On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Pat Larsen (ZenLedger) on the State of Crypto Taxes (EP.312) Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Pat Larsen, founder and CEO of crypto tax prep company ZenLedger, joins the show for a timely discussion on how investors should be thinking about taxes this tax season. In this episode:

The outlook for crypto taxes in 2022
Tax accounting for specific transactions
Clarifications and improvements to tax regulation

ZenLedger provides a platform that makes it easy for users to aggregate transactions across centralized and decentralized venues and measure their crypto tax impact. The team published a helpful guide on nft related taxes.

Weekly Roundup 04/22/22 (Elon's Twitter purchase, the US sanctions BitRiver, Australia gets an ETF) (EP.311) Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

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

The OTB music debate rages on
Nic survives Covid
Should we bring back dueling?
Ancient altcoin dramas
Coinbase launches NFTs
Elon has financing to buy Twitter
Product suggestions for Twitter
The US sanctions Russian miners BitRiver
Is Russia remonetizing gold?
Australia gets a spot BTC ETF
North Korean hackers are active in crypto

Sponsor notes:

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Adam Jackson (Braintrust) on Building a Web3 Talent Network (EP.310) Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

Adam Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Braintrust, a web3 talent network joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Marketplace business models and how web3 models will improve on web2 dynamics
How Adam came to the insight to launch Braintrust and how the platform works
The regulatory environment in the United States and how Adam sees web3 evolving over time
Other marketplace categories where Adam sees opportunities for community owned networks
Adam's view on the venture landscape and how that has evolved over time.

To learn more about Braintrust visit usebraintrust.com and follow Adam on Twitter @AdamJacksonSF

Josh Mandel on Running on a Pro Bitcoin Platform (EP.309) Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

We sit down with Ohio Senate Candidate Josh Mandel to cover his race, platform, and Bitcoin advocacy.

Josh's political origins and why he is running for Senate in Ohio
Josh's time as Ohio state treasurer and his Ohio state checkbook initiative
Why Josh pioneered Ohio's acceptance of Bitcoin for tax payments
How Bitcoin values mirror American values
Why Bitcoin support ought to stay nonpartisan
The state of the Ohio primary and Josh's prospects
The political prudence of making Bitcoin such a key cornerstone of Josh's platform

Learn more about Josh Mandel's platform at joshmandel.com.

Weekly Roundup 04/14/22 (FDIC stalls bank crypto activity, Bitcoin 2022 recap, Elon's Twitter campaign) (EP.308) Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for a post-conference episode. This week we cover:

The FDIC asks banks to go slow on crypto integrations
Blackrock is studying cryptoassets and invests in USDC
Blockchain.com partners with the Dallas Cowboys
Virginia will allow state chartered banks to custody cryptocurrency
Balaji's decentralization inflation index winner is announced
Why this current CPI print is misleading
Blockstream Block and Tesla are mining Bitcoin with solar
Celcius shuts down their retail-facing lending product in the US
Is Peter Thiel wrong on Ethereum valuation?
Will Elon be able to buy Twitter?
Takeaways from Bitcoin 2022

Sponsor notes:

Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

John Adler (Fuel Labs, Celestia) on building the fastest modular execution layer (EP.307) Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

In the second episode in our modular blockchain mini-series, we sat down with John Adler, the inventor of optimistic rollups and co-founder of Fuel and Celestia. Fuel is the fastest execution layer for the modular blockchain stack. The technology enables parallel transaction execution and offers flexible throughput and the highest security required to scale. FuelVM offers developers a superior experience and the ability to go beyond limitations faced by the EVM and other virtual machines. In our conversation, we discuss:

The importance of data availability for maintaining censorship resistance
Fuel as a modular execution layer with configurable consensus, data availability, and settlement
Why Fuel Labs is building the entire blockchain stack to offer the best possible developer and user experience
How FuelVM supports parallel transaction execution and other notable improvements over EVM

To learn more about some of the concepts we cover, here are a few incremental resources John mentions in the episode.

