The Coin Bureau Podcast: Crypto Without the Hype

Latest Episodes:

The Merge and what Comes Next Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

It’s been a couple of weeks since Mike and Guy shared the airwaves, but here they are reunited (albeit remotely, as Guy is currently in Dubai.) Apart from catching up and - inevitably - discussing the death of HM the Queen, there’s only really one thing worth talking about right now and that is, of course, Ethereum’s upcoming merge. If you’re sick of hearing about this then take comfort in the fact that it will all be over soon.

This episode is being released earlier than normal because the merge will have happened by its normal Friday slot. However, the merge is just one stage in Ethereum’s development and there are many other important milestones ahead of it - so perhaps it’s time we looked forward to those as well.

So, whether you’re listening pre- or post-merge, there’s still lots of important stuff you should know about this pivotal moment in the history of cryptocurrency. Nothing like this has been attempted before and perhaps we’ll all look back and be thankful we were there to see it. In the words of V.I. Lenin: “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” This definitely feels like the latter.

Some useful merge-related resources:

Finematics YouTube channel, with a great merge explainer: https://www.youtube.com/c/Finematics

Ethereum website’s merge page: https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge/

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editors: Sam Moult & Mykal June

Theme music composed by: Noel Brown

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Accredited Investors and Ethereum’s Upcoming Switch Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

It’s an exciting time for cryptocurrency right now, even with markets in the doldrums. That’s because Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake is now only a few days away, while elsewhere the powers that be are still struggling to figure out how they can control the crypto industry. In this week’s highlights from Coin Bureau’s YouTube channel, we take a look at both of these developing situations and what they might mean for the future of crypto and the wider financial landscape.

Ever since the great depression almost a century ago, those in power in the US and elsewhere have sought to limit the ordinary person’s access to certain types of high-risk, high-reward investment vehicles such as company funding rounds or stocks before the list publicly. However, for a privileged few, no such restrictions apply. These are the so-called ‘accredited investors’ and, before you ask, there’s no test you can take or course you can study to become one. You simply have to be rich - that is, in the US at any rate, you have to have an income north of $200k a year, a net worth of over $1 million (excluding your main residence) and/or be an executive in a company selling its equity. Others need not apply.

What this creates is a system whereby the rich are able to get even richer and everyone else has to try their luck buying publicly-listed stocks and other assets like cryptocurrencies, for instance. But the huge gains many have made on crypto, coupled with the volatility of most coins and tokens, have got authorities worried that the status quo may be in danger of being upset. Governments across the world are now taking steps to limit their citizens’ access to cryptocurrencies and it’s a contagion that’s likely to spread.

Part two of this episode then focuses on Ethereum’s upcoming switch to proof of stake, one of the most hotly-anticipated and significant events in the history of crypto. After many delays and a lot of hard work by Vitalik and the rest of the Ethereum team, the transition is now scheduled for mid-September and the stakes could not be higher. The crypto industry is holding its breath waiting to see how it goes and what the post-merge future will look like. What you’ll hear is a breakdown of everything you need to know.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Semir Mutapcic

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Global Economic Instability and The Quest for Crypto Knowledge Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

We’re back with some picks from our YouTube channel, taking a look at a major threat to global economic stability and some invaluable tools to help you in your quest for more crypto knowledge. Something to suit every taste.

First up, we take a look at the economic crisis unfolding in China, where a cooling property market and some worrying GDP, growth, sales and unemployment numbers are causing a serious headache for Xi Jinping’s government. For years, Chinese citizens have invested heavily in real estate, in the belief that it was a market that would just keep on growing. However, just as in capitalist countries, greed has proved to be the only thing to be without limits. Property developers in China have taken on mountains of debt and, as events of the last few years have laid waste to markets there and elsewhere, that debt has started to turn bad.

That said, the woes facing the Chinese economy have been a long time coming, even before covid-19 reared its ugly head. Nothing goes up forever and it was perhaps inevitable that - in the case of the property sector at any rate - boom would eventually turn to bust. That is now starting to happen and the consequences of a serious economic downturn in China will be felt around the world.

Then, in the second half of today’s episode, we change tack entirely and take a look at some of the best tools to use in your crypto research. There’s a wealth of useful information out there if you just know where to look, and, as that’s part of our job here at Coin Bureau, we thought we’d point you in the direction of some of the best places for invaluable alpha.

These tools are all free to use and yet provide you with the sort of info others may spend hours fruitlessly trawling the internet for. Find out which crypto projects are actually earning money, get all the information you could ever want about NFTs and DAOs, or find out where to earn the best DeFi yields. Once you have these in your toolbox, you’ll wonder how you ever did without them.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Semir Mutapcic

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Privacy In Crypto and Beyond Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

One of the topics that came up during our look at the cashless society was the notion of privacy and the digital age’s erosion of it. Keeping one’s financial transactions private is a big part of maintaining a life free from unwarranted interference and it’s becoming harder and harder to do.

