The Breakdown

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Diagnosing the Dip: Why Today's Leading Exchanges Are Powerful, but Not Inevitable Feb 21, 2020

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After settling in to the $10,000 price level, BTC suddenly and rapidly dipped more than 5% in an hour on Wednesday. As the market discusses possible explanations, some floated the unexpected simultaneous downtime of Binance and Coinbase as a causal factor.

In this episode of The Breakdown, we discuss the power exchanges wield - both in terms of market liquidity as well as the ability to shape news cycles. The good news is that new funding for insurgent exchanges suggest that power today is not inevitable.

Lastly, we discuss the latest in central bank digital currencies, with Sweden launching an e-krona pilot; a former head of China’s national bank saying Coronavirus could accelerate efforts; and a new member of the Libra Association.

Why We Should Stop Thinking of ‘Crypto’ as a Single Industry Feb 20, 2020

Show notes

The ‘crypto’ industry is having a hard time fitting everything that’s happening inside that one monolithic term. On this episode, @nlw looks at current news stories from across at least 5 different categories - DeFi, enterprise blockchain, central bank digital currencies, digital collectibles and bitcoin - to ask whether they really all belong lumped in in the same category.

The episode also looks at:

Four reasons these increasingly different categories remain bunched together
Why turning other parts of the industry into an enemy is rewarded in the public sphere
Why letting individual parts of the industry evolve individually is likely to bring more, not fewer resources into the space.

Chainlink's Sergey Nazarov on What DeFi Can Learn From Early Exchange Hacks Feb 19, 2020

Show notes

The DeFi world continues to dissect the recent attacks on bZx. To most, the amount lost in the attacks is far less relevant than what the attacks suggest about how DeFi applications need to be designed.

Within that, one key topic of conversation is the role of price oracles - the systems by which DeFi applications check the prices of assets that dictate what happens in a given smart contract. Since asset price manipulation was at the core of the recent attacks, this is a particularly pertinent area of inquiry.

Yesterday, Chainlink announced that it would be helping bZx upgrade their systems taking advantage of Chainlink’s recently-launched “meta oracle.” On this episode of The Breakdown, Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov discusses:

The role of price oracles in DeFi
How price oracles were targeted in the recent attacks
What the DeFi industry can learn from early crypto exchange hacks

Is It Exploitation Season for DeFi? Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Part of what makes DeFi interesting to people is how it takes advantage of open source protocols to enable types of transactions never before available. The problem, however, is that financial structures mean new financial vulnerabilities.

In the last few days, two attacks on bZx have used a similar strategy of manipulating the price of synthetic assets in the context of a new instrument called “flashloans.” On this episode of @nlw breaks down exactly

How the attacks were carried out
How the community is responding
What the larger ramifications for DeFi might be

The Breakdown Weekly Recap | Feb 15 2020 Feb 15, 2020

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The full week's shows as one long episode, featuring guests including Travis Kling (Ikigai), Muneeb Ali (Blockstack), Coinlist (Andy Bromberg)

Monday | On the Frontlines of the SEC Safe Harbor Proposal With CoinList President Andy Bromberg
Tuesday | Muneeb Ali Explains Blockstack’s Big Bet on Bitcoin
Wednesday | Why Crypto Sentiment and Prices Are Soaring: Puppets, Pundits, Partnerships
Thursday | The US Government Sends Mixed Signals on Digital Currency Privacy
Friday | The Top Narratives Driving Crypto Market Growth feat. Travis Kling

The Top Narratives Driving Crypto Market Growth feat. Travis Kling Feb 14, 2020

Show notes

There’s no denying that 2020 is off to a roaring start. From prices to volume to social media, sentiment is up up up.

But what’s driving it? On this special Valentine’s Day episode, @nlw reacts to listeners votes about which narratives are most driving the shift in energy, discussing:

The BTC halving
Coronavirus and volatility
Fed action
Central bank digital currency intrigue
Ethereum and DeFi
Price reflexivity and Lindy effects

The episode finishes up with some hot takes on what is driving the markets and what we should be most concerned about and most excited for with Ikigai Asset Management’s Travis Kling.

The US Government Sends Mixed Signals on Digital Currency Privacy Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

To look at the US Government, it is the best of times and the worst of times for personal financial privacy.

On the one hand, in comments before the Senate Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that FINCEN is planning more strict regulations around anti-money laundering and crypto.

At the same time, the CEO of DropBit was arrested on money laundering charges around a bitcoin mixing service he ran between 2014 and 2017.

In this new enforcement regime, one of the government’s major partners is Chainalysis, who have seen more than $10m in Federal agency contracts since 2015.

Yet privacy advocates are also surprisingly enthused by comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell, who suggested in testimony to Congress that any potential US digital dollar would need to be privacy preserving.

Why Crypto Sentiment and Prices Are Soaring: Puppets, Pundits, Partnerships Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

After Monday’s quick retrace, bitcoin and the rest of the market went green again. In this episode, @nlw breaks down the shifting sentiment, looking at:

How a partnership between Hedara Hashgraph and Google Cloud pumped HBAR more than 50% - featuring commentary from Hedara CEO Mance Harmon
Why Figure is launching a TV campaign to educate people about blockchain
CNBC Fast Money actively (and convincingly) promoting the narrative of bitcoin as a safe haven asset.

Muneeb Ali Explains Blockstack’s Big Bet on Bitcoin Feb 11, 2020

Show notes

Last week, Blockstack announced a new proposal through which node operators would be rewarded in bitcoin. The concept behind Proof of Transfer is that, for the cryptoasset ecosystem to run, electricity should only have to be converted into digital scarcity once.

In this interview with @nlw, Blockstack CEO Muneeb Ali explains how, by tying the security of Blockstack’s Stacks blockchain to bitcoin, and allowing miners to be rewarded with BTC, Blockstack might be setting a new precedent for how the crypto ecosystem looks to bitcoin as a base layer.

On the Frontlines of the SEC Safe Harbor Proposal With CoinList President Andy Bromberg Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

Last week, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed Rule 195 to give token projects a 3 year safe harbor. This proposed period would allow them to distribute tokens without fear of violating securities law so long as they achieve certain standards of decentralization in that time.

Coinlist is a platform for compliant token sales. On this episode of The Breakdown, Coinlist CoFounder & President Andy Bromberg and @nlw discuss:

The cost of regulatory clarity in the US, including projects leaving US shores
Historic approaches to “compliant” token sales and what problems they still leave
What Commissioner Hester Peirce’s proposed Rule 195 includes
The potential implications for the US crypto markets
The chances that Rule 195 comes to pass

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