Follow John on twitter and Fuel on Github

Intro/outro track: OmgKirby #664 (used with permission)

Paolo Fragomeni (Socket Supply Co) on the Definition of web3 (EP.306) Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

Socket Supply Co founder and CEO Paolo Fragomeni joins the show to discuss what web3 is and isn't – and what it should be. In this episode:

Paolo's start writing modem software and BBS in the pre-modern web days
What delineated web 1.0 from web 2.0
The single request that really made web 2.0 possible
How today's web is limited by incumbents
When did web 3.0 really emerge? What distinguishes it from 2.0?
Best definitions of web3?
State of the web in terms of centralization and prospects from here
How the internet has flip flopped between centralization and decentralization
What will push users towards web3?
Moxie's comments on web3 and whether they have any merit
What Paolo is building at Socket Supply
Why p2p is so fundamental
How to get started with Socket Supply

Read about Socket Supply in Coindesk and on their website.

Intro/outro music: Ocarina #986 (used with permission)

Andrew Myers and Brock Peterson (Satoshi Energy) on Monetizing Renewables with Bitcoin (EP.305) Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Andrew Myers and Brock Petersen of Satoshi Energy join the show to cover how Bitcoin mining monetizes renewables. In this episode we cover:

Andrew and Brock's origin story
How Satoshi Energy develops sites and infrastructure for miners
Is Satoshi Energy explicitly renewable focused?
How mining with intermittent renewables can be economical
How Bitcoin mining improves the economics of renewables
The merits of the behind the meter approach
How using Bitcoin as an offtake improves the economics of renewable generation assets
The role of demand response as renewables account for more generation
Does Bitcoin actually incentivize renewable generation?
Is the future of Bitcoin mining vertically integrated?
What does the interconnection queue tell us about the future of renewables?
Book recommendations

Sponsor notes:

Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

Weekly Roundup (04/01/22) (Greenpeace and Chris Larsen attack Bitcoin, Axie sidechain hacked, the ECASH Act, SEC goes after AMMs) (EP.304) Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

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

Mora et al rears its head again
Chris Larsen and Greenpeace team up to try and eliminate PoW from Bitcoin
Who is the protagonist in the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit?
Rep. Stephen Lynch introduces the ECASH Act
Axie Infinity suffers a $625m hack
Is there any debate remaining about the utility of Bitcoin?
Circle selects BNY Mellon to custody their own assets
Grayscale mulls a lawsuit against the SEC over their continued ETF disapproval
Can the government create a truly private CBDC?
Rep. Tom Emmer and Sen. Ted Cruz look to ban CBDC creation
Is the SEC obliquely regulating AMM LPs out of existence?
When will Bitcoin be sovereign scale?
Seed stage bets on aspiring members of congress

Content mentioned:

Martin Wolf in FT, A New World of Currency Disorder Looms
Bloomberg, Ukraine's Crypto Banker Describes how the War is Changing His Life
Bloomberg, Crypto Miners in Texas Face Approval to Energize Hurdle

Sponsor notes:

Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Ben Gagnon (Bitfarms) on Separating Fact from Fiction in Bitcoin Mining (EP. 303) Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

Ben Gagnon, the Chief Mining Officer at Bitfarms, joins the show. In this episode we cover:

Bitfarms' journey to the public markets in the US
Ben's early efforts in flared gas mining
How immersion cooling could provide operational efficiencies
Bitfarms' site selection methodology
How Bitfarms secures power originally built for now-departed industries
How Quebec overbuilt electrical infrastructure
The benefit of miners locating themselves in Quebec and scooping up stranded power
How Bitfarms took over a shuttered hockey stick factory
Why Bitfarms is so keen on stranded hydro
How Bitfarms curtails their power usage – and why curtailment makes sense
Finding excess power in Argentina and Paraguay
Does Bitfarms have a low carbon intensity mandate?
Why being pro-renewable is a good business decision
Why Bitfarms isn't focusing on Texas right now
How Bitcoin is the most efficient way to monetize stranded energy assets
Bitfarms' criteria for compelling energy resources
The progress of the Bitcoin Mining Council and the bettering of transparency in the mining space
Where Ben sees room for improvement in the mining sector
The lack of standardization in reporting and valuation around mining firms
The flaws in Digiconomist's estimates of Bitcoin's energy consumption
Issues with academic claims that Bitcoin miners produce significant quantities of e-waste
Why Bitcoin ASICs are more recyclable and have long lifespans
The academia and press to policy pipeline

Content mentioned:

Ben in Bitcoin Magazine: We Need to Talk About the Not Science Behind Digiconomist
Ben in Bitcoin Magazine: We Need to Talk About the Climate Problem in Bitcoin Mining

Sponsor notes:

Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

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