The Breakdown

Latest Episodes:

Regulatory clap back / Why co's should fund open source / N. Korea crypto Sep 19, 2019

Show notes

Major regulatory and law enforcement clap back as SEC targets ICOBox (who would have believed that a company named ICOBox wasn't completely above board?) and an early Ethereum advisor is arrested for extortion. Get your breath back after that one, then let's talk about, first, why for profit companies that owe their existing to open source protocols should support the development of those protocols, and second, another look at why cryptocurrency is an inherently political force, featuring North Korea creating a bitcoin-like currency for itself.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Fed cuts & repo / Binance.US's BNB surprise / Bitcoin ETF withdrawn Sep 18, 2019

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The FED has pumped the equivalent of half of Bitcoin's market cap into the markets over the last couple days in what some are likening to a TAF 2.0. We discuss why this, plus today's anticipated rate cuts, matter for Bitcoin. Binance US launched today with surprise support for BNB. Finally, one of the leading Bitcoin ETF contenders withdrew its proposal yesterday.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Hashgraph & alt season dreams / Privacy coin delistings / Tokenized real estate & NBA contracts Sep 17, 2019

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Hashgraph is live and alts are in the green. Is it alt season or just wishful thinking? Over in the world of security tokens, NBA players are tokenizing their contracts and startups that wanted to lead the STO revolution are pivoting to help existing asset holders tokenize their existing assets. Finally, as privacy coins get delisted from exchanges, we ask what it means for the larger battle between privacy and surveillance.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Narrative Watch: Bitcoin is Political Sep 16, 2019

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As this was being recorded, Facebook was being grilled by 26 central banks about their plans for Libra. Last week, France and Germany said they'd block the project and were exploring their own digital currencies. Libra head David Marcus felt enough heat to take to Twitter to defend why the project wasn't a threat to monetary sovereignty. In this Narrative Watch, we look at how the emergence of Libra and the response among the nations of the world have made it clear that, despite Marcus' protestations, cryptocurrencies are a political force. What does it mean for bitcoin? Listen to hear the discussion.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

CLASH! The State vs. Crypto | BTC futures & DeFi Robo Advisors | Invest:Asia trend recap Sep 13, 2019

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The clash of global state power and crypto seems more inevitable than ever. Germany joins France in declaring that they will block Libra (all the while being interested to explore their own digital currency). We look at not only the news, but what people like Ben Hunt and Nic Carter think it all means. We also focus on some of the new tools - BTC futures and a DeFi robo advisor - helping us not only opt out, but build alliances with the traditional financial world. Finally, we look at the trends coming out of CoinDesk's Invest:Asia event. Has the center of crypto gravity moved to Asia? Some new evidence suggests yes.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

QE is good for Bitcoin / Binance US opens next week / France to block Libra / BTC on Premier League Jerseys Sep 12, 2019

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More qualitative easing out of Europe means more "look at them they're doing it we should be doing it!" from Trump means more "Bitcoin solves this" memes. Binance is geoblocking users but next week opens up Binance.US - a regulated exchange with 6 assets to start. In an interesting one-two punch, France has announced their intention to block Libra from operating while also making crypto-to-crypto trading tax exempt. Finally, we look at investment from a major record label in a digital asset platform alternative to Ethereum and one company is putting the bitcoin logo on Premier League Jerseys.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Coinbase exploring IEOs / Trump Tweets For Negative Rates / Bitcoin #s Beyond The Price Sep 11, 2019

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At Invest: Asia in Singapore today, Coindesk's heat of institutional sales in Asia hinted that the company is exploring IEOs, but wouldn't comment further. As he is wont to do, Trump got everyone talking by ratcheting up his pressure on the Fed to go into negative rate territory. Bitcoiners were happy to explain why this matters. And speaking of Bitcoin, some data from Coinmetrics beyond the price that shows just how the network is thriving.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Bitcoin bank-ification / Do airdrops work? / Apple, Amazon & crypto Sep 10, 2019

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A new product from Gemini which allows custody customers to trade without moving their coins out of cold storage has sparked discussions about bankification that go all the way back to the beginnings of bitcoin. Meanwhile, Stellar announces a ~$120m airdrop to Keybase users prompting the question: do airdrops work? Have they ever worked? And if so, for what? Finally, on the occasion of Apple's most recent product event, what do we know about their crypto strategy?

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Narrative Watch: Impatience, Greed or Fear? What's driving the crypto Fall blues? Sep 09, 2019

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Despite Bakkt opening warehousing, BTC holding strong around $10k, and many new announcements, it's hard not to view the mood around crypto Twitter as lethargic. Is it simple impatience and the wrong time preference? Is it reflective of a recognition that alt season - at least for the 2017 ICO vintage of coins - doesn't seem anywhere on the horizon? Is it actually a more creeping nervousness around the global economy? That's what we explore on this week's Narrative Watch.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Libra vs. China: The Global Digital Money Wars Heat Up Sep 06, 2019

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One of the most important global economic battles of our time is the battle to create new standards for global digital money. While bitcoin has been quietly building its case for the last decade, the story of the last few months has been all about the new contenders in private coins led by Libra and state-backed CBDCs, most notably China. On this edition, we look at the latest - new reports on Facebook lobbying hires, ECB antagonism, and a serious sense of urgency on the part of the People's Bank of China.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto