The Breakdown

Latest Episodes:

Libra Plus? A New Global Digital Currency Strategy For Facebook Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

Yesterday, The Information reported that Facebook’s Calibra wallet would be abandoning the backed-by-a-basket-of-currencies Libra for a set of fiat-backed digital currencies for different regions. The company quickly amended that while they would be launching those fiat-based digital currencies, they weren’t abandoning Libra. In this episode, @NLW argues that these fiat digital currencies could be more readily adopted initially than Libra among Facebook’s existing user base.

Also on this episode, huge news out of India, as the Supreme Court reverses a decision by the Reserve Bank of India from 2018 to ban crypto banking. The move could breath life into an industry which has largely shuttered in India since the initial ban.

Finally, a news roundup including a lawsuit against Twitter around deplatforming and a new router from HTC that can also run a bitcoin full node.

What Us Election Outcome Is Best for Bitcoin? Mar 04, 2020

Show notes

Today is Super Tuesday - the biggest day of the US primary election season. Increasingly, prediction markets and pollsters suggest it’s a two person race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (although Mike Bloomberg has insisted he’s staying in).

In this episode, NLW breaks down each candidate in the context of their positions vis a vis cryptocurrency, as well as looking at the possible role of three other fallen contenders in the rest of the campaign.

As Bernie leads the Twitter poll, the question arises: do people think Bernie will be good for bitcoin because he shares the same values of prioritizing the little guy over big banks, or because they think his programs will demand so much QE it will send bitcoin to the moon?

Listen and find out.

The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

When everyone wrote their 2020 crypto prediction pieces, China featured prominently in everything from the exchange business to enterprise blockchain to the potential impact of a forthcoming digital yuan.

Coronavirus erased those issues from focus. On this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by Matthew Graham, CEO of Sino Global Capital. For the past 7 years, Matthew has lived in China and for the past several years, his exclusive focus has been on crypto and blockchain.

In this episode, they discuss:

What Chinese crypto and blockchain investors were focused on before Coronavirus
The shift in the crypto and blockchain narrative in China post-Libra
What living through the Coronavirus has actually been live (and how it differs from the media narrative in the US)
Why enterprise blockchain is poised to be one of the most dominant focuses for China-centric investors this year

The Breakdown Weekly Recap | Feb 29 2020 Feb 29, 2020

Show notes

The full week's episode run in one long-run, long-chill, long-sleep episode:

Monday | Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank
Tuesday | 6 Explanations for Crypto’s Coronavirus Focus
Wednesday | Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’?
Thursday | A 101 Guide To Ethereum’s ProgPoW Controversy
Friday | Understanding This Week’s Market Whiplash, Featuring Scott Melker

Understanding This Week’s Market Whiplash, Featuring Scott Melker Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

After weeks of not reacting to Coronavirus, the markets took a profound turn for the worse this week, leading ultimately to the fastest correction - i.e. loss of 10% - in recorded history.

In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by crypto trader, DJ, and broad market thinker Scott Melker to discuss:

What the crypto markets demonstrated this week
What recent price action suggests about the bitcoin as a safe haven narrative
Why it’s insane that just two weeks ago, despite tens (or hundreds) of millions of people being quarantined in the supply chain capital of the world, stock markets were printing all time highs
How we went from those ATHs to the fastest correction (10% drop) in recorded history
What the correction suggests for the fundamentals of our economy
Why central bankers have fewer options than ever to fight economic turmoil

A 101 Guide To Ethereum’s ProgPoW Controversy Feb 27, 2020

Show notes

Last Friday on Ethereum’s core developer call, the devs agreed to push forward a controversial anti-ASICs consensus algorithm switch known as ProgPoW.

The broader Ethereum community was not pleased, and has spent the last week debating both ProgPoW itself as well as the way decisions in the community get made.

In this 101-guide to the controversy, @nlw breaks down:

What is ProgPoW
The history of the debate
Arguments for and against
Who falls on what side and why
The implications of ProgPoW for DeFi

Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’? Feb 26, 2020

Show notes

Bitcoin is having a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Many are using the dump - which from a timing perspective aligns with a broader market selloff among Coronavirus fears - as a way to diminish the “bitcoin as a safe haven” narrative.

In this episode, @nlw revisits that narrative and argues that it is uncomfortably bunched up with the uncorrelated asset narrative, or, as Chamath Palihapitiya calls it “schmuck insurance.”

This episode also covers:

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) news: Canada says it doesn’t see the need right now but that could change if private cryptos get more traction, while China’s work on a digital yuan is paused due to Coronavirus shutdowns.
The six year anniversary of Mt. Gox’s lost 750,000 BTC coming to light.

6 Explanations for Crypto’s Coronavirus Focus Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

The spread of Coronavirus has dominated the news cycle across industries, but the discussion has been particularly fierce in both the finance and tech worlds, with crypto right in the lead.

For a month or more, prominent crypto voices have been discussing the event in terms of skepticism of reported government cases, questions of market impact, and plans for personal preparation.

I surveyed more than 1500 people on Crypto Twitter to ask why crypto was so interested in the Coronavirus.

These were their top answers.

This episode of The Breakdown also features an excerpt from Hidden Forces Ep 123: Market Nihilism: Price Discovery in a World Where Nothing Matters | Ben Hunt & Grant Williams

Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

An incredible amount of work has gone into convincing institutional investors that bitcoin and crypto should be on their radar. Now that many are convinced, however, they face some significant limitations in the infrastructure.

A new crypto bank out of Wyoming is designed to address those problems. Founded by Caitlin Long, Avanti is apply for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter and already has 8 products in its pipeline not currently available to US investors.

In this interview, Caitlin and @nlw discuss:

Why Avanti is needed
Why Avanti will have 100% of assets in reserve at all times
Why the right model for crypto custody is more akin to valeting a car than current financial market models
Why building a crypto bank is important in the context of macro market turmoil
How Coronavirus is exposing pre-existing problems in the global economy

The Breakdown Weekly Recap | Feb 22 2020 Feb 22, 2020

Show notes

The full week's episode run in one long-run, long-chill, long-sleep episode:

Monday | Off
Tuesday | Is It Exploitation Season for DeFi?
Wednesday | Chainlink's Sergey Nazarov on What DeFi Can Learn From Early Exchange Hacks
Thursday | Why We Should Stop Thinking of ‘Crypto’ as a Single Industry
Friday | Diagnosing the Dip: Why Today's Leading Exchanges Are Powerful, but Not Inevitable

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