On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Weekly Roundup 05/27/22 feat. Dan Matuszewski (VC dry powder, FTX' CFTC proposal, more Tether concerns) (EP.322) May 27, 2022

Show notes

Matt returns with CMS Holdings' Dan Matuszewski, filling in for Nic, covering deals and news of the week. In this episode:

Bitcoiners brief Norwegian policymakers
History of the BitLicense
Circle's physical BitLicense
a16z raises a massive $4.5b fund
The effect of VC dry powder on crypto startups
Can crypto catch a bid until macro calms down
Adam Neumann is back with a blockchain startup
FTX attends a heated CFTC roundtable
Arthur Hayes gets house arrest and probation
Why certain Tether holders will never redeem
An unlikely winner from Tether concerns
Does shorting Tether make sense?
Fallout from Terra's collapse
Are algostables going to exist forever
CMS's Super Pac and reflections on conversations in Washington
SBF announces his intention to spend $1B on the 2024 election
Scott Minerd is very bearish on Bitcoin
What on earth is HEX
ETH Merge concerns

Sponsor notes:

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Ric Edelman on The Truth About Crypto (EP.321) May 23, 2022

Show notes

Ric Edelman, the founder of Edelman Financial Services and the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Ric's new book The Truth About Crypto
His journey in the digital assets industry
The current macro backdrop and how cryptoassets should be considered in a portfolio
Views on the RIA market and how the crypto discussion is evolving
The regulatory landscape, including views on the DoL, SEC and Elizabeth Warren
How the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals is evolving

Links mentioned on the show:

The Truth About Crypto on Amazon
DACFP
Twitter: @ricedelman (Ric); @thedacfp (DACFP);

Weekly Roundup 05/20/22 (Terra aftershocks, El Salvador's Bitcoin summit, Tether's redemption crisis) (EP.320) May 20, 2022

Show notes

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

Was UST/Terra a ponzi or not?
Fintech apps put client deposits into Anchor
Tradfi yields are competitive with DeFi yields
The GBTC discount reaches its highest ever level at -31% MSM crypto hate reaches a fever pitch
The World Bank publishes a new paper on crypto adoption
The Warren staff have a dossier of mean tweets
Will generalist VCs lose interest in web3?
El Salvador hosts a Bitcoin summit for a number of central banks
Nic's secret origin story
Is eSwatini a dark horse candidate for the next Bitcoin Nation?
The Biden admin suggests segregating client deposits at exchanges
TradFi thinks Tether is about to collapse
Why no stablecoins are able to secure audits
Tether receives a new assurance opinion showing $39b of treasuries
How many outflows can Tether accommodate?
Differences in redemption between USDC and USDT
What does a crackdown in offshore assets by the CCP have to do with Tether?
Cloudflare's wall of lava lamps
Is it time for a new batch of FUD dice?
We assess the quality of the Terra mea culpas

Content mentioned in this episode:

World Bank, The ascent of crypto assets: Evolution and macro-financial drivers

Sponsor notes:

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Jon Kol and Asa Oines (Abacus) on the Third Era of Interoperability (EP.319) May 16, 2022

Show notes

Jon Kol and Asa Oines, cofounders of Abacus join the show to talk about the state of the art in cross chain interoperability. In this episode:

Career trajectories and why Jon and Asa decided to start Abacus
The three eras of interoperability
Asset interoperability vs app based interoperability
Why asset interoperability might just be a transitional phase
Why asset interoperability is more about the creation of derivatives than true portability
Application parallelization or duplication versus native cross chain applications
Why duplicating applications across chain is inefficient
The advantages of building natively cross chain for developers
How blockchains can be made to communicate with each other
Key assumptions you need to rely on to trust that Abacus will work
How Abacus is distinguished from other interoperability protocols
Why speed matters in cross chain
How Abacus differs from Layer0 and Axelar
Which blockchains Abacus is linking together

Learn more about Abacus

Weekly Roundup 05/13/22 (Terra collapses, FASB reconsiders Bitcoin accounting, the Fed's third mandate) (EP.318) May 13, 2022

Show notes

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

The CIV hat snafu
Was synthetic USD on Bitmex the first stablecoin?
Remembering Mastercoin and seigniorage shares stablecoins
Does the Fed have a shadow third mandate?
We break down the Luna situation and why it was destined to fail
Why the subsidized yields on Anchor were the biggest mistake
Likely fallout from the Luna collapse
The Terra blockchain is halted
Do we actually need algorithmic stablecoins?
SBF acquires a stake in Robinhood
Is the Twitter sale to Elon under threat?

Sponsor notes:

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Mark Lamb (CoinFLEX) on crypto derivatives and stablecoins (EP.317) May 09, 2022

Show notes

Mark Lamb, co-founder and CEO of CoinFLEX joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Mark's entrepreneurial path in the cryptocurrency industry and the insight behind starting CoinFLEX
The history and market landscape for crypto derivatives platforms
The state of the stablecoin market and how flexUSD is positioning for USA launch
The regulatory environment and how this is impacting trading venues and stablecoin issuers.

To learn more visit coinflex.com and follow Mark on Twitter

Weekly Roundup 05/06/22 (Metaverse NIMBYism, the BMC EPA letter, the SEC doubles the Cyber Unit) (EP.316) May 06, 2022

Show notes

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

Matt's takeaways from the Medici conference
The rapid growth of ZKPs
We review Brink Nation posts on GM
We look back at the history of the FUD dice
Are tungsten dice possible?
Big thunderstorm in Miami
Is the crypto industry sitting out the recession?
We consider the merits of virtual real estate
Does proximity matter in the metaverse?
Metaverse land rights and NIMBYism
The Bitcoin Mining Council letter to the EPA and what motivated it
Ohio's primary yields an entirely pro-crypto field
CBOE acquires ErisX
Goldman takes out a Bitcoin-collateralized USD loan
Jane Street dives into DeFi
The SEC doubles the size of its cyber unit
CA issues an EO on the crypto industry
The Dept. of Labor criticizes Fidelity for their Bitcoin 401k product
The IMF criticizes the Central African Republic's adoption of Bitcoin
The divergence between public and private valuations in crypto and equities, and why they can't always be arbitraged away

Content mentioned:

Prominent Bitcoiners' letter to the EPA to respond to Rep. Huffman's letter

Sponsor notes:

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Paul Prager (TeraWulf) Building a Zero Carbon Bitcoin Miner (EP.315) May 02, 2022

Show notes

TeraWulf cofounder and CEO Paul Prager joins us to talk about his experience building a vertically-integrated, zero carbon Bitcoin miner. In this installment of the mining miniseries we cover:

Paul's career trajectory from coal trading to energy infrastructure to Bitcoin
Beowulf's deal with Marathon and their entry into Bitcoin
How TeraWulf distinguishes itself from other Bitcoin miners
Why TeraWulf has an explicit ESG focus
Zero carbon and how that differs from 'carbon neutral'
The importance of being vertically integrated
How Paul thinks about the halvings and how that affects their business
TeraWulf's facility in upstate NY
Paul's views on NY State's approach to Bitcoin mining
How the Bitcoin mining industry struggles with proactive messaging
TeraWulf's 300 MW nuclear-powered facility in Pennsylvania
Why Bitcoin is synergistic with nuclear power
The prospects for nuclear bitcoin mining
TeraWulf's zero-carbon approach and how that manages risk
TeraWulf's plans for growing their hashrate under management
The characteristics that TeraWulf looks for in new sites
Will Bitcoin miners develop better transparency around emissions data?
Why mining is so useful for decarbonization through curtailment programs
The convergence between the energy sector and Bitcoin mining
Why vertical integration and zero carbon will prevail in Bitcoin mining long term
Trends in consolidation Paul expects
Why vertical integration allows you to manage your risk better than a hosting model
What public market analysts should be doing when they evaluate miners

Follow Paul on Twitter and learn more about TeraWulf.

Weekly Roundup 04/29/22 (Elon buys Twitter, CAF Legalizes Bitcoin, Fidelity adds Bitcoin support for 401(k)s) feat. Dave Gray of Fidelity (EP.314) Apr 29, 2022

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back with news and deals of the week, joined by Dave Gray, Head of Workplace Retirement Offerings and Platforms at Fidelity Investments, who joins us to talk about Fidelity's new Bitcoin 401(k) product. In this episode:

Are airdrops taxable?
CheckTemplateVerify drama in Bitcoin
Central African Republic apparently adopts Bitcoin as legal tender
NY State Assembly passes a bill banning Bitcoin mining with fossil fuels
Fidelity adds Bitcoin to 401ks
Will deep deplatforming on the internet influence Twitter?
Can you actually open source the Twitter algorithm?
Is the Twitter purchase an indirect way for Musk to liquidate his Tesla position?

Learn more about Fidelity's 401(k) plans here

Sponsor notes:

Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Bruce Fenton on running for Senate in New Hampshire (EP.313) Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Longtime Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton re-joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Bruce's career and the events that led him to discovering Bitcoin
Bitcoin's social layer and how Bruce has managed to stay close to the project through so many chapters of the journey
His view on the tokenization of securities and why he is so optimistic on this technology
Why Bruce decided to run for Senate and what issues he is fighting for
Views on big tech, the future of the U.S. dollar and more
His outlook for Bitcoin friendly regulation

See Bruce's prior episode here.

To learn more about Bruce visit brucefenton.com and visit Bruce on Twitter @BruceFenton

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