Then, not long after we’d recorded that episode, a blow was struck against crypto privacy that is still reverberating through the industry. On the 8th August, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - a department of the US Treasury - imposed sanctions on the Tornado Cash mixing protocol, as well as a number of wallets associated with it. This unprecedented step was taken because Tornado Cash has been used by hackers from North Korea’s Lazarus group to launder stolen crypto. It should be noted however, that, according to blockchain tracking company Chainalysis, only around 17% of the $7 billion that has passed through the protocol is thought to be related to illicit activity.

The impact of these measures was immediate: the Tornado Cash website was taken down, many DeFi protocols began blocking access to wallets that had used Tornado Cash and funds in many wallets were frozen. Most disturbingly of all, one of Tornado Cash’s developers was arrested by Dutch police and was still in custody as we recorded this, nearly two weeks later.

If you caught the last episode, you’ll be up to speed with what happened with Tornado Cash and the ongoing saga forms a big part of our discussion in this episode. We also talk about privacy in general, how the internet is eroding it and crypto’s role in the fight to keep prying eyes away from our finances.

Privacy is a right, not a privilege, and forms a central plank of human freedom. But, like other freedoms, if we don’t fight for it, then others will take it away. If that happens, it will be much harder to get back than it ever was to hold on to.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake and the Tornado Cash Sanctions Aug 24, 2022

Show notes

This week’s highlights from our YouTube channel look at two hot topics within the crypto community. So, get ready for the lowdown on proof of work vs proof of stake and what went down when the US Treasury decided to sanction a popular privacy tool.

First up, you’ll hear our take on a recent report from the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, which looks at the two most well-known consensus mechanisms in crypto: proof of work and proof of stake. Both have their detractors and their champions and both have been in the spotlight in recent months.

Proof of work is the consensus mechanism used by Bitcoin and is much discussed because of its high energy usage. It is also currently used by Ethereum, though not for long because Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake is fast approaching. This will be a seismic moment in the history of cryptocurrency and offers the perfect opportunity to examine the two systems in depth. Kraken’s excellent report is full of useful information and should be required reading for anyone interested in crypto. In this video, we give you our take on what it all says.

In the second part of this episode, we look at the sanctioning of the Tornado Cash mixing protocol by the US Treasury Department. For those unfamiliar, a mixing protocol provides crypto users with a way to obscure the origin of a crypto transaction. It also acts as a vital tool for preserving privacy in a world where almost every transaction is viewable on-chain. Unfortunately, Tornado Cash has also been used by hackers and money-launderers in the past, hence the Treasury’s decision to sanction it.

What may on the surface appear to be merely the shuttering of a tool used by criminals is in fact a major blow to law-abiding users of cryptocurrency and one which is unlikely to affect the bad actors it purports to target. It also has enormous and far-reaching implications for the wider crypto industry and the fallout from it will be felt by all of us. So, for the background to the whole unfolding story, what has happened already and what could happen in the future, keep listening.

You can find the full text of the Kraken report here: https://blog.kraken.com/post/14885/pow-vs-pos-securing-the-chain/

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Semir Mutapcic

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cashless Society: Part 2 Aug 19, 2022

Show notes

Last week’s discussion about the idea of a cashless society got pretty in-depth, so we thought we’d divide it up into two. So, here is part 2, in which we talk about the groups of people for whom cash is a lifeline and look ahead to where going cashless could one day lead us.

The rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is unstoppable and state-issued digital tokens will be a fact of life for many of us by the end of the decade, if not before. We look at why governments are accelerating their development and what it could mean for all of us. We also look at one place where complete financial oversight is becoming the central plank of a thoroughly modern dystopia.

As with last week’s episode, Brett Scott’s excellent book Cloudmoney was vital reading when researching this one.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439997/cloudmoney-by-scott-brett/9781847925879

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Perfect Cryptocurrency and Are We Heading for a Housing Crash? Aug 17, 2022

Show notes

Back for some more midweek action with a couple of selections from Coin Bureau’s YouTube channel. The audio you’ll hear this week is from our videos on what makes the perfect cryptocurrency and why we could be about to witness a housing market crash.

The developers and fans of many crypto projects like to claim that they have solved the so-called blockchain trilemma. This term, coined by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, posits the idea that no cryptocurrency blockchain can be decentralised, secure and scalable at the same time: one component must always be sacrificed in favour of the others. Usually, the sacrificed component is decentralisation, with many, many cryptocurrencies turning out to be centralised to a greater or lesser degree once you dig down into how they actually work.

The continued failure to solve the blockchain trilemma, as well as many other endemic failings, means that the perfect cryptocurrency is yet to appear. Some have got close and some are getting closer as we speak, but all have their imperfections. So, we here at Coin Bureau sat down and tried to imagine how exactly this mythical, perfect crypto would look. With luck, one of the crypto developers of tomorrow may be listening and taking notes…

Next up, a look at how the housing market in many countries has been running hot in recent years and why it might be about to start cooling. From a pandemic-inspired race for space, via failing supply chains, the explosion of Airbnb and much else besides have come housing prices that seemed only to go one way. After all, everyone needs a place to live.

But, as Covid recedes, the tide may be turning. Interest rates are rising, uncertainty is stalking its way through the global economy and recession is becoming a reality in many countries. As such, could bricks and mortar suddenly start to wobble, or will they always be safe as houses? This second part of today’s episode should give you a good idea of where we could be headed.

If you want to see these videos in their natural habitat (so to speak) then you can find them and many more over on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CoinBureau/featured

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Semir Mutapcic

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Cashless Society: Part 1 Aug 12, 2022

Show notes

As our lives become ever more digital, a world without cash edges seemingly ever closer. For many of us, cash makes only fleeting appearances in our day-to-day lives, as we transact with cards, phones, apps and, of course, crypto on an increasingly regular basis. The cashless society is nigh.

Going cashless can certainly seem more convenient in most situations. Who has time for the money that jiggles and folds anymore? Cash use was crashing even before the pandemic came along and dealt what many assume was a mortal blow to the traditional way of transacting. When was the last time you pulled some sweaty coins out of your back pocket or unrolled a crumpled banknote?

And yet, as much as going cashless may seem like the natural evolution of things, it's a process that is being driven by some powerful vested interests. Banks, payment networks, fintech companies and even governments have much to gain from the death of cash and they have not been shy about moving that process along. And we the consumers have, for the most part, gone blithely along with them.

In this episode, we discuss the emergence of the cashless society and ask whether the speed and convenience of digital payments really make up for the loss of other freedoms that cash allows us. We look at who benefits from cash’s decline and who loses out. And we dig below the surface to see whether cash really is dying out as quickly as we might have thought, before looking at one place where the demise of cash is helping to create a living nightmare.

This episode was partly inspired by the brilliant book Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets, by acclaimed author Brett Scott. In the book, Scott brilliantly lays bare the way in which the financial powers-that-be operate and how they would like nothing better to see cash go the way of the dodo. He also looks at how crypto has muscled in on the debate and how it may not be the saviour many of us hope it will. His book is insightful, forthright and well worth your time.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439997/cloudmoney-by-scott-brett/9781847925879

Our iHeart stablemates at the wonderful Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know podcast had themselves a fascinating discussion on the cashless society back in January 2020. Much has changed since then, but it’s well worth a listen (as of course are all their other episodes too). Available wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/182-stuff-they-dont-want-you-t-26941221/episode/a-world-without-cash-56794035/

Having got so caught up in discussing all the aspects of a cashless society, we decided to split our discussion in two. The second part will be available next week.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who Wants Crypto To Die? Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

It’s time for another selection from our YouTube channel and this week, we’ve chosen our deep dives into the organisations that want to see crypto die and what you can do to beat inflation. What you’re about to hear is the audio from those two videos, which between them have been viewed over a quarter of a million times and counting.

The current financial system serves the interests of a select few over those of the rest of us and those few would rather things stayed that way. Among them are a number of institutions which wield enormous power over all of us - a power which crypto implicitly threatens. Some, like the IMF and the World Economic Forum (WEF) you may have already heard of, but others may be less familiar to you. In the first part of this episode, we take a closer look at these organisations and the ill will they bear towards the entire crypto industry.

Next, we examine some of the ways in which you can fight back against the inflation that is driving up prices around the world and threatening to push the world economy into a long recession. Inflation affects all of us - rich, poor and in-between - albeit to radically varying degrees. But there are a few steps you can take to lessen its impact on your finances and help you ride out the cost of living crisis that is starting to wash over us.

If you want to see these videos in their natural habitat (so to speak) then you can find them and many more over on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CoinBureau/featured

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Semir Mutapcic

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Current Affairs Aug 05, 2022

Show notes

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for crypto: markets have shown a slight recovery and there’s a renewed sense of optimism in the air from some quarters. Some are speculating that, with the disasters of Terra, Voyager, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and many others now receding in the rear-view mirror, the worst could, perhaps, be over. Is the stage set for a recovery?

We need to look at the bigger picture to find any sort of answer to that question. Crypto is now inextricably bound up with all the other elements of the global economy, as well as its own, discrete concerns. In other words, there’s a lot we have to consider before arriving at any sort of conclusion.

In this episode, we take a look at some of the macroeconomic and crypto-specific factors currently affecting the markets. From the actions of the Federal Reserve, to the Chinese housing market, via the unrest in Sri Lanka and excitement over Ethereum’s upcoming Merge event, we examine some of the most important current and impending events that you need to be aware of. Is there light at the end of the tunnel, or will we be groping our way through the gloom for a while yet?

Predicting the future is impossible, but we can make educated guesses based on what we see unfolding in front of us. If you’re curious about what may lie ahead and what it could mean for you, crypto and the wider world, then be sure to tune in. Not financial advice, of course.

PS - as mentioned in the episode, here is a link to the Bloomberg interview with the disgraced founders of Three Arrows Capital. A, shall we say, interesting read (subscription required).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-22/three-arrows-founders-en-route-to-dubai-describe-ltcm-moment#xj4y7vzkg

We hope you enjoy the show.

Producer for iHeartMedia: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.