On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) on MMT, CBDCs, and crypto policy for 2022 (EP.276) Jan 10, 2022

Show notes

House Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) joins the show to share thoughts on his crypto policy agenda for 2022, as well as his views on inflation, MMT, stablecoins, and CBDCs. In this episode:

How Rep. Emmer came to be interested in public blockchains
Rep. Emmer's interest in Austrian economics
How Rep. Emmer stays up to date with the industry
Are MMTers the establishment or an outsider group?
Is Washington dominated by covert MMT ideology?
Is fiscal conservatism dead in Washington?
Why Rep. Emmer voted for the CARES act any regrets he has
How the massive injection of cash in the last two years warped our economy
Is inflation driven by fiscal spending or corporate greed?
Is crypto inherently a partisan issue?
Rep Emmer's concerns about a CBDC
Why the US should not take cues from China
Why CBDCs are not akin to physical cash
Why insisting that stablecoins need bank charters is deeply ironic
Problems with the Presidential Working Group's guidance on stablecoins
Is crypto favorable or hostile to American interests?
What are Rep Emmer's colleagues' residual objections to crypto?
The purpose of Emmer's Securities Clarity Act
Will the midterms alter Congress' approach to the crypto industry?

Useful links:

Support the Emmer 2022 reelection campaign (crypto donations accepted)
Follow Rep. Emmer on Twitter
Emmer's cosponsored Securities Clarities Act (press release)
The Keep Innovation in America Act (press release)
About the Blockchain Caucus

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 01/07/22 (Kazakhstan mining stutters, Chainalysis 2022 illicit volume report, Washington is interested in PoW) (EP.274) Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

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

Everything is selling off
Is the US losing its status as global reserve?
We announce our policy miniseries
Sen. Lummis will reportedly propose a crypto bill
Opensea raising $300m at a $13b valuation
Illicit activity in 2021 was only 0.15% of total crypto volume
The Boston Fed CBDC pilot program rumbles on
Kazakhstan turns off the internet, and dims Bitcoin hashrate by 12%
NY State reproposes their bill to ban mining in the state
The National Credit Union Administration looks to ratify usage of crypto for its members
The House Energy and Commerce committee will hold a hearing on PoW
A group of environmentalist organizations sends a letter regarding PoW to congress

Content mentioned:

National Credit Union Administration, Relationships with Third Parties that Provide Services Related to Digital Assets
Letter to Congress from environmentalist groups regarding PoW

Sponsor notes:

Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Ethan Vera and Guzman Pintos (Luxor) on Mining Data and Analytics (EP.274) Jan 03, 2022

Show notes

Luxor COO and CPO Ethan Vera and Guzman Pintos join the show to talk about their relaunched data product, Hashrate Index and other trends in mining. In this episode:

The history of the firm
Why Luxor created the hashrate index
How Luxor gathers data on ASIC pricing and creates their time series charts
ASIC pricing dynamics
Are sell side analysts correctly pricing ASICs on the balance sheets of public miners?
Why different efficiencies of miners have traded differently in the last 2 months
How constraints on rack space affect the demand for older ASICs
Why so many ASICs can't leave China
Is there still residual black market mining in China?
Kazakhstan's under-reported mining crackdown
Are ASIC development cycles slowing?
Are miners still front-running their clients with prop mining?
Are Bitcoin miners trying to acquire Bitcoin or do they want to hedge their exposure
Are derivatives becoming more popular among miners?
The maturation of the Bitcoin mining derivatives market
Why prior hashrate derivatives haven't worked
Multiple based analysis for public miners
Why there is a 'public market arbitrage' for miners
Why incentives exist for public miners to be highly acquisitive
Do miners care about long term fee budget?

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 12/31/21 (Year in review, why gamers hate NFTs, 2021 predictions evaluated) (EP.273) Dec 31, 2021

Show notes

Nic and Matt return for the last episode of 2021. In this episode:

Someone makes an unauthorized Nic NFT
Microstrategy buys more BTC
Blake Masters sells a political NFT
Why do gamers and artists hate NFTs?
We look back at our 2021 crystal ball predictions
Best predictions of 2021
Our outlook for crypto policy in 2022
Our favorite OTB episodes of the year
We look back at the Token Daily 2019 crystal ball predictions
What it's like to be in crypto for an entire decade
Midterm implications for the crypto industry
Our favorite OTB episodes of 2021

Content mentioned:

Tokendaily, 2021 Crystal Ball

Sponsor notes:

Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting
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

Gabe Frank and Robert Masiello (Arcade) on the financialization of NFTs (EP.272) Dec 27, 2021

Show notes

Gabe Frank and Robert Masiello, the founders of Arcade, a financial services platform for NFTs join the show. In this episode we discuss:

Gabe and Robert's origin stories in the crypto industry and the path that led them to founded Arcade
The similarities in the market structures for bitcoin in the early years and NFTs today
The role of MPC custody in the crypto markets
How they think about the various L1 chains that will host NFTs
The OTC trading landscape for NFTs
Peer to peer vs. peer to pool NFT lending models
How the lending market will evolve with great data / pricing functionality
The product roadmap for Arcade over the next year

To learn more about Arcade visit their website.

Sponsor notes:

This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto
This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

Weekly Roundup 12/24/21 (Bitcoin ownership concentration, Jack Dorsey's web3 beef, Corporate Greed causing Inflation?) (EP.271) Dec 24, 2021

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for a festive Christmas eve roundup. In this episode:

Reevaluating our intro song
Jack Dorsey's web3 beef
What's on our Christmas list
Is PoW inherently high-fee?
We steelman the Jack Dorsey and the pro web3 arguments
Is there a paradox in web3?
We advance a model of tapered token issuance for web3
The downsides of token issuance to early adopters
Is Liz Warren right about corporate greed causing inflation?
Radioshake releases a defi token
Is Bitcoin ownership too concentrated?
Bitcoin is dispersing while equities are concentrating
Will there be a revolt among the staffers at the SEC?

Content mentioned:

Nic Carter and Lucas Nuzzi in Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin's Proof of Work is Well Worth its Fees
Paul Vigna in WSJ, Bitcoin's 'One Percent' Controls Lion's Share of the Cryptocurrency's Wealth

Sponsor notes:

Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting
This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto

Anders Larson (U.S. Bitcoin Corp) on strategic miner decision making (EP.270) Dec 20, 2021

Show notes

Anders Larson, head of strategic finance at U.S. Bitcoin Corp, joins us to talk about how miners make decisions and allocate capital. In this episode:

The Wharton class of 2018
Are Bitcoin miners clogging up the chip supply chain?
Why Bitcoin miners are 'tier 2' customers at foundries
The scale of US BTC operations in terms of hashrate
Why US BTC has been so quiet historically
How US BTC targets renewable energy
Which renewables are easiest to find
Is there any truth to the story of Bitcoin improving the economics of renewables?
Why ASIC depreciation is slowing, and how that affects the viability of different energy sources
The relationship between Bitcoin's carbon intensity and ASIC depreciation period
Can ASICs last for 5 years?
How does US BTC think about uptime on their units?
Why lower uptime means that you have cheaper power due to demand response
How US BTC thinks about hashrate growth and why they are more conservative than their competitors
Why Chinese hashrate is not completely eliminated
The state of affairs in Kazakhstan
How Anders thinks about political risk in mining
How policy logic informs selective mining bans and mining subsidies
How Anders sees miners vertically integrating with energy firms
How Anders thinks about proposed state bitcoin mining bans in places like NY
Why mining bans in the West are often counterproductive
The relationship between energy consumption and civilizational progress
How Anders thinks about the energy cost debate
Whether the CBECI hashrate distribution estimates are reliable
Why the US having a large share of hashrate isn't something to be concerned about
How mining could become a states rights issue
Does US BTC project fee growth in their models?

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
This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

Weekly Roundup 12/17/21 (Crypto-dollarization in Myanmar, CMC glitches, Bitwise's NFT index fund) (EP.269) Dec 17, 2021

Show notes

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

A glitch in the CoinMarketCap data feed causes disturbances in the crypto industry
AscendEX is hacked last week to the tune of $77 million
Coinbase urges the SEC to approve NYSE Arca's application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund
Bitwise launches a blue-chip NFT fund
A bipartisan group of Senators write a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen regarding the crypto provisions in the infra bill
The Myanmar government in exile official adopts Tether, while the Junta government de-dollarizes
Matt takes the giving pledge
The Open Markets Institute spreads a lot of FUD
Can the boys lift a 230 pound tungsten cube?

Sponsor notes:

This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Alex Wilson (The Giving Block) on crypto philanthropy (EP.268) Dec 13, 2021

Show notes

Alex Wilson, co-founder and CEO of The Giving Block joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Alex's path in the blockchain space, from consulting to founding The Giving Block
The landscape of charitable giving, and how the company is assisting charitable organizations
The pain points that charities face when accepting donations
Perspectives from the donor's perspective and why donating cryptocurrency is so compelling
How the company came to launch its campaigns

To learn more about The Giving Block visit their website or follow the company on Twitter.

Sponsor notes:

This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto

Weekly Roundup 12/10/21 (Congressional Hearing takeaways, 26% of Americans own BTC?) (EP.267) Dec 10, 2021

Show notes

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

Are cubes a suitable holiday gift?
Best crypto Xmas gifts
Bitcoin purchases we regret
The House Financial Services committee holds a hearing
Our Congressional hearing MVP
Brian Brooks' evolution
SBF kicks off shoegate
Takeaways from the House hearing
EOS holders reject a payment to Block One
Block One's weird pivot to Bitcoin
Greyscale says 26% of American adults own Bitcoin
Governance difficulties in Dfinity
Will SWIFT survive American sanctions on Russia
Impenetrable Sushiswap drama
Those landfill Bitcoins are still lost

Content mentioned:

Brian Brooks' testimony before the House Financial Services Committee
The Economist, The Explosion in Stablecoins Revives a Debate around 'Free Banking'
WSJ, Crypto, NFTs and Tungsten Cubes: A Guide to Giving Cash in 2021

Sponsor notes:

This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting