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    Investing

    The Crypto Conversation

    Brave New Coin’s Crypto Conversation talks to the key people creating the Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency future. Hosted by Andy Pickering, learn how this rapidly evolving industry is reshaping the world as we move towards decentralized finance, NFTs and Web3.

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    Latest Episodes:
    Unleash Web3 Superpowers - The Fuse Blockchain Mar 21, 2023

    Robert Miller is VP of Growth at Fuse, a business and consumer-friendly blockchain for mainstream adoption of web3 payments.

    Why you should listen

    Fuse is an enterprise-grade, use-case agnostic, reliable, and secure decentralized EVM-compatible public blockchain. Fuse is designed for entrepreneurs and organizations that want to experiment, launch and scale Web3 apps and integrate crypto payments. Anyone can build on the Fuse Blockchain and leverage enterprise-ready, decentralized tech - be it existing crypto projects, start-ups, or blue-chip companies.

    From gaming, social, or Web3 payment-focused products, Fuse is designed as a decentralized blockchain infrastructure built to power the future of Web3.

    The Fuse SDK lets companies plug Web3 services and crypto payments into their existing mobile products with business-ready smart contract wallets, eliminating the complexities of Web3.

    Supporting links

    Fuse

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    InfiniGods - The Web3 Gaming Studio Mar 19, 2023

    Owen O’Donoghue is co-founder of InfiniGods, a Web3 gaming studio building a suite of fun, free-to-play blockchain games. O'Donoghue is the former Director of Gaming at Facebook, and knows what it takes to establish and legitimize an industry. He was a part of the Facebook mobile gaming boom of the 2010s and sees a similar path forward for Web3 via quality, fun, and accessible games.

    Why you should listen

    InfiniGods is a blockchain gaming studio with a suite of Web3 games centered around ancient mythologies and civilizations. The company was founded in 2021 and raised a seed round of $9M led by Pantera Capital and joined by Framework Ventures and Animoca Brands.

    The team has worked at major gaming companies such as Facebook, EA, LucasArts, Scopely, DGN & Zynga. They believe that blockchain technology can solve many problems that Free to Play games faced in Web2. In particular, giving players ownership over their in-game assets can create a better consumer experience.

    Supporting links

    InfiniGods

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    SynFutures - A decentralized derivatives trading platform Mar 15, 2023

    SynFutures is a next-generation Web3 decentralized derivatives platform that creates an open and trustless derivatives market by enabling trading on anything with a price feed anytime.

    Why you should listen

    SynFutures democratizes the derivatives market by employing an Amazon-like business model, giving users the tools to freely trade any assets and list arbitrary futures contracts within seconds. It is the first protocol in the decentralized derivatives industry to introduce permissionless asset listings powered by an innovative Synthetic Automated Market Making (sAMM) model.

    Deployed on multiple blockchains, SynFutures is currently the largest derivatives exchange on Polygon and is among the top three most actively used decentralized derivatives exchanges.

    Backers include Tier 1 Web3 institutional investors Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), Dragonfly Capital, Standard Crypto, and Framework Ventures

    Supporting links

    SynFutures

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Launchnodes - Investment Grade Staking Mar 13, 2023

    Jaydeep Korde is the founder of Launchnodes, which provides nodes on infrastructure, the public cloud or bare metal, for Ethereum and other proof-of-stake blockchains. Launchnodes make it easy to spin up pre-configured, secure Validator, Beacon, Geth, and RPC nodes, allowing you to become a Solo Staker.

    Why you should listen

    The Launchnodes mission is to make Solo Staking and independent access to blockchain data easy, without third-party dependency.

    They provide self-serve options and support for non-technical Stakers. Helping those building at scale as well as delivering end-to-end managed services and consultancy, for clients who are looking for specific support and financial outcomes.

    Launchnodes’ services are designed to be easy, scalable, and secure, leveraging the public cloud.

    Launchnodes believes that Ethereum staking returns can be used as a long-term financing tool to fund positive outcomes related to climate change, inequality, and new infrastructure. Their model for Impact staking is about building an ecosystem of partners and open-source experiments that use staking returns to drive social impact and share the data related to that impact.

    Supporting links

    Launchnodes

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Derivatives Data - BNC’s New Crypto Derivatives Data Product Mar 09, 2023

    Derivatives Data is a new product in Brave New Coin’s market data product suite. Developed by BNC in response to the accelerating growth in crypto derivatives trading, the product provides comprehensive real-time data on the crypto derivatives market. Track the next expiring Bitcoin Futures, compare funding rates between Perpetual swaps, or explore open interest across Option strikes.

    Why you should listen

    Brave New Coin’s Aditya Das and Ryan Greaves join Andy to discuss the crypto derivatives market and the new derivatives data offering from Brave New Coin. BNC’s market-data platform provides high up-time, low latency data throughput to support a range of business and trader use cases. It’s built for enterprise developers with BNC’s robust exchange and asset mapping to avoid duplicate and inconsistent ticker symbols.

    The data tracks Futures, Perpetuals, and Options using data from Binance, BitMEX, Bybit, Deribit, Kraken, LedgerX, and OKX.

    Supporting links

    Derivatives Data Page

    Derivatives Data Articles on BNC

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Giddy - Building the new Financial Frontier Mar 09, 2023

    Eric and Ethan Parker are the co-founders of Giddy, a self-custodial crypto wallet that aims to make DeFi accessible for everyone. After experimenting with Bitcoin mining in 2012, Eric moved to Ethereum mining which led to an interest in DeFi. After helping a friend recover funds from the BSC chain, he realized there was a need for a DeFi wallet that was accessible to mainstream users. Giddy was born.

    Why you should listen

    Giddy is on a mission to make decentralized finance accessible to everyone. With Giddy, you can buy, send, receive, and earn rewards from your crypto in one safe and easy-to-use mobile app.

    US-based and VC-backed, Giddy was founded by a team of engineers with decades of experience in mobile app development, security, finance, and cryptography.

    Giddy began in 2021 by helping people tap into the rewards of decentralized finance, but quickly learned the tools are limited and the knowledge barriers are too high for many to overcome. So they've put themselves to work solving these challenges with a powerful but joyful mobile app.

    Giddy is a self-custodial crypto wallet that has a recoverable private key, fiat onramp and offramp capabilities, and single-swipe staking into multiple DeFi protocols.

    Supporting links

    Giddy

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Enya Labs - Building the Boba Network Feb 22, 2023

    Curtis Schlaufman is the Global Head of Marketing at Enya Labs - a core contributor to the Boba Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup scaling solution.

    Why you should listen

    Founded by a team of Stanford faculty and alumni, Enya Labs is an innovator of software frameworks specializing in distributed systems engineering and application development. The Company serves clients and organizations by facilitating the interoperability between web2 and web3 and promoting the widespread adoption of blockchain technology for a more transparent and connected world.

    Boba Network is an optimistic-based multichain layer-2 scaling solution that aims to unlock the potential of rollup technology and enable more flexible blockchain communication. The protocol is fully compatible with EVM-based tools and has already deployed multichain support for Avalanche, BNB, Moonbeam and Fantom, supporting lightning-fast transactions and fees anywhere from 40-100X less than the respective layer-1. Boba Network is powered by Hybrid Compute technology that brings the power of Web2 on-chain, with smarter smart contracts that allow developers to leverage off-chain compute and real-world data to deliver enriched experiences for decentralized applications.

    Supporting links

    Enya

    Boba Network

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Uniblock - the Blockchain Toolkit Feb 19, 2023

    Kevin Callahan is Co-Founder at Uniblock, who provide a collection of blockchain tool kits designed to make Web3 development faster and scalable.

    Why you should listen

    Uniblock provides blockchain toolkits such as the APIs, SDKs, and No-Code tools needed to build any Blockchain application. They offer various products and services, including a blockchain-based e-commerce platform, digital identity management solutions, and a suite of developer tools and APIs. The company is focused on providing user-friendly and accessible blockchain technology to businesses of all sizes, making it easier for them to leverage the benefits of blockchain without the need for extensive technical knowledge or expertise.

    Supporting links

    Uniblock

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Dexalot - A Decentralized Central Limit Order Book Exchange Feb 12, 2023

    Berk Ozdogan aka Firestorm is the Head of Strategy at Dexalot, a decentralized central limit order book exchange. Previously, he worked in traditional finance at JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Bank Of America Merrill Lynch. Firestorm is an electronic trading expert across FX and Equities asset classes, focusing on algorithmic execution, automated market making, and liquidity curation.

    Why you should listen

    Dexalot chose the Avalanche platform due to its advantages in speed, throughput, and near-instantaneous finality. Previous attempts to bring Central Limit Order Book Functionality on blockchains with inferior consensus protocols typically led to limited adoption, high slippage, and large amounts of market risk for the users. Dexalot solves these issues.

    Supporting links

    Dexalot

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Xclaim - a Marketplace for Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Feb 09, 2023

    Matthew Sedigh is the CEO at Xclaim, a marketplace for crypto bankruptcy claims. Users who have accounts with stranded assets at FTX, Genesis, Celsius, Voyager or BlockFi can sell the claim on their account to recover some liquidity.

    Why you should listen

    Xclaim has helped more than 10,000 creditors manage more than $750 million of claims through an open and efficient marketplace that ensures a fair trading experience for all.

    Users with trapped accounts with Genesis, Celsius, Voyager or BlockFi can sell the claim on their account to recover some instant liquidity - compared to the years and uncertain outcome the court process will take.

    Supporting links

    Xclaim

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Yield App - Your Digital Wealth Partner Feb 06, 2023

    Lucas Kiely is Chief Investment Officer at Yield app, a regulated digital wealth platform that offers its customers a comprehensive suite of wealth management products to manage their digital assets.

    Why you should listen

    Yield App unlocks the full potential of digital assets with a simple, safe, and secure digital wealth platform anyone can use to earn. As well as an earn platform, and a Web3 research and development studio called Yield App Labs, Yield App offers a tailored product suite consisting of capital guarantee products, single-strategy and multi-strategy regulated funds and a full traditional structured products platform.

    Supporting links

    Yield App

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Boson Protocol - NFTs with superpowers Feb 02, 2023

    Justin Banon is the Co-Founder of Boson Protocol, Web3’s commerce layer. Boson Protocol aims to revolutionize commerce by tokenizing real-world items as NFTs, bridging the gap between decentralized technologies and the transfer and trade of physical goods, while minimizing arbitration, cost, and trust.

    Why you should listen

    Decentralized commerce allows brands to bridge the gap between shopping at home and in an actual store. Through virtual realities, brands can offer a virtual shopping experience where customers can buy a product in their store in the metaverse, and have a physical version delivered directly to their door.

    Boson previously partnered with some of the world's most sought-after brands during 2022’s Metaverse Fashion Week, including Tommy Hilfiger. It attracted attention after it purchased the most expensive Dolce & Gabbana suit ever sold as an NFT, for $1 million USD.

    Boson was recently awarded World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer status for its potential to democratize and reshape global commerce.

    The revenue opportunities of the metaverse through e-commerce have been forecast to reach a potential $2.6 trillion by 2030.

    Supporting links

    Boson Protocol

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    AAG Ventures - Unlocking Web3 Jan 31, 2023

    Jack Vinijtrongjit is Co-Founder and CEO at AAG Ventures, a Web3 infrastructure company focusing on providing software that helps users simplify interactions with blockchain applications and the Metaverse.

    Why you should listen

    AAG is a web3 infrastructure company focusing on providing software that helps simplify interactions with blockchain applications and the Metaverse for mainstream users and traditional companies. AAG provides a secure and easy-to-use MetaOne® wallet, as well as infrastructure software, such as a cross-chain search engine and GameFi SDK for enterprise companies. With the belief that education is the key to unlock the potential of web3, AAG is also exploring the concept of Learn-and-Earn with the mission of enabling economic opportunities worldwide via the Metaverse economy. AAG aims to bring 1 billion people into the Metaverse economy by 2030.

    Supporting links

    AAG Ventures

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    From Web1 to Web2 to Web3 Jan 25, 2023

    William Quigley is the co-founder of WAX, a web3 ecosystem for gaming and NFTs, and Tether, the most traded cryptocurrency in the world. William was an early investor in leading Web 1.0 era companies including Paypal, and early blockchain companies such as Kraken and Coinbase.

    Why you should listen

    WAX, or Worldwide Asset eXchange, is a carbon-neutral design for seamless transactions. It's specifically known for trading digital assets. WAX blockchain is hyperfocused on gaming and digital collectibles. In 2020 William Shatner of Star Trek fame released a series of digital photographs on WAX, helping pioneer the early NFT trading movement.

    Supporting links

    Wax

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Minima Protocol - the world's lightest blockchain Jan 23, 2023

    Paddy Cerri is the Chief Blockchain Architect for the Minima Protocol. Minima is a blockchain and peer-to-peer network designed to be accessible to as many people as possible by making it compact enough to run on mobile and IoT devices. It is complete, quantum-resistant and secured by every single one of its users.

    Why you should listen

    The Minima network will enable people or devices to exchange value or information directly and securely, without third party interference. Minima has no centre of control, as each user - by simply downloading a mobile app - contributes to the network as an equal participant. The Minima blockchain uses the Minima coin as its currency. It is a store of value and medium of exchange, enabling peer-to-peer value transfer to any participant on the Minima network.

    Supporting links

    Minima Protocol

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Banger Games - Bringing Gamers to Web3 Jan 19, 2023

    Borja Villalobos is the co-founder of Banger Games, a decentralized gaming ecosystem that rewards players using a Blockchain-based crypto economy.

    Why you should listen

    Made by gamers, Banger is a unified hub for all gamers. Banger is a blockchain-powered gaming platform that provides its users with an array of earning possibilities through one global gaming currency. Banger is set to become the go-to community for both gamers and publishers to thrive, enabling different Play2Earn tools that allow gamers to earn while enjoying a complete gaming experience.

    Banger provides publishers and developers with a variety of features, such as blockchain integration SDK and crypto-enabled monetization methods.

    Supporting links

    Banger Games

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Hashkey Capital - Investing in Web3 Jan 18, 2023

    Xiao Xiao is an investment director at HashKey Capital. Launched in 2018, HashKey Capital manages over $1 billion in assets. HashKey operates in Hong Kong and Singapore, with a presence in the U.S. and Japan.

    Why you should listen

    HashKey Capital, the investment arm of financial-services firm HashKey Group, has just closed its third fund with $500 million in capital. The fund will invest in crypto and blockchain initiatives around the world with a focus on emerging markets and Web3.

    The HashKey FinTech Investment Fund III was backed by institutional investors, including sovereign-wealth funds, businesses and family offices. It will invest in the infrastructure, tools and applications that can help achieve mass adoption of blockchain technologies.

    Supporting links

    Hashkey Capital

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Bulls and Apes Jan 10, 2023

    Anthony Mongiello is CEO and Co-Founder of the Bulls and Apes Project (B.A.P.), a multi-faceted entertainment and media company born in Web3.

    Why you should listen

    Mongiello says the team’s focus is on delivering digital and physical goods and services by creating compelling brands and intellectual properties. At Bulls and Apes Project, they bring top-notch art and creativity that draws consumers into the ecosystem with gamification, events, and media that keep holders engaged and connected.

    Supporting links

    Bulls and Apes

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Scenius Capital - a fund of funds Dec 19, 2022

    Gregory d'Incelli is a Crypto Fund of Funds Manager and Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Scenius Capital.

    Why you should listen

    Scenius Capital, a multi-strategy fund of funds focused on digital assets and blockchain technology. Scenius provides investors a single turnkey vehicle to gain diversified access to best-in-class actively managed investment strategies in the digital assets sector.

    Supporting links

    Scenius Capital

    Andy on Twitter

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    TDeFi - a Crypto Incubator Dec 13, 2022

    Gaurav Dubey is the CEO of TDeFi, a Crypto Incubator and Advisor for blockchain startups, currently incubating and advising DeFi, NFT, EdTech, Gaming, and crypto projects for over 45 companies.

    Supporting links

    TDeFi

    Andy on Twitter

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Taki - a token-powered social network Dec 11, 2022

    Sakina Arsiwala is the founder of Taki App. Taki is a token-powered social network where everyone can own, manage and earn their own rewards by participating in community conversations.

    Why you should listen

    Taki is a token-powered social network where all users can earn a daily income. Anyone can create their own crypto creator coin to jumpstart their personal economies. Creators create value by creating content and users can participate in their economies by supporting them.

    On Taki all users can earn cryptocurrency for simply showing up and doing things they already do — chatting, sharing, creating.

    Creators can focus less on the size of their following, and can build a robust personal economy creating their own creator coin and engaging with their fans. Everything is on-chain and portable. By making the onramp to crypto easy and accessible Taki hope to enable the next 100 million users.

    Taki is pioneering a new #EngageToEarn model where casual users can earn crypto for just showing up and consuming content, interacting with friends, and making new friends, just as they normally would. Taki is a social network that has the token built into its core. Taki differentiates on crypto economy design. Users can easily create their own coins that are freely tradable on the platform and off, and represents a better way for creators/users to monetize their content.

    Supporting links

    Taki

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Iomob - the Internet of Mobility Dec 08, 2022

    Boyd Cohen is the CEO/Co-Founder of Iomob, the Internet of Mobility Network, and the WheelCoin M2E platform.

    Why you should listen

    The Internet of Mobility is a global decentralized mobility network whereby any vehicle - public, shared, private, electric, or autonomous - can be discovered, combined, booked, unlocked, and paid for by any user of any interface.

    The Internet of Mobility is a decentralized marketplace that aggregates the highly fragmented ground mobility market - an industry that is worth over $6tn. The IoM standardizes and democratizes access to mobility services. The result is a mobility network that works for the mobility service providers (MSPs), system integrators, demand partners, and most importantly - for the end user.

    Supporting links

    Iomob

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Palmswap - A decentralized perpetual contract trading protocol Dec 06, 2022

    Bernd Stöckl is the CPO and co-founder of Palmswap, a decentralized perpetual contract trading protocol that aims to become the next-generation perpetual DEX for cryptocurrency markets.

    Why you should listen

    Palmswap is a decentralized trading platform based on Binance Smart Chain. More chains are coming soon. Palmswap offers 100% on chain perpetual futures. Users can open long positions (bet that the price of a coin goes up) or open short positions (bet that the price goes down), users can also leverage up (use borrowed funds to trade assets more than your wallet balances) without owning the underlying asset.

    Palmswap doesn’t require Registration or KYC requirements, users have full control over their own assets with the lowest fees possible. Palmswap offer PALM token rewards for active traders on the DEX.

    PALM token is a governance token designed to facilitate and incentivize the decentralized governance of the protocol, users stake and farm it by providing liquidity. You get also incentivized by trading on the protocol through Tradingcycles. 50% of the exchange revenue will be used to buy back and burn PALM.

    Supporting links

    Palmswap

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    LandVault - An end-to-end metaverse solution Dec 04, 2022

    Sam Huber is the CEO and founder of LandVault, an end-to-end metaverse solution for Web2 and Web3 digital experiences.

    Why you should listen

    LandVault builds engaging experiences in the Open Metaverse. Starting from their first build in 2021, the process of planning, building, and activating a metaverse experience is something the company has continued to improve upon.

    So far, LandVault has successfully completed 200 metaverse experiences spread across 100 million sqft in multiple virtual world platforms, like The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Somnium Space, to name a few. This was accomplished with a team of 120+ in-house professional builders.

    Supporting links

    LandVault

    Andy on Twitter

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Yuga Labs - Radical Ownership for Web3 Nov 29, 2022

    Chris Fortier is VP of Product for Yuga Labs, working across the entire Yuga Labs ecosystem including Bored Ape Yacht Club, Otherside, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and more.

    Why you should listen

    The Yuga team want the Otherside Metaverse to be ‘Web3-Native Roblox’ for Adults, Otherside is a gamified, interoperable metaverse currently under development. The game blends mechanics from massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) and web3-enabled virtual worlds. Think of it as a metaRPG where the players own the world, your NFTs can become playable characters, and thousands can play together in real time.

    The mission is to make Otherside immersive, interactive, and collaborative in a way that’s never been done before. So in the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons, Otherside will be an always-evolving experience co-created with its players. With an Otherdeed, you can participate in prototype builds, demos, and tests that shape the final game design and experience.

    Chris says there is no bear market for story-telling, and they’re continuing to work hard on making Web3 experiences that are awesome.

    Supporting links

    Yuga

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    Choise - CeFi+DeFi Nov 27, 2022

    Austin Kimm is the Director of Strategy & Investments at Choise.com a new solution that combines elements of centralized and decentralized financial solutions within a single marketplace.

    Why you should listen

    Almost one million users take advantage of Choise.com to buy crypto, earn interest on their holdings, or boost their income with attractive earn products and ultimate security. Choise.com is a brand-new solution that connects CeFi and DeFi. Austin says they call Choise.com a MetaFi ecosystem, as they are gathering multiple solutions in a single marketplace to offer more opportunities to earn on crypto. New CeFi and DeFi products appear every day, but it is still a challenge for people to make use of them: one has to move between blockchains, platforms, wallets to access liquidity pools or multi-currency deposits. Choise.com will aggregate the most profitable crypto solutions of the industry, regardless of their complexity under one roof. They will make it possible for both crypto newbies and pros to find an interesting way to earn on crypto every single moment in one app.

    Supporting links

    Choise

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    Istari Vision - a growth engine for MultiversX Nov 24, 2022

    Wolfgang Rückerl is the Co-Founder and CEO of Entity web3 launch pad, and Istari Vision, an augmentative growth engine for MultiversX.

    Why you should listen

    Wolfgang led the development of the Entity Launchpad, which launches innovative Web3 projects and includes complimentary tools for reward strategies, investment analytics, and crypto taxation compliance.

    Wolfgang prides himself on being an innovator and blockchain instructor, as well as a mentor for ascendant Web3 companies. He has experience as a fintech innovator and blockchain instructor, and regularly mentors DeFi startups working on the MultiversX network. Prior to founding Istari Vision, Wolfgang worked in the ethical AI and data privacy industries.

    Supporting links

    Istari Vision

    Entity

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    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Multiplayer Money - Chapter One Nov 22, 2022

    Jeff Morris Jr. is the Founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One, a Web3-focused venture capital fund that works with early-stage crypto UX startups.

    Why you should listen

    Jeff Morris Jr. is Founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One, a Web3-focused venture capital fund that works with early-stage crypto UX startups. Chapter One provides a full-stack team of product-focused builders to offer round-the-clock support for founders. Chapter One is a full-stack fund that invests early in generational companies building Web3 products that enable people to own their time, money, and ideas.

    Supporting links

    Chapter One

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    Mina Protocol - the privacy and security layer for Web3 Nov 20, 2022

    Kurt Hemecker is COO of the Mina Foundation, building on the Mina Protocol to create a privacy and security layer for web3. Kurt is the former Head of Business Operations at Facebook's Diem Association (formerly Libra).

    Why you should listen

    Using zero knowledge technology, Mina is creating the infrastructure for a secure, democratic future. Mina’s zkApps, smart contracts powered by zero knowledge, keep users in control of their privacy by validating and sharing proofs of their data, rather than the data itself. Think about getting a loan by simply sharing a proof of your personal ID and credit score, rather than the data itself. No risk of your personal information being hacked or sold. You are the only one owning your data, and it never leaves your device.

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    Seal Storage - Decentralized cloud storage Nov 17, 2022

    Jacques Swanepoel is CTO at Seal Storage Technology, cloud storage and blockchain experts with over 100 years of experience in enterprise data storage from Seagate, Oracle, Cisco, and more.

    Why you should listen

    Seal provides sustainable, immutable, and affordable data storage. They are stewarding their clients into decentralized cloud storage, and making Web3 an accessible reality for enterprises, research institutes, NFT, and Web3 firms alike. Seal has decentralized cloud storage partnerships with the ATLAS Experiment at CERN, UC Berkeley, and the University of Utah.

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    Forta Network - a real-time detection network for DeFi Nov 15, 2022

    Andy Beal is ecosystem lead at Forta Network, a real-time detection network for security and operational monitoring. Forta protects $36b in TVL including 52% of the top 30 DeFi protocols.

    Why you should listen

    Forta is a real-time detection network for security and operational monitoring of blockchain activity

    As a decentralized monitoring network, Forta detects threats and anomalies on DeFi, NFT, governance, bridges and other Web3 systems in real-time.

    Given timely and relevant alerts about the security and health of owned or dependent systems, protocols and investors can react quickly to neutralize threats and prevent or minimize loss of funds.

    Underlying Forta is a decentralized network of independent node operators that scan all transactions and block-by-block state changes for outlier transactions and threats. When an issue is detected, node operators send alerts to subscribers of potential risks, which enables them to take action.

    The future is multi-chain. That is why Forta continues to expand into the emerging landscape of new L1s and L2s, bringing runtime monitoring and anomaly detection to Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, BNB Chain, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

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    Bluzelle - sci-fi, culture, and game-fi Nov 13, 2022

    Pavel Bains is an entrepreneur, futurist, designer, and investor in exponential technologies. He is the founder of Bluzelle, gamefi for cosmos, and Executive Producer of MixMob. Andy and Pavel talk science fiction, gaming, and pop culture and the intersections with the growing web3 ecosystem.

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    Xverse - A Bitcoin wallet for Web3 Nov 10, 2022

    Ken Liao is the Founder of Xverse, an advanced Bitcoin wallet for Web3.

    Xverse is building the world’s most advanced Bitcoin Web3 wallet. Founded in 2021, Xverse empowers individuals across the world to access the true potential of Bitcoin for NFTs, DeFi and Decentralized Applications by delivering a beautifully designed, easy-to-use wallet. Available for iOS and Android, the app allows users to secure, manage and exchange Bitcoin powered by Stacks, and soon the Lightning Network. Xverse is a self-custody wallet and the keys to the wallet are encrypted locally on users' own devices, ensuring privacy, security and complete control over their wealth and data. For more info visit http://xverse.app.

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    Brave Browser - Building a better internet Nov 08, 2022

    Brendan Eich is the creator of JavaScript and the co-founder and CEO of Brave Software, makers of Brave, the Web3 privacy-focused browser.

    Why you should listen

    Brendan helped build Web1 and Web2 through his creation of JavaScript and Mozilla – JavaScript’s unintended consequences - which Brendan has described as “Frankenstein's monster” led to a toxic digital ecosystem and was a catalyst for the targeted advertising and invasive tracking that consumers experience today on the internet.

    The Brave Browser is an open-source, privacy-by-default web browser with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform and crypto wallet. Brave Wallet, a crypto wallet built into the Brave desktop browser, and mobile apps, enables Brave users to store, manage, grow, and swap crypto from a single wallet. Unlike most crypto wallets, the Brave Wallet does not require extensions; it’s browser-native, reducing security risks and reliance on extra CPU and memory. Users can transact with almost any crypto asset with safety and performance, as well as connect with other wallets and Web3 DApps.

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    Rarible 2 - the aggregated NFT marketplace Nov 06, 2022

    Alex Salnikov is the Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Rarible, a community-centric NFT marketplace. Rarible has just launched a suite of new features including aggregated listings from more marketplaces and new token rewards for traders.

    Why you should listen

    Rarible, a decentralized community-centric NFT marketplace and protocol, has introduced Rarible 2. Rarible 2 brings about new changes for Rarible.com and the distribution of the $RARI token. The establishment of RARI Foundation also pushes the Rarible protocol another step towards decentralization. Under the new update, Rarible.com has become a first-of-its-kind aggregated marketplace for NFTs, showcasing the best prices for listings from the top NFT marketplaces hosting Ethereum NFTs. The RARI DAO has approved a new locking and rewards program for $RARI token, offering sustainable token incentives for both buying and listing

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    The Sweat Economy - Walk into crypto Nov 03, 2022

    Oleg is Fomenko is the co-founder and CPO of Sweatcoin, and the CEO of Sweat Economy. Are you ready to walk into crypto?

    Why you should listen

    Sweat Economy is the network that grows with every step. Products: Sweatcoin (non-crypto) and Sweat Wallet (crypto) reward hundreds of millions of people for their steps.

    Oleg says that by incentivizing movement, which we know to be associated with health, we can help to catalyze and bring health to their users.

    Sweat Economy is building features and partnerships that will increase token demand. New features are coming soon - Learn & Earn, crypto-to-crypto trading, and the SWEAT dynamic NFT game — that will drive demand for SWEAT, and produce revenue to funnel back into buy and burn

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    The Standard - The decentralized stablecoin protocol Nov 01, 2022

    Joshua Scigala is founder of The Standard - a decentralized stablecoin protocol that enables users to lock up crypto and or physical gold to generate multiple fiat pegged stablecoins.

    Why you should listen

    Trillions of US Dollars worth of rare assets, like gold and cryptocurrencies, are locked away in vaulting facilities and digital wallets around the world. The Standard.io, a next generation monetary system, unlocks this vast stored value. It enables users to generate a stable virtual currency called “Standard Euro”. This is achieved by locking up tangible and intangible assets as collateral in decentralised smart contracts, called Smart Vaults. This allows people to spend their locked up funds without selling their assets.

    The protocol is governed by a community of “Standard Token” holders which form a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The Standard DAO will manage the protocol by making key decisions utilizing smart voting mechanisms and prediction markets.The innovative concept of stable virtual currencies backed by rare assets constitutes a new privatized and decentralized Gold Standard for the 21st century.

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    Slide - Making web3 effortless Oct 30, 2022

    Teymour Farman-Farmaian is the founder of Slide, a Web3 UX startup that provides dApps with the infrastructure for easy onboarding by any user.

    Why you should listen

    Slide aims to make web3 effortless for dApps and everyday users. Users of Slide-enabled dApps can purchase NFTs with card, custody and manage assets without installing wallets, seamlessly transact with any asset across any blockchain (with no blockchain-specific gas fees), and enjoy a web3 experience as simple as web2. Olaf Carlson-Wee (1st Coinbase employee, Polychain founder, and one of Slide’s lead investors) has called Slide a “browser-level moment” for web3.

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    Midas Investments - CeDeFi for long-term wealth generation Oct 27, 2022

    Midas Investments is a custodial crypto-investment platform with one mission — provide passive income streams to crypto investors by combining the best features of CeFi and DeFi.

    Why you should listen

    Midas Investments is a custodial crypto-investment platform with one mission — provide passive income streams to crypto investors. By combining the simplicity of CeFi with the transparency of DeFi strategies, and fueled by an algorithmic infrastructure and 24/7 portfolio monitoring, Midas has built an ecosystem of intuitive tools that allows any investor to generate sustainable, passive income in the crypto economy. They call this CeDeFi.

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    Connect everything - Flare enables decentralized interoperability Oct 25, 2022

    Hugo Philion is the co-founder and CEO of Flare Networks. Flare enables secure interoperability between chains, scaling the use of blockchain by enabling all digital assets and on-chain data to flow freely.

    Why you should listen

    The Flare Network is a new layer-1 blockchain aiming to connect everything, including off-chain data and other layer-1 blockchains through their F-Asset, State Connector and Layer Cake protocols.

    Flare is designed to be an advanced network that features cross-chain interoperability. This system will facilitate a fully decentralized cross-chain future, which issafer than the current alternative. The open protocols that Flare Network provides allow developers to create different kinds of interoperability solutions. Their goal is to connect everything, while still maintaining a decentralized system.

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    Loop Finance - Empowering Web 3.0 Communities Oct 25, 2022

    Tom Norwood is co-founder of Loop Finance, empowering Web 3.0 Communities in the Cosmos ecosystem.

    Why you should listen

    Loop originated back in 2017 on the EOS network as Trybe. When EOS user numbers dwindled, the team rebranded to Loop and moved to Terra. After the demise of Terra, Loop Finance is now on the Juno Network and has grown its user base throughout the Cosmos ecosystem.

    Loop Finance is the central hub, and includes a DEX and NFT launchpad and marketplace as the first products to launch and enable Web3 use cases.

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    Digital Markets - Connecting the world's best assets with global investors Oct 19, 2022

    Kyle Fry is the CEO and co-founder of Digital Markets - a platform that connects the world's best assets with global investors through a network of digital securities exchanges.

    Why you should listen

    Digital Markets (DIGTL) connects the world’s best assets with global investors through a network of digital securities exchanges and alternative trading venues, allowing issuers to quickly access the world’s capital at a fraction of the cost, and providing investors with exciting investment opportunities.

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    3Commerce - Why ecommerce brands should embrace Web3 Oct 19, 2022

    Dim Niko is the founder of the DimNiko digital marketing agency. Dim is now developing 3Commerce, a suite of solutions and a token ecosystem that enables direct to consumer brands to integrate blockchain technology to increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and decrease Customer Acquisition Costs, at the push of a button.

    Why you should listen

    Dim helps ecommerce brands integrate blockchain to drive growth. Blockchain based loyalty programs and product linked NFTs close the gap between brands and their community of customers, as well as enable brand collaborations in a way never seen before. 3Commerce introduces all-new revenue streams into the ecommerce business model, as well as increases lifetime value while decreasing customer acquisition costs.

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    Hellebore - the NFT-powered sports prediction game Oct 17, 2022

    Nick Swinmurn, Zappos founder and Golden State Warriors co-owner, has turned his attention to Web3 with the NFT-powered sports prediction game, Play Hellebore.

    Why you should listen

    Hellebore is an NFT-powered play-and-earn sports prediction game that brings together the features of traditional sports “Pick’em” and player-based fantasy sports leagues on one platform.

    Hellebore players can predict the outcomes of games in the NFL, NCAA Football, MLB, and European professional soccer to earn NFTs (called Sibers), unlock physical and digital prizes, and increase their player rating – allowing them to tilt the odds in their favor.

    Players can create or join custom leagues with friends, family, or strangers to compete directly against other players, similar to traditional player and statistics-based fantasy sports leagues.

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    Hubble Protocol - Supercharging Liquidity on Solana Oct 12, 2022

    Marius Ciubotariu is the founder of Hubble Protocol, a DeFi project that is supercharging liquidity on Solana.

    Hubble is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol built on the Solana blockchain. In Phase 1 of development, Hubble enables you to borrow the stablecoin USDH against multiple assets. Borrowing USDH allows users to access the liquidity in their long-term holding tokens.

    USDH is a censorship-resistant, crypto-backed stablecoin, soft-pegged to the US Dollar. USDH is fully collateralized by a basket of crypto assets, deposited into a Hubble Smart Contract.

    USDH is Solana-native, and can be held in any Solana wallet. For every 1 USDH on the market, more than $1 of crypto is deposited into Hubble.

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    Beefy Finance - the Multichain Yield Optimizer Oct 09, 2022

    Weso is lead developer at Beefy Finance, a Multi-Chain Yield Optimizer that autocompounds crypto assets for the best APYs.

    Why you should listen

    Beefy Finance is a decentralized, multi-chain Yield Optimizer platform that allows its users to earn compound interest on their crypto holdings. Beefy Finance automatically maximizes the user rewards from various liquidity pools (LPs),‌ ‌automated market-making (AMM) projects,‌ ‌and‌ ‌other yield‌ farming ‌opportunities in the DeFi ecosystem. The main product offered by Beefy Finance is the 'Vaults' in which you stake your crypto tokens. The investment strategy tied to the specific vault will automatically increase your deposited token amount by compounding arbitrary yield farm reward tokens back into your initially deposited asset.

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    RobinHood to Sei Network - building the decentralized order book Oct 05, 2022

    After spending time at Robinhood, Jay Jog is now co-founder and engineering lead for Sei Network, a L1 blockchain with a built-in orderbook. Sei is the fastest Defi layer 1 and is optimized to give DeFi apps an advantage, enabling entirely new financial products.

    Why you should listen

    Most layer 1s fall into a barbell distribution: two extremes with general-purpose chains on one end (Ethereum, Solana) and app-specific chains on the other (dYdX, Osmosis).

    Sei unlocks a new design space between the two—not general-purpose nor app-specific, but DeFi-specific, which enables Sei to create an environment custom-built for DeFi applications. Sei features a built-in order matching engine, frontrunning protection, and the fastest finality of any chain (600 ms) currently in market. The combination of these optimizations make it possible for new types of financial products to emerge — everything ranging from live sports betting to complex options and futures.

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    CoinsPaid - the Crypto payment ecosystem Oct 03, 2022

    Max Krupyshev is the Co-Founder and CEO of the crypto payment ecosystem CoinsPaid. CoinsPaid provides cryptocurrency payment services and personal wallets to businesses and individuals. CoinsPaid is one of the world’s largest crypto payment providers.

    Why you should listen

    Max Krupyshev is a Ukraine entrepreneur with experience in developing fintech and crypto projects. He stood at the origins of this market in Ukraine, launching a Bitcoin Foundation to promote crypto adoption in the country. Max believes that digital assets can improve the financial sector, and works to make their adoption easier, faster and more transparent.

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    nSure.AI - AI fraud detection Sep 28, 2022

    Alex Zeltcer is CEO & Co-Founder of nSure.AI, which helps businesses to prevent fraud in the crypto and digital goods space by leveraging predictive AI fraud detection - instead of jeopardizing the user experience.

    Why you should listen

    nSure.ai is an advanced payment fraud prevention platform that protects sellers of digital goods, Crypto and Fintech businesses with a chargeback guarantee solution. Alex says businesses should use behavioral analysis and recognize scalable fraud patterns. He says that a safety strategy — one that emphasizes blocking fraud while streamlining the user experience — removes these friction points and increases conversion rates by more than 100%.

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    Satellite IM - the decentralized messaging platform Sep 26, 2022

    Matt Wisniewski is the founder of Satellite IM, a fully-integrated decentralized messaging platform that is tackling today’s data ownership and privacy issues.

    Why you should listen

    Unlike popular instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Google Chat, Satellite IM enables users to chat in a decentralized and peer-to-peer way, without any intermediaries storing or tracking users’ data. Satellite gives its users peace of mind with end-to-end encryption without sacrificing the quality of video calls and recording. Satellite's early access is available now.

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    WAM - Crypto gaming for hypercasual players Sep 22, 2022

    Daniel Tamas is the founder of WAM - a platform for hypercasual gamers to earn crypto, socialize and have fun.

    Why you should listen

    With your WAM account, you can play in several short or long tournaments — a few hours or a few days — and compete against players entering that tournament. There are currently players from over 30 countries who are on the platform and at the end of each tournament, you can win some digital coins and increase your player profile.

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    Aventus Network - From Ethereum to Polkadot Sep 21, 2022

    Alan Vey is co-founder and CEO of Aventus Network a user-friendly, interoperable blockchain for enterprises.

    Why you should listen

    The Aventus Network (AvN) began as a layer-2 blockchain protocol that brings scalability, lower costs, and speed to Ethereum transactions. It enables digital asset issuance, management, and ownership, bringing the scale of permissioned blockchains and the security and interoperability of public blockchains — without the shortcomings of either.

    Aventus is now focused on interoperability - Alan says “The blockchain industry is rolling out much like the internet did, where there was siloed value in various intranets which, when connected up by the internet, led to an explosion in value through the network effect. Blockchain is the same today. Various layer 1s and 2s all need to be connected so value can seamlessly transfer everywhere across the internet of blockchains.

    In August Aventus won a Parachain slot on Polkadot and now Aventus users can easily deploy across Ethereum and Polkadot. The Aventus mission is to enable companies in any ecosystem to capitalize on a vast series of use cases – including NFTs, video games, loyalty schemes, event ticketing, supply chain provenance, and cargo management – via enterprise-grade modular architecture and future-proof themselves via blockchain interoperability.

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    NGRAVE - the next generation hardware wallet Sep 15, 2022

    Ruben Merre is CEO and co-founder of NGRAVE, a next-generation crypto hardware wallet with the highest security-certified OS in the world (EAL7).

    Why you should listen

    Founded in 2018, NGRAVE is a digital asset security provider offering user-friendly maximum security solutions for blockchain and crypto use cases.

    Its flagship product — crypto hardware wallet “NGRAVE ZERO” — is the only financial product in the world with a custom operating system featuring the highest security certification: EAL7.

    NGRAVE’s product suite is a 3-tier solution. ZERO, the offline touch-screen hardware wallet allows users to securely store and transact their crypto.

    GRAPHENE, the stainless steel encrypted backup solution ensures that users never lose their keys.

    LIQUID is a mobile app that connects users in real-time to the blockchain without ever exposing their private keys.

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    The Merge - Celebrating Ethereum's Transition Sep 12, 2022

    It’s merge week - the week that Ethereum will finally transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. The Ethereum foundation says that the Merge will be ‘the most significant upgrade in the history of Ethereum.’ The switch to PoS will replace energy-intensive mining, and instead secure the network with staked ETH.

    Why you should listen

    The Merge represents the joining together or ‘merging’ of the execution layer, Ethereum as we know it today, with a consensus layer called the Beacon chain. The Beacon chain uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus model that will replace the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) model that the mainnet currently uses. The switch to PoS will replace energy-intensive mining, and instead secure the network with staked ETH.

    The merge is set to cut the emission rate of Ethereum by 90% (according to some analysts). PoS makes securing the network much cheaper than with Proof-of-Work because PoS validators are paid far less than PoW miners. Calculations from some analysts suggest that the inflation rate cut to Ethereum will be the equivalent of “three Bitcoin halvings”.

    Bitcoin bulls generally tout the halving as a powerful bullish tailwind and often focus on investing for around 4 years. If Ethereum bulls are right then the PoS transition will be 12 years of halving cycles in a single event.

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    OVER - the Web3 AR layer for the world Sep 08, 2022

    Diego De Tommaso is co-founder and COO of OVER an AR and NFT Metaverse platform that layers over the entire world.

    Why you should listen

    OVER is building an augmented reality (AR) open metaverse and enabling users to create unique geolocalized experiences that bridge the gap between our physical and digital worlds. Utilizing world-class, community-driven 3D mapping, OVER provides users and builders with the opportunity to own AR metaverse real estate, map their local areas, and explore Web3. Committed to cross-platform interoperability, OVER supports real-time augmented reality capabilities, AI avatar motion-captured interactions, and hyperrealistic NFT assets which, in time, will be transmissible between metaverses.

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    Banxa - Web3’s fiat on-and-off ramp solution Sep 05, 2022

    Holger Arians is CEO of Banxa, which aims to accelerate Web3 projects with its global on-and-off ramp solution. Through its extensive network of local payment solutions paired with the required crypto licenses, Banxa gives its partners and projects access to global audiences with less friction and higher conversions.

    Why you should listen

    With positive year-on-year growth and over $1b in transactions, Banxa is one of the fastest-growing global on and off-ramp solutions. Through its extensive network of local payment solutions paired with the required regulatory licences, Banxa gives its partners and projects access to global audiences with less friction and higher conversions. As a publicly traded company, Banxa is one of the few global on and off ramp providers that is transparent in both its ownership and reporting.

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    NFT Tech - Onboarding IP and popular brands into Web3 Sep 02, 2022

    Adam De Cata is CEO of NFT Tech, a new platform that works with global brands, influential individuals, artists, celebrities, and athletes wanting to experiment with Web3.

    Why you should listen

    NFT Tech works to develop infrastructure, assets, real estate and IP in the metaverse, build and generate revenue from P2E and M2E games, and bring insights and benefits to the public markets. By bridging the gap between traditional capital markets and the Web3 space, NFT Tech is mainstreaming decentralized ownership, NFTs, and the metaverse.

    Following the signing of multi-year contracts with major brands, NFT Tech has aggressive partnership and contract goals and expects to close several more by year-end. The Company has already announced partnerships with the Australian Open, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Sony Sports, and an exclusive multi-year deal with World Table Tennis.

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    Identity.com - Pseudonymous on-chain identity verification Aug 31, 2022

    Phillip Shoemaker is the former Apple App Store Director. He is now Executive Director at Identity.com, a non-profit organization pioneering pseudonymous on-chain identity verification for Web3.

    Why you should listen

    Identity.com is an open-source, decentralized platform that offers developers permissionless authentication and verification while allowing consumers to control their own data. Identity.com is a product of Identity Technologies, Inc., a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization to promote social welfare that will create a world where individuals and organizations can freely access decentralized identity verification services on demand.

    Identity.com is the leading identity-verification nonprofit providing an open-source, decentralized ecosystem.

    It also provides a marketplace focusing on verifying credentials rather than exchanging personally identifiable information. Together with Identity.com, companies and developers may create convenient, on-demand identity verification solutions that offer consumers more control over their digital identities.

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    Console - Where Decentralized Communities Live Aug 29, 2022

    Chris Castig is co-founder of Console, a Web3 Discord with DAO Tooling for decentralized communities. He’s a General Manager at Trust Machines and an adjunct professor at Columbia University Business School.

    Why you should listen

    Console is designed to be a web3-ready Discord. Discord is currently home to many NFT communities but it is not crypto native, and preyed upon by crypto scammers. Console is built from the bottom up to give the web3 community more control over their personal data with a crypto-native application.

    Chris says Console is Built on Web3 Principles:

    Console is decentralized, in the first release identity verification, voting and multisig transactions will be on-chain and decentralized. Moving forward, Console will employ a progressively decentralized approach based on the needs of its communities.

    Console is open source and secure by design — Users are verified with native smart contracts, not third-party bots. Because identity is stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, you can feel safe knowing that your identity is secured by Bitcoin. And unlike Facebook, Instagram, Discord and nearly every other social media app, Console doesn’t own access to your identity, uers do. Console will be community owned via the Console DAO. Console is currently in beta, you can sign up for the waitlist or to get early access for your community.

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    GLINT - Use gold as everyday, instant, secure and reliable money Aug 26, 2022

    Jason Cozens is the founder and CEO at Glint - a platform and app that enables users to digitally buy, sell, send, and use gold as everyday money.

    Why you should listen

    Jason began development of Glint in 2015, launching the first iteration of the Glint app three years later. Jason’s vision for a world where everyone has an equal opportunity to prosper has culminated in the creation of a global payments platform that enables its users to buy, sell, save, send and spend real, allocated gold, even at the checkout, using the Glint Mastercard and the Glint app. Glint, which also supports fiat currencies on its platform, has over 104,000 registered users in over 200 eligible countries. Glint, regulated by the FCA in the UK, has completed more than $300 million worth of transactions to date. Glint clients’ gold is securely stored in a Brinks vault in Switzerland, insured by Brinks with Lloyds of London.

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    Gamma - Building through the Bear Aug 23, 2022

    Brett Herskope aka Eliherf is head of growth at Gamma, the platform built to become a hub for Web3 social identity, centered around NFTs. Brett is also the project lead for the Stacks Parrots NFT collection.

    Why you should listen

    Brett has a background in education, and he has found that these skills have helped him to become a strong advocate for NFT communities.

    Brett says digital scarcity will help usher in a future world of abundance, whether it’s it 21 million Bitcoin or 402 Stacks Parrots.

    Gamma consists of three core platforms: its user-first marketplace for exploring and collecting NFTs, its creator-first launchpad for artists to deploy fully-tested no-code smart contracts, and its social platform.

    As well as leading the Stacks Parrots team, Eliherf is an advocate for the entire Stacks ecosystem of projects, NFT teams and communities. Everyone knows Eliherf and Elihef knows everyone. He says it’s important to look after your mental health and don’t stop having fun with it…

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    The 300th Episode of the Crypto Conversation Aug 22, 2022

    Andy is here with a special episode to mark an auspicious occasion - it's the 300th episode of the Crypto Conversation podcast. Thank you for listening!

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    Chainflip - Building a cross-chain AMM Aug 18, 2022

    Simon Harman is founder and CEO of Chainflip - a cross-chain AMM designed to seamlessly allow users to swap tokens across ecosystems without violating chain sovereignty.

    Why you should listen

    Chainflip is a decentralized, trustless protocol that enables cross-chain swaps between different blockchains. Chainflip is what DeFi users have been waiting for - easy and intuitive swaps from one major blockchain to another. Chainflip will connect and bridge major ecosystems like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, or Cosmos to allow users to navigate through this growing multi-chain space.

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    Bitcoin.com - Making crypto accessible to everyone Aug 17, 2022

    Corbin Fraser is Head of Financial Services at Bitcoin.com. Corbin is a hacker, entrepreneur, and builder with over nine years of experience in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. A vocal advocate for p2p cash and optimizing the user experience of crypto for mass adoption, Corbin has helped position Bitcoin.com as one of the most widely used crypto wallets globally with millions of monthly active users.

    Why you should listen

    Bitcoin.com is on a mission to make crypto accessible to millions more people. Their approach to crypto onboarding, encompassing educational resources and intuitive technology has already opened the door to millions of crypto curious investors.

    The financial services team focuses on creating intuitive and easy-to-understand user experiences, tying together Bitcoin.com products, partner services, and community financial service offerings across web, mobile, smart devices, and beyond. Their flagship product, the Bitcoin.com Wallet, with over 33 million wallets created, serves anyone in the world who has an internet connection - regardless of nationality, socioeconomic status or access to “traditional finance”.

    They’re launching Verse, a rewards and utility token for the Bitcoin.com ecosystem and the gateway to DeFi.

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    WisdomTree Prime - Expanding WisdomTree’s Crypto Offerings Aug 12, 2022

    Will Peck is Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree. WisdomTree is a traditional asset manager with crypto exchange-traded products in EU (and a pending filing in the US) that is launching an app for retail investors in the US.

    Why you should listen

    WisdomTree has a history as the world’s largest, independent ETF sponsor and is now working to bridge the gap between TradFi and DeFi.

    WisdomTree is launching a blockchain-native mobile app, WisdomTree Prime, which will provide retail access to select crypto assets such as bitcoin or ether. The app will also offer tokenized versions of traditional, physical assets such as the U.S. dollar and gold.

    The WisdomTree Prime beta is live and they are selecting users from the waitlist on a rolling basis, with a national U.S. rollout targeted for later this year.

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    Satoshi Labs - from Trezor to Hyperbitcoinization Aug 09, 2022

    Josef Tetek is an ambassador and analyst at Satoshi Labs and Trezor. Josef is a long-time bitcoiner with a background in Austrian economics and political philosophy. Josef believes that Bitcoin is the next step in mankind’s monetary evolution.

    Why you should listen

    Josef is a long-time Bitcoiner with a background in Austrian economics and political philosophy and is the author of two books: Bitcoin: Separation of Money and State, and Enemies of State, Friends of Liberty.

    “There’s no doubt that many current crypto projects with risky business models will collapse - including some exchanges. This cleansing process - whilst painful in the short-term - will ultimately be good for the long-term future of Bitcoin. We have to move on from the current get-rich-quick crypto mentality and think much further into the future. When viewed over the long-term, saving in bitcoin should be seen not only as conservative but fiscally prudent. And with withdrawal freezes being put in place, it has demonstrated yet again that if you hold crypto on a centralized exchange you do not have control of your assets. When crypto values are heading north people pay little attention to the risks involved, but in a bear market, the custody tables turn very quickly.

    “The only way to really own your own cryptocurrency is via self-custody - cold storage on a hardware wallet. This is how bitcoin was intended - no middle man, p2p, sovereign ownership of one's own money.”

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    DeFi Basket - Buy a DeFi Portfolio with a single transaction Aug 07, 2022

    João Ferreira founder of Defi Basket - a portfolio management protocol that lets users buy a DeFi portfolio in a single transaction.

    Why you should listen

    DeFi Basket lets users invest with a single transaction in multi-token, multi-protocol strategies that you can create or copy from others.

    Portfolios are called baskets. For example, The Stablecoins Maxi basket is a portfolio designed to provide exposure to non-USD stablecoins. It allows you to park your funds into a safe and stable investment, while you reduce your exposure to the US Dollar. This basket invests in liquidity pools that provide high single or double digits yields, each focused on a single stablecoin. This allows maximum returns with minimum impermanent loss.

    When you invest in a basket, you are given a financial NFT that shows how much you own of each asset. It can be transferred, lent, or sold as an NFT.

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    Untraceable - the Blockchain Futurist Conference Aug 04, 2022

    Tracy Leparulo is the CEO of Untraceable, the Crypto & Blockchain Events company behind the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto.

    Why you should listen

    Since 2013 Tracy and her team have run leading events and marketing campaigns within the blockchain and crypto space. From major conferences to hackathons to launch events. The Untraceable team creates unforgettable experiences that build the blockchain and crypto community.

    The Blockchain Futurist Conference is August 9 - 10 in Toronto, Canada. Speakers include Vitalik Buterin and more on panel discussions including: NFTs, the metaverse, DeFi, cryptocurrency, DAOs and more.

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    Truflation - the on-chain inflation index Aug 03, 2022

    Stefan Rust is the founder of Laguna Labs, a cutting-edge blockchain development house. It has developed Truflation, an independent, on-chain inflation index that aims to provide cryptographically true information on price inflation using the most recent and accurate real-market data.

    Why you should listen

    Stefan Rust is the founder of Laguna Labs, a cutting-edge blockchain development house, under which he has launched trustednode.io, truflation.com, and nuon.fi.

    Truflation is an independent, on-chain inflation index that aims to provide cryptographically true information on price inflation using the most recent and accurate real-market data. Founded in 2021, Truflation offers independent and censorship-resistant inflation calculations based on census-level price information from more than 30 data sources in real time. Truflation was built on the premise of revolutionizing century-old models and methodologies that are no longer relevant. Truflation leverages 30+ data sources to give multiple confirmations of price from different sources.

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    Jadu AVAs - Web3 comes to life on Planet Earth Jul 27, 2022

    Jadu is an AR platform and narrative layer for Web3 and the metaverse. Jadu is pioneering the functionality of digital assets in AR and the physical world by converting 3D NFTs into playable avatars and objects that can interact with each other in an ever-expanding AR game world. Jadu is minting 11,111 AVAs in August.

    Why you should listen

    Asad J. Malik is the founder of Jadu. He has a background in storytelling, film, music, and AR. Asad is leading a team of talented creatives and technologists to build the world’s most exciting Web3 AR platform.

    Jadu’s vision is to build unparalleled 3D utility for NFTs, partnering with key players in the crypto community to deliver a virtually native future where the creation of content is democratized, decentralized, and creator-owned in a world where players can build valuable communities.

    Jadu Hoverboards are NFTs that can be used to fly your avatars in the Metaverse and in Augmented Reality. Along with Jadu Jetpacks, they will function as key transport mechanisms in Jadu’s AR Mirroverse game.

    Jadu is minting 11,111 AVAs in August. Jadu AVAs are built natively for mobile and will be the most technically and creatively ambitious Avatars in Web3. Each of the 11,111 #JaduAVAs will be 3D full-body game-ready avatars and will also unlock a whole new genre of AR gameplay within the Jadu App.

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    The Graph - the web3 protocol for data Jul 26, 2022

    Kyle Rojas is Edge & Node Business Development and Partnerships at The Graph, a web3 protocol for indexing and querying blockchain data to empower developers to build and give users access to blockchain data in a verifiable and decentralized way.

    Why you should listen

    The Graph is working to decentralize data indexing and query services for all public data on all blockchains. What Google did for web2 in a centralized and rent-extracting way, The Graph is doing for web3 in a permissionless, open-source, and inclusive way. Since The Graph launched its decentralized network in July, a huge community of indexers are serving query requests, curating useful information, and staking to protect the network.

    The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying networks like Ethereum and IPFS. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, making data easily accessible. Subgraphs can be composed into a global graph of all the world's public information. This data can be transformed, organized, and shared across applications for anyone to query with just a few keystrokes.

    The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying networks like Ethereum and IPFS. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, making data easily accessible. Subgraphs can be composed into a global graph of all the world's public information. This data can be transformed, organized, and shared across applications for anyone to query with just a few keystrokes.

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    RociFi - a new DeFi primitive for under-collateralized lending Jul 20, 2022

    Christopher Brookins is the co-founder of RociFi, a new DeFi primitive for under-collateralized lending. In order to borrow on RociFi, users must mint an ERC-1155 token, NFCS (Non-Fungible Credit Score). The NFCS proves ownership of the address bundle that the borrower wishes to be credit scored. The NFCS operates as on-chain reputation and credit score.

    Why you should listen

    RociFi enables borrowers with clean EVM-compatible on-chain history and reputation to borrow with reduced or zero collateral while offering lenders a high, stable deposit yield. Initially, RociFi’s approved assets for lending and collateral will be USDC, DAI, USDT, ETH, and WBTC.

    As the protocol grows in adoption, it will function similarly to a Layer 1 whereby DeFi and TradFi firms can build new capital markets services atop RociFi, thus creating a decentralized credit economy.

    In order to borrow on RociFi, users must mint an ERC-1155 token, NFCS (Non-Fungible Credit Score). The NFCS proves ownership of the address bundle that the borrower wishes to be credit scored.

    The need for a unique, non-transferable on-chain credential that unlocks greater utility and safety across Web3 has grown in interest since Vitalik Buterin’s recent post about “Soulbound” tokens.

    RociFi’s NFCS was designed to be that and more by becoming Web3’s first, verified token for credit, reputation, and trust (CRT), i.e. proof of CRT.

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    Is Bitcoin Oversold? Indicators suggest yes. Jul 18, 2022

    Aditya Das is an analyst and researcher at Brave New Coin. With Bitcoin struggling to stay above the key $20,000 price level, investors are bracing for a long crypto winter. Fundamental analysis, however, suggests that Bitcoin is oversold.

    Why you should listen

    Fundamental analysis examines the internal and external factors that affect the value of a business or commodity. The value of an investment can be affected by factors such as the state of the global economy or by new updates to the core product of a company. These factors can affect the intrinsic value of an asset before they are reflected in the market value. The market value of an asset, the price investors actually pay for an asset, is affected by speculation and is driven by emotional factors and beliefs around what may occur in the future.

    Aditya Das explains 5 fundamental indicators that are designed to reflect the intrinsic value of Bitcoin. They are also designed to discount factors like speculation. Currently, the price of BTC is depressed because of concerns around a possible global recession, high-interest rates and the potential for a long crypto winter.

    While indicators such as the Mayer Multiple currently sit at around historical cycle lows, the crypto fear and greed index suggests that the crypto market is still in a state of ‘extreme fear’. Although the price of BTC is above $20,000, a bleak macro-economic situation will continue to be a factor for why sentiment may remain depressed in the short term.

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    Jarvis Network - the on-chain Forex market Jul 14, 2022

    Pascal Tallarida is the founder of Jarvis Network, a trading platform to buy, sell and exchange stable and liquid synthetic fiat currencies powered by an on-chain Forex market.

    Why you should listen

    Jarvis Network’s mission is to bring decentralized finance to everyone. Stablecoins have a key role to play in DeFi adoption. Non-USD stablecoins struggle to be liquid and maintain their peg.

    Syntthereum’s role is to solve these issues and launch non-USD stablecoins (JFIATs). Synthereum is the first protocol of the Jarvis Network. The protocol pioneers a capital-efficient manner to issue and exchange synthetic fiat currencies called jFIATs, on multiple EVM-compatible network.

    In May, Techemynt launched a new partnership with Jarvis. As part of the launch, a new pool featuring Techemynt’s 1-for-1 backed stablecoin NZDS and Jarvis’s synthetic jNZD. The pool will go by the ‘2nzd’ moniker and LP tokens of the pool will also be known as 2nzd tokens and will be stakeable on other platforms. 2nzd is yield-bearing as well.

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    Techemynt - the New Zealand Dollar Stablecoin Jul 12, 2022

    The NZDS is a New Zealand Dollar stablecoin backed 1:1 with physical New Zealand Dollars in cash and cash equivalents. NZDS was launched in March 2021 by Techemynt, a registered New Zealand Financial Services provider, using the FiatToken framework developed by Centre that is the basis for USD-Coin (USDC).

    Why you should listen

    As a blockchain-based stablecoin, NZDS combines the stability and value of the New Zealand Dollar with the intrinsic utility of cryptocurrency to allow arbitrage, remittance, and digital payments.

    After working in Traditional finance at places like Standard & Poor’s in New York, and Reuters and Cantor Fitzgerald in Tokyo, Scott has spent the last four years in the digital asset space with Techemy Capital, Brave New Coin, and now with Techemynt to build out the market for the New Zealand Dollar Stablecoin.

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    TRM Labs - Next-generation blockchain intelligence Jul 11, 2022

    Ari Redbord is Head of Legal and Government Affairs at TRM Labs, the blockchain intelligence company. Ari was previously the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary and the Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the United States Treasury.

    Why you should listen

    To build a safer financial system, TRM Labs developed the first blockchain intelligence platform that combines cross-chain data with threat intelligence, advanced analytics, and intuitive visualizations to help organizations detect crypto fraud and financial crime. Fast-growing cryptocurrency businesses like Circle, FTX US and MoonPay use TRM Transaction Monitoring to detect suspicious activity and meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulatory requirements.

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    Skale Network - An open-source blockchain for Web3 Jul 07, 2022

    Jack O'Holleran is co-founder and CEO at SKALE Labs, an Ethereum Layer 2 multichain network.

    Why you should listen

    Skale aims to solve the blockchain scalability problem by facilitating processing between blockchains and decentralized applications, helping the ecosystem run hundreds of millions of smart contracts and transactions per second.

    SKALE is an open-source Web3 blockchain network buil on Ethereum. The SKALE Network is governed by the SKALE DAO. There are over 50 unique companies, business entities, organizations, and DAOs that work to support, run, and govern the SKALE Network. All core smart contract changes require a decentralized multisig approval held by numerous unique entities and contributors.

    The network is also supported by two entities, the N.O.D.E. Foundation and SKALE Labs. SKALE Labs is the core team involved in proposing technical specs, supporting with open source code contributions, and educating the public on the technical elements of the SKALE Network. The N.O.D.E. Foundation is located in Vaduz, Liechtenstein and SKALE Labs is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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    Mirror World - Building Web3's Nintendo Jul 05, 2022

    Chris Zhu is the founder of Mirror World, a Game Matrix powered by an interoperability SDK layer that accelerates Web3 game development for Web2 developers.

    Why you should listen

    Mirror World is the intersection of NFTs, the metaverse, artificial intelligence, and interoperability. Chris aims to build the ‘Nintendo of the Metaverse’ by creating digital native beings capable of learning and communicating with their owners.

    Mirror World is a content matrix with AI-powered virtual life forms in each one of its games. All virtual lives are interoperable across all games, which ensures that holders will have the freedom to enter each one of the GameFi. After publishing 3 different types of games, we will publish a standard economic framework for more content producers to connect to our game ecosystem. Mirror World will be an AI-powered virtual carnival that yields crypto returns of the people, by the people, for the people.

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    Fringe Finance - a new DeFi platform Jul 03, 2022

    Fringe Finance is a decentralized money market designed to unlock the capital spread in crypto assets regardless of their capitalization and supported network. We talk with CTO Brian Pasfield.

    Why you should listen

    Fringe Finance is a decentralized money market designed to unlock the capital spread in crypto assets regardless of their capitalization and supported network. With a next-generation DeFi lending and borrowing ecosystem, Fringe aims to unlock the dormant capital from traditional financial markets and all-tier cryptocurrencies.

    The Fringe Finance Primary Lending Platform has just been released. Collateral and stablecoins have been deposited. You can deposit your $USDC to collect interest or use your $LINK, $MATIC, $REN, $BNT, $OGN, $IOTX, or $TOMOE to collateralize $USDC loans.

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    Sphere 3D - Bitcoin mining in the bear market Jun 30, 2022

    Patricia Trompeter is the CEO of Sphere 3D Corp., a net carbon-neutral Bitcoin miner.

    Why you should listen

    Patricia Trompeter is the CEO of Sphere 3D Corp., a net carbon-neutral cryptocurrency miner.

    The Company is rapidly growing its industrial-scale mining operation through the capital-efficient procurement of next-generation mining equipment and partnering with data center operators.

    Sphere 3D has 6.0 EH/s of capacity under contract for deliveries this year. Currently, the Company operates a fleet of 1,000 miners and expects delivery of an additional 59,000 miners by year-end 2022 for a total hashing capacity of 6.0 exahash.

    "Our primary focus is growing our mining operations. Our fleet of S19j Pros is producing as expected, and we are deploying our new miners as rapidly as possible. We are laser-focused on executing our strategy of becoming a leading carbon-neutral Bitcoin mining company," said Patricia Trompeter, CEO of Sphere 3D.

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    Stack - the Crypto App for Under 18s Jun 28, 2022

    Will Rush is the founder of Stack, an app that goes where school curricula won’t, and educates the next generation about personal finance. It does this by harnessing Gen Z’s interest in cryptocurrency to teach them about responsible investing habits.

    Why you should listen

    Stack is going to be the first crypto platform to welcome investors under the age of 18 (thanks to custodial accounts). Stack is a Seattle-based startup building a crypto platform for teenagers and others disenfranchised by the financial system. Stack will soon launch a gamified platform that allows teens to invest in more than 30 cryptocurrency coins. Parents co-own the account if the user is under 18. Users earn social and merchandising rewards for responsible investment activity and for watching educational videos.

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    Haste Arcade - Playing games to earn money Jun 27, 2022

    Haste Arcade is the world’s first Instant Leaderboard Payout arcade. The arcade enables players globally to earn real-time, peer-to-peer rewards for simply placing on a game's leaderboard. The vision for Haste is to have the platform serve as a fun and entertaining visual representation of micro transactions, and how they can empower new business models.

    Why you should listen

    Joe De Pinto was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. After spending 4 years playing professional baseball in the Chicago White Sox farm system, he co-founded his first venture, Barpay, in 2015 with Daniel Wagner. The company has since grown to become a leader in the mobile ordering and payment space.

    In January 2021, along with Wagner, he co-founded Haste, the world’s first Instant Leaderboard Payout arcade. De Pinto’s vision for Haste is to have the platform serve as a fun and entertaining visual representation of micro transactions, and how they can empower new business models.

    Haste Arcade is a developer SDK and player site with ILP Games™ or Instant Leaderboard Payout™. Games enable players globally to earn real-time, peer-to-peer rewards for simply placing on a game's leaderboard.

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    Kraken Australia - Expanding Downunder Jun 22, 2022

    Kraken is one of the OG global crypto exchanges, founded in 2011. In 2020 Kraken launched in Australia. Andy speaks to Kraken’s Aussie MD, Jonathon Miller.

    Why you should listen

    Jonathon came to Kraken in 2020 as a founder of Australian crypto exchange Bit Trade and was one of the founding members of the Blockchain Association of Australia.

    Kraken acquired Bit Trade in 2020 and appointed Jonathan as MD of its new Australian operation.

    Outside of crypto, Jonathan is one half of Sydney group Magnetic Heads, a baroque blend of new wave and post-punk, cold wave and avant-pop via synths, guitars, and exquisite production.

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    Gamma - the marketplace for Bitcoin NFTs powered by Stacks Jun 20, 2022

    Gamma is the leading marketplace for creators and digital collectors to find, list, and sell NFTs, secured by the Bitcoin blockchain. Gamma also provides a minting platform for creators to launch their NFT collections without any code, and a social platform built to become a hub for the world's web3 social identity, centered around NFTs.

    Why you should listen

    Jamil Dhanani is the founder of Gamma, the leading marketplace for creators and digital collectors to find, list, and sell NFTs, secured by the Bitcoin blockchain.

    Gamma was launched in September of last year as STXNFT.com. They have now rebranded as Gamma, a platform built to become a hub for the world’s Web3 social identity, centered around NFTs. Gamma aims to serve as the home for collectors, creators, and investors to come together to explore, trade, and showcase extraordinary NFTs through the Bitcoin ecosystem.

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    Stacked - Smart Crypto Investing Jun 19, 2022

    Stacked Invest is a simple, easy-to-use platform for crypto investing. Equipped with ready-to-grow, personalized, and professionally managed portfolios, Stacked aims to be the “life jacket” that saves people from the typical pain points of crypto investing.

    Why you should listen

    Joel Birch is the CEO of Stacked Invest, a simple, easy-to-use platform for crypto investing. Equipped with ready-to-grow, personalized, and professionally managed portfolios, Stacked aims to be the “life jacket” that saves people from the typical pain points of crypto investing.

    Pre-built Stacks are designed to give users instant access to pre-built portfolios modeled after some of the most popular crypto indexes, hedge funds, and other investor portfolios. The platform’s ready-to-grow portfolios, called Stacks, and digital advising tools make investing quick and easy for the masses, allowing the average individual to enter the crypto space without discomfort or uncertainty.

    Stacked has been approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate as an investment advisor. This classification makes Stacked one of the few crypto-focused entities offering investment advice while being registered with a federal regulatory agency.

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    Pollen - Building DeFi 2.0 Jun 15, 2022

    Pollen is a DeFi 2.0 asset management protocol that allows communities to curate fully optimized and dynamically rebalanced custom asset pools.

    Why you should listen

    Frederico Teixeira is a quant analayst at Pollen. Frederico is a Mathematician and holds a PhD in Computational Modelling from ETH Zurich. He has over 15 years of experience in the numerical solution of differential equations, high-performance computing, optimisation, uncertainty quantification, meta-modelling, and machine learning.

    Pollen is a permissionless protocol that allows communities to launch fully backed Asset Pools that reflect their community’s values.

    Pollen asset Pool allocations are optimized, continually rebalancing to ensure that the assets in the DAO outperform the market. Index Tokens are backed by dynamically rebalanced Asset Pools designed for markets that operate 24/7.

    Governance processes allow communities to launch asset pools on their terms, leveraging the collective intelligence from the Pollen protocol with the autonomy to grow, customize and develop to meet their community needs.

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    goLance - Celsius tanks while remote work rises Jun 13, 2022

    Michael Brooks is the CEO and founder of goLance, an award-winning online freelance marketplace that's used to recruit, screen, hire, manage, and pay global talent. A fast-growing segment of goLance users transacts using crypto.

    Why you should listen

    Michael Brooks is the CEO and founder of goLance, an award-winning online freelance marketplace that's used to recruit, screen, hire, manage, and pay global talent. He runs the company, which has more than 600,000 users and $94+ million in payouts, entirely with freelancers.

    Michael is a leading author on HackerNoon.

    Links

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    Metalend - the lending protocol for fiat-backed stablecoins Jun 13, 2022

    Anthony Ng is the Founder and CEO of Metalend, a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol for fiat-backed stablecoins. The future of Defi cannot be built by USD stablecoins alone, users need access to their local currencies to live life. A decentralized lending marketing protocol that supports a wide range of stablecoins is necessary.

    Why you should listen

    Metalend Finance is a decentralized open-source lending protocol on Ethereum. It supports local currencies and this currently includes Singapore Dollar (XSGD) and Indonesian Rupiah (XIDR) and the New Zealand Dollar Stablecoin (NZDS).

    “We aim to create a whole new community that is more comfortable trading in their home currency. This opportunity to use local currencies for lending brings greater access, ease, relatability, and most importantly many new investors from countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia,” said Anthony Ng.

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    Umee - Surfing the DeFi Wave Jun 09, 2022

    Brent Xu is the Founder and CEO of Umee, a Cross Chain DeFi hub designed to operate seamlessly across protocols. Brent has extensive experience in blockchain and venture investments and previously held business strategy roles at ConsenSys and Tendermint and Cosmos.

    Why you should listen

    After cutting his teeth working with Tendermint to build Gravity Dex and the Gravity Bridge on the Cosmos network, Brent Xu founded Umee in April 2021 to bring cross-chain DeFi use cases to the Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystems. Umee aspires to create a DeFi experience across blockchain networks and resolve three major issues universal to all DeFi projects: detached yields, concentrated systemic risks, and isolated capital.

    Umee was designed to use the IBC protocol, an “internet of blockchains,” created from the Cosmos ecosystem. Initially implementing a cross-chain borrowing and lending framework, Umee’s vision evolved to include DeFi and open finance more broadly.

    To accomplish this, Umee would need to break the existing silos between blockchains with novel bridging solutions — a difficult and critical obstacle to the broad adoption of DeFi.

    The native UMEE token is a Proof of=Stake asset that can exist as a Cosmos SDK token and as an ERC20 token on Ethereum. Ab initio, Umee would be built to be interoperable with blockchains such as Terra, Crypto.com, Binance Chain, Osmosis, Secret Network, and many, MANY others. In plain language, users could lend, borrow, stake, delegate, and more, across dozens of chains.

    Umee secured its seed round funding led by Polychain, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda, Ideo CoLab, ConsenSys Ethereal, and others.

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    Powerledger - trading renewable energy Jun 08, 2022

    Powerledger develops software solutions for the tracking, tracing, and trading of renewable energy. They believe in the democratization of power, for a sustainable future.

    Why you should listen

    Anya Nova is head of blockchain development and staking at Powerledger. Powerledger platforms track and trade features help users stay on top of the provenance and flow of energy. It can give consumers choice over the energy they’re using and facilitate peer to peer trading. Solar P2P energy trading can deal with excess solar in the grid without subsidy.

    Their platform technology is being used to ensure the trading of environmental commodities such as renewable energy certificates and carbon credits, are more transparent, secure, and efficient. Their platform TraceX is a digital marketplace and exchange for carbon and renewable energy credits.

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    Boto - the no-code platform for crypto bots Jun 06, 2022

    Breno Araujo is the Founder and CEO of Boto - the no-code automation platform for creating and sharing bots that automate your crypto, NFT, and other blockchain or DeFi activities.

    Why you should listen

    Using a simple drag-and-drop platform, Boto’s goal is to democratize bots by establishing a community in which both developers and non-developers can create and share automation.

    Before Boto, Breno was head of Revenue Intelligence for Ripple and has been in the blockchain space since 2016. Breno has been coding since he was 12 years old, and has an MBA from INSEAD and a BSc in Mechatronics Engineering from PUC-Rio (Brazil).

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    NFT Butler - Automating your NFT trading Jun 02, 2022

    NFT Butler is an automation tool to make mass bidding requests on OpenSea. Users can create multiple tasks for several collections on Opensea and configure the task to bid on every token of their choice with a specific bid price and validity period.

    Why you should listen

    An NFT Butler license can be purchased on OpenSea. The current floor is around 1 ETH. There are only 1000 NFT Butler licenses available. Having one allows the owner to use a collection scanner to find the most profitable collections, mass bidding on OpenSea with up to 6000 bids/h, and smart bidding (outbidding, relative to floor price bidding, trait-filtered bidding).

    Want a free 1-week trial? It’s the NFT Butler x The Crypto Conversation Promotion.

    1. Join the official NFT Butler discord: https://discord.gg/nftbutler
    2. Redeem the voucher: "!redeem 6FH1TD3R4SHO" in get-a-trial channel.
    3. This will activate your 1-week trial
    4. The team will list the NFT Butler Lifetime License with 15% discount on OpenSea for you.
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    Festival Pass - Web3 and live events May 31, 2022

    Festival Pass is embracing the evolution of entertainment into Web 3. It is the world's first live events subscription service across music, film, food & wine, theater, tech, and innovation. Users can enjoy thousands of events locally and globally for one monthly fee. The Festival Family Founder NFT is a limited collection of 10,000. The Founder NFT comes with the ultimate utility and includes a lifetime founder membership to festivalPass with $1,200 worth of credits annually to redeem for over 80,000 live events in North America and 600,000 hotels globally.

    Why you should listen

    Ed Vincent is the founder and CEO of Festival Pass. The world's first live events subscription service across music, film, food, and wine, theater, tech and innovation, and more.

    The company was founded on the mission to inspire people to lead active and engaging lives through passion-connected member experiences. Members of Festival Pass can enjoy 80,000 plus live events from notable festivals like Coachella and ACL Music Festival, to live shows with GRAMMY-winning artists like Dua Lipa, John Mayer, Billie Eillish and more with a unique credit system. Members can also use their credits to book rooms at over 600,000 hotels at reduced rates.

    Festival Family is an NFT Project from festivalPass, the world's first live event subscription marketplace. The Festival Family Founder NFT is a limited collection of 10,000 total Founder NFTs that will be made available in tranches of 1,000. Each new tranche will launch when the previous one is sold out. Price will increase per tranche. Once minted out, there will be no more Founder NFTs offered.

    The Founder NFT comes with the ultimate utility that includes a lifetime founder membership to festivalPass with $1,200 worth of credits annually to redeem for over 80,000 live events in North America and 600,000 hotels globally. Plus access to quarterly bucket list events only available to NFT holders.

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    Globe - Building the everything exchange May 29, 2022

    James West is the co-founder of Globe. A crypto exchange funded by Y Combinator and Pantera Capital, Globe’s goal is to enable its customers to exchange everything. Globe offers new products such as volatility trading among more traditional spot and perpetuals markets, and innovative approaches to managing risk with their Unified Margin system.

    Why you should listen

    Globe co-founder and CEO James West is a technologist, digital assets pioneer, and former trader and investor. He led the quantitative team at a hedge fund for four years, growing it from a small family fund to $300m assets under management with incredible risk-adjusted returns. He earned his PhD from UCL, just across from DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, his research has now generated over 600 citations. Prior to that, he studied algebraic geometry at Cambridge University under 2018 Fields Medallist Caucher Birkar.

    Globe aims to be a robust and rewarding exchange platform, with market-leading performance and deep liquidity, and payouts and fee discounts for staking GDT, the token that powers Globe.

    They are a provider of Bitcoin security services that enable users to have total self-custody over their crypto holdings, without risk of theft or hacks like those experienced by exchanges.

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    Casa - The safe way to store your Bitcoin May 26, 2022

    Nick Neuman is the founder of Casa – a provider of Bitcoin security services that enables users to have total self-custody over their crypto holdings, without risk of theft or hacks like those experienced by exchanges.

    Why you should listen

    Nick talks about the importance of Bitcoin self-custody and the risk of BTC loss if they don’t properly secure their holdings.

    Most bitcoin wallets only require 1 key to send bitcoin. Casa uses multiple keys which makes your money extra safe and secure. Casa is a multi-sig, multi-device, multi-location solution with the ease of the app.

    If you do lose a key or have one stolen, you can swap it out for a new one. Simply transfer your bitcoin to the new, healthy set of keys using your two remaining keys from the initial set. Casa App walks you through it all, step by step.

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    Fantom - Andre is back? The origin story, and what comes next May 23, 2022

    Crypto dev Andre Cronje is back, advising the Fantom Foundation after publically turning his back on crypto earlier this year. We speak to Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong to find out more... Why you should listen

    Fantom is a high-performance, scalable, EVM-compatible, smart-contract platform. Fantom’s mainnet deployment, Fantom Opera, is built on Fantom’s consensus mechanism, Lachesis. Fantom is a leaderless, asynchronous, and byzantine fault-tolerant Layer 1 blockchain protocol.

    Crypto dev Andre Cronje is back, advising the Fantom Foundation after publically turning his back on crypto earlier this year. We speak to Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong to find out more...

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    The Minke App - Wave hello to better savings May 22, 2022

    Josh Reyes is the co-founder of the Minke, a DeFi platform that aims to be the easiest way to use DeFi via an app designed for mobile. Minke offers savings rates 40x higher than big banks.

    Why you should listen

    Co-founders Josh Reyes and Marcos Teixeira met as early employees at Melbourne startup SmartrMail. Like that venture, the global team is operating remotely with early employees based in Australia, Portugal, Japan, Brazil, and the UK.

    Minke is a non-custodial wallet, meaning only you have access to your money, not Minke, not anyone else. Minke believes self-custody is the safest way to protect your money in the long-term.

    Marc Andreessen coined the famous phrase “Software is eating the world" predicting that large swathes of the economy will be taken over by software and technology. That’s not a 10x improvement, it’s a 38x one. Warren Buffet says compounding interest is the 8th wonder of the world. Minke see these trends as the power behind DeFi’s growth.

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    Sergey Nazarov - Building a world powered by cryptographic truth May 20, 2022

    Sergey Nazarov is the Co-founder of Chainlink, the industry-standard oracle network for connecting smart contracts to real-world data and off-chain computation.

    Why you should listen

    In this podcast Sergey lays out his current thinking on how teams and protocols such as Chainlink are building a world powered by cryptographic truth.

    Sergey explains how smart contracts are becoming an increasingly important part of the global economy, and he talks about the importance of the Chainlink community as the crypto ecosystem continues to mature.

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    Anoma - Protect your privacy with zero-knowledge technology May 18, 2022

    Adrian Brink is the founder of Anoma, a blockchain protocol that enables private, asset-agnostic cash and bartering. Adrian founded Anoma to fight surveillance capitalism and the over-concentration of power in fiat currency, by protecting individuals’ privacy through zero-knowledge technology.

    Why you should listen

    Anoma is a proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that enables multi-asset privacy and bartering among any number of parties. Adrian is a passionate advocate for embedding privacy into blockchain networks as part of the next iteration of our financial infrastructure and believes that there has been a loss of individual financial sovereignty and privacy by non-consensual usage of sensitive data by third parties.

    Anoma was established to address these concerns with zero-knowledge privacy built-in, and is making progress towards its goal, raising $26M in November led by Polychain Capital.

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    Near Futures Far-Fetched - A Sci-Fi Story May 15, 2022

    Andy Blood was executive creative director at Colenso BBDO and a creative strategist at Facebook. He is the creator of the multiverse series “Near Futures. Far-Fetched” an intriguing series of NFTs that are available on the Lithoverse NFT platform.

    Why you should listen

    Near Futures. Far-Fetched is a collection of six short stories with one thing in common: somewhere in the multiverse these stories will be true. The themes explored range from The Last Bitcoin (set in the year 2139), to the social network of objects, a terrorist group infiltrating CERN, our too-smart cities becoming dumb, weaponizing ‘clean’, and first contact with intelligent non-human life.

    Near Futures Far-Fetched is a continuation of the creative partnership between CENNZnet and Andy Blood that produced last September’s world first ‘Book As NFT’ project.

    Each individual story NFT is available in an edition of ten. With each sale granting its owner a 1% share of the revenue of the full and final collection released as an NFT.

    Andy Blood is the author of ‘Full Bleed’ a book of ‘Remarkable stories and hard-won lessons from the coalface of creativity and the bleeding edge of advertising and technology.’

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    The Last Bitcoin

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    ALEX - Next gen DeFi on Bitcoin via Stacks May 11, 2022

    Chiente Hsu is the ex-Managing Director and Global Head of Quantitative Investment Strategy and Research at Morgan Stanley. She is the founder of ALEX, an open-source DeFi development company built on the Stacks Blockchain.

    Why you should listen

    ALEX is an open-source DeFi development company built on the Stacks Blockchain and modeled on the world’s financial markets. The ALEX mission is simple: to give customers the tools to become the masters of their own financial experience. On our platform, you can lend, earn, and borrow BTC, minimize the risks, and maximize returns with fully decentralized integrated financial solutions.

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    IBEX - Taking Bitcoin to the World May 10, 2022

    IBEX believes that a well-developed system of financial markets is indispensable for the health and efficiency of a society. The combination of robust and sophisticated markets and financial institutions, as well as diversity in instruments and financial products, supply the need for people and the general economy. There is a strong correlation between the development of financial markets and socioeconomic well-being. Bitcoin can help.

    Why you should listen

    IBEX CEO, Jose Lemus talks about Bitcoin’s path to mainstream adoption and his experiences on the ground in El Salvador.

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    Bitcoin’s Logarithmic Growth Curve - last model standing? May 09, 2022

    Dave the Wave is an investor, trader, and technical analyst. A contrarian, Dave is respected on Crypto Twitter for his objective, rational approach to technical analysis. Dave’s thesis is that Bitcoin is following a Logarithmic Growth Curve model. Logarithmic growth suggests exponential gains at the beginning that slowly taper off towards a plateau in the long term.

    Why you should listen:

    Andy and Dave discuss Dave’s Logarithmic Growth Curve model. Dave says that Bitcoin is a nascent currency in the process of capitalization. There are periods of volatility in both directions as new people add and subtract liquidity in adoption waves.

    Despite sometimes being misunderstood as bearish, Dave says that if Bitcoin follows the Logarithmic Growth Curve, Bitcoin could hit almost $1million in approximately ten years' time.

    Dave analyses several other Bitcoin models, such as Stock to Flow, and Lengthening Cycles, and explains why in his view, they have been invalidated, leaving Bitcoin’s Logarithmic Growth Curve as the last model standing.

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    BVNK - Combining crypto and fiat banking in one platform May 06, 2022

    Chris Harmse is the co-founder and MD of crypto financial services company, BVNK. The BVNK platform bridges fiat and crypto together. Combine your crypto and fiat banking into one place, with payments, trading, custody, and yield integrated into one account.

    Why you should listen

    BVNK launched in the UK last October and is primarily aimed at the massively underserved mid-market enterprise sector (high net worths, family offices, mid-sized companies) and offers treasury, payment and investment transactions together on a single platform, based on crypto and fiat currencies.

    The platform provides a business account for settlement, exchange and payment of crypto, access to markets for large-volume trades and a yield service where funds are deployed to earn interest.

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    Dignity Gold - the gold reserve backed security token May 03, 2022

    Dignity Gold is a blockchain development company creating securities tokens to establish investment opportunities in the U.S. precious metals mining and minerals sectors.

    Why you should listen

    Kent M. Swing is Chairman of Dignity Gold. Kent is an owner of several real estate operating companies as well as commercial and residential real estate properties throughout the United States.

    Steve Braverman is president and CEO of Dignity Gold. Steve has more than 30 years of experience in securities trading and investment management.

    The DIGau token is a verified gold reserve-backed security token represented by a pledge of at least $6 billion in gold reserves in tailings and alluvial placer deposits. DIGau is supported by a minimum of $6 billion of the gold reserves pledged to Dignity Corp.’s parent company, Dignity Gold, under deeds of trust and a pledge and security agreement. This was represented by 3,442,144 ounces of gold reserve or, $6 billion dollars divided by the market price of gold on the day of the agreement.

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    Flipside Crypto - Get paid to learn about protocols May 01, 2022

    Dave Balter is the CEO of Flipside Crypto, the platform lets users get paid to learn about protocols and chains, and level up to become a crypto-SQL superstar.

    Why you should listen

    Flipside enables growth and strategic business insights for the blockchain industry through actionable market intelligence obtained from a community of highly skilled, highly motivated analysts. Flipside’s free-to-use platform gives analysts access to an unparalleled variety of bounty programs, distributing token incentives to users for answering questions and performing tasks in campaigns tailored to their skill, experience and knowledge level.

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    Pool - Enabling users to monetize and share their data Apr 28, 2022

    Shiv Malik is the CEO of Pool, a data platform and marketplace that wants to increase data privacy and enable individuals to monetize their own data.

    Why you should listen

    Pool’s purpose is to redistribute power, value, and control in the data economy. Pool's platform supports organizations that enable ordinary people to monetize and share their data. These are called Data Unions. And because those people are positively engaged in sharing their information, data products on Pool’s platform are richer, more relevant, and easier to license. It’s data working for everyone.

    UK-based Pool, currently valued at $39m, is building a data marketplace and associated payment rails for new data-sharing entities called data unions. These new data-sharing organizations are themselves seeking to leverage shifts in privacy, the end of consumer data following Chrome’s deletion of third-party cookies, and new EU rules for data portability which are due to come into effect next year.

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    250 episodes of the Crypto Conversation - Meet Brave New Coin's new CEO Apr 26, 2022

    We’re unofficially celebrating 250 episodes of the Crypto Conversation. To celebrate, Andy is joined by Rory Manchee, CEO at Brave New Coin.

    Why you should listen

    After spending six years as Head of Business Development for Brave New Coin and Techemy, Rory has been part of the global blockchain conversation at the highest level. Rory joins Andy to unofficially celebrate three years and 250 episodes of the Crypto Conversation podcast and his appointment as Brave New Coin CEO.

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    Ethernity - the NFT issuing platform and marketplace for notable personalities Apr 25, 2022

    Nick Rose is the CEO and co-founder of Ethernity Chain - the NFT issuing platform and marketplace for athletes and celebrities. Leveraging their own IP Ethernity has launched verified artwork from Shaq, Bruce Lee, Lionel Messi, the James Dean and Marilyn Monroe estates, Nas, and Muhammed Ali.

    Why you should listen

    Earlier this year, Ethernity raised a $20 million funding round - led by Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin and founder of League of Legends Thomas Vu - and announced the launch of Ethernal Labs - a studio-style approach to producing and fostering creative ventures in the NFT space.

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    How Bitcoin Mining drives 70% renewable energy by 2030 Apr 21, 2022

    Kiwi tech entrepreneur Daniel Batten has an intriguing thesis. He sees Bitcoin as an unexpected superhero - his view is that Bitcoin mining can drive us to 70% renewables-based energy consumption by 2030.

    Why you should listen

    If we’re unable to transition to 70% renewable energy by 2030 the earth will face runaway climate change. Bitcoin mining could be the catalyst to drive the increased adoption of renewable energy this decade. Bitcoin miners are location agnostic, time-of-day-agnostic, and have an insatiable appetite for both existing and new energy production. This lowers the economic barrier that has been preventing the faster adoption of renewables. That’s why Bitcoin is an unexpected superhero.

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    Fair Prediction Launches - SparkWorld is reinventing NFTs Apr 20, 2022

    SparkWorld is an innovative community-centric web3 ecosystem, powered by Fair Prediction Launches and underpinned by the SPRK token.

    Why you should listen

    Jolyon Horsfall is the founder of SparkWorld, an innovative community-centric web3 ecosystem on a mission to creatively overcome the challenges of whitelisting, randomized minting, and prelaunch NFTs through a gamified trustless marketplace that creates value for everyone.

    Spark facilitates Fair Prediction Launches (FPLs) through a new mechanism that distributes NFTs in the most equitable and engaging way possible using gamification and prediction markets.

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    Octopus Network - Where Web3.0 Begins Apr 18, 2022

    Sheldon Dearr is technical lead at Octopus Network, a multichain, interoperable crypto network and Web3 incubator designed to facilitate a new wave of web innovation.

    Why you should listen

    Sheldon is a security engineer who was referred to as the "King of Major Incidents" during his time at HP due to his ability to solve problems. Sheldon has a keen understanding of the complex world we all operate in.

    Octopus Network is a multichain crypto network for launching and running Web3.0 application-specific blockchains — appchains.

    Appchains in the Octopus Network benefit from flexible and cost-effective leased security (LPoS), out-of-the-box multichain interoperability, complete infrastructure, and a ready-to-be-engaged community.

    The core of the Octopus Network is the Octopus Relay — a set of smart contracts running on the NEAR blockchain, aka mainchain, that implements the security leasing market. The Octopus Network chose to build on NEAR because it offers a more cost-effective, scalable, user-friendly, and interoperable L1 solution for building appchains.

    The Octopus Accelerator Programme is a collection of courses and seminars available to both Substrate developers and Web3.0 teams funded by the Octopus Foundation. The Octopus Foundation will directly fund 20 appchain projects through the Octopus Accelerator Programme each year, granting them up to $1M in total per year.

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    Aventus - Building on Ethereum and beyond Apr 13, 2022

    Alan Vey is the co-founder and CEO of Aventus Network, a layer-2 blockchain protocol that brings scalability, lower costs, and speed to Ethereum transactions. Why you should listen

    The Aventus Network (AvN) is a layer-2 blockchain protocol that brings scalability, lower costs, and speed to Ethereum transactions. It enables digital asset issuance, management, and ownership, bringing the scale of permissioned blockchains and the security and interoperability of public blockchains — without the shortcomings of either.

    Eth 2.0 is designed to address Ethereum’s scalability and speed issues, where will this leave the scores of layer 2 solutions that have emerged over the past five years?

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    Big Town Chef - Cooking in Web3 Apr 12, 2022

    Big Town Chef is a play-to-earn, NFT farming, trading and cook-off Web3 game. Powered by $BURP, the game is in partnership with celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo.

    Why you should listen

    Big Town Chef is a metaverse game that enables players to farm, trade virtual ingredients, and compete in cook-off battles.

    All in-game activity will take place in an immersive and engaging 3D Metaverse environment called Big Town. Big Town Chef is built on blockchain technology and allows users to earn tokens that can be traded for tangible real-world rewards and valuable digital assets. Powered by the $BURP token on the Polygon network, Big Town Chef is the next generation of interactive online decentralized gaming. Users can steer the narrative, shape the experience, and vote on the direction of the wider organization. Those looking to learn more about the crypto space can enjoy the process of growing virtual foods and competing with other players while earning in-game credits that equal real-world revenues.

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    Bitcoin 2022 - Did it Deliver? Apr 10, 2022

    Last week the Bitcoin 2022 conference took place in Miami with announcements coming from some of the most prominent Bitcoin speakers and companies. Did it deliver? Why you should listen

    The Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami took place April 6-9 with speakers including Jordan Peterson, Jack Malles, Adam Back, Cathie Wood, and Peter Thiel.

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    CasperLabs - Immutable history, unwritten future Apr 07, 2022

    Medha Parlikar is the Co-Founder and CTO of CasperLabs, a blockchain built for enterprise adoption. The CasperLabs mission is to lead the era of distributed computing by giving every organization access to state-of-the-art technologies and services. Why you should listen CasperLabs is the team behind the development of the Casper Network. It provides services and support for organizations of all sizes, from enterprise to startup. Guided by open source principles, CasperLabs is committed to supporting the next wave of blockchain adoption among businesses and providing developers with a reliable and secure solution.

    The Casper Network is the first live proof-of-stake blockchain built off the Casper CBC specification. Casper is designed to accelerate enterprise and developer adoption of blockchain technology today and evolve to meet user needs in the future.

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    Sommelier Finance - Increasing DeFi Liquidity Apr 06, 2022

    Zaki Manian is the Co-Founder of Sommelier Finance, a DeFi platform and coprocessor for the EthereumVM. Why you should listen Zaki believes that regulators can be supportive of the incredible innovation going on in the DeFi space by developing a regime of awards rather than punishments for DeFi projects that move the industry towards reasonable integration with financial safeguards that regulators are bound to pursue.

    Sommelier is a bet that Ethereum will be a dominant player in the global economy. Sommelier consists of the Cosmos Stargate SDK, its Tendermint-based consensus layer, and a decentralized, bi-directional Ethereum bridge, managed by a global network of validators.

    Liquidity Providers (LPs) will be able to use the Sommelier to author and execute complex, and automated financial transactions, such as portfolio rebalancing, limit orders, batched orders, as well as a host of other features that traders have come to expect from CeFi, but that are not currently available in DeFi.

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    Bitcoin is warming up the rockets Apr 05, 2022

    With Bitcoin holding steady at $46,000, and both whales and shrimps accumulating, is Bitcoin warming up again?

    Why you should listen

    The 19,000,000 Bitcoin has been mined, whales and shrimps are accumulating, and anticipation is mounting that we’ll hear some big Bitcoin news out of this weeks Bitcoin 2022 conference.

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    Bitcoin is the signal - Bitcoin 2022 is going to be epic Mar 31, 2022

    Christian Keroles is Managing Director of Bitcoin Magazine and a passionate Bitcoiner who thinks Hyperbitcoinization is going to happen faster than anyone thinks.

    Why you should listen

    Founded in 2012, Bitcoin Magazine was the first ever magazine dedicated solely to covering the cryptocurrency space. Its reporting focus is on Bitcoin, its underlying blockchain technology and the industry that has built up around it.

    The team is organizing the Bitcoin 2022 Bitcoin Conference in Miami. This takes place April 6-9 with speakers including Jordan Peterson, Jack Malles, Adam Back, Cathie Wood, Peter Thiel, Eric Weinstein, and many more.

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    The Reality Oracle - Geospatial data on the XYO Network Mar 31, 2022

    Arie Trouw is Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Directors at XY Labs, building the XYO Network. The network is described as a reality oracle that empowers people to participate in the world's data economy through the validation of anonymous and secure geospatial data. Why you should listen

    The XYO Network is a reality oracle that empowers people to participate in the world's data economy through the validation of anonymous and secure geospatial data.

    The world is full of data producers and data consumers. XYO connects both parties and provides a token economy to encourage data flow and value. With over 4 million nodes and counting, XYO is one of the largest operating blockchain node networks in the world.

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    Internet Friends - How to build a Crypto Community Mar 28, 2022

    Brett Herskope aka Eliherf is a project lead for Stacks Parrots, a collection of Parrot NFTs on Stacks. Eliherf is also head of community for several NFT communities in the Stacks ecosystem.

    Why you should listen

    Eliherf has a background in education, and he has found that these skills have helped him to become a strong advocate for NFT communities. He says the best community managers are like a concierge or a barista. They are welcoming and know eveyone’s name.

    Stacks Parrots is a collection of 402 unique and talking parrots NFTs secured by Bitcoin living in the metaverse.

    As well as leading the Stacks Parrots team, Eliherf is an advocate for the entire Stacks ecosystem of projects, NFT teams and communities. Everyone knows Eliherf and Elihef knows everyone. He says it’s important to look after your mental health and don’t stop having fun with it.

    Supporting links

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    Brave - For Crypto-Native Internet Users Mar 24, 2022

    Brian Bondy is the co-founder, CTO, and lead developer for Brave Software, developer of Brave, the open-source, privacy-by-default web browser with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform and crypto wallet.

    Why you should listen

    Brave is an open-source, privacy-by-default web browser with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform and crypto wallet. Brave Wallet, a crypto wallet built into the Brave desktop browser, and mobile apps, enables Brave users to store, manage, grow, and swap crypto from a single wallet. Unlike most crypto wallets, the Brave Wallet does not require extensions; it’s browser-native, reducing security risks and reliance on extra CPU and memory. Users can transact with almost any crypto asset with superior safety and performance, as well as connect with other wallets and Web3 DApps. The Brave Wallet supports all EVM compatible chains and L2s, and unlike other wallet extensions, the Brave Wallet is built with an open MPL license, enabling developers to make contributions easily. Brave believes that the crypto ecosystem should not only be open source, but should also be enabled via tools and wallets with an open license.

    Brave will soon integrate the Solana blockchain into the Brave browser, providing default Solana ecosystem support to Brave’s 42 million monthly active users and 1.3 million verified Creators. Brave will soon default to Solana for cross-chain and Solana native DApps.

    The Solana blockchain enables faster low-fee transactions which help in the adoption of DeFi and Web3.

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    The SKTL Space Token Mar 21, 2022

    Cody Willard, an American investor and hedge fund manager and ex-anchor on the Fox Business Network is a co-founder of SKTLs ("Sky's The Limit"). The SKTL Space Tokens will be airdropped free-of-charge to U.S. and Canadians on May 6th, Space Day, 2022.

    Why you should listen

    The SKTL ERC20 token project is a cryptocurrency token for space enthusiasts. SKTL tokens are designed to capitalize on the future of the space economy while at the same time providing funds to clean up space debris. Space debris is an ever-growing problem that has the potential to severely affect the space economy and the ease of access to outer space.

    Morgan Stanley predicts that the global space industry could surpass a total value of $1T by 2040. The designers of the SKTL token believe this estimate is conservative and expect the space economy to become a multi-trillion dollar economy within the next ten years and become perhaps the single largest economic revolution in history over the next decades.

    There is a cloud of more than 9,000 tons of space debris flying around in space at more than 10x the speed of a bullet that poses a huge risk to satellites, rockets, and anything else needed for the space economy.

    The SKTL cryptocurrency token is a smart contract that is intended to reward holders for humanity’s progress in developing and exploring space while also providing a fund to help with ensuring that Space remains open to humanity. This token provides a way for token holders to benefit from the incredible potential growth that the Space economy offers while also supporting the very necessary social good of space cleanup.

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    Megapont - Building an NFT universe Mar 16, 2022

    Megapont is a pixel art nft project on Stacks. Megapont is a fictional universe in which advanced scientific mutations accelerated the evolutions of every species on Earth. Earth is currently a thriving, bustling paradise that has been at peace for a generation. Megapont Ape Club is a celebration of the more scenic members of the Megapont world.

    Why you should listen

    Stacks is an open-source network of decentralized apps and smart contracts built on Bitcoin. Stacks unleashes Bitcoin's full potential by bringing scalable transactions and general-purpose smart contracts to Bitcoin without doing any modification.

    The Megapont Ape Club is the #1 NFT collection on Stacks by trading volume. Mark McKenzie is the founder of Megapont. His next NFT collection the MegaKongs will mint on Ethereum in April.

    Mark is building Apes Together an NFT community that provides chain-agnostic tooling for NFT collections.

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    Byzantion - the #1 NFT Marketplace on Stacks Mar 14, 2022

    Plutus and Obsidian are the co-founders of Byzantion, the #1 NFT Marketplace on Stacks. Users can buy, sell, auction, and discover Bitcoin-Secured NFTs on the Byznation Universal Marketplace.

    Why you should listen

    Stacks is a layer-1 blockchain that connects to bitcoin and brings smart contracts to it and decentralized apps to it. Because Stacks enables smart contracts, it gives the ability to create NFTs and gives them the security of the bitcoin network. Provenance is key when it comes to art and the way to prove provenance for NFTs is through entries on the blockchain. To trust that a piece's provenance remains intact, you must tie it to the most secure blockchain you can, which is what Stacks does.

    The Stacks ecosystem is home to a passionate fast-growing community of builders and marketplaces such as Byzantion, a marketplace where users can collect NFTs such as Crash Punks and Megapont Apes.

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    TokenTraxx - How Web3 evolves the music industry Mar 10, 2022

    TommyD is an award-winning multi-platinum selling music producer, songwriter, artist, DJ, and creator of 808 Whisky. He is the founder of TokenTraxx is a British tech company that uses Web3 tools to innovate how we all engage with music.

    Why you should listen

    TokenTraxx is built by musicians for the music community, providing a whole new way to create, curate and collect music. Token||Traxx provides a powerful opportunity for Creators to engage on every level with fans using NFT technology, whilst creating a whole new income stream.

    Those who have a good ear for music can become Curators and can earn from their ability to spot untapped potential by building brilliant playlists.

    And as you would expect from a music NFT market place; Collectors can search tracks, artists, and genres to build their NFT libraries which they can showcase to the community or trade on the open market.

    The TRAXX token sale is scheduled for the 14th March 2022. It will also provide holders with benefits and be used as an incentive for a platform use rewards program.

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    Aera Force - addressing the climate and ecology crisis Mar 09, 2022

    Aera Force is a Venture DAO focused on web3 x climate projects. The DAO is made up of climate investors, founders, scientists and civic leaders investing in accelerating towards a regenerative world through web3.

    Why you should listen

    Aera Force is a Venture DAO focused on web3 x climate projects. Aera Force is a learning experiment co-founded by Gotham Labs, New York-based creator of the DreamDAO and Auckland-born global climate venture fund Aera VC founded by Derek Handley.

    The DAO is made up of climate investors, founders, scientists and civic leaders investing in accelerating us towards a regenerative world through web3.

    They’re raising a 2000ETH fund and community to engage the world on our mission to back iconic ideas and teams building a brighter future. Aera Force is investing in new web3 frameworks, protocols and concepts to accelerate a regenerative future. Aera Force has teamed up with Kenneth Alexander to create 200 unique pieces for the Investment Ticket NFTs. The NFTs incorporate SolarPunk art – a movement which envisions how the future might look if we lived in harmony with nature in a sustainable and egalitarian world.

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    Unstoppable Domains - Building Web3 Mar 08, 2022

    Sandy Carter is SVP at digital identity platform Unstoppable Domains. The Unstoppable domain names are minted as NFTs and allow users to replace awkward cryptocurrency addresses with a single human-readable name that simplifies crypto transfers. The domains can also host decentralized websites, act as a chat ID and more. NFT Domains are user owned and controlled, and have no renewal fees.

    Why you should listen

    Unstoppable Domains is on a mission to return the power of the internet to people. To accomplish this, they are creating NFT domains that put users back in control of their data. These aren’t just traditional domains, these are domains with superpowers.

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    Ukraine deploys NFTs, Memes, & Elon in War effort Mar 03, 2022

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of Crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.

    Bitcoin is back to $42,000 and Ukraine is deploying a potent mix of crypto donations and an NFT drop in its war effort, with assistance from Elon Musk.

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    Verite - Building open source identity protocols Mar 02, 2022

    David Puth is CEO, and Kim Hamilton Duffy is Director of Identity and Standards at Centre, an open-source technology project launched by founding members Circle and Coinbase. Centre has launched a set of decentralized identity protocols designed to give users direct control over how, when, and where their personal information is shared when doing business in the crypto economy.

    Why you should listen:

    Verite is a set of open-source identity protocols, built to enable trust, transparency and interoperability within the crypto ecosystem.

    Verite’s flexible architecture interacts with the increasingly open and interoperable world in which we live. Users will be able to custody their own credentials and maintain their privacy by sharing only the information necessary to verify a particular claim.

    Verite will enable the privacy-preserving issuance and validation of Know Your Customer (KYC) credentials, allowing users and organizations to validate their identity across the crypto ecosystem. Centre Consortium founding member Circle and launch partner Block, and a number of other leading crypto-focused companies have already announced their intention to develop products using Verite standard credentials.

    Supporting links:

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    King River Capital - Investing in Web3 and beyond Mar 01, 2022

    Zeb Rice is a Co-Founder and Partner at King River Capital, in Surrey Hills, Sydney where he leads investments in companies that are redefining key sectors of the economy across the US and Australia. His current focus areas include Web3 infrastructure, software as a service, eCommerce, and digital health.

    Why you should listen:

    King River invests in high-growth technology businesses that are solving critical problems in large markets. The fund invests in both equity and digital assets where they see compelling Web2 and Web3 opportunities. King River Capital has a new fund focused on Web3 opportunities, with plans to buy into fast-growing cryptocurrency related projects. “The next waves of innovation aren’t traditional and the way they’re funded isn’t traditional either,” says Zeb.

    King River Capital’s current investments include the fast growing coms and social platform Discord, home to countless crypto communities, and Immutable, the Aussie start-up that is scaling Ethereum.

    Supporting links:

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    Smart Contract Philanthropy - Donate crypto with Endaoment Feb 25, 2022

    Robbie Heeger is President and CEO of Endaoment, the first fully on-chain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity providing a wide range of philanthropic financial services. Crypto investors and orgs can use Endaoment to donate crypto to nearly any US nonprofit.

    Why you should listen:

    Endaoment accepts more than 150 different crypto assets as donations. Endaoment has experienced massive growth over the past year, including more than 100x growth in donations received and grants distributed. Its growth exemplifies a larger trend in crypto philanthropy in 2021, during which time cryptocurrency charity donations increased by nearly 600%.

    Supporting links:

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    Haystack in a Hurricane - The Legal Risks of Depicting Real People in NFTs Feb 24, 2022

    Matthew Savare, a partner at the law firm Lowenstein Sandler, joins Andy to explore the important legal issues surrounding the use of someone’s likeness in an NFT.

    Why you should listen:

    The state of the law regarding name, image, and likeness issues (“NIL” or right of publicity) was once described as a “haystack in a hurricane.” For creators, developers, and brands seeking to incorporate any of these elements into their NFTs, the current state of affairs is even more chaotic and confusing. Matt joins Andy to explore the important legal issues surrounding the use of someone’s likeness in an NFT.

    Supporting links:

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    War - What is it good for? Feb 21, 2022

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of Crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.

    Bitcoin is back down to $38,500 as negative news headlines continue to impact the markets. The Queen and Justin Bieber both have COVID and Russia appears set to invade the Ukraine.

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    Manifold - Enabling digital creative sovereignty Feb 17, 2022

    Richerd is a professional NFT Degen, a smART contract artist, and the co-founder of Manifold. Manifold enables web3 creators to have true creative ownership, preserve on-chain provenance, and interoperate with all major NFT marketplaces.

    Why you should listen:

    Manifold Creator includes a powerful extension framework that allows creators to install blockchain “apps” into their creator contract. This allows creators to create products beyond just visual and audio NFTs and support features beyond just minting.

    Manifold Studio combines the power of a Manifold Creator Contract with a seamless user interface to mint your own NFTs with zero coding required. Manifold Studio allows creators to mint original high-quality NFTs while retaining true ownership and provenance of their work.

    Manifold is advocating for what's called creative sovereignty, the idea that as a creator, you have full ownership over your creative output.

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    KIRA - Connecting decentralized Web3 applications Feb 15, 2022

    Milana Valmont and Mateusz Grzelak are the co-founders of KIRA, a financial hub connecting decentralized Web3 applications.

    Why you should listen:

    KIRA is a decentralized network secured by both cryptocurrencies and real-world assets at stake thanks to its proprietary Multi-Bonded-Proof-of-Stake (MBPoS) consensus mechanism. Positioned within the Interchain and Web3 ecosystems KIRA makes it safer and easier to gain access to decentralized financial applications and unlock the economic potential of your capital to generate yield.

    As part of the Web3 stack, KIRA enables value settlement between dApps and the largest interconnected networks in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

    Supporting links:

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    Earn Yield with NZDS - the New Zealand Dollar stablecoin Feb 15, 2022

    Fran Strajnar is the co-founder of Techemynt, the issuer of the NZDS, a New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Stable Coin backed 1:1 with physical New Zealand Dollars in a cash and cash equivalent treasury managed by a New Zealand registered financial services provider.

    Guest:

    Fran Strajnar

    Why you should listen:

    NZDS was launched in March 2021 by Techemynt, a registered New Zealand Financial Services provider, using the FiatToken framework developed by Centre that is the basis for USD-Coin (USDC).

    New Zealand’s currency is a leader in adaptability, resilience, and market trustworthiness. NZD is the 10th most traded currency globally. The NZDS stable coin offers cryptocurrency users the stability and utility of the New Zealand Dollar with the versatility of a cryptocurrency.

    The NZDS can be used through a variety of Ethereum wallets including Metamask. Once added to an Ethereum wallet, the NZDS token can be used for making payments and interacting with a variety of applications on the Ethereum blockchain network.

    An example of a decentralized application where NZDS can be used is on DFX, a stablecoin exchange, and finance platform. High yield is available for liquidity providers. The NZDS/USDC pool on the Automated Market Maker-based decentralized exchange, DFX, offers liquidity providers APYs of 10-25%. This is impressive given the average rate for 1-5 year term deposits in New Zealand is ~3%. The pool currently has US$4.2 million worth of assets locked into it by the DFX community.

    Supporting links:

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    Bitcoin Jumps - And the markets roar back into life Feb 10, 2022

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of Crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.

    Bitcoin is back above $44,500 and firmly in an uptrend for the first time since November. Plus, the strange circumstances surrounding the theft of 120,000 Bitcoin from Bitfinex back in 2016. Heather Morgan, one of the two people arrested after the DOJ recovered the Bitcoin is a rapper who describes herself as an expert in social engineering.

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    Lepricon - Accelerating the blockchain gaming revolution Feb 09, 2022

    Phil Ingram is CMO of Lepricon, a community-governed games platform working to accelerate the blockchain gaming revolution.

    Guest:

    Phil Ingram

    Why you should listen:

    Lepricon is a blockchain-driven ecosystem of DeFi, games, and NFTs delivered on their gas-free Ethereum compatible side chain, Leprichain. Lepricon believe that the world of video games, from AAA titles for PC and console to the casual games you play on your phone, will be the first killer on-ramp to blockchain for mainstream audiences. Lepricon’s mission is to provide the technology and know-how that enables mainstream game developers to incorporate blockchain into their games to improve player utility and experience.

    Key takeaway:

    While blockchain gaming and ‘Play to Earn’, is all the rage, it has limitations and does not appeal to traditional gamers. The real opportunity is when the gaming industry adopts blockchain. This monumental change will lead to player-run economies with tens of millions of players, not tens of thousands. However, for this to happen, the technology has to develop to meet the needs of the consumer. It has to be about the game, not blockchain. It’s the experience that matters, not the technology. Technologies that allow AAA game developers to incorporate blockchain utility into their games will need to move beyond the ideology of DeFi, and the complex interplay of wallets and expensive NFT sales that count as the onboarding process. Players should not notice the difference when getting into a new game for the first time from any game they have played before, just the extra things they can do in their new player-owned economy.

    Supporting links:

    Lepricon

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Signal to Noise - Nansen provides radical transparency of blockchain analytics Feb 08, 2022

    Alex Svanevik is CEO of Nansen, an analytics platform for smart contract blockchains. Nansen combines on-chain data with a database of millions of wallet addresses. Nansen helps institutional and retail investors surface the signal from the noise.

    Guest:

    Alex Svanevik

    Why you should listen:

    Alex Svanevik is the CEO of Nansen. Nansen gives its users better understanding of the activity of different participants on a blockchain network. Using Nansen dashboards users can get unique insights into different sectors of the market such as DeFi and NFTs, such as what the smart money and biggest wallets are doing.

    Key takeaway:

    Blockchains represent radical transparency. Investors are able to get real-time direct access to what is happening in the markets, something that is not available in the traditional markets. This radical transparency has advantages and disadvantages. On the negative side, some entities would prefer to hide their movements, whether that be purchases, investments or trades, so there is a lack of privacy to some degree. On the positive side, this transparency creates a higher degree of trust, and we can see what other entities are doing on-chain.

    Supporting links:

    Nansen

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Defactor - The gateway to DeFi Feb 03, 2022

    Alejandro Gutierrez is Co-Founder and Operations Lead at Defactor, an integration layer and suite of tools for traditional businesses to leverage Defi using the systems they already have in place.

    Why you should listen:

    Defactor is a bridge between decentralized and traditional finance. Defactor is an integration layer and suite of tools for traditional businesses to leverage Defi using the systems and processes which they already have in place. The platform enables asset originators to digitise their data and plug into the liquidity available through defi lending protocols.

    Defactor developed Springpad to help SMEs determine if DeFi is right for them. Springpad runs every quarter.

    Supporting links:

    Defactor

    Springpad

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    Brave New Coin

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    Beyond VR - Building Fluf Burrows and other metaverses Feb 02, 2022

    Jessica Manins and Anton Mitchell are co-founders of Beyond a VR studio in Wellington, New Zealand. Beyond has worked with Weta Workshop, and now Flufworld, to create the Burrows, the 3D VR immersive environments for the Flufworld NFTs to live.

    Why you should listen:

    Concept designer Imery Watson (Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins, Sweeney Todd, and Guardians of the Galaxy) created the concepts for Flufworld Burrows. The Jessica and Anton and the Beyond team used a variety of tooling including the Unrreal Engine to evolve the concepts into 3D environments. iOS and Android apps will be released in February with the full VR experience to follow later this year.

    The top tier burrow is a collab with Snoop Dogg that features a nightclub and production studio.

    Supporting links:

    Beyond

    Burrows

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    Brave New Coin

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    The Bitcoin Bond - El Salvador’s Volcano Bond is here Feb 01, 2022

    Paolo Ardoino is CTO at Bitfinex and Tether. Paolo and the team at Bitfinex Securities have worked with Blockstream and Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador to create the Bitcoin Bond. This is a key component in El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy.

    Why you should listen:

    Bitfinex Securities is a unique way for the modern trader to access tokenized equities, bonds, and investment funds.

    iFinex Inc., the parent company of Bitfinex has entered into an agreement with the Government of El Salvador to create digitized financial instruments to promote the growth of the cryptocurrency sector in El Salvador.

    The $1 billion “Bitcoin Bond” will be issued on the Liquid Network. The $1 billion US raised will be split between a $500M allocation of bitcoin (BTC) and a $500M infrastructure spend for building out energy and Bitcoin mining infrastructure in El Salvador.

    Plus hear Paolo's favorite science-fiction, his opinions on the importance of the Lightning Network, and whether other nation states are poised to follow El Salvador's lead.

    Supporting links:

    Bitfinex

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Building Web3 - Why a Meta team left to found Mysten Labs Jan 27, 2022

    Evan Cheng is co-founder at Mysten Labs. Mysten is building the foundational infrastructure to accelerate Web 3.0 adoption. The founding team recently left their positions at Facebook (Meta), where they developed Diem, Novi – Facebook's digital wallet, as well as highly composable blockchain language, Move.

    Why you should listen:

    It’s early, but Web3 has arrived. Innovators are reimagining new kinds of products, services, and business models. The opportunities to leverage programmable assets and open, decentralized infrastructure are endless. But first, infrastructures must get out of the way, and developer tooling needs to be modernized. Mysten Labs is built to accelerate the adoption of web3.

    Under the assertion that true asset self-sovereignty will be the foundation of economics in the Metaverse, Mysten plans to unveil a new blockchain design allowing users to move NFTs across digital worlds while maintaining their functionality and history.

    In December, they drew $36M in funding from a16z and Coinbase Ventures.

    Supporting links:

    Mysten Labs

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Superalgos - Trading bots empower the decentralized future of trading Jan 25, 2022

    Luis Molina is co-founder at Superalgos, a trading bots platform that aims to empower a decentralized trading community like WallStreetBets - but being able to mobilize within a couple of minutes.

    Why you should listen:

    Superalgos allows Algo traders to design, test, and deploy strategies using the #1 trading bots platform on GitHub.com. The Superalgos platform integrates crypto trading automation in a visual scripting environment accessible to all and optimized for developers. The leading design principles are maximum power and flexibility. The software is free and open-source, running on your premises so that you have complete control, no third-party risks, and no limitations.

    Superalgos is pioneering Decentralized Trading with an open network designed for dominance! The ecosystem's design of incentives turns Superalgos into an ever-evolving technology infrastructure capturing ever-increasing amounts of talent.

    Supporting links:

    Superalgos

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto Coral Tribe NFT Competition winners announcement! Jan 23, 2022

    On our most recent episode, we offered regular listeners the chance to win a Crypto Coral Tribe NFT. Did you win? Listen to find out! Crypto Coral Tribe is a creative hub and NFT project leveraging art and tech to protect the natural world - the Crypto Coral Tribe invests 50% of all proceeds in a community-led Impact Fund driving marine and wildlife restoration.

    Supporting links:

    Crypto Coral Tribe

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto Coral Tribe - NFTs for good! Jan 20, 2022

    The Crypto Coral Tribe is a creative hub and NFT project leveraging art and tech to protect the natural world - the Crypto Coral Tribe invests 50% of all proceeds in a community-led Impact Fund.

    Why you should listen:

    The Crypto Coral Tribe aims to have a positive impact on the world by driving marine and wildlife restoration, and ethical art. NFTs are a perfect vehicle for driving change. NFTs allow verifiable collaboration on an unprecedented scale.

    The inspiration for the Crypto Coral Tribe art and mission stems from nature. The founders have grown up on coasts all over the world and have a deep connection with the ocean.

    The NFT collection will be on Solana due to its close-knit community and energy efficiency. Solana consumes approx 1,837 Joules of energy per TX; less than the environmental impact of two Google searches.

    At the heart of the project lies the Impact Fund, an environmental investment fund. The IF will be seeded with 50% of mint proceeds and all future revenues. The goal is to use blockchain technology to create a community-led fund that proposes, discusses, and votes on how the investments are made.

    By holding a Crypto Coral NFT you will have a voice in how the capital is allocated.

    The IF’s first pledge is to plant 3,000 corals across 3 continents. Coral reefs are expected to decline by up to 90% over the next 20 years. This is an existential threat to our global ecology.

    Supporting links:

    Crypto Coral Tribe

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    The School of Bitcoin - Teaching the next generation Jan 18, 2022

    Kieran Nolan is a Melbourne-based educational technologist and blockchain expert. Based on the concept of a DAO, Kieran is building a decentralized autonomous education system (DAES) - a dynamic open-source curriculum and learning network with financial literacy at the core as the only didactic part of the system.

    Why you should listen:

    Kieran has extensive industry experience, specializing in education, technology, and blockchain application in Melbourne. He worked with students at Wooranna Park Primary School and taught them how to use blockchain tech to create their own encrypted digital currency. Under the supervision of Nolan, the students created a new currency called "WoorannaCoin."

    Financial literacy is not taught in schools but it is one of the most important skills to learn. This will be the only didactic aspect of the DAES. Nolan says that we need to teach our kids not only numeracy and literacy but also financial and digital literacy, as well as coding and networks.

    Supporting links:

    The School of Bitcoin

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Exodus makes crypto a delightful experience Jan 17, 2022

    JP Richardson is the CEO and co-founder of Exodus, one of the crypto ecosystems' most popular crypto wallets with over 2.3 million users. The Exodus team prides itself on providing a beautiful, delightful experience for its users.

    Why you should listen:

    Exodus aims to help in the mission to onboard half of the planet into crypto by 2030. As well as providing a seamless, delightful wallet experience, Exodus users can stake their assets from within Exodus, access a variety of dapps, and even trade Solana NFTs on the Magic Eden marketplace.

    Supporting links:

    Exodus

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Bitcoin Bounces - Inflation rise fuels the crypto rally Jan 12, 2022

    After a gloomy start to 2022 that saw the crypto markets in the doldrums, high inflation figures helped fuel a minor rally in the markets today.

    Why you should listen:

    Andy looks at the most important data points and narratives driving the crypto news cycle this week. Inflation in the US jumped at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years, a 7% spike from a year earlier that is increasing household expenses, eating into wage gains, and heaping pressure on the Federal Reserve.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Jules Urbach is the Elon Musk of Rendering Jan 10, 2022

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. Jules Urbach is the CEO of OTOY, a leading cloud graphics company that is pioneering technology to redefine content creation and delivery. The work of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is being cataloged in a new digital archive by OTOY.

    Why you should listen:

    RNDR, whose partners include Amazon, Google, Apple, and HBO, developed a cutting-edge platform based on underlying OTOY technology that allows individuals to create graphics at the same level as Hollywood studios. RNDR is revolutionizing visual effects by using the cloud to democratize GPUs and other rendering resources and also seeks to provide energy-efficient solutions for creating NFTs.

    Jules' best friend from childhood is Rod Roddenberry. Jules is working on a new digital archive of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s legacy.

    The Roddenberry Archive will feature the flagship Star Trek series, original films, and spinoffs in a variety of formats including digital and holographic renderings, documents, images, models, and blueprints.

    The archive will capture deep 3D asset metadata from assets, images, blueprints, and models using RNDR, OTOY's blockchain GPU computing network. In order to capture original studio and physical assets at the highest level of photographic fidelity, the archive will leverage OTOY's LightStage Academy-Award-winning facial scanning service, generating the first comprehensive lighting and reflectance data set for future archival use. Iconic artist Mike "Beeple" Winklemann is joining the Roddenberry Archive project as a creative consultant, and, alongside legendary painter and illustrator Alex Ross, will help commemorate the Roddenberry Archive and cross-link it to both the Alex Ross and Beeple RNDR Archives.

    Supporting links:

    OTOY

    Prime XBT

    Jules on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Tom Bilyeu is going HARD on NFTs & the Metaverse Jan 06, 2022

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. Tom Bilyeu is the CEO of Impact Theory and one of the world’s leading motivational speakers. Tom is committed to pulling people out of the matrix. A successful multi-business entrepreneur, Tom’s goal is to impact culture at scale. He plans to do this by building the next Disney. Impact Theory produces comics, graphic novels, books, television, film, interview talk-shows and more. Tom is building an NFT universe that will leverage the unique properties of Manga, Anime and blockchain to take Impact Theory to the next level.

    Why you should listen:

    Impact Theory is a revolutionary studio that produces original content on themes of empowerment, by bringing together some of the most talented creators, writers, and artists. The studio was started by CEO Tom Bilyeu, one of the planet’s most successful entrepreneurs. Impact Theory distributes content across digital platforms including the emerging NFT space. The studio has built a loyal audience in the millions with over one billion social media impressions, and its catalog of content has over hundreds of millions of views.

    Supporting links:

    Impact Theory

    Matthew Ball on the Metaverse

    Prime XBT

    Tom on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Bobby Lee - The Promise of Bitcoin and how it can work for you Jan 03, 2022

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. Bobby Lee is the Founder of Ballet Crypto, co-founder of BTCChina, and he is the author of a superb new book called The Promise of Bitcoin: The Future of Money and How It Can Work for You.

    Why you should listen:

    With a software engineering and computer science background, Bobby Lee has always been technologically inclined. So when his brother Charlie Lee introduced Bobby to Bitcoin in 2011, he understood its significance immediately. After dedicating himself to Bitcoin for the last ten years, Bobby has written a book that tells his story and explains why Bitcoin’s journey has only just begun.

    Key takeaway:

    Bobby says that understanding and projecting the value of Bitcoin can be daunting - while the path is never a straight line, Bitcoin continues to grow in interest and appreciate in value. While Bitcoin is still working out its kinks - corporations and governments are likely to become more interested in Bitcoin, and interested in acquiring it as an asset.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Bobby Lee

    Ballet Crypto

    Bobby On Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Sergey Nazarov - How Decentralized Finance goes mainstream Dec 31, 2021

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink where he is spearheading the smart contract oracle revolution. In this podcast, Sergey lays out his current thinking on DeFi (Decentralized Finance), how it improves on CeFi, the role of oracles in decentralized finance, and the fast and slow cases on what is needed for DeFi to go mainstream. Sergey says “decentralized finance is the thing that people want. They just don't know that they want it yet.”

    Why you should listen:

    Sergey says the recent Robinhood r/Wallstreetbets phenomenon has injected new realizations into society's collective consciousness. People are waking up to the realization that in the legacy financial system - they don't have full control of their financial assets and trading accounts. And they have seen that the ability of the average person to participate in a system that they were told was fair can be taken away by those who hold the power.

    Sergey says that in the financial world if enough people believe in something, it starts to occur. If enough people decide to buy GameStop stock, something happens. If enough people decide to shift from one platform to another, something significant happens.

    Social media, digital platforms, and decentralized blockchain applications make fast collective action possible in new ways. DeFi is the system that people want. Sergey thinks it is only a matter of time before this becomes self-evident and people begin to move to DeFi applications at scale.

    Key takeaway:

    Sergey says the increasing mainstream adoption of DeFi will happen through the search for yield and the transparency and control of one's assets.

    With fiat interest rates low and the returns of DeFi much higher, eventually, even the legacy financial system is likely to build interfaces that flow value into DeFi to capture yield. Everybody wants to at least maintain their wealth. And so any place where they can do that will become popular, and eventually, there will be a tipping point.

    Sergey says there is a slow case and a fast case for how this evolves. “The slow case for DeFi is what we're experiencing now, as unbelievable as that sounds going from something like 20 billion to 40 billion in assets in DeFi over the last month.”

    This is the slow case as only about 2.6% of the crypto value that could be in DeFi, is in DeFi. The slow case will be accelerated by events such as Robinhood. “It's slow because there is friction to using DeFi, but it will slowly be accelerated through better and better user interfaces. Eventually, someone will figure out a way to just make it seamless for people to interact with DeFi, and the tipping point will be reached.”

    The fast case is a rapid succession of failures in the traditional financial system. This will create a fear of counterparty risk and a newfound cynicism about the solvency of traditional financial institutions. This would lead a majority of people to seek alternatives even if there is still some friction in the DeFi user experience.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Chainlink

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Anthony Scaramucci - Why Bitcoin is the Monetary Network of the Future Dec 28, 2021

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci is best known for his short-lived, but very entertaining tenure as the White House communications director under President Trump. Anthony has had a long career in investment banking and he is the founder of Skybridge Capital, a global investment fund that has just launched the Skybridge Bitcoin fund.

    Why you should listen:

    Anthony says investors have a Eureka moment when they begin to understand that Bitcoin is a monetary network. “Just like there is a retail network, Amazon, a social network, Facebook, like there is a search network, Google. Bitcoin is the monetary network, and that makes it potentially very valuable. Think about where Apple or Amazon or Google were ten years ago, maybe that is where Bitcoin is at today.”

    Key takeaway:

    Anthony says that Bitcoin is the only thing in our society right now, where if the demand goes up, there's no increase in supply. “When people want Tesla shares, there's a sausage factory in the back of Tesla. They're printing out Tesla shares. Do people want dollars? They're printing out dollars. If oil prices are going up, we're drilling for oil everywhere to meet that demand and produce more oil, but that can’t be done for Bitcoin. And so that's the Eureka moment.”

    Anthony says that President Trump was out of control. “He was a full-on liar. He added a trillion dollars to the deficit and his legacy will be that he made our country weaker, sicker, and poorer. He had malpractice on the pandemic and then on the way out the door, he tried to undermine our democracy.”

    Anthony says that Joe Biden, “whether you like him or not, what does he represent as a pillar of Democratic party politics? He represents centrism. He represents core bureaucratic competence. To me this was a seismic change for good. Do I love the excess regulation? I don't. Do I love ponderous government? I don't. But do I like competent people in positions? I do. And so I like Joe Biden.”

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Skybridge Bitcoin Fund

    Anthony on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Axie Infinity & the play to earn revolution Dec 24, 2021

    We’re revisiting the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2021. In this episode, we talk to Jeff Zirlin, co-founder Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-inspired blockchain-based digital pet universe where players can earn tokens through gaming. Players can battle, collect, breed, and build a kingdom for their pets. Like CryptoKitties, Axies are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represented as cryptographically unique characters that can’t be replicated. And like Pokémon, they are born to battle. While Axie can be just a game, it has built a strong social network, passionate community, and emerging jobs platform due to the play to earn opportunities it is generating.

    Why you should listen:

    Jeff grew up playing games like Neopets, Pokémon, and World of Warcraft. “I played so much WOW that my parents sent me to boarding school,” he says. “I’ve always been a collector. As I kid my dad and I would collect fossils and insects. And as a lifelong gamer, I’m a digital collector as well, so I was predisposed to be interested in blockchain gaming.”

    The blockchain gaming play to earn revolution started to gain traction after it emerged that a large community of players in the Philippines was earning money playing Axie Infinity.

    Jeff says "Most game companies sell in-game resources, items, and upgrades. With Axie there's an in-game resource that you need to create more Axies and it's called the love potion. So most game developers would sell this love potion, and people would pay for it. In Axie we don't sell it ourselves, the only way that love potions can be created is by people playing the game. Players who have big Axie collections need the love potion to breed Axies and have to buy the token from a liquidity pool on UniSwap or from Binance. So players can earn a basic income and we've seen that with the rise in value of ETH, this can appreciate significantly.”

    Key takeaway:

    The power of blockchain games is that they're becoming more than games. They're becoming places that we can live, work and play. The eventual vision is to create a Metaverse similar to Ready Player One where people spend the majority of their time.

    “We believe in a future where work and play become one,” says Jeff. “And we believe in empowering our players and giving them economic opportunities.”

    To do this the Axie team is committed to aligning the incentives of the Axie community. Players can earn the AXS governance token. The token economics were designed by Delphi Digital. Delphi Digital has invested a significant amount of capital in buying several extremely rare Mystic Axies. If Axie Infinity continues to gain traction Mystic Axies will grow in value in the future.

    Jeff says “We’re seeing the rise of Mystic Axies and other NFTs as a true asset class. This trend accelerated when Delphi Digital picked up some of the rarest Axies in the game, like quadruple Mystics, triple Mystics. You can think of Mystics as rare and valuable skins. It makes sense that there's a lot of interest around NFTs and it makes sense because we live in a digital world.”

    Supporting links:

    Axie Infinity

    Prime XBT

    Delphi Digital on Axie

    Jeff on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Merry Crypto Xmas - the market sentiment report Dec 21, 2021

    We’re a few days out from Xmas and it’s time for this week’s crypto market sentiment report. Plus, Jack Dorsey is not a fan of Web3. Why not?

    Why you should listen:

    As we move into the Xmas period Bitcoin is holding steady at just under $50,000 with ETH just over $4,000. The market is in a cooling-off period for now. Meanwhile, on Crypto Twitter, Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk are ruffling feathers with their takes on Web3.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    The Money Game - How to make money, how to keep money Dec 19, 2021

    Andrew Cordle is an American entrepreneur, wealth strategist, and in-demand speaker. Andrew is the founder and CEO of Money Is, a company and show dedicated to sharing the secrets of the wealthy 1% and sparking authentic conversations about money.

    Why you should listen:

    Andrew Cordle is an acclaimed author and international speaker, and host of the Money Is show where he hosts today’s leaders and influencers in authentic conversations about money. He has interviewed hundreds of experts, including Kevin O’Leary, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Grant Cardone. Andrew also contributes as a partner in a multi-billion dollar enterprise; made up of twenty-three current companies. One of which is a real estate development with a portfolio of over 1.5 Billion. Passionate about the benefits of mentorship in business, he founded Power Room, a CEO mastermind where today’s top thought leaders combine forces to help teach entrepreneurs how to achieve success. Andrew is an enthusiastic crypto investor and trader of NFTs.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Andrew Cordle

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Party Time - Party Bears bring the party to the metaverse Dec 16, 2021

    Aaron McDonald and Brooke Howard-Smith are leading the teams behind some of 2021’s biggest NFT projects. Fluf World, Altered State Machine, Thingies, and now, Party Bears… a pack of loose unit DJs about to bring the party to the metaverse…

    Why you should listen:

    2021 was the year NFTs went mainstream. Andy, Aaron, and Brooke reflect on a huge year and look at what happens next for Fluf World, Party Bears, and the wider web3 ecosystem.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Party Bears

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Easy Crypto - Vault Digital Funds bring Bitcoin to the mainstream Dec 15, 2021

    Janine Grainger is the CEO and co-founder of Easy Crypto, a New Zealand-based digital currency retailer, and Vault International Bitcoin Fund (VIBF) a New Zealand-based Portfolio Investment Entity (PIE) Fund that provides investors with exposure to offshore listed Bitcoin funds and ETFs.

    Why you should listen:

    Vault Digital Funds Limited was founded in 2021 in partnership with Easy Crypto, New Zealand's largest cryptocurrency brokerage. The Vault International Bitcoin Fund (VIBF) is the first digital asset fund to be launched under the Vault Digital Funds registered scheme. VIBF is a New Zealand-based Portfolio Investment Entity (PIE) Fund that provides investors with exposure to offshore listed Bitcoin funds and ETFs, taxed under the FDR methodology.

    Investors can gain exposure to digital assets investing without the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping digital currencies directly. The Vault International Bitcoin Fund is a Multi-rate Portfolio Investment Entity (PIE) that will be taxed in accordance with the Fair Dividend Rate method. Given the PIE fund will own fund(s) listed on an offshore exchange, the underlying investment will be treated as a global equity for tax purposes.

    In effect, this means there is no capital gains tax on any gains made on the VIBF. There will be an annual “deemed” dividend of 5% per annum, and investors would pay a maximum of 28% of tax on that 5% dividend, so an effective maximum tax rate of 1.4%pa.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Easy Crypto

    Vault Digital Funds

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Rekt Capital returns - is the bull market over? Dec 13, 2021

    Rekt Capital, a Forbes featured crypto technical analyst and trader returns to the Crypto Conversation. With Bitcoin dumping to $46,000 REKT and Andy discuss the current market conditions - is the bull market over?

    Why you should listen:

    December has failed to live up to the bulls' expectations with Bitcoin dropping to $46,000 and bear sentiment growing. With Bitcoin hashrate at an all-time high and the liquid BTC supply on exchanges dropping, is it too soon to get bearish? Rekt suggests we may have to enter a consolidation period before an eventual resumption of the BTC uptrend.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Rekt Capital

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    Degen Data - Building analytics for NFTs and Options Trading Dec 12, 2021

    Pat Doyle is the co-founder of Pink Swan Trading, the holding company of Genesis Volatility and Degen Data. The former caters for sophisticated options traders while the latter provides analysis of NFT projects.

    Why you should listen:

    Genesis Volatility is an institutional-grade crypto analytics platform, providing live statistics, historical data, DeFi analytics, and API solutions for traders, investors, and speculators alike. Genesis provides detailed information to help identify opportunities and mitigate risk in the booming crypto options market.

    Degen Data is a data lab for NFT projects. The platform will be put up for sale in the medium term. The platform will come with an associated Crypto Punk.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Genesis Volatility

    Degen Data

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    Bitcoin Dumps - Is the Bull Market Over? Dec 06, 2021

    On Friday Bitcoin dropped 25% in one day, one of the steepest drops since March 2020. With the market sentiment now in extreme fear, is the bull market over?

    Why you should listen:

    The Bitcoin stock to flow model is in danger of being invalidated, $100K targets for December are off the table. There seems to be an increasing acceptance that clear bear and bull market cycles may be a thing of the past. As bitcoin matures into a mature, liquid asset, we may see diminishing returns eth faster bull and bear peaks and troughs.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

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    Minds - An anti-Facebook that pays you for your time Dec 02, 2021

    Bill Ottman is CEO and founder of Minds - an alternative social network with over 5M users. Minds is building an open-source and decentralized app that shares revenue and crypto with its community.

    Why you should listen:

    Minds is an alt-tech blockchain-based social network. Users can earn money or cryptocurrency for using Minds, and tokens can be used to boost their posts or crowdfund other users.

    The Minds token can be used to reward users for their engagement on the social network and to both promote and receive payment for content. Minds has been described as more privacy and free speech focused than mainstream social media networks.

    Bill Ottman is passionate about free speech and open source technology protocols. In September Minds announced that it had converted 25% of its balance sheet, or around $2.5 million, into cryptocurrencies.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Minds

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    Ether Cards - Creating NFTs that have super powers Dec 01, 2021

    Andras Kristof is CEO and founder of Ether Cards - a platform that provides tools for gamifying and supercharging your NFTs. Ether Cards are advanced NFT cards that allow the community to use the platform and its features with increased benefits.

    Why you should listen:

    Ether Cards is a limited-edition collection of dynamic NFT cards that activate discounts, enable access, unlock features, connect to physical items, and grant upgrades. They can even trigger changes based on real-world events using Chainlink oracles and VRF.

    The Ether Cards platform is a community-driven NFT framework. It enables every creator to maximize the value of their NFT asset or series by expanding the capability of any NFT Marketplace. It allows anyone to set up tickets, puzzles, bounties, and a dozen other different events for any NFT asset of their choice.

    Supporting links:

    Prime XBT

    Ether Cards

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    Hoverboards - Jadu is building the Mirrorverse, an AR layer for metaverse avatars Nov 25, 2021

    Jake Sally is the COO of Jadu, an AR platform and narrative layer for Web3 and the metaverse. Jadu is pioneering the functionality of digital assets in AR and the physical world by converting 3D NFTs into playable avatars and objects that can interact with each other in an ever-expanding AR game world. Jadu is minting 5555 hoverboard NFTs in December.

    Why you should listen:

    Jadu’s vision is to build unparalleled 3D utility for NFTs, partnering with key players in the crypto community to deliver a virtually native future where creation of content is democratized, decentralized, and creator-owned in a world where players can mobilize in Web 3 and build valuable communities.

    Jadu Hoverboards are NFTs that can be used to fly your avatars in the Metaverse and in Augmented Reality. Along with Jadu Jetpacks, they will also function as key transport mechanisms in Jadu’s AR Mirroverse game next year.

    Jadu’s NFT Hoverboards will include collaborations with Lewis Hamilton; GRIMES; Snoop Dogg; Mimi Onuoha and NFT curator, Trippy. These artists will work with Jadu to design and release 5555 Jadu Hoverboard NFTs which go on sale December 12 for a cost of 0.222 ETH.

    Supporting links:

    Jadu

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    Bitcoin Volcano bonds - A Crypto Market Sentiment Report Nov 24, 2021

    Bitcoin price action is subdued this week with Mt Gox jitters spooking the market. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. It’s this week’s crypto market sentiment report.

    Why you should listen:

    Andy looks at the most important data points and narratives driving the crypto news cycle this week. The Mt Gox Trustee's pool of bitcoins (about 141,000 BTC) appears to be getting ready to be distributed. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. Zhu Su says he has “abandoned” Ethereum due to the chain's failure to scale and is there a connection between ​​Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson and Satoshi Nakamoto.

    Supporting links:

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    Snow Crash - Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime & Neal Stephenson Nov 23, 2021

    Artist Grace Ng is about to launch Crash Punks - an NFT collection on Stacks/Bitcoin. Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime, and Snow Crash, the iconic 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash has been an inspiration for the Stacks and Bitcoin communities and is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.

    Why you should listen:

    Grace Ng is a tech entrepreneur, angel investor, neuro-artist, co-founder of Lean Startup Machine, and VP at the Stacks Accelerator. Grace is the creative force behind Crash Punks, an NFT collection of 10,000 unique art profile pictures on Bitcoin/Stacks. Crash Punks is inspired by the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

    Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science.

    "Computers rely on the one and the zero to represent all things. This distinction between something and nothing-this pivotal separation between being and nonbeing-is quite fundamental and underlies many Creation myths," Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

    Supporting links:

    Crash Punks

    Stacks Accelerator

    Is Neal Stephenson Satoshi Nakamoto?

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    Meet The Arties - An Open Art Source Movement Nov 19, 2021

    Cecil Pang and IIan Klein are co-founders at Open Art Source, a blockchain-supported marketplace where artists can sell their works. It provides the tools necessary for artists to showcase their works and for collectors to research their purchases. The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. The project is funding the development of the Open Art Source platform, which brings a blockchain data layer to the physical art market.

    Why you should listen:

    The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. Open Art Source and Shaderverse came together in the Stacks Accelerator. The Arties is the first 3D NFT project on Stacks, and they’re attached to specific benefits on the Open Art Source platform. Shaderverse has developed AR 3D game-ready assets for each Artie in the collection, and these assets will be sent to Artie holders for Christmas/Chanukah.

    Arties are minting now on STX.

    Cecil Pang is an artist; a technologist, and a world-class computer scientist. With CS credentials from Stanford and Columbia and art credentials from Parsons School of Design, he’s the perfect person to tackle the structural injustices of the art world.

    Supporting links:

    Arties

    Mint Arties

    Open Art Source

    Hyperspace

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    SubQuery - Connecting the dots on Polkadot Nov 17, 2021

    Sam Zou and James Bayly head the team at SubQuery, a decentralized data aggregation, indexing, and querying layer between Layer-1 blockchains and decentralized applications. SubQuery is focused on the fast-growing Polkadot ecosystem.

    Why you should listen:

    The team had experienced first-hand the difficulties of testing, deploying, and managing blockchain infrastructure. The team founded OnFinality to solve key pain points around decentralized infrastructure management and automate the deployment of Polkadot/Substrate based networks to the cloud.

    In 2020, while helping key Polkadot parachain teams, the team listened to requests for a data indexing service to help the teams better understand their chain data. Additionally, these teams wanted this in place to ease the barriers to entry for their future development communities.

    After a period of research, the team formally established the SubQuery project at the end of 2020 through a Web3 Grant, delivered the first open source version in January, and announced the platform to the world in February 2021. It now has backing from Arrington Capital and Digital Currency Group.

    Supporting links:

    SubQuery

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    Web3 on Bitcoin - How Stacks makes Bitcoin programmable Nov 15, 2021

    Stacks 2.0 (formerly Blockstack) is a layer-1 blockchain that connects to Bitcoin and brings smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized apps to Bitcoin. Smart contracts and apps developed on the Stacks platform are natively integrated with the security, stability, and economic power of Bitcoin.

    Why you should listen:

    Trevor Owens is the managing director at Stacks Accelerator. The Stacks Accelerator works with the Stacks Foundation's Grants program to deliver flexible, fair, and efficient funding options. It invests $50K at a no-valuation cap into teams solving real-world problems on Stacks. Stacks 2.0 implements a new mining mechanism called Proof of Transfer (PoX). PoX is a consensus algorithm between two blockchains. It uses an established blockchain (in this case Bitcoin) to secure a new blockchain (Stacks). PoX connects to Bitcoin with a 1:1 block ratio, meaning anything that happens on the Stacks blockchain can be verified on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Instead of burning electricity on proof of work, PoX reuses already minted bitcoins as "proof of computation" and miners represent their cost of mining in bitcoins directly. Clarity is a new language for smart contracts on the Stacks 2.0 blockchain. The Clarity smart contract language optimizes for predictability and security. Stacks 2.0 anchors clarity smart contracts to Bitcoin making it possible for smart contracts to operate based on actions seen on the bitcoin blockchain.

    Crash Punks are a 10,000 collection of unique and generative art profile pictures as Bitcoin/Stacks NFTs, inspired by the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's the first major collection by entrepreneur and crypto artist Grace Ng and will be the community dedicated to all of her future artistic work related to AR/VR, 3D, visual art, music, and neuro-feedback art.

    Supporting links:

    Stacks Accelerator

    Crash Punks

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    The ENS Airdrop - A public utility that belongs to the community Nov 11, 2021

    Nick, the lead developer at ENS, the Ethereum Naming Service joins Andy for a wide-ranging discussion on ENS, DAOs, Proof of Stake Vs Proof of Work, and why Cory Doctorow is wrong about NFTS.

    Why you should listen:

    ENS is a decentralized naming system for crypto addresses, wallets, websites, and more. ENS is moving towards decentralization and has passed ENS governance to the community through their new governance token, ENS. The token was distributed by an air drop to ENS users. Community members could apply to be ENS delegates and delegate their voting rights to others.

    Supporting links:

    ENS

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    Crypto on the edge - Inflation Jitters, Evergrande Wobbles Nov 11, 2021

    Markets are on the edge, torn in opposite directions by two big news events. Inflation hit 6.2% hitting earners and shoppers in their wallets. In response, Bitcoin was poised to smash through $69,420 before Evergrande headlines spoiled the party.

    Why you should listen:

    Bitcoin got tantalizingly close to the mythical $69,420 level today as investors continue to seek exposure to Bitcoin to hedge against inflation. However, news that Evergrande may default on its next interest loan payments sent all global markets into a spin.

    Supporting links:

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    Shiba Inu - the little dog that could! Nov 08, 2021

    Shiba Inu (SHIB), a dog-based crypto memecoin, has defied all expectations to become the best-performing asset of 2021. In the last year, the token is up ~75,000,000%, and for the last month, it has felt like everybody wants a piece of it. What is the bull and bear case for Shiba Inu?

    Why you should listen:

    Brave New Coin analyst Aditya Das joins Andy to discuss the fascinating, controversial history of crypto’s current Memecoin of the moment, Shiba Inu. Has SHIB topped out? Or are there more gains to come?

    Supporting links:

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    Memecoins, ETFs, & Metaverses - A Crypto Market Update Nov 04, 2021

    Memecoins are dominating the crypto markets while Bitcoin takes a breather. U.S. politicians from all sides are warming up to Bitcoin, with some even taking part of their salaries in BTC. It’s the weekly Crypto market update.

    Why you should listen:

    First, there was DOGE. Then SHIBA. Then SQUID. Memecoins are dominating the frothy end of the market as the meme narrative attracts new retail investors. Bitcoin is cooling off after the surge following the approval of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF. Pressure is mounting for the U.S. to next approve a spot-based ETF but it’s not likely in the short term.

    Supporting links:

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    There is no top - Bitcoin on-chain analysis with Glassnode Nov 03, 2021

    Checkmate is the lead on-chain analyst at Glassnode, an on-chain data and intelligence platform for the crypto markets. Checkmate joins Andy to discuss the edge that on-chain data can provide and why he is bullish for Q4 and beyond.

    Why you should listen:

    With a background in data and engineering, when Checkmate discovered blockchain he was immediately drawn to the data-driven insights that on-chain analytics can provide.

    Checkmate says that the dip in mid-2021 can be viewed as a mini bitcoin bear market. We are now at the beginning stages of a new Bitcoin bull market. Due to the inefficiencies in the fiat system, one way of viewing Bitcoin in the long term is that there is no top.

    Supporting links:

    Glassnode

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    Bitcoin ETFs - What happens next? Nov 02, 2021

    After the approval of a long-awaited Bitcoin ETF U.S. investors finally have an easy means to invest in Bitcoin. What is the likelihood that a Bitcoin spot-based ETF will be approved next? Andy speaks to Brave New Coin analyst Aditya Das to assess the evolving Bitcoin ETF landscape in the U.S.

    Why you should listen:

    The launch of the first-ever Bitcoin ETF by ProShares in the United States was the trigger that pushed the price of Bitcoin to new all-time highs in October. On October 18th, the day of the ETF launch, ‘Bitcoin ETF’ was the sixth trending Google Search term in the United States just below searches for ‘Kanye West’.

    Demand for the ETF has already exceeded expectations. Upon opening for trading, it broke the record for the largest day-1 ETF launch ever by natural volume. BITO assets under management (AUM) hit US$1.1 billion after its 2nd day of trading, making it the fastest ETF to get to $1b, breaking an 18-year-old record previously set by gold.

    Supporting links:

    The Bitcoin ETF Story

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    Battle Drones - The NFT project taking crypto games to console Oct 29, 2021

    Battle Drones is a collection of 10,000 programmatically generated collectible artworks, hovering on the Solana blockchain. Each Battle Drone provides access to the Battle Drones ecosystem and play-to-earn game. A console Battle Drones game is coming in 2022. The artwork is inspired by the founders' PhD studies in the field of human drone interaction at the University of Auckland.

    Why you should listen:

    Battle Drones was inspired by the background of the founders. They are PhD students and engineers who have studied drone flight and human drone tactile interaction. Battle Drones 2D artwork will be developed into a Metaverse character when the PC and Console game is launched in 2022. To engage the community in the lead up to that point, Battle Drones will launch community challenges, including browser-based minigames. Once the 3D avatar is airdropped users can lend them to other people around the world for a fee to play within the Battle Drones metaverse. By doing this the community members will make their NFTs more valuable as they progress within the rankings.

