On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Zachary Kelman (Kelman Law) on the lingering effects of Choke Point (EP.179) Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

Repeat guest Zach Kelman joins the show to break down the contemporary effects of Operation Choke Point from his perspective as a lawyer having worked in compliance and regulatory for large financial institutions. In this episode:

The (pre)history of Choke Point – and how it wasn't a bolt from the blue
How Choke Point was mechanically enforced against the banks
Why industry-wide politicization of financial services is a poor policy to pursue
How Choke Point lasted far beyond its original mandate
Have banks been permanently politicized as a result of OCP?
How Choke Point's effects are being felt in the crypto industry
What to expect on an ongoing basis

Prior episodes in the Choke Point 2.0 series

Weekly Roundup 02/12/21 (BNY Mellon supports Bitcoin, the Bitcoin energy debate, Elon Day) (EP.178) Feb 12, 2021

Show notes

Nic and Matt return for one of the most explosive weeks in the history of the podcast. In this episode:

How Nic ended up at war with the Dogecoin fans
CIV closes a $50m fund
Tom Brady wins the Super Bowl
Should responsible CFOs own Bitcoin on their corporate balance sheets?
Bitcoin on the balance sheet as a signaling mechanism
BNY Mellon announces support for Bitcoin
The St Louis Fed is writing articles about DeFi
Nic orangepills Central Bankers
Our guesses for the first central banks to adopt Bitcoin
Nigeria contemplates a Bitcoin ban
Mastercard is supporting cryptocurrency on their networks – what does this mean?
The Bitcoin energy debate
Can you compare Bitcoin to Visa?
Are Christmas lights wasteful

Content mentioned in this episode:

Nic in Coindesk, What Bloomberg Gets Wrong About Bitcoin's Climate Footprint
St Louis Fed, DeFi coverage
Nic on Bloomberg, Bitcoin's Impact on the Environment

Edan Yago (Sovryn) on Bitcoin-Native DeFi (EP.177) Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Edan Yago, product lead at Sovryn, talks us through the prospects for DeFi on Bitcoin. In this episode:

Edan Yago's origin story
How Edan became disenchanted with the Bitcoin community's ambition
Did Bitcoiners compromise on an original vision of adopting successful alternative technologies?
Is Bitcoin sufficiently expressive to be a functional base layer for smart contracting?
Was the original vision of sidechains abandoned?
The state of the art in trustless sidechains
Is the perfect the enemy of the good with Bitcoin?
Is Lightning "worse is better"?
Is Bitcoin hamstrung by the pursuit of perfection?
Why compromising on trust assurances has been a boon for Ethereum
Why native smart contracting on Bitcoin is superior to using wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum
Do rollups break composability for DeFi?
Is DeFi subsidized by token issuance and liquidity mining?
What can Bitcoiners learn from Ethereum?
Thoughts on other Bitcoin L2s like Blockstack
Update on Rootstock/RSK and why Sovryn is building on it
What Sovryn is and what you can do with it
Does Sovryn require any changes to Bitcoin itself?

Galen Wolfe-Pauly (Tlon) on Urbit and the Architecture of the Internet (EP.176) Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

Galen Wolfe-Pauly, cofounder of Tlon, joins the show to give us an update on Urbit in light of the politicization of internet infrastructure. In this episode:

The purpose of Urbit
How the power of internet oligopolies has been recently revealed in the last few months
Does the internet of today resemble the internet of 1994?
The problem with having a single ToS/legal system for major internet platforms
What's new with Urbit since our last Urbit episode in 2019
How hosting makes Urbit much more user friendly
Urbit's governance system and how it contrasts from the feudal model on Twitter
Galen's political taxonomy for Urbit - and where galaxies and stars fit in to this
How internet platforms are like living in Vegas
Whether users literally own their handles on internet platforms
The politicization of internet infrastructure
How resistant is Urbit itself to deplatforming at the infrastructure level
Whether there is any irony in Urbit offering hosting for users
Galen's view on data portability legislation
The near term roadmap for Urbit
The distinction between Tlon and Urbit
How to get started with Urbit

Apply to Urbit hosting here.

Weekly Roundup 02/05/21 (Saylor Day reflections, IBM jettisons 'Blockchain', India Bitcoin ban) (EP.175) Feb 05, 2021

Show notes

Nic and Matt return for another jam packed week. In this episode:

Our reflections on Saylor day
Is Ross Stephens the 2021 Bitcoin MVP?
NYDIG bursts onto the scene
Visa's overlooked crypto API pilot for banks
Is hashrate moving to the US?
Nic's ongoing spat with the Wall Street Journal
Bitcoiin 2gen gets taken down by the SEC
Soulja Boy's ENS name gets lost in Coinbase's vaullts
IBM finally abandons 'enterprise blockchain'
How will public markets treat Coinbase equity?
India contemplates a crypto ban

Content mentioned in this episode:

Bitcoin Masterclass with Michael Saylor and Ross Stevens
Stone Ridge, 2020 Shareholder Letter
Visa's API pilot for banks
Nic's response to the WSJ piece
NYT, As Bitcoin's Price Surges, Affluent Investors Start to Take a Look
Balaji Srinivasan, Why India Should Buy Bitcoin

Amanda Fabiano (Galaxy Digital) on the North American Mining Ecosystem (EP.174) Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

Amanda Fabiano, the Head of Mining at Galaxy Digital joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Amanda's path to finding her passion in the mining sector
Her role in leading Fidelity's mining initiatives
Her views on the Bitcoin mining value chain and the categories that are most compelling
Thoughts on the future of off-grid mining in the USA

To learn more follow Amanda on Twitter or visit www.galaxydigital.io

Boaz Sobrado on Bitcoin adoption trends in Cuba (EP.173) Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

Boaz Sobrado, data analyst and the founder of whynotcuba.com joins the show to talk about trends in Cuban Bitcoin adoption. In this episode:

How Boaz came to start an ecommerce company in Cuba and how Bitcoin became relevant to him
The structure of Bitcoin trading markets in Cuba
How Bitcoin currently trades in Cuba
Drivers of Bitcoin adoption in Cuba
Why Cuba until recently hasn't been known as an important jurisdiction for Bitcoin
Why Cuba doesn't show up in the typical proxies for bitcoin usage
Why internet penetration in Cuba is accelerating Bitcoin adoption
How Bitcoin is incorporated into the remittance flow in Cuba
How the Cuban regime thinks about and talks about Bitcoin
The history of Cuba's three simultaneous sovereign currencies
How the sovereign currency transitions are a means for the government to acquire hard currency at the expense of savers
The key factors supporting a wave of Bitcoin adoption in Cuba today
How Bitcoin markets permit the pricing of the black market peso rate

Content mentioned in this episode:

Boaz Sobrado, A Day Using Money in Cuba
Boaz Sobrado in Decrypt, Why Cuba is Primed for Bitcoin Adoption

Weekly Roundup 01/29/21 (Reflections on the debate, the Robinhood affair, Ray Dalio warms to Bitcoin) (EP.172) Jan 29, 2021

Show notes

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

Our view on the Robinhood/Gamestop affair
Why 'rebuilding the financial system from scratch' is a good idea, actually
Could the brokerages deplatform Bitcoin financial products too?
Will FTX be the last Gamestop market standing?
Nic's reflections on the Mike Green / Grant Williams debate
We correct the record on certain claims made in the debate
We settle the question of inflation in the 40s
We declare a truce between bitcoiners and goldbugs
Another ETF filing
Ray Dalio starts to come around on Bitcoin

Content mentioned:

The Grant Williams Podcast, Both Sides of the Coin: A Civilized Bitcoin Debate
OTB Episode, What Keeps Stablecoins Stable
OTB Episode, The Market Effects of Stablecoin Issuance
Ray Dalio, What I Think of Bitcoin

Sponsor notes:

Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today's complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.

Prof. Ladislav Krištoufek (Charles University) on the market effects of stablecoin issuance (EP.171) Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Economics professor at Charles University Ladislav Krištoufek joins us for a discussion centered on his new paper, On the Role of Stablecoins in Cryptoasset Pricing Dynamics. In this episode:

How Ladislav began covering crypto markets in 2013
Ladislav's research agenda as it pertains to the crypto markets
Why the quality of so much Bitcoin academia is dubious
The academic-practitioner gap and how to close it
How Ladislav came to write his newest paper
Methodological details
How to interpret the findings in the paper
Whether issuance of stablecoins affects the price of bitcoin
Ladislav's critiques of the Griffin and Shams paper
Key takeaways from Ladislav's paper
Ladislav's ultimate explanation for stablecoin issuance
Other papers Ladislav recommends on stablecoins

Also mentioned:

'What Keeps Stablecoins Stable?', OTB discussion with Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj
Is Bitcoin Really Untethered? by Griffin and Shams

Weekly Roundup 01/22/21 (Bitcoin's 'double spend', our Tether perspective, Bitcoin as an escape valve) (EP.170) Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

Nic and Matt cover an insane week of deals and market turmoil. In this episode:

The Biden admin freezes the Treasury guidance on unhosted wallets
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expresses her concern about cryptocurrency for terrorist financing
Bitcoin as a monetary escape valve
The real reasons behind Treasury's concern about Bitcoin
The prospects for monetary repression in the US
Prospects for Chris Brummer as the new head of the CFTC
Blackrock warms to Bitcoin
Our point by point 'debunking' of the anonymous blog post on Tether
Why Tether critiques are so popular
Why a Tether implosion would emphasize Bitcoin's value proposition
We explain the Bitcoin 'double spend'
How Bitcoin settlement is probabilistic

Content mentioned in this episode:

Nic in NYMag, What Explains Bitcoin's Resurgence?
On The Brink, Interview with Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj
The Bit Short: Inside Crypto's Doomsday Machine
Kraken, On Tether, Journalists Defy Logic

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