border payments
The US Government recovers $30m from the Axie hack
Gensler keeps firing barbs
Nic doesn't buy the supply shock thesis around the Merge
Will ETH have another high fee era?
What could an ETH carry trade look like?

Content mentioned:

The White House, Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States
Gary Gensler speech at the SEC, Kennedy and Crypto

Sponsor notes:

Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter and read their Mapping out the Merge report

Bennett Collen and Stephanie Howard (Endstate) on building a web3-native fashion brand (EP.346) Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

Ria and Nic from Castle Island sit down with Stephanie Howard and Bennett Collen, cofounders of Endstate, a web3 footwear and fashion brand. We cover the merits of the redeem-and-retain NFT model and the vision for Endstate.

Bennett's prior crypto startup and how he decided to unite his passion for sneakers with web3
How Bennett and Stephanie met and cofounded Endstate
Stephanie's career in sneaker design to date
Why creators and athletes are jumping at the opportunity to issue merchandise-linked NFTs
Why Bennett and Stephanie chose to launch a web3 native brand
How redeem-and-retain NFTs allow manufacturers to reduce inventory risk
Why fashion is getting more targeted and niche
Why Endstate is able to release new iterations of their sneakers so quickly
Endstate's rationale for manufacturing in the US
Endstate drops to date
Endstate's new drop with Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith
How web3 brands should think about which metaverse to build for
Endstate's thinking around Solana vs Ethereum and the impact of gas fees
How to link physical products with NFTs – from NFCs to QRs to visual scans
What should we call physical NFTs?
Aside from shoes, what merch is amenable to the Endstate model?
What product sectors will be NFTed?
How developed are authenticated third party marketplaces for physically linked NFTs?
Physical-linked NFTs as a trojan horse to onboard mass markets into web3
The future state of Endstate
Other web3 drops Bennett and Stephanie enjoyed
The future of entangled NFTs

Nic Carter on Medium: Redeem and Retain NFTs are the future of Luxury Goods
Vogue Business: How the crypto bear market is resetting fashion's Web3 strategy

Drops and more at endstate.io

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan's Collage #344

Weekly Roundup 09/02/22 feat. Kyle Waters (Merge priced in, Roche and Ava Labs, Will Dai float freely?) (EP.345) Sep 02, 2022

Show notes

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

What happens to the GPUs post merge?
Will the gamers finally get cheap GPUs back?
Is the merge like superbowl sunday or Y2K?
Does the success of the merge undo a long-term Bitcoin talking point?
Are NFTs going to cc0 screwing over their users?
DC sues Michael Saylor and Microstrategy for allegedly skipping taxes in DC
The SEC questions whether the certain assets in Grayscale trusts are securities
What's going on with the Roche Freedman/ Ava Labs/ Cryptoleaks situation?
Is Roche just David Boies 2.0?
The Biden executive order reports are due next week
Rune of Maker muses about turning Dai into a free floating unit of account
Will Maker be able to survive real world assets as collateral?
Did Moonbirds rugpull their buyers with IP issues?
Kyle Waters from Coin Metrics joins to talk about the Merge
Is the distribution of stakers on Ethereum something to be worried about?
What's going to happen to ETH issuance post merge?
How to forecast post-merge staking returns
Is the merge priced in?
Did Ethereum install a pro-cyclical monetary policy?

Content mentioned:

Coin Metrics, Mapping out the Merge

Sponsor notes:

Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Obi Nwosu (Fedi) on Second-Party Custody with Fedimint (EP.344) Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

Obi Nwosu, CEO and Founder of Fedi joins the show to cover a new model for shared Bitcoin custody in Fedimint. In this episode:

Obi's experience with Coinfloor and how that informed his views on custody
Why third party custody with Proof of Reserves isn't sufficient
Why 'credible centralized' custody shouldn't be the default
Why state level attacks on custodians are ramping up
Obi's early prediction that Nigeria would be the heartland of Bitcoin adoption
Why messaging apps are actually the most popular p2p exchanges worldwide
The history and origins of Chaumian Mints
How the enabling pieces of Fedimint all came together over time
The relationship between federated custody and microfinance
How Fedimint is analogous to Free Banking
Does Fedimint satisfy Hal Finney's vision for Bitcoin banks?
How Fedimint compares to first party custody
How Obi expects regulators to react to Fedimint

Learn more about Fedi and Fedimint.

Weekly Roundup 08/26/22 (Emmer's OFAC letter, Stables resist TC blacklists, Gensler's OpEd) (EP.343) Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

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

Matt's prior radio career
The boys consider reinvesting in the podcast
How to avoid audience capture
We puzzle over metaverse advertising
How do you value metaverse real estate?
Rep. Tom Emmer writes a letter to OFAC questioning their sanctioning of Tornado Cash
Tether and BUSD (Paxos) don't blacklist Tornado Cash addresses
The FDIC reprimands crypto companies
Web3 hoodies
Best podcast listening speeds
Are security tokens and real world assets back?
No new 3ac shenanigans
Tadge Dryja leaves MIT DCI for David Marcus' Lightspark
New findings on OFAC censoring Bitcoin Mining pools
Tether has a new auditor
Can a firm with outstanding tokens be acquired or go public?
Gensler's weird op-ed

Sponsor notes:

Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

On The Brink with Castle Island

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected