On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Michael Sonnenshein and Craig Salm (Grayscale) on the GBTC ETF Application and Market Commentary (EP.302) Mar 28, 2022

Show notes

Michael Sonnenshein and Craig Salm of Grayscale Investments join the show. In this episode we discuss:

Grayscale's filing to convert GBTC to an ETF and their advocacy campaign.
The comment process (details at: www.grayscale.com/comment)
Reactions to the Biden Executive Order.
Grayscale's product lineup and the future of active vs. passive crypto products.
The metaverse, NFTs and other areas of interest for crypto asset managers.

To learn more about Grayscale visit www.grayscale.com

Weekly Roundup 03/25/22 (Terra buying BTC, a new ETF timeline, Russia accepting BTC for energy?) (EP. 301) Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for more deals and news. In this episode:

Brink Nation is officially moving to GM.xyz
Did blockchains 2.0 make fundamental scaling improvements?
Is ESG over?
Nic surrenders his eyeball sovereignty to Clear
A secret trick to get through the Miami airport
Bloomberg analysts think a spot ETF could be approved summer 2023... pending SEC developments
Would the SEC have to gain control over crypto exchanges to approve an ETF?
Florida will accept corporate taxes in BTC
Terra is buying up to $10b in Bitcoin
Will seigniorage shares stablecoins ever work?
The USD is the unit of account for 99% of all stablecoins
Are the Democrats fracturing along crypto lines?
Russia mentions accepting Bitcoin for energy payments
The NYT repeats the misleading per-transaction energy cost analysis

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

Jon Birnbaum (Domain Money) on Increasing Access for Retail Investors (EP.300) Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

Jon Birnbaum, COO of Domain Money, a new investment platform, joins the show. In this episode, we discuss:

History and launch of Domain Money
Jon's path into fintech and then the digital asset industry
Dimension of access to investing for the retail market
Domain's product offering across crypto and equities
Developing new metrics to help consumers think through investing

Learn about Domain Money here.

Nick White (Celestia) on building the first modular blockchain network (EP.299) Mar 21, 2022

Show notes

Celestia Labs COO, Nick White, joins us on the show to kick off our modular blockchain mini-series. Celestia is the first modular blockchain network, which decouples consensus and data availability from execution and settlement. Celestia implements a novel design to unlock key properties such as scalability, interoperability, and sovereignty while preserving decentralization.

We cover:

Why scaling and decentralization have historically been at odds
How Celestia creates a modular system to reimagine traditional monolithic blockchain architecture
Leveraging data availability sampling to unlock scalability
How Celestia intends to be the engine that powers sovereign communities

Learn more about Celestia here.

Weekly Roundup 03/18/22 (EU PoW ban defeated, Lummis bill details, Ukraine legalizes crypto) (EP.298) Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

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

Too much Tom Brady content?
Can Roman Abramovich sell Chelsea?
Former skeptics coming around on Bitcoin
Arbitraging tungsten cube NFTs?
Why isn't physical tungsten rallying?
Facebook's Diem is back from the dead
Takeaways from Laura Shin's book The Cryptopians
Tom Emmer's letter to the SEC
Details of Sen. Lummis' bill start to come out
The EU almost bans PoW cryptocurrencies
Instagram announces plans to add NFTs
Ukraine legalizes cryptoassets
The story behind Nic's Tucker appearance
Bitcoiners growing beards

Content mentioned in the episode:

Rep. Tom Emmer's letter to the SEC
Decrypt, Bill From 'Bitcoin Senator' Lummis Would Alter Capital Gains Landscape for Crypto
Coindesk, Ukraine's Zelenskyy Signs Virtual Assets Bill Into Law, Legalizing Crypto

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
Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Brett Harrison (FTX.US) on Crypto Market Structure (EP.298) Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

Brett Harrison, the CEO of FTX.US joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Brett's pre-crypto career and the path to leading FTX.US
How FTX is evolving on their derivatives product offering
Perspectives on crypto market structure in the US will evolve
How equity markets may come to be impacted by innovations in the crypto world
How FTX is pursuing NFTs and gaming

To learn more visit FTX.us and follow Brett on Twitter

Izabella Kaminska (The Blind Spot) on Reconsidering Bitcoin Skepticism (EP.297) Mar 14, 2022

Show notes

Former FT Alphaville Editor and founder of The Blind Spot, Izabella Kaminska joins the show. In this episode:

Izabella's pre-FT career
Izabella's Polish ancestry and how that informed her monetary worldview
Why Izabella was a skeptic about Bitcoin – and why she revisited her stance
Izabella's interest in anacyclosis and cyclicality in political systems
Jeremy Bentham and his views on utilitarianism
Consequentialism and its influence on contemporary elite ideology
What Covid-19 policies revealed about freedoms in the West
The flaws inherent in bureaucracy
Izabella's changing view on the politicization of finance
The failure of AML/KYC rules in the West
Reflections on the FT's Wirecard story
Izabella's view on stablecoins and why she first compared them to Eurodollars
Why stablecoins are mini central banks
The paradoxes of Web3 and DeFi and the veil of decentralization
Do crypto systems end up inherently recentralizing
Why Central Banking is so obscure and difficult to penetrate
Bitcoin narratives in the context of Bitcoin's apparent failure to be a real rates hedge
Is gold genuinely a good inflation hedge?
Are there Bitcoiners Izy pays attention to?
Izabella's thoughts on Bitcoin ESG questions
Is Bitcoin security worth paying for?
Why Izabella is leaving the FT and starting the Blind Spot

Learn about The Blind Spot and follow Izabella on twitter.

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 03/11/22 (Biden's executive order, Korea's pro-crypto President, Is Bretton Woods over?) (EP.296) Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

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

The fallout from the seizure of the Russian fx reserves
Did America default on its obligations?
How are Chinese interests served by the US weaponizing the dollar?
Can Bitcoin become an inter-state settlement asset and sovereign-scale SoV?
Zoltan Pozsar declares an end to Bretton Woods
We digest Biden's executive order
The White House calls for 14 studies on crypto and CBDCs
A pro-crypto candidate wins the Korean presidential election
BNY Mellon gets into MPC crypto custody
Stripe now supports crypto payments
The Verge profiles Justin Sun
Does insider trading apply to commodities?
Coinbase blocks 25k Russian users from the platform

Content mentioned:

Nic in Coindesk, America's Quiet Default
The Verge, The Many Escapes of Justin Sun

Sponsor notes:

Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

VÉRITÉ and Vanessa on empowering artists to be CEOs of their own world (EP.295) Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Singer and songwriter, VÉRITÉ (Kelsey Byrne), and artist manager, Vanessa Magos have been leading the charge for artists and their teams to learn about and experiment in web3. In our third episode in the web3 music mini-series, they joined us to talk about:

Artists as CEOs who bootstrap their business and put themselves in positions of power and ownership
Artists being locked into the arbitrary fixed price imposed on music by the industry
A future where artists have access to their fans free of paywalls, algorithms, and third parties
The role music DAOs can play in restructuring artist teams

You can find VERITE and Vanessa on Twitter @verite and @vanessamagos, respectively.

Sohrob Farudi on Fan Controlled Football (EP.294) Mar 07, 2022

Show notes

Sohrob Farudi, the founder and CEO of Fan Controlled Football joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Sohrob's entrepreneurial journey and the insights that led to him founding Fan Controlled Football.
How FCF works and how fans engage with the league, all the way to calling the plays.
How Sohrob came to be interested in cryptocurrency and how NFTs have crossed into FCF.
Longer term opportunities for cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities in the context of FCF.
The upcoming season and what fans can expect.

To learn more visit FCF.IO and follow the league on Twitter

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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