    Supporting links:

    Battle Drones

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    Ride the Wave - Building the first NFT Fund Oct 27, 2021

    Les Borsai is the Chief Strategy Officer at Wave Financial Group. Les began his career as a rave promoter in the Southern California underground scene of the late 1980s. Earlier this year Wave launched the world’s first-ever traditional NFT fund.

    Why you should listen:

    Les held positions at Avalon Attractions (now Live Nation Entertainment|Live Nation), MCA Records, and Bill Silva Entertainment before starting the musician management company Modern Artist Management. His client list includes country singer Wynonna Judd. After being an early investor in cryptocurrency platform Ethereum, he served as an advisor to blockchain companies and in 2018 co-founded Wave Financial, a digital asset management firm.

    Wave Financial offers early-stage VC investment, asset management, treasury management, and strategic consulting in the blockchain ecosystem. It has a number of funds including Index funds, a Whisky fund, and an NFT fund. The NFT fund takes an analytical approach including analysis based on the rarity of traits, focusing on unique content and scarcity in properties as value drivers.

    Supporting links:

    Wave Financial Group

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    Intergalactic - Star Atlas is a Metaverse for the Crypto Generation Oct 27, 2021

    Michael Wagner is the CEO and co-founder of Star Atlas, a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video game, and decentralized financial technologies.

    Why you should listen:

    Star Atlas - Star Atlas is a space-themed video game metaverse of grand strategy, open world exploration, territorial conquest, and political domination. Underlying technology consists of the latest in hi-fidelity game development, Unreal Engine, stunning visuals, and a blockchain baselayer utilizing Solana. The metaverse represents an alternative world of economic and political strategy, with player ability to generate real-world wealth transcending video game assets. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas creates an economy that replicates the tangibility of real-world assets and ownership.

    Supporting links:

    Star Atlas

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    The Witchz - It's a Spooky Halloween episode! Oct 22, 2021

    ArrowHaven and OpalAbyss from the Witchz NFT project join Andy for a Crypto Conversation Halloween special. The 6666 Witchz pay homage to the Witches of North America and Europe and take inspiration from films, Wicca, mother nature, and the four elements of the universe.

    Why you should listen:

    6666 unique digital art Witchz are conjuring at 00:00 UTC 24/10/21 for 77 Matic on Polygon. Witchz are airdropping 10% of the mint back to the Witchz Coven. Anyone holding a Witchz NFT and matching Elementz NFT will be eligible for the airdrop.

    The Witchz art was created by AmethystMoon. She began her artistic journey on the page with watercolour, pencil, and acrylics. The Witchz are generated from a vast array of detailed traits. 27,563 brushstrokes went into creating this collection.

    Supporting links:

    Witchz

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    Titan Tiki - Māori culture enters the Metaverse Oct 21, 2021

    Luke Ryan is the founder of the Titan Tiki Tribe - an NFT collection taking Māori culture to the metaverse. The Titan Tiki team has an indigenous Māori background, deep respect for the protocols of Māori, and is proud to show the wairua (energy) of the Titan Tiki Tribe. Bill Takarei is a respected Kaumatua (Māori elder) and spiritual guide to the Titan Tiki, ensuring Māori culture is represented according to custom.

    Why you should listen:

    The Titan Tiki Tribe is a unique NFT collection of 1000 Tiki. The collection includes rarity traits such as Pounamu Mere and Taiaha Weapons, traditional Korowai cloaks, Paua eyes, and Pukana forked tongues. Tiki come as Green Navigators, Blue Priests, Gold Chiefs, or Brown Gatherers. The Titan Tiki mission is to preserve and protect Māori culture while expressing it to the world via the new digital medium of the Metaverse.

    Supporting links:

    Tiki Quest

    Titan Tiki on OpenSea

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    Bitcoin ETFs go live - Bullish for Bitcoin? Oct 18, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of Crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points.

    Bitcoin is poised for further upside as the first two futures-based Bitcoin ETFs prepare to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. On Tuesday the ProShares ETF goes live with the Valkyrie ETF due to begin trading later this week. Will Bitcoin hit a new all-time high? Or is this a sell-the-news event? Either way, this is set to be a historic week for Bitcoin.

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    Scandal and Turmoil - The Cryptocurrency Wild West Oct 14, 2021

    Ethan Lou is a Canadian journalist and the author of a new book called Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West. The book explains how Ethan had gone to North Korea and met the Ethereum Foundation's Virgil Griffith — the man later arrested for allegedly trying to help the totalitarian state break sanctions through blockchain. Griffith pleaded guilty last Monday, and this book grants an exclusive insider's look into those seven nights in Pyongyang.

    Why you should listen:

    As well as covering Ethan’s adventures in North Korea, and stories from the early days of bitcoin, Ethan takes stock of a world that is sometimes hostile. Ethan's millennial generation sees itself as inheriting a collapsing world, weighed by dread and meaninglessness. Stylistically evoking the western genre, this book presents Bitcoin and its insular community, bursting with wealth, as representing a new form of the frontier myth.

    The book is an example of the sort of gonzo, adventure journalism for which Ethan has been known. Field Notes from a Pandemic, an accidental journey around the world at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, was named among the CBC's best domestic nonfiction of the year and shortlisted for Kobo's emerging writer award.

    Supporting links:

    Ethan Lou

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    DeFi on Bitcoin - Sovryn is a decentralized Bitcoin trading & lending platform Oct 11, 2021

    John Light is head of product at Sovryn, a decentralized Bitcoin trading and lending platform. Sovryn is one of the first platforms to bring decentralized finance products to the Bitcoin protocol.

    Why you should listen:

    Bitcoin was the first and original cryptocurrency, but it is slow, and limited in functionality. Competitors such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain(BSC) and Solana have now become the primary destination for developers looking to build dapps and DeF ecosystems.

    Bitcoin remains the biggest and most decentralized cryptocurrency and the hardest form of money. Now developers are bringing DeFi to Bitcoin.

    Sovryn is built on the Rootstock (RSK) platform, a Bitcoin sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine that can support the smart contracts protocol. RSK is the most permissionless and censorship-resistant Bitcoin sidechain: RSK is permissionless and its consensus mechanism is merge-mined PoW with about 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower currently mining RSK. This means that RSK is mined by more hashpower than any other chain, except Bitcoin itself.

    Supporting links:

    Sovryn

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    100K by December - Josh Olszewicz is bullish! Oct 07, 2021

    Josh Olszewicz is the lead analyst at Brave New Coin. Josh joins Andy to discuss Bitcoin’s bullish start to Q4 and the likelihood that the bull trend will continue. Josh says he is targeting $100K Bitcoin before the end of the year.

    Why you should listen:

    "If we can hold $50K, I like six figures easily by the end of the year. Definitely. Maybe $120k, $130k, $140k, but definitely six figures by the end of the year."

    Yes indeed, Josh is bullish. How bullish? Josh says, “If we get an ETF approved that will be massive for price. We have seasonality on our side. And the on-chain metrics are bullish with continuous upticks in active address and transaction counts since the end of July. What else do you need? When you line up the fundamentals and the technicals and the on-chain stuff Bitcoin looks amazing to me.”

    Listen to the show to hear what would need to happen for the bull thesis to falter, plus Josh and Andy chat hash rate, NFTs, altcoins, the funds Josh trades for Techemy Capital, and why they’re watching Netflix at 2x speed.

    Supporting links:

    Techemy Capital

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    Persistence - Building next-gen financial products Oct 06, 2021

    Tushar Aggarwal is the CEO of Persistence, an interoperable protocol built to facilitate the creation of next-gen financial products. Tushar is a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia club.

    Why you should listen:

    Persistence is an ecosystem of multi-chain DeFi products designed to stimulate global liquidity and enable seamless value exchange. Persistence is bringing different asset classes into DeFi through its products – Proof-of-Stake assets (pSTAKE), Commodities synthetic assets (Comdex), and NFT assets (Asset Mantle).

    Persistence’s Core mainnet is a Proof-of-Stake chain powered by Tendermint BFT consensus engine. Persistence multi-chain tech stack (currently supporting Cosmos, Ethereum and other Tendermint-based chains) abstracts away the complexities for developers and enables them to create DEXs, marketplaces, lending/borrowing platforms etc.

    Supporting links:

    Persistence

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    A Bullish Q4 - Uptober begins with Bitcoin $50k+ Oct 05, 2021

    After a bearish September, Uptober has begun and in the first week of Q4 Bitcoin has soared 20% in one week to $51,000. Technical analyst Rekt Capital returns to give us his predictions for Q4.

    Why you should listen:

    Rekt Capital is an astute analyst who specializes in technical analysis and trading psychology. After a bearish September saw Bitcoin battling another round of China FUD, expectations are high for a bullish Q4. Andy and Rekt discuss Bitcoin stock to flow, the effect a Bitcoin Futures ETF approval would have on the market, and what needs to happen for altcoins to outperform.

    Supporting links:

    REKT Capital

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Virtual Worlds - Decentraland + NFTs = Metaverse Sep 30, 2021

    Adam De Cata is the head of partnerships at Decentraland, a virtual social world, created and owned by its users. Decentraland is an early version of the metaverse.

    Why you should listen:

    Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within the Decentraland platform, users can create, experience, and monetize their content and applications.

    The finite, traversable, 3D virtual space within Decentraland is called LAND, a non-fungible digital asset maintained in an Ethereum smart contract. Land is divided into parcels that are identified by cartesian coordinates (x,y). These parcels are permanently owned by members of the community and are purchased using MANA, Decentraland’s cryptocurrency token. This gives users full control over the environments and applications that they create, which can range from anything like static 3D scenes to more interactive applications or games.

    Decentraland is made up of parcels of LAND, each 16 meters by 16 meters. A scene is an experience that is built on one or several parcels.

    Scenes are displayed one next to the other and players can freely walk from one to the other. Each scene is its own little world, items from one scene can’t extend out into another scene, and the code for each scene is sandboxed from all others.

    Decentraland is working with brand partners such as WallStreetBets who are building a community within Decentraland. WSB has released Diamond Hands NFTs with unique utility for accessing events in the metaverse.

    Supporting links:

    Decentraland

    WSB Collectibles

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Bullish or Bearish? Markets on the edge as Q4 looms Sep 28, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of Crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Bitcoin continues to fall and remains in danger of breaking the key US$40,000 price level. The latest bearishness was triggered by China’s latest ban on crypto, and uncertainty across all markets. PlanB, creator of the Stock to Flow model remains bullish for Q4, while technical analyst Davethewave sees the current correction continuing until December.

    Supporting links:

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    Brave New Coin

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    Metaverse Topologies - Art Wallet, NFTs, Swarm intelligence, and holonic philosophy Sep 23, 2021

    Joel Dietz is a technology entrepreneur and early contributor to Ethereum. The founder of Swarm Network Joel is researching blockchain network topologies, swarm intelligence, and holonic philosophy. Joel is working on Art Wallet, a smart wallet for NFTs.

    Why you should listen:

    Art Wallet is a one-stop solution for the NFT markets and the Metaverse. ArtWallet provides a solution for storing and owning NFTs with a simple gateway to NFT marketplaces. ArtWallet provides a media delivery vehicle for the playback of unique audio/visual content.

    Created with Data Persistence and Authenticity Verification in mind, the protocol acts as a useful gateway to the most reputable NFT platforms while also providing a media delivery vehicle for unique audiovisual playback. ArtWallet even supports NFT content rental, introducing a new primitive in the market and giving users the convenience of only paying for the time they use the material itself. The protocol’s media delivery vehicle supports exclusive content locked to specific consumers: raising the possibility of accessing fan sites via non-fungible tokens. Holonic philosophy is an evolution of jurisprudence, data-driven approaches to innovation, and smart city data architecture.

    Supporting links:

    Art Wallet

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    The Crypto Crash continues - Evergrande and Gary Gensler cause market jitters Sep 22, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Bitcoin continues to fall and is now in danger of breaking the key US$40,000 price level. The fall was triggered by the China Evergrande crisis which has put traders into risk-off mode. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Gary Gensler has continued his war of words against crypto projects. He has made it clear that the overwhelming majority of altcoins are securities and in danger of being regulated as such.

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Frank Miller interview - The Sin City NFT collection Sep 20, 2021

    Frank Miller is a legend in comics, graphic novels, and film. Known for his hard-boiled storytelling and gritty film noir aesthetic, Frank is the creative force behind iconic titles such as The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, 300, and Sin City. Frank is about to drop an NFT collection based on the Sin City universe.

    Why you should listen:

    The Sin City books have won numerous awards, including six Eisner Awards, for Best Writer/Artist, Best Graphic Novel Reprint, Best Cartoonist, Best Cover Artist, Best Limited Series, and Best Short Story. Miller made his feature film directorial debut in 2005 with Sin City, the adaptation of his graphic novel, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. The critically acclaimed film was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

    The Sin City NFTs will be available September 29 from www.FrankMiller.io. There are 11 pieces, staggered over time, some are open editions, some are auction-based. The first NFT will be one of Frank’s favorite pieces - an in real life, laser engraved Crystal piece featuring Marv limited to 1000.

    Supporting links:

    Frank Miller

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    Brave New Coin

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    A Bullish Q4 - Bitcoin warms up and Coinbase picks a fight with the SEC Sep 16, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Bitcoin is back at $48,000 and just posted a Golden Cross. Is Bitcoin warming up for a bullish Q4? Meanwhile, Gary Gensler is in a war of words with Coinbase, and OpenSea’s head of product was caught insider trading NFTs.

    Supporting links:

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    The Creator Economy - Rally uses Social Tokens & NFTs to monetize Creators Sep 14, 2021

    Chris Fortier is Vice President of Product at Rally, a project built on Ethereum that helps creators develop economic relationships with their audiences by launching their own crypto social tokens and NFTs.

    Why you should listen:

    Rally builds tools for creators to launch and grow their crypto economies. Rally started with social tokens but has always imagined a world where a creator’s crypto economy included both fungible tokens and NFTs.

    Fans want reasons to buy, use and hold social tokens and creators have pioneered countless ways to power experiences with those tokens. But they also want tangible goods and services — as well as experiences — that they can own in exchange for those social tokens. NFTs and social tokens paired together tie the creator’s crypto economy into a cohesive whole.

    Rally is building NFT capabilities that allow creators to focus on utility and collectability versus scarcity. They believe that the true economic value of NFTs will come from creators and their fans using NFTs to drive connections, particularly if creators allow more of their fan-base to participate. By enabling these utility-based NFT use cases, Rally is opening up a world for creators to experiment in their engagements with their fans and focus on offerings that delight their broader fan base rather than a small set of deep-pocketed speculators.

    Supporting links:

    Rally

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    Brave New Coin

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    The Shaman - Elyseos is an ecosystem for the sacramental medicine movement Sep 09, 2021

    Maestro Bignose is a co-founder of Elyseos, a decentralized ecosystem designed to support the evolving Sacramental Medicine space. Sacramental medicines include psychedelic plants and fungi. The Elyseos DAO supports the evolving ecosystem with compassionate feedback loops incentivizing collaboration and decentralization.

    Why you should listen:

    As people search for meaning, and alternative ways of healing, Sacramental Medicines are bursting into the mainstream. The risks in this emergence include dilution, corruption, decay, centralization, control, and capture. Middlemen and ‘authorities’ can excessively appropriate the value generated while excluding dedicated servants, discoverers, and long-time practitioners.

    Maestro Bignose compares the new world of blockchain and Web3 to the ancient world of shamans. He says, “It is a wonderful meeting between one unregulated sphere so ancient it is forgotten by the mainstream and another unregulated sphere just birthing and completely nascent. Decentralized ledgers bypass the legacy system, whose top-down hierarchical control structures tend to be resistant and inimical to what shamanic medicines represent. These two universes share in being fundamentally distributed, robust, private, and by their nature not amenable to capture and control. They often escape. They both teach us to take deep responsibility for our agency rather than handing it off to a third party. Control your set and setting is similar to not your keys, not your coins.”

    Elyseos is built on the Fantom network. This ecosystem will use a utility token - ELYS which you can buy on ZooDEX. To buy ELYS you will need MetaMask installed with the Fantom Opera network active on it.

    Supporting links:

    Elyseos

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    The Crypto Crash - BTC is legal tender in El Salvador, the President buys the dip Sep 07, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Bitcoin crashed overnight dropping 10% to US$43,000. The dump happened on the same day that El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender and became the first nation-state to buy Bitcoin.

    Supporting links:

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    Brave New Coin

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    Star Trekking - Jules Urbach is the Elon Musk of Rendering Sep 07, 2021

    Jules Urbach is the CEO of OTOY, a leading cloud graphics company that is pioneering technology to redefine content creation and delivery. The work of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is being cataloged in a new digital archive by OTOY.

    Why you should listen:

    RNDR, whose partners include Amazon, Google, Apple, and HBO, developed a cutting-edge platform based on underlying OTOY technology that allows individuals to create graphics at the same level as Hollywood studios. RNDR is revolutionizing visual effects by using the cloud to democratize GPUs and other rendering resources. It also seeks to provide energy-efficient solutions for creating NFTs.

    Jules' best friend from childhood is Rod Roddenberry. Jules is working on a new digital archive of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s legacy. The Roddenberry Archive will feature the flagship Star Trek series, original films, and spinoffs in a variety of formats including digital and holographic renderings, documents, images, models, and blueprints. The archive will capture deep 3D asset metadata from assets, images, blueprints, and models using RNDR, OTOY's blockchain GPU computing network. In order to capture original studio and physical assets at the highest level of photographic fidelity, the archive will leverage OTOY's LightStage Academy-Award-winning facial scanning service, generating the first comprehensive lighting and reflectance data set for future archival use. Iconic artist Mike "Beeple" Winklemann is joining the Roddenberry Archive project as a creative consultant, and, alongside legendary painter and illustrator Alex Ross, will help commemorate the Roddenberry Archive and cross-link it to both the Alex Ross and Beeple RNDR Archives.

    Supporting links:

    OTOY

    Jules on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    The Future of FX - DFX is a DEX for stablecoins Sep 02, 2021

    DFX is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange protocol with a dynamically tuned bonding curve optimized for fiat-backed stablecoins using real-world FX price feeds. Mainstream adoption of Web 3.0 requires assets that are protected from price volatility. By focusing on fiat-backed stablecoins on the Ethereum blockchain, DFX leverages the existing defi ecosystem to bootstrap humanity's next-generation foreign exchange.

    Why you should listen:

    DFX is a decentralized foreign exchange protocol optimized for stablecoins. In building the protocol, DFX will bring liquidity and volume to fiat-backed stablecoins globally. The next generation of global finance cannot rely solely on USD-pegged stablecoins. A decentralized protocol where users can efficiently exchange stablecoins pegged to various foreign currencies is not only important but necessary.

    DFX has added the NZDs, the New Zealand Dollar Stable Coin to the protocol. NZDs is a New Zealand Dollar (NZD) Stable Coin backed 1:1 with physical New Zealand Dollars in a cash and cash equivalent treasury managed by a New Zealand registered financial services provider. New Zealand’s currency is a leader in adaptability, resilience, and market trustworthiness. NZD is the 10th most traded currency globally. The NZD stable coin will offer cryptocurrency users the stability and utility of the New Zealand Dollar with the versatility of a cryptocurrency. The NZDs is issued by Techemynt.

    Supporting links:

    DFX

    NZD Stablecoin

    Techemynt

    Castle Island Stablecoin paper

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    Brave New Coin

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    FLUF Metagame - Supercharging NFTs with the Altered State Machine Sep 01, 2021

    Aaron McDonald and Brooke Howard-Smith are co-founders at Non-Fungible Labs, the team behind the FLUF World NFTs. FLUF World is home to 10,000 unique 3D animated rabbits. The FLUF metagame describes the emerging, expanding metaverse treasure hunt that the FLUFs exist in.

    Why you should listen:

    FLUFs have been programmatically generated from 270 attributes across 14 categories to be entirely unique by at least three degrees of separation. This also excludes their expression, dance, scene, and soundtrack. Non-Fungible Labs have an exciting roadmap that will continue to unlock ever-increasing, advanced functionality for FLUFs.

    The future of the digital world will be expansive and complex. Smart agents are needed to help navigate these always-on spaces. Altered State Machine is a framework to track ownership of AI agents in any digital environment.

    Supporting links:

    FLUF World

    Altered State Machine

    Non-Fungible Labs

    Aaron talks Centrality

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    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Yield Aggregator - Vaulty enables automatic asset allocation across DeFi Aug 30, 2021

    Konstantin is the founder and CEO of Vaulty Finance - a vault that bridges Defi and NFTs on the Binance Smart chain. The Vaulty platform is a yield aggregator that offers multiple strategies to optimize yield farming through regular auto-compounding.

    Why you should listen:

    Vaulty is a decentralized platform designed to enable automatic asset allocation across DeFi instruments. Every vault has its own smart contract with predetermined logic. Choose your vault and passively earn yields or NFTs stress-free. Vaults allow users to minimize network fees and time spent researching the best instruments. Vaulty unites the power of DeFi and NFT. Vaulty is a unique profit-sharing yield aggregator that incorporates both traditional DeFi and NFT yield strategies into the same decentralized platform. Konstantin shares some fascinating stories on what it was like to grow up in rural Russia and why so many talented poker and chess players are Russian.

    Supporting links:

    Vaulty

    Andy on Twitter

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    Brave New Coin

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    Mass Adoption - Abra, the Crypto Bank for everyone Aug 26, 2021

    Bill Barhydt is the CEO of Abra, a platform that enables crypto banking services for consumers and institutions in over 100 countries. Abra’s mission is to become a crypto bank that replaces the need for legacy banking services. Bill was a member of the Cryptography Mailing List where Satoshi first released the Bitcoin White Paper. Bill started his career working in cryptography for the CIA.

    Why you should listen:

    Abra is making cryptocurrency investing simple. Abra operates an easy-to-use smartphone-based wallet, exchange, high yield interest accounts, and lending service supporting 125 digital assets. Users can buy, sell, store, and invest in cryptocurrencies and manage their crypto investments, in one app. Their vision is an open, global financial system that is easily accessible to everyone. Bill is a globally recognized technology pioneer with a unique perspective on the early days of the internet and blockchain. Bill started his career working in R&D at the CIA and NASA. Bill was one of the early team members at Netscape where he was involved in building the core infrastructure that helped grow the consumer Internet we use today.

    Supporting links:

    Abra

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    Morgan Stanley buys Bitcoin, Only Fans Nudes are back, and Generative Art booms Aug 25, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Morgan Stanley’s SEC Filings reveal it has purchased a large holding of Bitcoin via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Only Fans has reversed its decision to ban sexually explicit content, and the NFT market continues to boom as a new wave of Generative Art is released.

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

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    Brave New Coin

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    Gasless Minting - How Mintable is building Amazon for NFTs Aug 23, 2021

    Zach Burks is the CEO and founder of NFT marketplace Mintable. Mintable is the first NFT platform to pioneer ‘gasless minting’, enabling content creators to mint NFTs without prohibitive transaction fees. Zach says he is building Mintable with Mom in mind. If his Mom finds it easy to use Mintable to mint and trade NFTs, then anyone can use Mintable. Zach is applying the best features from e-commerce sites such as Amazon to make Mintable one of the most exciting and feature-rich marketplaces of the future.

    Why you should listen:

    Mintable is the first NFT platform to pioneer ‘gasless minting’, enabling content creators to mint NFTs without being burdened by prohibitive transaction fees. When the Mark Cuban-backed platform recently completed its US$13 million Series A funding round, it also announced an upcoming integration with Ripple’s XRP ledger to enable a new breed of ecologically friendly NFTs.

    Supporting links:

    Mintable

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    Solar Punk - The DoinGud Platform Aug 19, 2021

    Manu Alzuru is a humanist, a solarpunk, and the founder of DoinGud - a next-gen NFT platform designed to empower creators and collectors to create meaningful impact.

    Why you should listen:

    DoinGud is an NFT ecosystem where passion has the ability to create social impact. NFT creators can donate at least 5% of their profits from every sale to charitable causes benefiting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. These goals include creating gender equality, ending world hunger, ensuring all individuals have good health and well-being, and quality education for all.

    Invited creators can onboard colleagues. Brands and communities can open meta-galleries to house their artists. Anyone can submit their artwork to a pool to be represented by a community gallery. Solarpunk is an art movement that envisions how the future might look if humanity succeeds in solving climate change. The iconography of Solarpunk focuses on renewable energies such as solar and wind power. It is the flipside to Cyberpunk.

    Supporting links:

    DoinGud

    Solar Power

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    The Epikverse - How NFTs connect brands to digital worlds Aug 11, 2021

    Victor David is co-founder and CEO of Epik, a global agency that connects brands with video games to offer unique and immersive digital experiences using NFTs.

    Why you should listen:

    Epik is putting brands into video games to offer unique and immersive digital experiences to more than a billion fans worldwide. Epik is solving the problem of building interconnectivity between metaverses so that metaverses will be able to talk to each other in ways never possible before. Called the “Epikverse,” this technology will span across multiple virtual worlds, including, one day, Facebook.

    Epik’s core mission is to improve the experience of gamers, making them feel the nostalgia of collecting in-game items that are accessible across different games, allowing them to interact with their assets outside of the game, and be able to trade them anytime. The opportunities we see in NFTs are not only limited to arts and music. Most of our NFT collections are based on collaborations with the leading gaming companies, and these unique digital assets will give the players distinctive benefits when playing the game (special offers, skins, accessories, playable characters, etc) giving real-world value in real life.

    Supporting links:

    Epik

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    U.S. Senate rules against Crypto and ETH is ultra sound money Aug 10, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week Bitcoin breaks US$46,000 while the U.S. senate has included draconian restrictions on the crypto ecosystem in the infrastructure bill. On the positive side, the last week has seen an awakening of political support for crypto, from all sides. Following the successful implementation of EIP-1559, can Ethereum become ultra sound money?

    Supporting links:

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    Dave the Wave - Bitcoin & the Logarithmic Growth Curve Aug 04, 2021

    Dave the Wave is a pseudonymous investor, trader, and technical analyst. A contrarian, Dave is respected on Crypto Twitter for his objective, rational approach to technical analysis. Dave’s thesis is that Bitcoin is following his Logarithmic Growth Curve model. Logarithmic growth suggests exponential gains at the beginning that slowly taper off towards a plateau in the long term.

    Why you should listen:

    Dave the Wave has a gentleman’s agreement with Plan B (stock to flow). If Bitcoin achieves a price above $100K by December this year, the stock-to-flow model will remain valid, and Dave’s Logarithmic Growth Curve will be invalidated. If Bitcoin fails to break $100K by December, then stock-to-flow is invalidated and the Logarithmic Growth Curve remains valid.

    Dave says that Bitcoin is a nascent currency in the process of capitalization. There are periods of volatility in both directions as new people add and subtract liquidity in adoption waves. Bitcoin is following the path of gold that was capitalized over hundreds if not thousands of years, Bitcoin has already reached a market cap of 1T in just 12 years.

    Despite sometimes being misunderstood as bearish, Dave says that if Bitcoin follows the Logarithmic Growth Curve, Bitcoin will hit somewhere between $500k and $1million in approx ten years' time.

    Supporting links:

    Dave the Wave

    The Logarithmic Growth Curve

    Dave on Twitter

    The Bitcoin Liquid Index

    Nexo

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    Brave New Coin

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    The Open Metaverse thesis - Designing the Future Aug 02, 2021

    Jamie Burke is the Founder & CEO of Outlier Ventures. Jamie and his team are investors in and authors of The Open Metaverse thesis which explores how the Web 3.0 Stack extends beyond financial services into virtual worlds, gaming and decentralized economies.

    Why you should listen:

    Outlier has created a framework to assess and interrogate Metaverses, and a toolkit to design alternatives based on the principles of user centricity and sovereignty of identity, data and wealth. They call it the Open Metaverse OS, a shared and open operating system built upon the success of decentralized protocols, in particular DeFi and NFTs emerging in The Web 3 Stack.

    Jamie says it is important to understand that the beginnings of the Metaverse are already here and if we think of it as a far-off destination we will sleepwalk into not addressing some fundamental design choices and replicate what is broken about the Web today.

    Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny said “The Metaverse is going to be far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government, and be a god on Earth.” For this reason, it is crucial that the metaverse is designed on open and permission protocols.

    Supporting links:

    Outlier

    Nexo

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    Perpetual Utility Machines - APEcoin, MemeFarm & BustaBNB Aug 01, 2021

    Mark Berisha is the CEO of APEcoin and MemeFarm, and a founding member of the BustaBNB DAO. APECoin embraces the viral nature of memes and builds DAO-based perpetual utility machines. Apecoin is developing BustaBNB for the Binance Smart Chain and they have just launched a new NFT marketplace and NFT-OTC solution.

    Why you should listen:

    APEcoin is an ecosystem for crypto enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who are building DAO-based perpetual utility machines. APEcoin incubates projects which focus on automated Defi solutions. MemeFarm is designed to automate the NFT ecosystem and allow users to mint, auction, buy and sell NFTs on the Binance smart chain. By using the NFT marketplace, users can solve many of the problems that exist in the altcoin OTC trading space. BustaBNB is an online crypto crash game with BNB as the primary play token. Users place a bet, watch the multiplier curve increase exponentially and click before the crash. BustaBNB was influenced by games like Bustabit, and Satoshi Dice. A BUST airdrop will occur for existing APE holders.

    Supporting links:

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    MemeFarm

    BustaBNB

    Nexo

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    Gateway to Web3 - Why Ledger is more than a hardware wallet Jul 29, 2021

    Iqbal V Gandham is VP of Payments & Transactions at Ledger. One of the best-known companies in crypto, Ledger has sold more than 3 million hardware devices and secures an estimated 15% of all crypto assets. Ledger is now preparing to make inroads into Web3.

    Why you should listen:

    As we move towards a world where all types of assets will be digitized, providing users with the most complete and secure user experience will be more important than ever. Ledger Live is an all-in-one digital asset management application that allows users to exchange, stake, and lend their crypto, interact with dapps and manage NFTs. When combined with Ledger’s hardware, Ledger Live provides best-in-class security for users in the digital asset environment. Iqbal hints that a new Ledger hardware wallet is coming in 2022.

    Supporting links:

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    Stonercats clog Ethereum, shadowy super coders & Bitcoin is $40k - A Crypto Market Update Jul 28, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week markets are up as Amazon rumors and a short squeeze pump Bitcoin. Plus Elizabeth Warren says shadowy super coders are threatening the financial system, Tether is in the regulatory firing line, and CZ is ready to work with regulators.

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

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    Brave New Coin

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    Tom Bilyeu is building the next Disney with NFTs in the Metaverse Jul 28, 2021

    Tom Bilyeu is the CEO of Impact Theory and one of the world’s leading motivational speakers. Tom is committed to pulling people out of the matrix. A successful multi-business entrepreneur, Tom’s goal is to impact culture at scale. He plans to do this by building the next Disney. Impact Theory produces comics, graphic novels, books, television, film, interview talk shows and more. Tom is building an NFT universe that will leverage the unique properties of Manga, Anime, and blockchain to take Impact Theory to the next level.

    Why you should listen:

    Impact Theory is a revolutionary studio that produces original content on themes of empowerment, by bringing together some of the most talented creators, writers, and artists. The studio was started by CEO Tom Bilyeu, one of the planet’s most successful entrepreneurs. Impact Theory distributes content across digital platforms including the emerging NFT space. The studio has built a loyal audience in the millions with over one billion social media impressions, and its catalog of content has hundreds of millions of views.

    Supporting links:

    Impact Theory

    Matthew Ball on the Metaverse

    Nexo

    Tom on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Tendermint Core - Building the internet of blockchains Jul 23, 2021

    Tess Rinearson is VP of Engineering at Interchain where she leads the team responsible for Tendermint Core, the leading BFT engine for building blockchains.

    Why you should listen:

    Interchain is responsible for stewarding foundational infrastructure for blockchain ecosystems. Their work helps secure billions of dollars in value across a variety of major blockchain projects, including Cosmos. The team is pioneering new protocols for interoperability across the entire blockchain ecosystem. The vision is to create a new interconnected ecosystem, a new internet of blockchains: The Interchain. In 2017 Tess published a popular Bitcoin explainer guide using emojis.

    Supporting links:

    Interchain

    Bitcoin Explained with Emoji

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Markets down, inflation up, & Elon and Kanye’s next moves - A Crypto Market Update Jul 20, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week markets are down as rising inflation pushes up food costs and the delta variant worsens the pandemic. Plus AXIE keeps mooning, stablecoins are in the regulatory firing line, and is CZ willing to work with regulators?

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Agoric - building technology that helps humans cooperate better Jul 19, 2021

    Dean Tribble is the CEO of Agoric, the JavaScript-native smart contract platform with backing from Naval and Polychain Capital. Dean co-designed the negotiation process and contract for the first smart contracting system, AMiX. As a Principal Architect at Microsoft, he co-designed the Midori distributed object-capability operating system. As founder and CTO for Agorics, he architected the brokerage information system for Schwab’s active traders and the WebMart electronic contract system for SunLabs. Dean has a fascinating perspective on the past, present, and future of blockchain.

    Why you should listen:

    Dean’s life work can be described as creating software that lets humans cooperate better. He wants to use technology to give humanity leverage to accomplish our goals and create a more cooperative world. A Proof of Stake blockchain and JavaScript-native smart contract platform, Agoric offers developers and enterprises an interoperable ecosystem for deploying and managing DeFi applications. Agoric is a robust architecture for building secure smart contracts based in JavaScript for maximum reach. Agoric empowers developers to execute transactions, establish new markets, and craft novel exchanges — without centralized control. Agoric uses an object-capability (ocap) security architecture, in which access to a programming object itself is the authority to use the object. All kinds of digital assets can be created, but importantly, they can be transferred in exactly the same ways, with exactly the same security properties. Agoric’s composable smart contract development environment provides reusable governance, lending, and trading components to propel the creators of the multi-chain DeFi economy.

    Supporting links:

    Agoric

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Shapeshift airdrops to a million people, AXIE Moons & the Metaverse emerges - A Crypto Market Update Jul 15, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points. This week we look at Shapeshift’s announcement that it will decentralize and give FOX tokens away in an airdrop to a million users. Plus what’s behind the AXIE blockchain game boom, and more signs of the emerging Metaverse...

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Protocol Labs - Building Filecoin & the InterPlanetary File System Jul 14, 2021

    Molly Mackinlay is Network Lead at Protocol Labs, an open-source research, development, and deployment laboratory. Protocol Labs projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more. The team aims to make human existence orders of magnitude better through technology.

    Why you should listen:

    Molly is project lead at IPFS, The InterPlanetary File System, a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to preserve and grow humanity's knowledge by making the web upgradeable, resilient, and more open.

    Filecoin is an open-source, public cryptocurrency and digital payment system intended to be a blockchain-based cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method. It is made by Protocol Labs and builds on top of InterPlanetary File System, allowing users to rent unused hard drive space.

    Supporting links:

    Protocol Labs

    IPFS

    Filecoin

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    FINXFLO - the world's first Regulated Hybrid Liquidity Aggregator Jul 12, 2021

    James Gillingham is the Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of FINXFLO, the world's first Regulated Hybrid Liquidity Aggregator. The platform is launching in August but traders can sign up now.

    Why you should listen:

    After an injury brought a promising football career to an end, James worked at Close Brothers, and International Asset Management, before founding JageroFX, a startup delivering automated trading algorithms. Having spent his career identifying problems in the financial markets, James then founded FINXFLO to provide solutions for crypto traders. FINXFLO is described as the world's first hybrid DeFi/CeFi liquidity and protocol aggregator. Using only one account with one KYC, users are now able to utilize liquidity from 25+ CeFi and DeFi platforms through a single user interface.

    Supporting links:

    FINXFlow

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Web3 - The Status wallet, Web3 browser, & secure messaging app Jul 09, 2021

    Simona Pop is Head of Community at Status, a secure messaging platform that also functions as a crypto wallet and Web3 browser. Status is designed to enable the free flow of information, protect the right to private, secure conversations, and promote the sovereignty of individuals.

    Why you should listen:

    Status aims to be a decentralized, secure by design communication tool. The true benefit of Web3 is the ability to transact and communicate on our own terms – without middlemen. In order to enjoy this type of free communication, we must be confident that our messages, transactions, identities, and funds are safe and secure.

    Status has been hosting workshops in Latin America to provide educational resources to local creators on how to get involved with NFTs - from minting to collecting - in a variety of native languages. Looking ahead, the team is also examining how crypto-based social applications are a key component of crypto’s evolution. Status believes creating social platforms that uphold crypto’s values of decentralization, privacy, and user rights is the next step.

    Simona is an NFT collector and inverse meme aficionado. To find what an inverse meme is, listen to the show!

    Supporting links:

    Status

    Read Simona’s blog story

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Bitcoin's Antifragility put to the test - A crypto Market Update Jul 06, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points of the last week. June was a huge month with Bitcoin’s antifragility put to the test. Bitcoin’s market cap dropped by 50%, hash rate dropped by 50%, China stepped up its crackdown on mining and exchanges, and everyone from Nassim Taleb to Elizabeth Warren had a crack at Bitcoin. What happens next?

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Protect Yourself - Crypto holders should prepare for aggressive U.S. Government enforcement tactics Jul 02, 2021

    Benjamin Sauter is a partner at Kobre and Kim, a legal firm that specializes in International Disputes and Investigations. The firm prides itself on its aggressive, trial-ready approach. Ben’s role is to aggressively defend clients in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries against high-stakes government enforcement actions.

    Why you should listen:

    Ben and his colleagues wrote a piece for Brave New Coin called The U.S. govt is aggressively prosecuting crypto cases - how to defend yourself. The article summary reads: Thinking Beyond The Government Playbook - how crypto holders can proactively plan for and respond to aggressive U.S. Government enforcement tactics.

    Ben says the high level takeaway is that U.S. prosecutors are becoming increasingly aggressive in their attempts to police digital asset markets — and more creative in their ability to follow through. Recent events highlight the ability of prosecutors not only to collect actionable intelligence about digital assets, but also to use that information to achieve law enforcement objectives across international borders.

    By recognizing these tactics and acting proactively, individuals with digital-asset wealth can reduce the risk of falling afoul of the authorities.

    With U.S. prosecutors adopting an aggressive approach towards enforcement against cryptocurrency market players, companies and individuals who are concerned that they may be the target of a government investigation should prepare to mount a creative defense. That means hiring counsel who understands criminal defense and trial strategy, and the technical issues raised by digital asset holdings, including blockchain forensics, and asset forfeiture procedures.

    Supporting links:

    Kobre & Kim

    Ben’s piece on Brave New Coin

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    ASK Permission - How to monetize your data Jun 30, 2021

    Charlie Silver is the founder and CEO of Permission, a crypto startup that gives individuals a way to monetize their data and get paid in ASK, the crypto asset that powers the Permission ecosystem.

    Why you should listen:

    Permission.io has developed the infrastructure for a new engagement model based on permission and value exchange. The Permission platform runs on ASK, a new currency created to pay users for your engagement. ASK allows users to be compensated for data shared while doing the things users normally do online.

    ASK is a currency that users can spend on Permission.io and on other sites that accept ASK. The company has created the Permission Coin (“ASK”) to enable individuals to securely grant permission and monetize their personal data across a decentralized eCommerce ecosystem. Advertisers reward consumers with ASK for interacting with brands and content, building loyalty and trust. By transferring value back to consumers along the buying journey, away from big tech’s exploitation of data, Permission is bringing change to the current Internet business model. The company has launched a Google Chrome browser extension that enables members to monetize their data while browsing the web.

    Supporting links:

    Permission

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    BTSE Crypto Futures - Swaps, Indices, & the future of trading Jun 23, 2021

    BTSE is a crypto asset exchange and futures trading platform. BTSE has partnered with Brave New Coin to create two indices - the BBCX and BBAX, around which BTSE has developed futures trading products. BTSE co-founder Brian Wong explains what makes BTSE one of the most compelling crypto trading solution providers.

    Why you should listen:

    BTSE offers a suite of sophisticated futures trading products. BTSE traders can now use index perpetuals to build market-neutral strategies, and target risk profiles. Index perpetuals allow traders the ability to hedge out unwanted exposures, such as the broad crypto market or a particular sector.

    BTSE has partnered with Brave New Coin to create several indices. An index is a way to track the value of a broad market or sector, via a single price. The BNC-BTSE Composite Index (BBCX) tracks the real-time market performance of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

    The BNC-BTSE Alt Coin Index (BBAX) tracks the real-time market performance of Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and EOS.

    Both indices have outperformed their largest constituents in the year to date 2021.

    Supporting links:

    BTSE

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    China Bans Bitcoin for Real - A Crypto Market Update Jun 22, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points of the last week. And what a week it was - China has stepped up its crackdown on all parts of the crypto ecosystem. As a result, miners are moving out of China, and the Bitcoin hashrate is dropping. The markets are down in response, but ultimately, is this good for the bitcoin network?

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Surprise & Delight - The Exodus digital wallet Jun 16, 2021

    Sebastián Milla is Chief of Special Projects at Exodus, one of the most popular blockchain wallets in the world. Exodus has 1.6 million users and completed a fund-raising round by issuing stock tokens to Exodus users on Algorand.

    Why you should listen:

    The internet is the future of experiences. The Exodus product and design teams are focused on delivering these experiences now. By focusing relentlessly on UI/UX Exodus has grown swiftly, developing a cryptocurrency wallet experience that surprises and delights its users.

    Supporting links:

    Exodus

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto Market update - Bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador, Elon warms up... Jun 13, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points of the last week. And what a week it was, Andy looks at El Salvador’s decision to make Bitcoin legal tender, which countries might be next, and is Elon Musk warming back up to Bitcoin?

    Supporting links:

    Nexo

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Panther Protocol - Bringing privacy to DeFi Jun 11, 2021

    Oliver Gale is the CEO and co-founder of Panther Protocol, an end-to-end privacy protocol for digital assets, which can be deployed in a compliant way on any public blockchain. After pursuing a hip-hop career in the Caribbean, Oliver entered the world of start-ups and blockchain.

    Why you should listen:

    Panther Protocol is an interoperable privacy solution focused on the needs of decentralized finance traders and investors. Due to the immutable and transparent nature of public blockchains, DeFi users are subject to surveillance and economic espionage. Transactional privacy is in high demand, as it allows retail, whales, and institutional users to protect their competitive advantages by not allowing adversaries to reverse engineer and front-run their strategies. Traders lose their alpha very quickly in DeFi, and Panther’s value proposition is to help traders protect that alpha.

    Key Takeaway:

    Panther Protocol is an end-to-end privacy protocol for DeFi. Panther provides DeFi users with fully collateralized privacy-enhancing digital assets, leveraging crypto-economic incentives and zkSNARKs technology. Users are able to mint zero-knowledge zAssets by depositing digital assets from any blockchain into Panther vaults. zAssets will become an ever-expanding asset class for users who want their transactions and strategies the way they should always have been: private.

    Supporting links:

    Panther Protocol

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    UnF**K the World - Building a better future with Centrality Jun 10, 2021

    Aaron McDonald is the CEO and co-founder of Centrality, a tech ventures ecosystem building the infrastructure for the emerging decentralized web.

    Why you should listen:

    One of Centrality’s mission statements is to UnF**ck the world. To achieve this they are building a suite of decentralized technology solutions that allow the world’s citizens to interact with each other on a more even playing field.

    Key Takeaway:

    The CENNZ blockchain is part of the Centrality ecosystem. It is the world’s first natively permissioned public blockchain. A “permissioned” blockchain provides specific access or privilege for certain participants of the network. So by making the permissioning native, you can be certain that the access control functionality is aligned with all the services. In practical terms, this means CENNZnet is one of the most secure blockchains in the world with higher performance and fewer issues.

    Supporting links:

    Centrality

    Aaron on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Memecoin - The story layer of the internet Jun 08, 2021

    Johan Unger is the CEO of Meme.com, a memetic asset protocol that acts as a story layer of the internet. Operating at the intersection of memes, NFTs, and social media, the platform describes itself as what would happen if Doge and Wikipedia had a baby.

    Why you should listen:

    Meme.com uses crypto and entertainment to measure the value of internet content. It enables people to mint memetic coins, which are priced based on the perceived value of the trend or meme they represent, like a CoinMarketCap for memes.

    Key Takeaway:

    Memes are the soul of the internet, a new way to communicate complex ideas, and fun to make, trade and collect. Johan thinks of memes in the way that Richard Dawkins originally described them: that any idea that spreads is a meme. So a song, a YouTube video or a tweet can be memes if they spread. Meme.com is building the meme economy.

    Supporting links:

    Meme.com

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Matthew Graham Returns - China FUD, DeFi, SizeChad & Elon the LARPer Jun 04, 2021

    Matthew Graham is the CEO of Beijing-based Sino Global Capital. Matthew is a prominent personality on Crypto Twitter, an authority on China’s ever-shifting attitude to blockchain, and an outspoken critic of Elon Musk and Bitclout.

    Why you should listen:

    Sino Global Capital is an investment firm based in China that invests in decentralized technologies that have a strategic connection to the mainland Chinese market. Matthew says the firm is very bullish on DeFi, and the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems. While he comes from a traditional finance background and describes himself as an intense personality and a suit and tie guy, Matthew has embraced crypto’s meme culture.

    Key Takeaway:

    China sees blockchain as a key strategic technology pillar critical to the next decade of growth. China is moving forward with its digital currency initiative and continuing to hold trials across the country. While headlines that say China is banning bitcoin or banning crypto mining can be alarming and market-moving, there is always much more nuance behind the scenes and headlines shouldn’t be taken at face value.

    Supporting links:

    Sino Global Capital

    Matthew on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    OneOf - The green NFT music platform backed by Quincy Jones Jun 02, 2021

    Lin Dai is the CEO and co-founder of OneOf, a green NFT platform for music NFTs, built on Tezos, with backing by Quincy Jones.

    Why you should listen:

    OneOf was co-founded by tech entrepreneur Lin Dai, digital media executive Joshua James, and music industry veteran Adam Fell, in partnership with Quincy Jones. Launching in June, the platform will feature exclusive NFT drops from top music artists such as Whitney Houston, Doja Cat, H.E.R., Quincy Jones, John Legend, and TLC.

    Key Takeaway:

    Non-fungible token (NFT) platform OneOf raised $63 million in a seed round from prominent tech and music industry veterans. Its mission is to become a more environmentally sustainable marketplace for artists and fans. OneOf is built on the Tezos blockchain. Minting an NFT on OneOf uses an order of magnitude less energy than platforms on the Ethereum Network.

    Supporting links:

    OneOf

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto Market update - Elon, Saylor, China FUD, Volatility, price action! May 25, 2021

    Andy Pickering is here with a weekly crypto market update where we look through the volatile world of crypto Twitter to tease out the most important narratives and data points of the last week. We look at Elon Musk and the new Bitcoin Mining Association, the price volatility, and the news out of China - bullish or bearish for Bitcoin?

    Supporting links:

    Watch this podcast on YouTube

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto Scams - Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption May 25, 2021

    Erica Stanford is the founder of the popular Crypto Curry Club in the UK and the author of a new book called Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption.

    Why you should listen:

    With time on her hands during lockdown, after listening to the BBC podcast The Missing Crypto Queen about the infamous Onecoin crypto scam, Erica decided to write a book about crypto scams. The book covers everything from Onecoin to Bitconnect, the ICO bubble, and the various exchange exit scams.

    Supporting links:

    Crypto Wars on Amazon

    The Crypto Curry Club

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Presearch - Building a sustainable decentralized search platform May 20, 2021

    Colin Pape is the founder of Presearch, a community-powered, decentralized search engine that provides better search results while protecting privacy and rewarding users with crypto when they search.

    Why you should listen:

    Colin says the best way to compete with Google is to build a framework that enables people from all over the world to collaborate on an open and decentralized search engine. Presearch is preparing to release its first decentralized technology – a new search engine experience that runs on node servers operated by Presearch community members. The new Presearch Engine offers results that are as good as the world’s top search engines. It also provides an additional layer of data through community packages which makes those results even better. For example, you can search Presearch for “Bitcoin” to see what the crypto package looks like. Over time, there will be additional results provided by a user-curated supplementary index.

    Key takeaway:

    Presearch is dedicated to creating significant value for marketers who want to reach Presearch users. Advertisers can stake their PRE to a keyword, and whichever advertiser stakes the most tokens will have its ads displayed when a user searches on the term selected. Advertisers confer the most external value on PRE, so their success is important to the ecosystem.

    Supporting links:

    Presearch

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Crypto's marketing challenge - Bitstamp is making moves in the U.S. May 18, 2021

    Ben Pousty is the US Marketing Lead for Bitstamp, a crypto exchange with offices in Luxemburg, London and New York. We talk to Ben about Bitstamp’s new "For All The Ways We Crypto" campaign, the challenges of crypto marketing, Bitcoin’s unit bias issue, and more.

    Supporting links:

    Bitstamp

    Bitstamp U.S. expansion

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Elon Musk Vs Bitcoin part 2 - Crypto market sentiment check May 18, 2021

    Last week Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. He said that Tesla is concerned about the increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining. In response, the crypto markets crashed with Bitcoin falling to $42,000. Let’s look at the subsequent tweets from Elon, reaction from the Bitcoin community, the Doge angle, and speculate on what happens next.

    Supporting links:

    Bitcoin is key to an abundant energy future

    The Investors Guide to Bitcoin and the Environment

    Is this Elon’s Doge wallet?

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    Elon crashes Bitcoin - The Bitcoin mining energy debate begins May 13, 2021

    Elon Musk tweeted today that Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. He said that Tesla is concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining. In response, the crypto markets crashed with Bitcoin falling 12% to $49,000. In this podcast, Andy reacts to Elon’s tweets and suggests some resources that argue that Bitcoin mining incentivizes a renewable energy future.

    Supporting links:

    Bitcoin is key to an abundant energy future

    Bitcoin Mythology

    The Investors Guide to Bitcoin and the Environment

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    0x_nodes - DeFi's cross chain yield aggregation network May 12, 2021

    Owl is the cofounder of 0x_nodes, a cross-chain yield aggregation network. 0x_nodes is a network of deployed systems that allow users to move, acquire, and build yield-bearing strategies with non-native assets across EVM and non-EVM-based blockchains.

    Why you should listen:

    One of the fundamental problems across the crypto ecosystem is the lack of interoperability between blockchains. The ability to easily move value between blockchains will unlock the next growth cycle in decentralized finance. This is the problem that 0x_nodes seeks to solve.

    To the non-technical, Web 3.0 feels seamless. Video streaming, global zoom conferences, smartphone apps, gaming, and social media. Everything is integrated and it all just works. Through innovation and fast development cycles, 0x_nodes aims to end the fragmentation of the Ethereum network — and make interoperability commonplace for all.

    Key takeaway:

    0x_nodes is a cross-chain protocol that allows synthetic asset movements between blockchains — enabling broader yield aggregation strategies. Being able to seamlessly move value between blockchains will open up a new world of financial products and services. 0x_nodes will start on the Ethereum mainnet first — deploying nodes throughout the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem.

    Instead of utilizing a spoke network topology, 0x_nodes will be comprised of a core mesh network between EVM ecosystems — and will bridge the EVM network with external blockchain networks. This unidirectional yield aggregation pulling from EVMs to the mainnet will create new opportunities for yield, while simplifying the experience for the user.

    Supporting links:

    0x_nodes

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Acala - The DeFi Hub of Polkadot May 11, 2021

    Bette Chen is the co-founder of Acala - the DeFi hub of Polkadot, powering open finance applications and removing the need for financial intermediaries.

    Guest:

    Bette Chen

    Why you should listen:

    The mission of the Acala project is to support and nurture the financial applications of the decentralized web. The drivers of this mission are delivering financial stability, liquidity, and accessibility for all.

    Key takeaway:

    Acala offers a suite of financial primitives, including: a trustless staking derivative (liquid DOT - LDOT), a multi-collateralized stablecoin (aUSD) backed by cross-chain assets, and an AMM DEX – all with micro gas fees that can be paid in any token. Acala is a blockchain platform custom-built for DeFi and powered by ACA.

    Supporting links:

    Acala

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Dogecoin - How a whimsical meme became the best performing asset of 2021 May 07, 2021

    Dogecoin, a memecoin that was abandoned by its founders, is the best performing crypto asset of 2021, appreciating more than 12,000% YTD. With high-profile backers such as Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, can Doge stay the course or is it set to crash and burn?

    Why you should listen:

    Andy takes a deep dive into a new report by Galaxy Digital that takes a 360 angle look at Dogecoin’s fundamentals. The report finds a large number of positives and some serious negatives as well. Dogecoin may have always been a joke, but it’s a joke that keeps getting both funnier and more serious too.

    Key takeaway:

    On the positive side of the ledger, Doge is the best performing major digital asset year to date. More people own Doge than at any other time. Doge is dominating the cultural conversation thanks to memes and to Elon Musk.

    There are negatives. Dogecoin has zero development. Few people run full nodes and those who do have difficulty downloading the chain or staying synced with the network. There’s no market infrastructure, barely any wallet software, and despite being more than 7 years old, many exchanges don’t support it. There is no long-term narrative or use-case supporting its wide adoption. And it’s not clear whether DOGE holders are dogmatic about the coin’s long-term prospects.

    Supporting links:

    Galaxy Digital Doge Report

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    The IDEX DEX - Hybrid Liquidity and the future of decentralized exchanges May 06, 2021

    Alex Wearn has a background in product development for tech companies such as Amazon. He now brings a user-first product lens to decentralized exchanges. Alex is the CEO and co-founder of IDEX, one of the first decentralized exchanges.

    Guest:

    Alex Wearn

    Why you should listen:

    The IDEX goal is to create a non-custodial exchange that has the same user experience as a centralized exchange, eliminating the choice that users have to make today between functionality and fund safety.

    Key takeaway:

    IDEX has just announced the IDEX Hybrid Liquidity model. This new innovation is a response to the rise of AMM based DEXes. However, AMMs have issues with failed transactions, high slippage, front-running bots, and high gas fees. These issues are a result of users being close to the blockchain. The IDEX Hybrid Liquidity approach attempts to smooth out these issues while still maintaining the core ethos of a DEX - remaining non-custodial.

    Supporting links:

    Bobby Lee

    Ballet Crypto

    Bobby On Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Bobby Lee & The Promise of Bitcoin, the future of money and how it can work for you May 05, 2021

    Bobby Lee is the Founder of Ballet Crypto, co-founder of BTCChina, and he is the author of a superb new book called The Promise of Bitcoin: The Future of Money and How It Can Work for You.

    Why you should listen:

    With a software engineering and computer science background, Bobby Lee has always been technologically inclined. So when his brother Charlie Lee introduced Bobby to Bitcoin in 2011, he understood its significance immediately. After dedicating himself to Bitcoin for the last ten years, Bobby has written a book that tells his story and explains why Bitcoin’s journey has only just begun.

    Key takeaway:

    Bobby says that understanding and projecting the value of Bitcoin can be daunting - while the path is never a straight line, Bitcoin continues to grow in interest and appreciate in value. While Bitcoin is still working out its kinks - corporations and governments are likely to become more interested in Bitcoin, and interested in acquiring it as an asset.

    Supporting links:

    Bobby Lee

    Ballet Crypto

    Bobby On Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Crypto Bank - The rise of Celsius Network May 04, 2021

    Camilla Churcher is the Global Head of Business Development at Celsius Network.

    Why you should listen:

    After a successful career in traditional finance with stints at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America, Camilla made the move into crypto. She has been at Celsius since March 2020.

    Camilla sees crypto regulations as a positive that allow more users and institutions to enter the crypto ecosystem. She thinks there is a 75% chance that a Bitcoin ETF is approved in 2021.

    Key takeaway: The Celsius platform lets users earn interest on their crypto assets and use it as collateral to get fiat loans. Celsius offers a platform of curated financial services and can be thought of as a crypto bank. Their goal is to disrupt the financial industry, one user at a time, and introduce financial freedom through crypto. Supporting links:

    Celsius Network

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Josh Olszewicz - How to invest in Techemy Capital's non-custodial portfolios on Enzyme Apr 29, 2021

    Techemy Capital has launched two actively managed portfolios that allow investors to gain exposure to BTC/ETH price action and the DeFi sector. Trades are executed by Techemy Capital’s Josh Olszewicz. Investors can take advantage of crypto price moves without having to trade themselves - and because Techemy’s products are non-custodial - without releasing control of their assets.

    Guest:

    Josh Olszewicz

    Why you should listen:

    Trader Josh Olszewicz joins Andy to talk about the two actively managed portfolios that Techemy Capital has deployed on Enzyme Finance. Individuals can invest into the portfolios in a non-custodial manner that gives them exposure to Josh’s professional trading strategies.

    Key takeaway:

    Enzyme Finance is an on-chain asset management platform. Because everything is on-chain all trades are transparent and recorded on the blockchain. Rather than have to learn the stress of trading themselves, investors can simply buy into either portfolio and capture the gains or losses that the portfolios achieve over time. Investors can enter or leave the portfolios at any time.

    Supporting links:

    Techemy Capital

    Enzyme Finance

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    EIP 1559 - What it means for Ethereum users, investors, and miners Apr 27, 2021

    Market optimism around the soon-to-be-implemented Ethereum Improvement Proposal, EIP1559, is high. The Ethereum EIP will arrive as a part of the London network Hard Fork in July and will overhaul Ethereum’s fee structure. Andy is joined by Brave New Coin analyst Aditya Das to discuss the implications of EIP1559 for users, investors, and miners.

    Guest:

    Aditya Das

    Why you should listen:

    EIP1559 was first proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2018. It will replace the variable first-price auction model currently used to decide Ethereum transaction fees with a more deterministic base fee model. It is hoped this will remove much of the volatility and uncertainty associated with paying the Gas fees required to successfully conduct a transaction on the network. It will also introduce a fee burn model for each transaction, that may add a deflationary element to the ETH currency and increase its appeal as a safe-haven, hard asset.

    Key takeaway:

    EIP1559 will solve four key problems with the current gas model:

    1. Making transaction fees more predictable
    2. Reducing delays in transaction confirmation
    3. Improving user experience by automating the fee bidding system
    4. Creating a positive feedback loop between network activity and the ETH supply.
    Supporting links:

    EIP 1559

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Viberate - Are NFTs & Tokens the future of music? Apr 22, 2021

    Vasja Veber is the co-founder of music tech company Viberate. Vibrate has been building blockchain solutions for the music industry since 2017 and are positioning as market leaders in the music data sector. They have just entered the NFT space. Techno DJ UMEK is also a co-founder and is about to execute a live event NFT.

    Guest:

    Vasja Veber

    Why you should listen:

    On April 29 Viberate co-founder and Techno producer UMEK will mint the first-ever live performance and live stream NFT. If the release is successful, Viberate plans to enable their half a million verified artists database to mint gig NFTs, secure future bookings, and create a new revenue stream.

    Key takeaway:

    With this drop, UMEK aims to disrupt the live event industry, minting the first-ever live gig NFT and the first-ever livestream NFT, as well as minting three unique remixes of his track Lanicor.

    During the pandemic, UMEK, like all touring artists, has resorted to live streams and online fan interaction. Still searching for new ways of expression and exploring the digital space, he wants to push the boundaries of NFTs and create something unique. With the live gig NFT, he aims to disrupt the booking industry and offer promoters and artists a safety net until events are up and running again. Live streams have proven they’re here to stay. NFTs have the power to create a brand new market for them, offering musicians a new revenue stream and enabling fans to support and book their favorites.

    Supporting links:

    Vibrate

    UMEK NFT

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Immutable X - The first Layer 2 for NFTs on Ethereum Apr 19, 2021

    Robbie Ferguson is the co-founder of Immutable, best known for launching the Gods Unchained blockchain game, one of the most successful blockchain games in the wild. Robbie is now focused on Immutable X, a decentralized gas-free layer-2 protocol for Ethereum NFTs.

    Guest:

    Robbie Ferguson

    Why you should listen:

    Immutable X is the first Layer 2 scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. It seeks to solve the key challenges facing the Ethereum NFT ecosystem such as scaling, UX, fees, and environmental impact. Immutable X has instant trade confirmation, massive scalability (9,000 TPS+), and zero gas fees - without compromising user custody. The largest NFT marketplace OpenSea is one of many NFT projects working with or supporting Immutable X including: SuperfarmDAO (defi NFT farm), Epics.GG (collectibles), Illuvium (auto battler RPG), Lucid Sight (MLB Champions Baseball, Crypto Space Commander), War Riders (post-apocalyptic MMO), Gods Unchained (TCG), Guild of Guardians (mobile RPG), and Mintable (NFT marketplace).

    Key takeaway:

    Robbie is a passionate supporter of the Ethereum community. He says it best represents the philosophy of trustless, decentralized asset ownership. It has prioritized decentralization and network health over short-term scalability upgrades. Immutable X lets projects stay on Ethereum while massively boosting their scalability and liquidity.

    Supporting links:

    Immutable

    The Three-Body Problem

    The Culture Series

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Sergey Nazarov on Chainlink 2.0 - The next generation of hybrid smart contracts Apr 18, 2021

    Chainlink has released a new whitepaper called Chainlink 2.0: Next Steps in the Evolution of Decentralized Oracle Networks. The new whitepaper outlines an ambitious vision for the future of smart contracts. We talk with Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov who explains the implications for the next generation of blockchain ecosystems.

    Guest:

    Sergey Nazarov

    Why you should listen:

    Chainlink’s new whitepaper outlines a long-term, multi-year vision for the future of oracle-enabled smart contracts. The paper states that “Decentralized Oracle Networks will create a decentralized meta-layer that enhances smart contracts with highly scalable, confidential, and secure forms of off-chain computation, in addition to the external data feeds that Chainlink powers today.”

    Key takeaway:

    The Chainlink 2.0 Whitepaper is over 100 pages long and represents a year of work by the Chainlink team. It was written by a team of academic researchers from computer science fields such as security, cryptography, distributed systems, game theory, and mathematics. The paper outlines a new architecture for building hybrid smart contracts where Decentralized Oracle Networks offer all of the capabilities that blockchains cannot, serving as an off-chain computation layer that is anchored to blockchains for security while operating with the feature-richness and scalability of off-chain systems. The new layer enables a product suite of Chainlink Decentralized Services that power a variety of secure, smart contract applications capable of supporting a wider set of use cases than is currently available today.

    Supporting links:

    Chainlink

    Chainlink 2.0 whitepaper

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Wall Street Bets Dapp - YOLO together as one Apr 16, 2021

    Jaime Rogozinski was the original founder of the r/wallstreetbets subreddit. WSB is notorious for its community of young traders who executed risky trading strategies. WSB played a key role in the GameStop short squeeze that caused losses on short positions in U.S. firms topping US$70 billion in early 2021. VIX is the CEO of the new WSB Dapp, a decentralized Dapp that is launching a token. Token funds will be used by a WSB DAO to buy token portfolios (ETPs) voted on by the community.

    Guest:

    Jaime Rogozinski and VIXX

    Why you should listen:

    The Wall Street Bets subreddit is described as "Like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal." Known for its aggressive trading strategies, members are generally young retail traders prepared to take on high amounts of risk. The community is fond of meme stocks that capture the zeitgeist. The subreddit is also known for its memes, with traders self-identifying as degenerate apes who trade stonks for tendies (profits).

    Key takeaway:

    The WSB movement for financial democracy began on Reddit and has become a global phenomenon. The WSB Dapp was created to give this decentralized community a tool to voice their opinions as retail investors so that anyone, anywhere can YOLO together as one.

    The WSB Dapp allows for index-fund type instruments to exist on the blockchain. $WSB governance token holders vote to decide on the rebalancing and exposure of each community-controlled instrument. The ETPs are wholly collateralized, instantly redeemable, and self-custodial.

    Supporting links:

    WSB Dapp

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    How Framework Ventures became one of the biggest DeFi funds Apr 14, 2021

    Michael Anderson is a co-founder and partner at Framework Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on building the value of blockchain networks through strategic investment and infrastructural support. Before founding Framework, Michael built and sold Hashletes the first and only NFLPA-licensed digital collectibles, with co-founder Vance Spencer. Michael’s prior experience bridges investment banking and consumer tech, with experience from Snap, Inc., Dropbox, and Barclays Capital.

    Guest:

    Michael Anderson

    Why you should listen:

    Framework Ventures is a team of technologists, researchers, and investors who participate in open crypto networks to build open-source finance. Framework is a technology company, building products and services to support the open blockchain networks that they invest in. The firm has backed many key companies in the decentralized finance space, including Synthetix, Chainlink, Aave, and The Graph.

    Key takeaway:

    Framework Ventures believes a new age of venture capital is here. They call this thesis Network Capital. Rather than just hold onto an asset, this type of investing aims to be more hands-on. In the new era of open-source decentralized finance, the best investing requires a new hybrid model where stakeholders are investing, market-making, staking, validating, and participating across all aspects of the ecosystem.

    Supporting links:

    Framework Ventures

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    The problem with NFTs and the Aleph NFT backup dApp Apr 13, 2021

    Jonathan is the lead developer and ceo of Aleph - Aleph is a cloud computing platform that makes it easy for DeFi and Web3 dapps to securely access trusted off-chain data or computation. One of their current projects is working to solve the problem of NFT security standards and ownership.

    Guest:

    Jonathan

    Why you should listen:

    Many NFTs point to a URL on the internet or an IPFS hash. In many circumstances, this references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from. the URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file. The problem with that is that if the marketplace goes bust… so does your NFT.

    Key takeaway:

    Aleph has a solution - just like an Internet wayback machine backs up website versions over time, Aleph creates snapshots of NFTs at a certain point in time. Using decentralized storage capacities, the Aleph NFT Backup dApp allows any holder to save their NFT content on the Aleph network that is secured currently by nodes which all are incentivized to store the data and pin it on IPFS. The Interplanetary File System, or IPFS, is used by most NFT minting platforms to store their NFTs.

    Supporting links:

    Aleph

    The problem with NFTs

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Self-Sovereign - Ontology is building a decentralized identity solution Apr 08, 2021

    Li Jun is the founder of Ontology, a decentralized system that protects data integrity and security. After launching its mainnet in June 2018, Ontology has continued to press forward, building a key partnership with Daimler.

    Guest:

    Li Jun

    Why you should listen:

    Ever since the early days of the internet, questions have swirled about the nature of our online selves. We all have large digital footprints that represent your digital identity, fragmented, unrecognizable, and trackable. We have provided social networks and service providers with our most valuable asset — our information — and we’ve done so free of charge.

    Ontology wants to change this. Blockchain’s ability to store information on either a public or private network enables key parties to access critical information, and then only what the individual allows. This way, the power is placed back into the hands of the individual, where they can choose who they share their data with, and to what extent.

    Key takeaway:

    The solution is a concept called Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), which places control of personal information with the user, enabling them to log in to all of their online services using just one ID. No more forgotten passwords or having to hand over all your personal information; this is a concept that could dramatically change how we use the internet.

    Supporting links:

    Ontology

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    YIELD - Bridging FinTech and DeFi Apr 06, 2021

    Tim Frost is the CEO of YIELD App. The YIELD mission is to provide anyone with access to the best investment opportunities, regardless of their financial or technical knowledge. The YIELD platform is a bridge between FinTech and DeFi.

    Guest:

    Tim Frost

    Why you should listen:

    YIELD is a FinTech company that enables anyone to invest in decentralized finance with the touch of a button. This allows users around the world to earn returns from DeFi products without having to go through a complex learning process.

    Key takeaway:

    App users can deposit and withdraw stablecoins USDT and USDC, as well as the native YLD token. The team is now working on YIELD 2.0 which will bring new improvements and updates.

    Supporting links:

    YIELD

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Is Binance Smart Chain an Ethereum killer? Mar 29, 2021

    The Binance Smart Chain is a fork of Ethereum. However, BSC transactions are much faster and cheaper than Ethereum. As a result, it is onboarding millions of users at an eye-watering pace. Brave New Coin’s Aditya Das joins Andy to answer the question - Is Binance Smart Chain an Ethereum killer?

    Why you should listen:

    The Binance Smart Chain is cheaper and faster than Ethereum by an order of magnitude. However, this speed comes at the cost of decentralization. Binance CEO CZ calls this ‘CeDeFi’ or Centralized DeFi, DeFi with training wheels.

    Key takeaway:

    As the Binance Smart Chain is a fork of Ethereum, it uses popular tools like MetaMask that any user who has experimented with Ethereum is likely to be familiar with. In addition, the BEP20 smart contract standard for issuing new tokens on BSC is similar to the ERC20 smart contract standard that was originally developed for Ethereum. As a fork of Ethereum, the BSC can also run the same smart contracts that Ethereum can. This has helped the network bootstrap quickly by forking popular existing Ethereum DeFi protocols. For example, Uniswap becomes PancakeSwap, Compound becomes Venus and Zapper becomes Yield Watch.

    Supporting links:

    Is BSC the Ethereum Killer?

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Unslashed Finance - Insuring crypto to hedge risk Mar 28, 2021

    Marouane Hajji is the protocol lead at Unslashed Finance, a decentralized insurance protocol built on Ethereum. Insurance is a part of the decentralized finance stack that has received less attention. However, crypto is no different from any other industry - there are many risks. Smart contract hacks, exploits, oracle manipulation, data breaches, theft, and so on. Creating an insurance protocol requires both technical skills and a deep understanding of risk modeling.

    Why you should listen:

    Unslashed clients include decentralized exchange aggregator ParaSwap, infrastructure provider Lido Finance, decentralized on-chain asset management platform Enzyme, and several crypto hedge funds such as Techemy Capital who leverage insurance to hedge a certain number of risks. Individual traders can also use Unslashed to hedge their risk profiles.

    Key takeaway:

    Unslashed uses a quantitative approach to model the risks and build out a decentralized insurance protocol that enables almost instant liquidity to insurance buyers and risk underwriters, ensures constant collateralization, and guarantees transparency.

    In the Crypto Conversation hot take round Marouane reveals that he is a mega-fan of Battlestar Galactica.

    Supporting links:

    Unslashed Finance

    Unslashed on Medium

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Crypto Tax solution for Kiwi Crypto Traders Mar 25, 2021

    Craig MacGregor is the founder of Taxoshi, a cryptocurrency tax calculator that helps Kiwis understand their crypto tax position. Taxoshi’s algorithms automate the currency conversions and calculate your trading and mining loss and profit in accordance with the cryptocurrency guidance from the New Zealand IRD. Use the discount code “bravenewcoin” to get a 10% discount if you use Taxoshi.

    Why you should listen:

    Craig has been in the blockchain space for a number of years and is a co-founder of the Navcoin project. After making some capital gains from early crypto trading, Craig wanted to declare these to the IRD. He saw that there was a need for a simple solution that could help other Kiwis calculate their tax position quickly and easily. He built Taxoshi as that solution.

    Key takeaway:

    The IRD’s position is that any time an individual makes a crypto to crypto trade, that is a taxable event that should be declared. The IRD estimates that there are between 25,000 and 100,000 people in New Zealand who have a tax obligation on their crypto assets. If you’ve never filed before, the IRD is currently allowing for voluntary disclosures from previous years.

    Supporting links:

    Taxoshi

    Navcoin

    IRD Crypto Tax Guidance

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    BitClout, ATMs, & Crypto Security with Rich Sanders Mar 23, 2021

    Richard Sanders is a co-founder and lead investigator at CipherBlade, an elite blockchain investigation agency that works closely with top crypto exchanges, blockchain protocols, and the FBI. In this episode, Rich explains his views on the sometimes shady world of crypto ATM operators, the confusing new BitClout platform, and we cover best practice crypto security tips.

    Guest:

    Rich Sanders

    Why you should listen:

    CipherBlade uses a potent mix of on-chain and off-chain analytics and investigative techniques to track the most sophisticated cybercriminals on the planet. Using these techniques he has been tracking the transactions from crypto ATMs. Rich says many of these transactions are being sent to wallets linked to scammers.

    Key takeaway:

    Rich says just because VCs are involved with a project, it doesn’t mean retail investors won’t get burned. In fact, the ones with public team members are the soft exits that often end up mismanaged/shady. People think of this binary, like "it's a scam or not", where "scam" is defined as rug pull, it's a lot more nuanced.

    The range of scammers and bad actors in the blockchain ecosystem runs the full gamut from the lowest to the highest basket of sophistication. The least sophisticated are Twitter and Telegram impersonation scammers, often based out of Nigeria. Many of these scammers don’t use VPNs, they don't always use mixers and sometimes they use direct deposit addresses for exchanges. At the other end of the scale, you have very sophisticated hacking groups out of North Korea that use sophisticated mixing and crypto hopping techniques. What scammers have in common is they play on human greed, stupidity, and laziness.

    Supporting links:

    CipherBlade

    Richard on Twitter

    Guide to Crypto Scams

    Breach vectors used by scammers

    What to do if you get SIM-Swapped

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    Samson Mow on Blockstream, Seetee, Bitcoin Mining, NFTs & Infinite Fleet Mar 22, 2021

    Andy is joined by Samson Mow, CSO at Blockstream. Samson discusses the partnership between Blockstream and Seetee, a new Bitcoin company started by a 100-year-old company from Norway. He talks about the drop in hash power from Chinese miners as American miners increase, and he explains why he thinks Bitcoin will hit $100k in 2021 and could go even as high as $300K leaving $100K as the new price floor.

    Why you should listen:

    Two weeks ago, Aker, a 100-year old Norwegian company announced that it had established ("Seetee"), a new company dedicated to investing in projects throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem. Seetee said, “Bit­coin has in­spired us to chal­lenge our in­tu­itive un­der­stand­ing of money. Hav­ing fol­lowed the cryp­tocur­ren­cy dis­course for a while, we de­cid­ed to reach out to the en­gi­neers who made it their mis­sion to change the inner work­ings of mon­ey more than two decades ago. See­tee has formed a part­ner­ship with Block­stream, a glob­al leader in Bit­coin and blockchain tech­nol­o­gy. Blockstream’s lead­er­ship in­cludes Adam Back, the in­ven­tor of Hash­cash, a 1997 pre­cur­sor to Bit­coin. With Block­stream as our part­ner, we are confi­dent that we can nav­i­gate this in­dus­try.”

    Key Takeaway:

    Samson talks Blockstream, Liquid, why NFTs might be in a bubble and he gives the background and progress to Infinite Fleet, the epic sci-fi massively multiplayer online (MMO) strategy game he founded. Plus listen to the end of the show for a very special sci-fi easter egg!

    Supporting links:

    Blockstream

    Seetee Letter

    Infinite Fleet

    Seetee Ship

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Mintable - An NFT auction of a 96 year-old painting by Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine Mar 19, 2021

    Andy is joined by Zack Burks, CEO at the Mintable NFT marketplace, and Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine, grandson of the legendary Ukrainian, Russian and French painter. Mintable is hosting an exclusive NFT based collection of 10 drops, 4 auctions, and 1 original 96-year-old physical painting, all by Baranoff-Rossine. It’s a historic first where avant-garde art meets the brave new world of NFTs.

    Guests:

    Zach Burks and Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine

    Why you should listen:

    Zach and Wladimir have teamed up to create a collaboration that represents a piece of fine art and NFT history. The Mintable auction goes live on March 25 and is expected to attract interest from digital art collectors, the NFT ecosystem, and fine art connoisseurs. Listen to the episode to hear Zach talk about the new NFT creator economy, why we are not in an NFT bubble, and Wladimir explains the unique history of the pioneering artwork of his grandfather.

    Supporting links:

    Mintable

    Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Building a better Internet with Syntropy Mar 18, 2021

    Jonas Simanavicius is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Syntropy. Syntropy, based in San Francisco, transforms the public internet into a secure and user-centric internet, where encryption and optimized performance are built-in and automatically enabled for anything and everything connected to it.

    Guest:

    Jonas Simanavicius

    Why you should listen:

    Prior to founding Syntropy, Jonas worked on the engineering and application development teams of Royal Bank of Scotland and JPMorgan Chase. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.

    Syntropy Stack is a collection of tech and tools that allows anyone to build and deploy applications on Syntropy, with all connections optimized-for-performance and encrypted-by-default. It is compatible across millions of devices and services, including cloud, on-premise, and edge infrastructure. Syntropy Stack gives every developer the power and control to build on Syntropy’s unifying layer.

    Supporting links:

    Syntropy

    Syntropy Stack

    Jonas on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Alex Mashinsky (Celsius) returns - Unbank Yourself again! Mar 16, 2021

    Alex Mashinsky is the CEO and founder of Celsius, the platform that lets you earn interest on your crypto and use it as collateral to get fiat loans. Celsius offers a platform of curated services that have been abandoned by big banks – fair interest, zero fees, and fast transactions. Their goal is to disrupt the financial industry, one user at a time, and introduce financial freedom through crypto.

    Guest:

    Alex Mashinsky

    Why you should listen:

    Alex explains the successful journey that has seen users deposit $10B in assets with Celsius. The Celsius token was one of the best-performing crypto assets in 2020.

    Key takeaway:

    Alex says Celsius is a supporter of DeFi and they are the bigger user of Aave, as one example. Celsius is aimed at noobs or everyday holders of Bitcoin and Ethereum and allows them to generate yield or get loans without the risk and knowledge barrier of DeFi.

    Supporting links:

    Leverj

    Celsius

    Previous podcast with Alex

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

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    Hold, Yield, & Hedge - How professional investors catch the upside & protect the downside Mar 16, 2021

    Dr. Marc Fleury is the founder and CEO of Two Prime, a digital assets investment firm that invests in BTC and ETH. Marc has a PHD in theoretical physics and he is an open-source evangelist. Two Prime uses a variety of sophisticated hedging strategies to help high net worth individuals gain exposure to the upside potential of BTC and ETH but remain hedged against downside risk.

    Why you should listen:

    Dr. Marc Fleury joins Andy for a fascinating and wide ranging discussion on why Bitcoin is the most important decentralized, open-source project on the planet. Marc explains why he is involved with the Mont Pèlerin Society, a group of economists and intellectuals advocating for an open society and economy driven by free-market principles, personal and political liberty, and freedom of expression. Marc shares his views on post-capitalism, UBI, a world of abundance, and how we evolve to a sci-fi future.

    Supporting links:

    Two Prime

    Universal Paperclips

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    MemeFarm is bringing the memes to NFTs & DeFi Mar 11, 2021

    Mark Berisha is the CEO of APECoin and the MemeFarm and BustAbnb ecosystems. APECoin embraces the humor and viral nature of memes to bring new participants into crypto. Apecoin is developing a game called “Bust-a-BNB” for Binance Smart Chain (BSC). An airdrop will occur for existing APE holders on March 14. GO APE!

    Why you should listen:

    The exponential growth of DeFi in the past nine months has sparked a flood of experimentation in smart-contract and Dapp design. The APEcoin Dev team realized the world is already farming memes, and created MemeFarm.io to get involved.

    Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) can extend digital scarcity beyond currency to art, music, and design — any other form of expression that can be digitized. Suddenly, the control of scarcity and the ability to create a single verifiably unique version of anything digital is in the hands of the artists and creators where it belongs.

    Today, artists and makers have few choices as to how they commercialize their NFTs. They can either find buyers themselves or set up an auction through platforms like Rarible — where their success will depend on how well they market their creations and how hard they work to establish a market price.

    Mark thinks there is a better way. They could bootstrap the price discovery through a novel curation farming mechanic. Mark calls it the NFT DAO, and it could revolutionize how these trends interact on a whole new level.

    NFT DAO offers a new choice to makers and artists:

    • They can submit their NFTs to the NFT DAO. MemeFarm token holders vote to accept or reject submitted NFTs.
    • The artists of the accepted NFTs then receive their share of NFT DAO’s monthly rewards. And the farmers compete to ‘mine’ those NFTs.
    Supporting links:

    APEcoin

    Meme Farm

    BustABNB

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Why a Norwegian billionaire wrote 2021's most bullish Bitcoin letter Mar 10, 2021

    Norwegian Billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke says that Aker ASA, his Norwegian fishing, oil, and engineering company has established Seetee, a new company dedicated to investing in projects and companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Seetee will keep all its liquid investable assets in bitcoin.

    To announce this decision, Mr Røkke wrote a letter to shareholders. The letter is one of the most bullish Bitcoin letters published this year and points towards the changing narratives around Bitcoin mining and how Bitcoin may help speed up the global transition to renewable energy.

    Supporting links:

    The Letter

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Why the NFT frothiness is good for crypto Mar 08, 2021

    NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is one of the most exciting narratives in crypto in 2021. The collectible digital art world has exploded with some pieces selling for millions of dollars. The market is frothy and might be in bubble territory but over the next decade, NFTs have the potential to bring millions of people into crypto and help build out the metaverse.

    Guest:

    Aditya Das

    Why you should listen:

    Aditya Das is a blockchain analyst and researcher at Brave New Coin. He joins Andy to discuss NFTs. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique, digital assets that can be owned, bought, sold, and traded on a blockchain. A non-fungible token is a type of cryptographic token that represents something unique. People often refer to them as “Provably rare digital assets.”

    If we are going to build a Ready Player One metaverse, it is important that it is built on a neutral platform where individuals can own their own items and not be at risk of censorship. If one central company gains control of the metaverse, it will become more powerful than any government and be a god on Earth.

    Key takeaway:

    Right now, NFTs mostly exist in the world of art, music, and gaming. But It’s about to get a whole lot crazier, with NFTs poised to explode across the digital economy.

    The NFT art scene has boomed in the last few months. Marketplaces like SuperRare, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway are seeing record volumes.

    In January, a piece of artwork by Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist also known as Beeple, sold for $6.6 million at Nifty Gateway.

    A digital art piece by Beeple called The First 5000 Days is being auctioned by Christie’s. The current bid is USD 3,750,000, and the auction closes in 4 days.

    People are finding new ways to tokenize anything digital. You can now buy tweets as NFTs and Jack Dorsey’s original tweet is valued at USD 2.5 million.

    Supporting links:

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    CME Ether Futures - The Institutional Futures Market Mar 03, 2021

    CME Group has launched its Ether Futures product offering. The new contract is cash-settled, and based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate. Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products, joins Andy to talk Ether Futures.

    Guest:

    Tim McCourt

    Why you should listen:

    Andy and Tim discuss the CME Futures markets, the role of futures in global price discovery, and how market participants use Futures to hedge their positions. Tim says, “Based on increasing client demand for our Bitcoin futures and options markets, we see the addition of Ether futures as a valuable tool to trade and hedge this growing cryptocurrency. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by both market capitalization and daily volume. The introduction of listed Ether futures will help create a forward curve so Ethereum market participants can better manage price risk.” Tim McCourt serves as CME Group’s Managing Director and Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products. He is responsible for leading the development and execution of the company’s global Equity Index, Commodity Index, and Cryptocurrency product strategies. He serves on the CME Ventures Investment Committee and the S&P Dow Jones Indices U.S. Advisory Panel.

    Key takeaway:

    Andy asked Tim how CME Group thinks about open-source decentralized protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Tim said, “When we look at cryptocurrencies we think it’s interesting in the way they are pushing out the frontier of finance. CME Group is a two-century-old institution with an innovative history itself. We’ve introduced all sorts of innovative financial products across that 200-year history. So when we see new technologies that can help our clients engage with markets in new ways, we adapt and innovate, and look for new ways to serve the risk management needs of our customers. I think it’s exciting and interesting and I look forward to seeing how this continues to evolve.”

    Supporting links:

    CME Group

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    REKT Capital - Bitcoin, Altcoins, and Number Go Up Mar 03, 2021

    Rekt Capital, a Forbes featured crypto technical analyst and trader returns for his third appearance on the Crypto Conversation. With Bitcoin and Ethereum continuing to hit new all-time highs, REKT and Andy discuss the current bull market.

    Guest:

    Rekt Capital

    Why you should listen:

    Rekt Capital is an astute analyst who specializes in technical analysis and trading psychology. He has written several research articles analyzing the effect of the Bitcoin Halving, and the Crypto Money Flow Cycle to track the movement of capital from Bitcoin to mid-caps to small-caps and back.

    Key takeaway:

    Andy and REKT talk about the psychological toll that crypto volatility can have on traders, what new investors to crypto need to know, and the clever ways that Elon Musk and Michael Saylor influence the markets.

    Want to get $20 OFF Rekt Capital’s Technical Analysis course? Simply follow this link and use the discount code “cryptoconversation” in the Discount Code field.

    Supporting links:

    The Bitcoin Halving with REKT Capital

    What to expect from the 2021 Bull Cycle

    The Dash Market Cycle

    Bitcoin Corrections

    REKT Capital Trading Course

    Rekt Capital Newsletter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Bull Market is Back - Bitcoin’s Strength Continues Mar 01, 2021

    Josh Olszewicz, lead analyst at Brave New Coin joins Andy to discuss the recent crypto correction and today’s recovery. Is the correction over? Will the bull run continue? Is the NFT boom a sign of market froth?

    Why you should listen:

    Josh and Andy share their plans for creating more crypto content as a response to the growing audience demand that a bull market generates.

    For crypto investors wanting to copy trade Josh, there’s an easy solution via Techemy Capital’s holistic ETH/BTC portfolio via Enzyme Finance.

    Key takeaway:

    After a swift run up in price, you should expect a swift correction. We’ve had two 30%+ corrections this year, however, this is normal in a bull market. Bitcoin continues to look strong with a series of bullish news events driving new buyers to Bitcoin.

    Supporting links:

    Josh on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Techemy Capital launches DeFi ETP on Balancer Feb 25, 2021

    Techemy Capital has launched Decentralized Exchange-Traded Portfolios (ETPs) on Balancer, starting with a DeFi ETP. We’re joined by Techemy Capital CEO Fran Strajnar, and Balancer CEO Fernando Martinelli who discuss why these ETPs are a potential game-changer, how to invest, and what this means for DeFi.

    Guests:

    Fran Strajnar and Fernando Martinelli

    Why you should listen:

    “Digital asset investors and traders are seeking more advanced ways to gain exposure to popular DeFi assets,” says Fran Strajnar, CEO at Techemy Capital. “BNC’s DeFi Index and ETP provides this, all with industry-leading security, transparency, and speed. Rather than having to pick one DeFi winner and hope for the best, investors can now get exposure to the success of the entire sector.”

    Fernando says it is validating to see funds such as Techemy Capital be early adopters of Balancer. "We're about to launch Balancer V2 which will bring massive gains in cost efficiency for gas fees. It's an exciting time for crypto and for DeFi and brilliant to see Techemy Capital provide a use case for Balancer that we foresaw from day one.”

    Key takeaway:

    The DeFi ETP is a physical representation of Brave New Coin’s Blue-Chip DeFi Index ( a portfolio of 8 key assets). The DeFi ETP gives traders non-synthetic exposure to assets in the BNC DeFi Blue-Chip Index: Yearn Finance ($YFI), Compound Finance ($COMP), Aave Protocol ($AAVE), MakerDAO ($MKR), Synthetix ($SNX), Uniswap ($UNI), SushiSwap ($SUSHI) and Uma Project ($UMA).

    Issued on Balancer Protocol, the new DeFi ETP mimics the constitution and weights of the BNC Blue-Chip DeFi Index. It is rebalanced in alignment with the index, providing traders an opportunity to get non-synthetic exposure to the assets that make up the index, and/or to speculate or arbitrage between the price parity of the index-powered perpetual swaps [offered by third parties such as BTSE] and the spot market for the ETP.

    The DeFi ETP is non-custodial, transparent, on-chain, wholly collateralized, highly liquid, and instantly redeemable.

    Supporting links:

    Techemy Capital

    Balancer

    Previous Techemy Capital podcast

    Previous Balancer podcast

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    TOKES - How Blockchain helps the Cannabis Industry Feb 22, 2021

    Multichain Ventures is the parent company of The Tokes Platform. Multichain produces blockchain-focused products including cryptocurrency-based payment processing and supply chain visibility tools for the cannabis industry.

    Guests:

    Michael Wagner and Pablo Quiroga

    Why you should listen:

    The Tokes Platform builds software solutions for the merchant adoption of cryptocurrency and the data provenance of supply chains in the legal cannabis industry. The platform was developed as a solution to the cash-only problem caused by federal prohibition resulting in banking restrictions. To solve this issue, Tokes created software for tokenized transactions encompassing consumer to business, business to business, and business to state transactions. Blockchain provides utility for more than payments, as ensuring the provenance and transparency of cannabis supply chain data from seed-to-sale is not only a preferred scenario for consumers but regulated by state agencies. Tokes produces supply chain visibility solutions on blockchain for integration with seed-to-sale software to ensure the accuracy and availability of cannabis data for regulators and business stakeholders.

    Key takeaway:

    Multichain recently secured a public sector contract with the State of Nevada to fulfill the requirements of Assembly Bill 466. The Bill creates a Pilot Program and legal framework within which legal cannabis entities and supporting businesses can eliminate the necessity of transacting exclusively in cash, through the implementation of blockchain-based services. Multichain’s contributions to the B466 date back to 2018. Early discussions centered on a variety of potential alternative solutions to issues facing cannabis operators and how tokenized ecosystems might help solve these issues.

    Multichain is working on Star Atlas, a space-themed metaverse of grand strategy, open world exploration, territorial conquest, and political domination. Underlying technology consists of the latest in hi-fidelity game development, Unreal Engine, stunning visuals, and a blockchain baselayer utilizing Solana. The metaverse represents an alternative world of economic and political strategy, with the ability to generate real-world wealth transcending video game assets.

    Supporting links:

    Tokes Platform

    Multichain Ventures

    Star Atlas

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The DeFi Inflection Point - How Decentralized Finance goes mainstream Feb 15, 2021

    Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink where he is spearheading the smart contract oracle revolution. In this podcast, Sergey lays out his current thinking on DeFi (Decentralized Finance), how it improves on CeFi, the role of oracles in decentralized finance, and the fast and slow cases on what is needed for DeFi to go mainstream. Sergey says “decentralized finance is the thing that people want. They just don't know that they want it yet.”

    Guest:

    Sergey Nazarov

    Why you should listen:

    Sergey says the recent Robinhood r/Wallstreetbets phenomenon has injected new realizations into society's collective consciousness. People are waking up to the realization that in the legacy financial system - they don't have full control of their financial assets and trading accounts. And they have seen that the ability of the average person to participate in a system that they were told was fair can be taken away by those who hold the power.

    Sergey says that in the financial world if enough people believe in something, it starts to occur. If enough people decide to buy GameStop stock, something happens. If enough people decide to shift from one platform to another, something significant happens.

    Social media, digital platforms, and decentralized blockchain applications make fast collective action possible in new ways. DeFi is the system that people want. Sergey thinks it is only a matter of time before this becomes self-evident and people begin to move to DeFi applications at scale.

    Key takeaway:

    Sergey says the increasing mainstream adoption of DeFi will happen through the search for yield and the transparency and control of one's assets.

    With fiat interest rates low and the returns of DeFi much higher, eventually, even the legacy financial system is likely to build interfaces that flow value into DeFi to capture yield. Everybody wants to at least maintain their wealth. And so any place where they can do that will become popular, and eventually, there will be a tipping point.

    Sergey says there is a slow case and a fast case for how this evolves. “The slow case for DeFi is what we're experiencing now, as unbelievable as that sounds going from something like 20 billion to 40 billion in assets in DeFi over the last month.”

    This is the slow case as only about 2.6% of the crypto value that could be in DeFi, is in DeFi. The slow case will be accelerated by events such as Robinhood. “It's slow because there is friction to using DeFi, but it will slowly be accelerated through better and better user interfaces. Eventually, someone will figure out a way to just make it seamless for people to interact with DeFi, and the tipping point will be reached.”

    The fast case is a rapid succession of failures in the traditional financial system. This will create a fear of counterparty risk and a newfound cynicism about the solvency of traditional financial institutions. This would lead a majority of people to seek alternatives even if there is still some friction in the DeFi user experience.

    Supporting links:

    Chainlink

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    On-chain asset management with Enzyme Finance & Techemy Capital Feb 11, 2021

    Enzyme Finance is an Ethereum-based protocol for decentralized on-chain asset management. Enzyme empowers anyone to set up, manage and invest in customized on-chain investment vehicles. Techemy Capital has launched the non-custodial Holistic ETH-BTC Portfolio on Enzyme. This actively traded portfolio provides exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum price action using Long/Short trading strategies designed and executed by Josh Olszewicz.

    Guests:

    Mona El Isa and Josh Olszewicz

    Why you should listen:

    Traditionally, starting and managing investment funds has been complicated, and costly. Enzyme Finance has disrupted the old model by making it possible for anyone to set up their own on-chain fund that others can invest in. With a 5 minute set-up time and streamlined processes, Enzyme allows anyone to create or invest in an investment fund without asking for permission. This is a game-changer because historically there have been massive barriers to entry in the fund industry, both for fund managers and investors.

    Each fund on Enzyme is transparent and on-chain and its past performance and trading history, asset allocation, and the ruleset which describes its operations are all public and available for anyone to inspect.

    Josh Olszewicz is a trader at Techemy Capital. He says that Enzyme Finance is a game-changer. “Everyone is interested in trading now. They want exposure to markets. What I like about Enzyme is that everything is open and transparent. It's effectively like on-chain copy trading.”

    The next Techemy Capital product to be released on Enzyme is an actively managed DeFi portfolio.

    Key takeaway:

    Mona says “You can think of Enzyme Finance as a technology protocol that enables fund managers to customize the set-up of their own unique fund. Managers can pre-define all sorts of rules from fees, to the number of positions, types of assets, risk management, and so on. They can build and scale investment strategies from discretionary and robo to ETFs and market-making. The protocol takes care of investments and redemptions, NAV calculations, and enforces the rules that managers have in their funds. Everything is automated using smart contracts. Users can write as many rules as they want, so they can create uniquely individual funds.”

    Supporting links:

    Enzyme Finance

    Techemy Capital

    Mona on Twitter

    Josh on Twitter

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Anthony Scaramucci - Why Bitcoin is the Monetary Network of the Future Jan 28, 2021

    Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci is best known for his short-lived, but very entertaining tenure as the White House communications director under President Trump. Anthony has had a long career in investment banking and he is the founder of Skybridge Capital, a global investment fund that has just launched the Skybridge Bitcoin fund.

    Why you should listen:

    Anthony says investors have a Eureka moment when they begin to understand that Bitcoin is a monetary network. “Just like there is a retail network, Amazon, a social network, Facebook, like there is a search network, Google. Bitcoin is the monetary network, and that makes it potentially very valuable. Think about where Apple or Amazon or Google were ten years ago, maybe that is where Bitcoin is at today.”

    Key takeaway:

    Anthony says that Bitcoin is the only thing in our society right now, where if the demand goes up, there's no increase in supply. “When people want Tesla shares, there's a sausage factory in the back of Tesla. They're printing out Tesla shares. Do people want dollars? They're printing out dollars. If oil prices are going up, we're drilling for oil everywhere to meet that demand and produce more oil, but that can’t be done for Bitcoin. And so that's the Eureka moment.”

    Anthony says that President Trump was out of control. “He was a full-on liar. He added a trillion dollars to the deficit and his legacy will be that he made our country weaker, sicker, and poorer. He had malpractice on the pandemic and then on the way out the door, he tried to undermine our democracy.”

    Anthony says that Joe Biden, “whether you like him or not, what does he represent as a pillar of Democratic party politics? He represents centrism. He represents core bureaucratic competence. To me, this was a seismic change for good. Do I love the excess regulation? I don't. Do I love a ponderous government? I don't. But do I like competent people in positions? I do. And so I like Joe Biden.”

    Supporting links:

    Skybridge Bitcoin Fund

    Anthony on Twitter

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Identity Dilemma - Selfkey is empowering individuals to take back ownership of their identity data Jan 19, 2021

    Edmund Lowell is the CEO of KYC-chain and the Selfkey network - a blockchain startup developing digital identity solutions that empower individuals to take back ownership of their identity data.

    Guest:

    Edmund Lowell

    Why you should listen:

    Everyone’s data is concentrated in the hands of a few large institutions. They store information about your browsing history, shopping habits, location data, bank statements, medical history, and more. With the growing threat of data breaches, and the loss of privacy - our information is increasingly at risk. One of the reasons for this is because rather than the individual controlling their data, it is instead tech companies and government databases that store data. This is at risk of being hacked and leaked. For example, last year hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger was data hacked. The data consisted of a list of one million email addresses, as well as a list of 272,000 individual customers, containing emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses. Those customers have since been targeted with phishing attempts by scammers sending fraudulent emails claiming that their "cryptocurrency assets are at risk", prompting them to download a fake version of Ledger Live that would then ask for the user's seed phrase.

    Key takeaway:

    Current identity systems have failed to deliver the most basic requirements for a successful identity system: security, privacy, ownership, access, protection, interoperability, or linked data portability to identity owners.

    SelfKey’s mission is to empower individuals to own, control, and manage their personal data; and to help businesses protect personal data entrusted to them by users, and stay compliant with privacy regulators. SelfKey envisions a safer world where individuals are freer because their personal data and privacy is protected and under their control.

    Supporting links:

    Selfkey

    Leverj

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Axie Infinity & the blockchain gaming play to earn revolution Jan 12, 2021

    Axie Infinity is a Pokémon-inspired blockchain-based digital pet universe where players can earn tokens through gaming. Players can battle, collect, breed, and build a kingdom for their pets. Like CryptoKitties, Axies are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represented as cryptographically unique characters that can’t be replicated. And like Pokémon, they are born to battle. While Axie can be just a game, it has built a strong social network, passionate community, and emerging jobs platform due to the play to earn opportunities it is generating.

    Guest:

    Jeff Zirlin

    Why you should listen:

    Jeff grew up playing games like Neopets, Pokémon, and World of Warcraft. “I played so much WOW that my parents sent me to boarding school,” he says. “I’ve always been a collector. As I kid my dad and I would collect fossils and insects. And as a lifelong gamer, I’m a digital collector as well, so I was predisposed to be interested in blockchain gaming.”

    The blockchain gaming play to earn revolution started to gain traction after it emerged that a large community of players in the Philippines was earning money playing Axie Infinity.

    Jeff says "Most game companies sell in-game resources, items, and upgrades. With Axie there's an in-game resource that you need to create more Axies and it's called the love potion. So most game developers would sell this love potion, and people would pay for it. In Axie we don't sell it ourselves, the only way that love potions can be created is by people playing the game. Players who have big Axie collections need the love potion to breed Axies and have to buy the token from a liquidity pool on UniSwap or from Binance. So players can earn a basic income and we've seen that with the rise in value of ETH, this can appreciate significantly.”

    Key takeaway:

    The power of blockchain games is that they're becoming more than games. They're becoming places that we can live, work, and play. The eventual vision is to create a Metaverse similar to Ready Player One where people spend the majority of their time.

    “We believe in a future where work and play become one,” says Jeff. “And we believe in empowering our players and giving them economic opportunities.”

    To do this the Axie team is committed to aligning the incentives of the Axie community. Players can earn the AXS governance token. The token economics were designed by Delphi Digital. Delphi Digital has invested a significant amount of capital in buying several extremely rare Mystic Axies. If Axie Infinity continues to gain traction Mystic Axies will grow in value in the future.

    Jeff says “We’re seeing the rise of Mystic Axies and other NFTs as a true asset class. This trend accelerated when Delphi Digital picked up some of the rarest Axies in the game, like quadruple Mystics, triple Mystics. You can think of Mystics as rare and valuable skins. It makes sense that there's a lot of interest around NFTs and it makes sense because we live in a digital world.”

    Supporting links:

    Axie Infinity

    Delphi Digital on Axie

    Leverj

    Jeff on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Andreas Antonopoulos - Why decentralized protocols are a force for good Jan 06, 2021

    The legendary Bitcoin evangelist, educator, and advocate Andreas M. Antonopoulos returns for his second appearance on the Crypto Conversation. Topics of discussion include the Ledger data breach, crypto security, the proposed new FinCEN regulations, techno-optimism, and why decentralized blockchains are a source of hope.

    Why you should listen:

    “I'm a techno-optimist,” says Antonopoulos. “I believe that technology has freed people from the constraints of the past. It has empowered individuals and improved the lives of billions. The world is a more equitable place as a result. Technology itself is a neutral tool that we can use for good or evil. You have to take the base assumption that the vast majority of human beings are good. There are exceptions, of course, but the exceptions validate this truth. Technologies that are truly decentralized and go directly into the hands of empowering individuals, they will be used by those individuals to do good. And so when I look at a technology that can be used at scale by lots of people and based on my understanding of human nature, I see immense hope. I see immense hope that if you allow people to act on their own impulses and give them power in the form of technology, the outcomes are massive good on a massive scale.”

    Key takeaway:

    Antonopoulos, never one to mince words, says the proposed FinCEN regulations are an attempt to extend a totalitarian financial surveillance structure over the entire world. “They are acting with complete disregard for the consequences and side effects on billions of innocent people,” he says. “This is wrapped up in the self-righteous and easy to sell idea that this prevents crime. Of course, they bundled in all of the worst kinds of crimes, such as terrorism and child pornography. The truth is, however, that for decades now, every study that has ever looked at the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, these kinds of customer regulations prevent a vanishingly small amount of those activities.”

    Supporting links:

    Aantonop

    Leverj

    Andreas on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Best of 2020 - Why LEVERJ is the next big thing in DeFi Jan 04, 2021

    We’re revisiting some of the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2020. In this episode, we talk to Bharath Rao and Swapman from LEVERJ, the world’s first scalable decentralized derivatives exchange​. LEVERJ is a trading platform created to perform like traditional financial exchanges while maintaining the critical function of security. Built on Gluon, a Plasma sidechain, LEVERJ is self-custodial by design, meaning that users always control their private keys and funds. Gluon is the first fully operational Ethereum Layer 2 chain, giving LEVERJ the high-transaction throughput to work as fast as centralized exchanges.

    Why you should listen:

    LEVERJ is a self-custodial decentralized derivatives exchange that provides up to 100x leverage. High speed, decentralized spot trading went live on mainnet in 2019 while futures trading went live in September. The first tradable futures products are ETH-USD and BTC-USD perpetual swaps with many more products in the pipeline.

    LEVERJ has partnered with Brave New Coin to roll out a pipeline of innovative exchange traded products. Some examples of these are sub-sector specific tradable products such as a DeFi index, a privacy coin index, volatility indices and more. “Most exchanges self-index, which introduces unnecessary risk,” says LEVERJ CEO Bharath Rao. “By partnering with Brave New Coin, we give our users more transparency in the benchmark methodology and instrument design process as well as a greatly expedited product roadmap. It’s our goal to bring the best practices of capital markets into the DeFi space, thus attracting new institutions.”

    Key takeaway:

    Interest in DeFi exploded in 2020. To cater to this demand, LEVERJ has built a high-frequency, multi-currency spot and futures trading platform.

    The explosion of DeFi in 2020 has seen Ethereum gas prices rise significantly. The huge spike in demand for transaction space on the Ethereum chain has put a strain on the Ethereum and DeFi ecosystems. Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have faced challenges with security and performance, often falling short of the standards set by traditional financial exchanges.

    LEVERJ solves these challenges with the Gluon sidechain, a mathematically rigorous protocol preventing fraud, compromise, and collusion to provide the benefits of blockchain without the limitations. Gluon is an advanced, fully operational Ethereum Layer 2 chain, giving LEVERJ high-transaction, low-latency throughput similar to centralized exchanges.

    Other developers can also build decentralized applications using Gluon, including their own decentralized exchanges.

    Gluon has been in development for over three years and is currently the only Layer 2 solution purpose-built for high-capacity trading, that has instant-finality, strong composability, and conventional APIs for sophisticated traders to feel like they are using a regular centralized exchange without counterparty risk.

    Supporting links:

    LEVERJ

    LEVERJ on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Best of 2020 - Sound Money - A hip-hop story about Bitcoin Dec 26, 2020

    We’re revisiting some of the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2020. In this episode, we talk to DJ J-SCRILLA, a critically acclaimed hip-hop producer from Washington DC. DJ J-SCRILLA has released a new hip-hop album called Sound Money that tells the story of Bitcoin. Here it is, the official hip-hop edition of the Crypto Conversation…. Yeah boi!

    Why you should listen:

    Sound Money by DJ J-SCRILLA is a body of Bitcoin art combining audio clips, samples, dirty drums and some of the hip-hop underground’s best rappers. The album serves as a soundtrack for Bitcoiners and serves up audio inspiration for no-coiners interested in the future of decentralized money. This podcast features music highlights from the album including the new crypto anthem ‘Faith In My Money (Money Printer Go Brrr)’.

    Key takeaway:

    On the hip-hop edition of the Crypto Conversation podcast, we discuss the lockdown trend that has seen top rappers engage in Instagram battles, such as the recent soundclash between DJ Premier and RZA.

    DJ J-SCRILLA says “the album is not a foolishly positive take on Bitcoin. It’s a rational angle that condemns the abuses of central banking and portrays Satoshi Nakamoto’s currency as an alternative.”

    Following the Crypto Conversation hot take round, DJ J-SCRILLA shares his top 5 hip-hop albums. Sound Money is available on major streaming services.

    Supporting links:

    Rarescrilla.com

    Money Printer Go Brrr

    DJ J-Scrilla on Twitter

    Sound Money on Spotify

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    LEVERJ

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Best of 2020 - Zero to One - Why Bitcoin is an unstoppable idea Dec 23, 2020

    We’re revisiting some of the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2020. In this episode, we talk to Robert Breedlove, one of the deepest and most insightful thinkers on Bitcoin. Robert is the author of The Number Zero and Bitcoin. Robert says Satoshi gave the world Bitcoin, a true “something for nothing.” This discovery of absolute scarcity for money is an unstoppable idea that is changing the world tremendously, just like its digital ancestor: the number zero.

    Guest:

    Robert Breedlove

    Why you should listen:

    Robert says that Satoshi gave the world Bitcoin, a true “something for nothing.” This discovery of absolute scarcity for money is an unstoppable idea that is changing the world tremendously, just like its digital ancestor: the number zero.

    Like the invention of zero, which led to the discovery of “nothing as something” in mathematics and other domains, Bitcoin is the catalyst of a worldwide paradigmatic phase change. What numeral is to number, and zero is to the void for mathematics, Bitcoin is to absolute scarcity for money: each is a symbol that allows mankind to apprehend a latent reality (in the case of money, time). More than just a new monetary technology, Bitcoin is an entirely new economic paradigm: an uncompromisable base money protocol for a global, digital, non-state economy.

    Key takeaway:

    Robert says that many believe that Bitcoin is “just one of thousands of crypto assets”—this is true in the same way that the number zero is just one of an infinite series of numbers. In reality, Bitcoin is special, and so is zero: each is an invention which led to a discovery that fundamentally reshaped its overarching system—for Bitcoin, that system is money, and for zero, it is mathematics. Since money and math are mankind’s two universal languages, both Bitcoin and zero are critical constructs for civilization.

    Zero and Bitcoin are unstoppable ideas gifted to mankind; gestures made in the spirit of “something for nothing.” In a world run by central banks with zero accountability, a cabal that uses the specious prospects of “infinite cash” to promise us everything (thereby raising the specter of hyperinflation), nothingness may prove to be the greatest gift we could ever receive…

    Supporting links:

    The Number Zero and Bitcoin

    An Open Letter to Ray Dalio

    Robert’s Tweet Storm

    Sapiens

    Interstellar

    The Sovereign Individual

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Leverj


    Best of 2020 - Cryptopia the movie - Bitcoin, Blockchains & the Future of the Internet Dec 21, 2020

    We’re revisiting some of the best Crypto Conversation podcast episodes of 2020. In this episode, we talk with Torsten Hoffmann a documentary filmmaker. His new film Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet is now available online.

    Why you should listen:

    After writing a research paper on alternative currencies as part of his MBA at Oxford University, Torsten was intrigued by Bitcoin. In 2014 he started working on Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know it, his first documentary. Hoffmann’s award-winning first film looks at Bitcoin in the context of the history of money. His new film, Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet is a bigger budget, ambitious follow up that takes a 360 wide-angle approach to the technology that may define Web 3.0.

    “Since the release of the first film, the industry has grown by a factor of 100. Bitcoin has been called one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. However, media coverage is often misinformed and the general public is still confused about the technology and its implications,” says Hoffmann. “Can this technology, designed to operate independent of trust and within a decentralized network, really provide a robust alternative? Or are cryptocurrencies just as unfairly distributed, easily manipulated, and dangerous as our current systems? That was my starting point.”

    Key takeaway:

    Filmed over two years Torsten says the new documentary has three arcs. "First we look at Bitcoin, then we look at the ecosystem, public / private blockchains and ICOs, and then we look forward at the potential of blockchain to unlock Web 3.0."

    He interviewed some of the ecosystem’s biggest brains and biggest egos including Andreas Antonopoulos, Roger Ver, Charlie Lee, Samson Mow, Craig Wright, Preethi Kasireddy, and Wences Casares.

    While the film has a global feel, with filming taking place on four continents in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Switzerland, and Melbourne, Hoffmann says the highlight of the filming schedule was being granted access to the Xapo vault located in a top secret location buried deep in the Swiss mountains.

    Founded by Bitcoin entrepreneur Wences Casares, the Xapo vault is a decommissioned military bunker dug into the mountainside in a remote part of Switzerland. Its exact location is secret, and access is protected by a complex series of security measures.

    “The bunker scene was a highlight and we are the only film crew to be allowed inside. Allegedly up to 10% of all Bitcoin private keys are stored in the Xapo vault. It was a James Bond style adventure to get clearance and film inside the bunker,” said Hoffmann.

    Supporting links:

    Cryptopia Film

    Torsten on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Leverj


    Bitcoin is above $20k - Bull market price discovery mode activated Dec 16, 2020

    Bitcoin achieved a new all-time high today of USD $20,800. Bitcoin is now in full price discovery mode and looks set to continue as the bull market heats up. With a reduction in supply following May’s halving, increasing demand from institutions, and a strong narrative that Bitcoin is a store of value, Bitcoin’s future has never looked brighter.

    Why you should listen:

    Josh says “I think that $33k by July 2021 is more viable and possible than ever. I don’t think it is likely we’ll see a bear market any time soon, we’re now in possible multi-year bull market territory. This is good for BTC, this is good for ETH, this is good for all of crypto.”

    Key takeaway:

    If you’re reading this, you are probably a bitcoiner - good for you. Give yourself a pat on the back for believing in and participating in the birth of a brand new asset class, this is just the beginning. Andy and Josh also discuss ETH, DeFi and the growing NFT and collectible digital art scene.

    Supporting links:

    Leverj

    Josh on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Sim Swap Attacks - Why it's time to review your crypto security Dec 09, 2020

    Haseeb Awan is a cellphone security expert and the CEO of efani - America's most secure & private cellphone service. Haseeb was the creator of the 1st Bitcoin ATM in the U.S.

    Why you should listen:

    Haseeb has a background in Telecom Engineering. After being targeted by a sim swapper he looked at the weaknesses in existing mobile operators. He then designed a secure solution for his personal use. After growing interest from his network, Haseen founded efani, the most secure, private mobile operator in the U.S.

    The potential ROI for sim-swap attackers is massive. Crypto is an attractive target that can be turned into dollars. The sim-swap attack is easy to execute and doesn’t require coding skills.

    Once an attacker has control of a phone account, they are often able to gain access to a victim’s email account, Google Drive, passwords, and more.

    Key takeaway:

    With crypto prices tracking up, it’s an excellent time to review your security practices. If prices continue to rise more bad actors will be incentivized to target crypto holders.

    Mobile phone support staff are underpaid and overworked and are not well trained against sophisticated social engineering attacks. All of the information an attacker needs to know to begin a social engineering attack can be purchased on the dark web.

    efani will transfer your existing number to efani and separate your personal information from your telephone number. Efani enforces 11-layers of military-grade client-side integrity, privacy and authentication protection.

    Efani is not for everyone, the company is a boutique solution for those who understand the value of privacy and security.

    Supporting links:

    Efani

    Haseeb on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Blockchain Detective - Taking on elite cybercriminals & owning them Dec 02, 2020

    Richard Sanders is a co-founder and lead investigator at CipherBlade, an elite blockchain investigation agency that works closely with top crypto exchanges, blockchain protocols, and the FBI. The agency uses a potent mix of on-chain and off-chain analytics and investigative techniques to track the most sophisticated cybercriminals on the planet.

    Guest:

    Richard Sanders

    Why you should listen:

    Richard Sanders and his team at CipherBlade are the 911 that the blockchain industry calls for cryptocurrency scam and hack investigations. Richard says “We'd prefer it if people came to us before they get hacked, rather than after they get hacked. We provide security audits for exchanges and high net worth individuals and can provide extensive training for companies and individuals.”

    Blockchain investigators use a variety of tools that allow them to visualize the blockchain. A block explorer does something similar, the difference with professional tools is they take those visualizations to the next level and significantly increases the information and attribution that can be analyzed.

    Richard says he is also adept at off-chain investigative skills. “Social engineering is a good example of this. I pretended to be a female gamer on Discord and that helped me identify one of the Ian Balina scammers. At the end of the day, the blockchain is the best source of data, if you can follow a set of transactions to a KYCed account on an exchange, that is the best place to start. There are some elements on the psyops side that can come into play. For example, you might look at indicators of behavior. If a person of interest has a history of speeding tickets and gambling, then those would be red flags, just as an example.”

    Key takeaway:

    Richard describes himself as a Realistic-Libertarian-Contrarian-Cyborg. Despite his intensive military background and strong working relationship with the FBI, Rich is also a cryptocurrency advocate, a staunch supporter of Monero, and a passionate believer in privacy.

    Richard says “I love the idea of privacy by default. As a realist, I understand that there will be an increase in diligence on people using crypto platforms and if you're making deposits you'll need to explain your source of funds. Monero has never tried to advertise using Monero for nefarious purposes. They don't need to. Privacy is a strong enough use case for adoption in and of itself. The question is, how do we have privacy by default but in the interests of public safety? We need to have this conversation as an industry so we can figure this out before governments are forced to do it for us.”

    The range of scammers and bad actors in the blockchain ecosystem runs the full gamut from the lowest to the highest basket of sophistication. The least sophisticated is Twitter and Telegram impersonation scammers, often based out of Nigeria. Many of these scammers don’t use VPNs, they don't always use mixers and sometimes they use direct deposit addresses for exchanges. At the other end of the scale, you have Lazarus, a very sophisticated hacking group out of North Korea that uses sophisticated mixing and crypto hopping techniques.

    What scammers have in common is they play on human greed, stupidity, and laziness.

    Richard says a significant portion of the industry is in it for the money. “There's a meme that says I'm in it for the technology but come on. It's fine to want to make money, but it gives people an unrealistic impression that crypto is a way to get rich quick and this makes them more vulnerable to these scams where people promise high returns.”

    It’s not just scammers that are having a negative effect on the industry. When considering the broader topic of crypto exchanges - think about what the perception is of our industry is from the outside. Exchanges get hacked left and right, scams abound, and there is a lax level of KYC and AML. Critics of crypto like to say that Bitcoin is only used for illegal activity, and while in the industry we know that is not true, it doesn't help to combat that narrative when exchanges get hacked and don't do enough to stop engaging with transactions from bad actors. In less than half an hour, Richard was able to identify several OKEx deposit addresses that received deposits from addresses associated with darknet markets. Any exchange with a simple compliance tool would pick these transactions up.

    Compliance professionals at compliant exchanges have access to know your transaction (KYT) tools. These tools show sending and receiving exposures, and break these down by category. If a transaction comes from a darknet market, the tool will identify this. These tools are not expensive for an exchange, they are usually charged by volume, so they are affordable for exchanges but out of the reach of individuals.

    Supporting links:

    CipherBlade

    Richard on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Radical Transparency - How Nansen surfaces the signal on the Ethereum blockchain Nov 24, 2020

    Nansen is an analytics platform for the Ethereum blockchain. Nansen combines on-chain data with a massive database of millions of wallet addresses. Nansen helps crypto investors and product teams surface the signal from blockchain data.

    Guest:

    Alex Svanevik

    Why you should listen:

    Alex Svanevik and his co-founders have worked in the blockchain data space since 2017 and kept seeing the same problem. There was a need to get a better understanding of who the different participants were on a blockchain network. This challenge of trying to understand the different addresses on the Ethereum blockchain was unsolved. The Nansen team knew that knowledge about network participants would be valuable to crypto product builders and potential investors. Alex says “that was our big idea, to help those two customer profiles better understand Ethereum blockchain activity to inform their decision making. Crypto is information inefficient which means there are opportunities to be gained if you are able to gain an insight into blockchain activity.”

    Alex and his team have been tracking the deposits into the Ethereum 2.0 smart contract and he is excited by the potential of Ethereum 2.0. “I hope that people understand that the transition from Ethereum 1.0 to 2.0 is going to be a long and slow process but many of the challenges that Ethereum has faced will be addressed with 2.0.”

    Alex says DeFi has had a promising year in 2020 and it has a sustainable future, something that wasn't the case with ICOs. Despite the many smart contract exploits, Alex is not concerned and sees these as part of the evolutionary process and a result of early adopters experimenting and taking risks. “Everything is in an experimental learning phase at the moment that is fraught with risk,” he said. “Right now DeFi is complex and difficult to use. The future of DeFi will be a mix of centralized exchanges that integrate with DeFi protocols. This will improve the user experience and benefit all participants.”

    Key takeaway:

    Blockchains represent radical transparency. Investors are able to get real time direct access to what is happening in the markets, something that is not available in the traditional markets. This radical transparency has advantages and disadvantages. On the negative side, some entities would prefer to hide their movements, whether that be purchases, investments, or trades, so there is a lack of privacy to some degree. On the positive side, this transparency creates a higher degree of trust. If you send your money to a centralized exchange, once your assets arrive with them, it is harder to trust that they are safe. However, decentralized on-chain platforms such as Aaave and Compound are inherently transparent and the user can see their transactions and assets on-chain at all times.

    Supporting links:

    Nansen

    Alex on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Get Off Zero - Why Bitcoin is the best savings technology ever invented Nov 19, 2020

    Mark Yusko is the CEO of Morgan Creek Capital. Mark is one of the most insightful investors and most articulate Bitcoin bulls on the planet. Mark’s investment thesis is that the greatest wealth is created by being an early investor in innovation. Making that investment requires believing in something before the majority of people understand it.

    Why you should listen:

    Mark says that Bitcoin is the most elegant savings technology ever invented. In a world where consumption is emphasized you become a slave to money. In a world where money is working for you, like with Bitcoin, your savings power is strengthened. With Bitcoin back at high prices, anyone who bought Bitcoin any day across the last 11 years, except for 5 days in December 2017, is now in profit. Marks says “What that tells me is that if you're a fiduciary, family office or individual, you don't need to pick a day to buy. It might be easier and less stressful to adopt a dollar cost average strategy. Buy some every day. Or every week. Or every month. Think of Bitcoin as savings technology, so instead of putting all of your money in the bank, put some in the bank, and some into Bitcoin.

    Key takeaway:

    Mark says it is not too late for people who have not already taken a position in Bitcoin. "Like Churchill said, this is not the end, this is not the beginning of the end, it may perhaps be the end of the beginning,” says Mark. “But people haven't missed anything. The fact that we went from 0.003 cents in 2009 to where we are today, at $18k that's not the miracle. The miracle is that we went from 0.003 cents to one dollar and that Bitcoin survived all the attempts to kill it in those early years. The miracle is that Bitcoin found critical mass and it was elegantly constructed so that it could reach critical mass and then the network effects kicked in from there.

    Mark says that with prices now close to all time highs, it’s important for new investors not to FOMO. “A better idea is to dollar cost average in overtime, have some discipline to it. Allocate some % of your portfolio to Bitcoin over time. The younger you are, the higher that % can be. Just remember that concentration makes you rich and diversification keeps you rich. And Bitcoin is one of the great diversifying assets on the planet so adding a small amount to a portfolio can pay great dividends. You have to embrace technological innovation, and that’s what Bitcoin is, and that is why it is time to #GetOffZero.”

    Supporting links:

    Morgan Creek

    Mark on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Leverj

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Decred Dex - Decred plans to disrupt the crypto exchange market Nov 17, 2020

    Decred is a hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake store of value crypto asset for the digital age. It has strong governance, good security, privacy, and an innovative incentive alignment. If Bitcoin is about being your own bank, Decred is about being your own bank and having a say in bank policy. Decred has launched a new DEX with no trading fees.

    Guest:

    Jake Yocom-Piatt

    Why you should listen:

    Decred is an experimental project to redefine governance using blockchain technology. Instead of electing officials, Decred uses a rolling opt-in lottery to make policy decisions. Decred aims to create a fairer financial system driven by sound money, where the community makes decisions and every decision-maker has skin-in-the-game.

    Decred has just launched the DCRDEX, a decentralized crypto exchange. DCRDEX does not collect trading fees and utilizes an order matching system to level the playing field between retail and professional traders. The DCRDEX is permissionless and non-custodial. The first assets available to trade are Decred, Bitcoin, and Litecoin. However, DCRDEX plans to allow all crypto assets, putting projects on an equal footing by not charging a listing fee. Projects can get their crypto asset supported by adding support for atomic swaps.

    Key takeaway:

    Jake says “The goal with DCRDEX is to bring the same principles that we support in Decred, like sound money and strong governance, and create a fairer system for trading crypto. We want to make sure that the DCRDEX is true to the spirit and ethos of the cryptocurrency movement. That’s why it is non-custodial, there is no KYC, and it is secure. Instead of turning DCRDEX into a business that is driven by fees and rent-seeking, we aim to create an email-like user experience for the exchange process, where anyone can operate a server and exchange any crypto they want.”

    Supporting links:

    Decred

    DCRDEX

    Decred on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Connect the world - How Stellar is connecting the global financial system Nov 12, 2020

    Jed McCaleb is the co-founder and Chief Architect of the Stellar Development Foundation, an open network working to connect the world’s financial infrastructure. In 2014, Jed created Stellar, an open-source blockchain network designed to democratize economic participation by making money more fluid, markets more open, and people more empowered.

    Why you should listen:

    Jed's history is the story of crypto itself. An early pioneer of decentralized systems, he created eDonkey2000 one of the first file-sharing networks.

    In July 2010, after reading about Bitcoin on Slashdot he became fascinated and founded the mtgox.com Bitcoin exchange.

    "I wanted to get some Bitcoin and the only way you could do that at the time was to mine it or go on internet forums. So I started the Gox exchange so I could learn more about Bitcoin as a system, and buy bitcoins. It was something that was needed by the community at the time and I knew it could build it so I did. I didn't run it for very long before Mark Karpeles took over and everyone knows what happened after that.”

    In 2011 McCaleb founded the crypto asset company Ripple and served as CTO until 2013. McCaleb then parted ways with Ripple but as part of a settlement, he was granted a large amount of XRP tokens. At the height of the January 2018 altcoin boom, McCaleb was briefly the 40th wealthiest person on the planet based on the value of his XRP tokens.

    McCaleb founded Ripple and then Stellar to try and improve on the promise of Bitcoin. “Bitcoin is an awesome idea,” says McCaleb, “But software is iterative and can always be improved. One of the things that bothered me about Bitcoin is the mining aspect. There are literally billions of dollars spent on mining which is a shame. I thought if there is another way we can solve the consensus problem, then we should explore it. So with Ripple and now Stellar, this is a way to solve consensus without the proof-of-work mining process so transactions can be sent in a much cheaper, faster, more energy-efficient way."

    Key takeaway:

    McCaleb says the current financial system is clunky and inefficient. “The problem with the way that money moves around the planet, is that the rails were built pre-internet so none of it was designed to interoperate. And the beauty of the internet is that with email, for example, it doesn't matter who runs your email server, they all speak the same language so you can seamlessly and instantly send an email to anyone in the world. There is really no reason why money can't work the same way. That’s what Stellar is, it is an interoperable payment protocol between payment networks.

    McCaleb says that Stellar is intended to enhance rather than replace the existing financial system. Whereas, say, the Bitcoin network was made for trading only bitcoins, Stellar is a decentralized system that’s built for trading any kind of money in a transparent and efficient way. “Stellar is designed as an upgrade to the existing financial structure,” says McCaleb. “It will be a long time, if ever before everyone is using one cryptocurrency. So instead, the better route is to build something that makes the current system easier, cheaper, reduces friction, and enables value transfer between people that wasn't possible before. Once we connect these networks of information in a frictionless way that will allow people to build all these interesting things on top of the network. Once you can send 10 cents from the U.S. to Vietnam, with no problem, that's when innovation happens. Right now we're building the plumbing for everything to be built on top of.”

    Supporting links:

    Stellar

    Stellar Meridian Conference

    The Three-Body Problem

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Bitcoin hits $15K - What to expect from the 2021 bull cycle Nov 06, 2020

    Rekt Capital, a Forbes featured crypto technical analyst and trader returns for his second appearance on the Crypto Conversation. As Bitcoin surges through $15,000 to hit its highest price since January 2018, Rekt Capital says this bull cycle is just getting started.

    Guest:

    Rekt Capital

    Why you should listen:

    Rekt Capital is an astute analyst who specializes in technical analysis and trading psychology. He has written three recent research articles, analyzing the effect of the Bitcoin Halving on price, dissecting Bitcoin’s Four Year Cycle to better understand Bitcoin’s price trajectory, and the Crypto Money Flow Cycle to track the movement of capital from Bitcoin to mid-caps to small-caps and back.

    Key takeaway:

    Rekt Capital says that if we assume the rate of diminishing Post-Halving returns remain constant, Bitcoin could rally exponentially to a relatively conservative new all-time-high of ~$90,000 in 2021. However, this conservative extrapolation of current Post-Halving bull trends by the standards of Bitcoin’s price history doesn’t account for upside wicks past key resistances. This means Bitcoin could overextend past $90,000 and even beyond the psychological level of $100,000 before finally rejecting.

    Want to get $50 OFF Rekt Capital’s Technical Analysis course? Simply follow this link and use the discount code “cryptoconversation” in the Discount Code field.

    Supporting links:

    Bitcoin After The Halving

    Bitcoin’s Four Year Cycle

    Crypto Money Flow Cycle

    Rekt Capital Newsletter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Algorithmic Trading - Trality is the App Store for Crypto Trading Bots Nov 05, 2020

    Trality is building a marketplace where creators can publish crypto trading bots and get paid rent by anyone wanting to piggyback on their trades. The creator’s algorithmic secret sauce remains top secret. Guests:

    Moritz Putzhammer and Christopher Helf

    Why you should listen:

    While working as an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Moritiz Putzhammer was trading crypto on the side and working on a PHD. He realized that any individual actively trading crypto would at some point lose sleep, and money. Wanting to devise a system that would allow him to trade without having to be in front of the screen he reached out to his friend Christopher Helf, who has a background in computer science. After reaching his limit as a trader with an economics background, Putzhammer worked with Helf to automate his trading.

    The pair began by writing basic utility scripts that soon evolved into a useful set of automated trading tools. The pair realized that they had a product that could help other traders and decided to build a product.

    Key takeaway:

    Trality is a platform for anyone to create and invest through algorithmic trading bots. The platform is aimed at two groups. The first group are “creators” who have access to state of the art tools to build the best possible bots and the data to test and improve them. Creators can deploy their bots on the Trality cloud platform and on the Trality marketplace. The second group, called “followers” can access the marketplace and choose what bot they want to use, and copy trade that bot.

    The Trality team believes that in the near future everything will be automated, from your car to your home, to work and investment tools. Trality wants to be the platform for automated private investments.

    Trality has launched a trading bot competition. It has a submission period of 30 days and then a competition period that runs for 45 days. Bots are simulated in a live environment where the best performing bots will win a cash price. Got to trality.com

    Supporting links:

    Trality

    Trality on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Data is the new oil - Ocean Protocol is building the data economy Oct 28, 2020

    Bruce Pon is the founder of Ocean Protocol. Ocean helps developers build marketplaces so that organizations can privately and securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Ocean protocol is building the new data economy. Guest:

    Bruce Pon

    Why you should listen:

    Ocean protocol enables the monetization and tokenization of data. This gives power back to data owners, enabling them to gain value from their data and allow it to be used in ways that benefit the world.

    Pon says the data economy already exists but there are powerful gatekeepers such as the FAANG companies in the West, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent in China, and data publishers such as Bloomberg and Reuters. “The data economy is any economic value that can be created from the use of data,” says Pon. “It's all around us and it is potentially worth trillions. Data can be reused, optimized and improved over time. Data can be used in countless different ways for different purposes. So as the world goes digital, the potential to turn this data into something truly valuable is immense.”

    Key takeaway:

    There is a growing understanding that from a macro world level to an industry sector level, to the government and institutional level, to the city, to company, and the individual - all are data producing machines. We now have the tools to collect and analyze this data and there are huge learnings and breakthroughs that can be teased out of the data. This is what makes data incredibly valuable.

    Pon says that Ocean Protocol Version 3 is the culmination of all of the learnings from version 1 and 2. “The space has advanced a lot since we began building in 2017,” he explained. “The architecture that we designed early on can now be simplified and optimized to integrate with the current state of the art. So with a light weight model we can integrate with the web 3.0 infrastructure and make full use of AMMs like Balancer and Uniswap to create data tokens. We always talked about turning data streams into value streams and it is now possible. We have the ability to create ERC20 tokens that represent data streams. The tokens can be used to access the data, and they can also be traded or speculated on. We can even create mutual data funds that can track various types of health data or automotive data for example. That's what Ocean enables.”

    Supporting links:

    Ocean Protocol

    Ocean Protocol on Twitter

    Bruce on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Bitcoin Bull Run - Targeting 20K by January Oct 21, 2020

    Josh Olszewicz is a professional crypto trader and analyst. In this episode Josh explains why he thinks a Bitcoin price target of $20K by January is reasonable. Plus Josh gives his views on DeFi, Monero, and announces his new crypto analysis YouTube channel for Brave New Coin.

    Guest:

    Josh Olszewicz

    Why you should listen:

    As we close out a volatile year, Bitcoin is looking extremely bullish. Josh says it is very possible that Bitcoin reaches a new all time high in the near future. “The way I look at it is to ask what is the rate of change in the current trend? That gives us a timeline for price expectation. This suggests that if the current rate of change continues we can expect that by January price should be somewhere around $18-$20k. Those numbers sound insane but as long as the trend remains intact, there aren’t many reasons to be bearish right now."

    Bitcoin has only a short history of the price being in five figures. The time it has spent above $12k is even shorter, just 61 days or so. To put this in context Josh says it’s important to note that “the biggest thing we're doing now is normalizing five digits versus four digits. In 2017 it was more of a parabolic rise, there were simply more buyers than sellers and price didn't really matter. When they aren't enough sellers to meet the demand the price just keeps going up. When you have a bull trend you have to let a runner run. If this goes to 20K people will feel euphoric, but it's just a number, it could go much higher.”

    Key takeaway:

    Josh has started a series of four new weekly videos for the Brave New Coin YouTube channel. Monday features Josh’s trading set-up for the week, Tuesday is trading tip Tuesday with a weekly trading tool breakdown, Wednesday is a DeFi roundup focusing on chart action for the leading DeFi tokens, and Thursday sees Josh look at the legacy charts such as equities and precious metals.

    Supporting links:

    Brave New Coin on YouTube

    Josh on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Smart Pools - Balancer is Uber for liquidity pools Oct 18, 2020

    Fernando Martinelli is the founder and CEO of Balancer, an automated asset management platform for programmable liquidity. Balancer allows anyone to create public or private liquidity pools for up to 8 assets with customizable weighting.

    Guest:

    Fernando Martinelli

    Why you should listen:

    Balancer began as a research project in 2018. By exploring multidimensional invariant surfaces, Fernando and his team came up with a powerful mathematical framework that enables continuous portfolio rebalancing while also generating fees. Fernando says “the formula itself is quite simple and easy to express mathematically. The way it works and the way it proves self-balancing in liquidity pools is the trickier part. It’s a function of mathematical expression whose value cannot change when trades are done. The same way Uniswap relies on X x Y = K, we have something similar but slightly more complex. And if you think of each of the balances as a dimension and then if you have a pool with three balances, then you have a 3-dimensional surface, which is actually in the fourth dimension because the surface itself is the energy value of this function that has three inputs and one output.”

    Balancer is similar to Uniswap. However Fernando says that one of the main differences is that “our main focus is on the asset management side of things where Uniswap’s focus is more on the decentralized exchange. So our focus is to make sure we meet the needs of liquidity providers so they will come to Balancer to put their crypto to work, and rebalance their portfolios. We want to be a flexible primitive where people can be as creative as they want.”

    Asked about one of the key Defi themes in 2020, Fernando said, “Liquidity mining is a mechanism to get a platform to a decentralized stage. Balancer started with investors, advisors, founders, and this was at a time when there wasn’t really an idea of a fair launch. It’s just the way it worked out. There are pros and cons but ultimately you need capital to bootstrap but we don’t want to be a VC coin we want to be decentralized and that’s our goal.”

    Key takeaway:

    Balancer is a financial primitive that serves as a fundamental building block in decentralized finance. However, it is also an asset management platform, and it is an automated market maker (AMM) providing programmable liquidity. This in turn makes other features such as decentralized asset exchange, automated portfolio management, DAO-governed treasuries, and fair token distributions possible. Fernando says this is an important point, and that as a permissionless platform, Balancer allows any developer to leverage its infrastructure to build financial products and services.

    “Balancer wouldn’t work if there wasn’t the other side of the market. So you have the liquidity providers who want to have their index funds rebalanced, and make some money with fees. And that’s up to them to decide. And the other side of the equation is the DEX. So all the pools on Balancer allow anyone to trade in any direction on any pair that that pool contains. The fact that we have a two sided market means we need both actors for the system to work.”

    Balancer Smart Pools are private pools controlled by a smart contract. These pools can be made of two to eight token constants, and customized with configurable weights that represent the desired ratio of each token in a pool. The smart contract acts as a controller for the liquidity in that pool. Fernando describes smart pools as “Uber for liquidity pools, whereas what we’ve had to date has been taxis. It’s about matching demand to supply.”

    For example, the RealT smart pool – essentially a real estate index fund building on all their tokenized real-estate – where the smart pool ERC20 tokens represent ownership of the whole index.

    Finally Fernando says “DeFi is a revolution that is just getting started. It will have cycles and some serious ups and downs but it is going to keep growing I believe.”

    Supporting links:

    Balancer

    Balancer on Twitter

    Fernando on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    The Three-Body Problem

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    DeFi's DEX Aggregator - 1inch finds the best rates by splitting orders across multiple DEXes Oct 12, 2020

    Anton Bukov is the co-founder and CTO of the 1inch exchange. 1inch is a DEX aggregator that executes a swap of tokens at the best price in one single transaction. Anton is a software developer with more than 15 years experience.

    Why you should listen:

    The 1inch exchange began life as a hackathon project which was presented at ETHNewYork in 2019. 1inch was created and developed by Sergej Kunz (co-founder & CEO) and Anton Bukov (co-founder & CTO). After receiving positive feedback, Kunz and Bukov kept working to improve the project to the point that it became their primary work focus.

    Bukov says “1inch is a DEX aggregator that executes a swap of tokens at the best price in one single transaction. With some DEXes there has been a lack of liquidity, and the more liquidity there is, the better it is for everyone. So 1inch addresses the liquidity problem through an optimizing algorithm that splits up the trade across different exchanges. We see 1inch as unifying all of the layer one DEXes into one single highly liquid DEX, so the purpose of 1inch is to create one super DEX with the highest possible amount of liquidity and best possible fees on layer one.”

    Key takeaway:

    Bukov revealed that 1inch is working on a 1inch token that will arrive this year. "In 2017 users paid money to get ICO tokens and after three years we see that most of those projects have failed. Now, projects start with the opposite model. They are not selling tokens, they give tokens away to the users of the platforms. So users who provide liquidity to the platform are rewarded with the token. You can see this as payment for market making. This idea of a far launch is nice because it means that the supply that exists is fairer, there is no pre-mine and it is less likely that someone can dump a large amount of tokens. Yes we are considering a 1inch token - we have worked on the tokenomics and the token will do some interesting things, it’s not just a governance token. But for it to work, there is a new product we need to launch that we are building now. We are trying to deliver this token and product this year.”

    Bukov says “the most interesting thing about DeFi is the way the protocols work with each other - composability - anyone can build an amazing product on a protocol. The creativity that this allows is amazing and you don't have to ask anyone permission. This is a very powerful idea.”

    Bukov says that he believes that “crypto is the missing piece of the puzzle for how money should work. Visa, Mastercard and the current banking system is the wrong idea. We are building a new system and every banking system on the planet will eventually use it. It won't happen overnight, it might take up to 20 years.”

    Supporting links:

    1inch

    1inch on Twitter

    Anton on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Information Market - Polymarket lets traders bet on real-world events Oct 04, 2020

    Shayne Coplan is the founder of Polymarket, an information markets platform. Speculators can bet on the world's most highly-debated topics like the upcoming US elections, COVID-19, DeFi, cryptocurrencies, and more.

    Guest:

    Shayne Coplan

    Why you should listen:

    In 2014 Coplan was a teenager interested in music, technology, and the peer-to-peer file sharing scene. He had started mining crypto assets like Litecoin using the early GPU miners. When the website for the Ethereum presale went live he became inspired by the Ethereum vision and at 16 years old, Coplan was one of the youngest participants in the Ethereum presale. “It seemed really cool to me. I didn’t have a lot of capital to put into it but it was really exciting and it has been fantastic to be part of the journey so far.”

    Prediction markets are exchange-traded markets created for the purpose of trading the outcome of events. They date back to the 1500s and started as simple bets. Some forms of information markets such as dead pools or assassination markets are part of the Cyberpunk literature.

    Polymarket is an Information Markets platform built on Ethereum. Speculators can harness the power of free markets to bet on the outcome of real world events. Coplan says, “I’ve always loved markets. I’m a fan of liquid markets and I’m fascinated by shadow economies and different market structures. I’m a believer in markets as the most effective mechanism for aggregating information. I have a tough time believing everything I read in the media. I think a market is a much more reliable aggregator of truth. If you have a lot of different participants acting on their beliefs, a market is the best way we can distill that information into one equilibrium or signal.”

    Key takeaway:

    One of the problems with social media is a lack of accountability. Everyone has an opinion to share and there’s not much downside to being wrong. This makes it hard for regular people to find out what’s fact and what’s fiction. 2020 has showcased just how bad the consequences can be.

    Ploymarket thinks that one part of the solution is to let people bet on current events. Free markets are the best method of aggregating disparate information in real time (see: Hayek, stock market, EMH).

    Coplan says “one of the best use-cases for a blockchain and a generalized smart contract platform is the ability to create markets on arbitrary topics that can be easily created, traded, and resolved. For a couple of dollars you can create a market on anything and avoid the bureaucratic risk that is inherent to creating these markets in the legacy financial system.

    On Polymarket, speculators bet on future event outcomes and profit from accuracy. With all the conflicting ‘expert’ opinions on social media, Polymarket lets people put their money where their mouth is, have skin in the game, and profit from being correct.

    Supporting links:

    Polymarket

    Polymarket on Twitter

    Shayne on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Mind Game

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Algorand is building solutions for the future of economic exchange Sep 28, 2020

    Steve Kokinos is the CEO at Algorand. Algorand is an open, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that wants to usher in a new era of serious DeFi. Similar to how AWS (Amazon Web Services) has made cloud computing accessible, Algorand is building an ecosystem to unleash the potential of DeFi.

    Why you should listen:

    Led by Turing award-winner Silvio Micali and a team of cryptographers, engineers, and mathematicians that claim to have solved the blockchain trilemma, Algorand is committed to the development of solutions for the future of economic exchange. Impressed by the Bitcoin whitepaper and its deployment, computer science professor Silvio Micali thought that Bitcoin represented a fascinating use of cryptography and distributed systems science. However, he felt that the high costs of mining coupled with its low performance features left room for improvement. His work with Algorand is concentrated on improving the fundamental properties of blockchain.

    Key takeaway:

    After a successful career in tech, Steve Kokinos met Silvio Micali and impressed with his vision for Algorand he joined the company as CEO in 2018.

    Steve says we are moving toward a multi-blockchain world. “There will be a handful of platforms and public networks that can be used for different purposes and they can all be winners here. Other tech waves have shown that there can be several winning platforms or several winning new technologies that are adopted. In the same way that when a user fires up Spotify or Netflix there isn't an AWS logo saying they're running the back end, and that's how we see Algorand, we want to be the utility in the background that people can build great applications on.”

    Ethereum currently supports around 15 transactions per second, Bitcoin is a little slower. Steve says that Algorand today can process 1100 tps and over the next coming releases they want to scale that up 10,000 tps. “It's important for us to understand what people are using blockchains for and to build the functionality that they need

    into layer one primitives. At Algorand we’re focused on layer one primitives, that might be financial applications, programmable money or building dapps. We've also announced a layer 2 smart contract platform where the initialization of the contract will be on layer 1 but will then run-off-chain. We think the way to do that is run the computation off-chain, make sure it's provably true and then bring it back to the main again.”

    Algorand is permissionless so anyone can build on it. Steve says, “Our layer 1 pure proof of stake approach lends itself to different forms of financial applications. Use cases include DeFi, more traditional payment assets, and bank transfers and post-trade settlements. And then the third use case is central bank digital currencies. The Marshall Islands has launched a CBDC on Algorand.

    There are 400 companies that have deployed projects on Algorand. One is Planet Watch, which has sensors in homes and businesses across the world to capture air quality data around the globe and then compare that to govt guidelines and regulations.

    The ALGO token is the prime asset of the public network. It is used to pay transaction fees and run smart contracts. As part of the pure proof of stake protocol every token holder can be called upon to propose a block, and every token holder can vote on upgrades via its use as a governance token.

    Asked about his favorite piece of sci-fi, Steve picks Snow Crash directed by Neal Stephenson.

    Supporting links:

    Algorand

    Steve on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Snow Crash

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    What Bitcoin Did - How Peter McCormack turned his hobby into the world's biggest Bitcoin podcast Sep 21, 2020

    Peter McCormack is the host of the popular What Bitcoin Did podcast and the new Defiance podcast. After starting the podcast in late 2017, What Bitcoin Did has grown steadily and recently achieved an impressive 5 million downloads.

    Why you should listen:

    Before the pandemic, Peter traveled regularly preferring to do his interviews in-person. With global travel now on hold, Peter is based out of his home in Bedford, UK. Peter says that he has used the time to focus on his craft and keep refining his content production. He has also given up booze and redone his garden.

    Peter says the Libertarian argument against lockdowns is stronger now and as countries get hit by a second wave it will likely be more difficult to enforce new lockdowns without social unrest. Peter is impressed by the leadership of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

    Key takeaway:

    Peter started podcasting almost by accident after spending time at a retreat in Italy with podcaster Rich Roll. After telling Roll about his growing interest in Bitcoin, Roll encouraged McCormack to start a Bitcoin podcast. In the three years since McCormack has traveled to 30 countries and interviewed hundreds of people. The success of the podcast means McCormack now has the freedom to pursue topics that he is genuinely interested in.

    What Bitcoin Did will continue to focus on the Bitcoin ecosystem. Peter says, “If you're into lots of different coins you get called a shitcoiner and if you’re into Bitcoin only, you get called a maximalist. So at one point I took a step back and thought ‘what is it I want to do?’ I looked at my portfolio and I only hold Bitcoin. Why? Because I believe in it and because I understand it, and because I think it can be a useful tool for a lot of people. I'm also interested in the human rights angle, so if I focus on Bitcoin - it allows me to cover other topics such as Ross Ulbricht of Silk Road and Venezuela.”

    In some circumstances, Peter will cover other blockchains if it is of interest to bitcoiners. For example, his recent episodes on Ethereum were relevant because there are people who are wrapping Bitcoin on Ethereum so it's important for people to understand what Ethereum is. "Does that mean I'll cover Tron? No. Does it mean I'll cover Binance Chain? No. I will cover Ethereum because there is a significant amount of Bitcoin that is wrapped on it and people need to understand the risks."

    Asked about his favorite piece of sci-fi, Peter picks Alien 3 directed by David Fincher.

    Supporting links:

    What Bitcoin Did

    Peter on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Alien 3

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Scaling DeFi - Radix is a protocol for building DeFi applications Sep 15, 2020

    Piers Ridyard is the CEO of Radix, a layer-one protocol built for DeFi. DeFi applications are currently built on protocols that were not designed to scale. Radix has built a scalable, secure, high-throughput protocol for building applications and tokens. Building on the successes of existing public ledgers, Radix’s protocol is a permissionless framework on which DeFi services can be developed and run. Radix claims to have solved two of the biggest challenges in DeFi - scalability, and security.

    Why you should listen:

    Radix has raised $6 million in funding, including $4.1 million in 2020 from the founder of TransferWise, Taavet Hinrikus.

    The value of DeFi is over $8 billion. However, for DeFi to reach its full potential, it needs fast, low-cast transactions and secure by design systems. It’s critical that DeFi applications are scalable and composable. Piers says that protocols such as Ethereum 2,0, Polkadot and Cosmos are solving the wrong scaling problems, and not addressing others. Piers says that mainstream DeFi needs a DLT platform designed bottom-to-top to make DeFi just work – for users, and for developers. This is the aim of Radix.

    For the DeFi ecosystem to continue to grow incentives are needed to attract developers. Radix has an innovative developer incentive program that allows developers to profit from the applications they contribute to.

    Key takeaway:

    Radix features two core innovations, firstly Cerberus, the scalable consensus protocol. Cerberus is capable of processing massive numbers of transactions in parallel due to its highly sharded data structure and unique application layer.

    The second innovation is the Radix Engine, a developer interface that allows quick public ledger deployments in a secure environment. The Radix Engine is Radix’s application layer.

    In the Crypto Conversation hot take round Piers says that he expects DeFi to have more liquidity than any other single exchange in the transitional market within the next ten years. “The fundamental component of DeFi is the way that liquidity can move between applications and products.”

    Asked about his favorite piece of sci-fi, Piers picks Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.

    Supporting links:

    Radix

    Radix on Twitter

    Piers on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    Rendezvous with Rama

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The Tokenized Economy - INX is pioneering the democratization of security token trading Sep 08, 2020

    Douglas Borthwick is Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at INX. INX is building a regulated cryptocurrency, security token, and derivatives trading platform in the U.S. INX has just launched the world’s first fully regulated Security Token based IPO.

    Why you should listen:

    Douglas has a long career in finance including roles with Morgan Stanley, managing foreign exchange derivatives trading groups, and running the strategic trading desk at Merrill Lynch. He is part of an impressive team of financial market, crypto asset and technology experts at INX.

    INX is building a fully-licensed and regulated cryptocurrency, security token and derivatives trading platform. The goal is to be a leader in the regulated security token platform space. INX aims to enable the listing and trading of both regulated security tokens and cryptocurrencies for institutional and retail investors.

    Security tokens give investors the ability to trade fractionalized assets, specific income streams, particular business lines, or assets that could not be traded before. This brings new liquidity and efficiencies to the markets.

    Key takeaway:

    The INX blockchain asset trading solution has been developed and is ready for launch following the completion of the IPO. After launch INX traders will be able to buy/sell crypto assets as well as security tokens and their derivatives.

    INX announced in January 2018 its submission of a draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of the INX Token.

    In August this year, INX announced that the SEC declared as effective the registration statement on Form F-1 filed in connection with the initial public offering of up to 130 million INX Security Tokens. INX has set the offering price at $0.90 per Token with a minimum investment of $1,000. The offering began August 25, 2020.

    INX intends to use a portion of the net proceeds raised from the sale of INX Tokens in the offering for the continued development and operation of INX Trading Solutions, and for the establishment of a cash reserve fund. Investors in the tokens are entitled to receive pro rata distributions of 40% of the Ccmpany’s cumulative adjusted operating cash flow.

    Supporting links:

    INX

    INX on Twitter

    Douglas on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Why LEVERJ is the next big thing in DeFi Sep 03, 2020

    The next big thing in DeFi is LEVERJ - the world’s first scalable decentralized derivatives exchange​. LEVERJ is a trading platform created to perform like traditional financial exchanges while maintaining the critical function of security. Built on Gluon, a Plasma sidechain, LEVERJ is self-custodial by design, meaning that users always control their private keys and funds. Gluon is a mathematically rigorous solution preventing fraud, compromise, and collusion to provide all the benefits of blockchain without the limitations. Gluon is the first fully operational Ethereum Layer 2 chain, giving LEVERJ the high-transaction throughput to work as fast as centralized exchanges.

    Why you should listen:

    LEVERJ is a self-custodial decentralized derivatives exchange that provides up to 100x leverage. High speed, decentralized spot trading went live on mainnet in 2019. Futures trading is available on testnet and will launch on mainnet at the end of September. The first tradable futures products are ETH-USD and BTC-USD perpetual swaps with many more products in the pipeline.

    LEVERJ has partnered with Brave New Coin to roll out a pipeline of innovative exchange traded products. Some examples of these are sub-sector specific tradable products such as a DeFi index, a privacy coin index, volatility indices and more. “Most exchanges self-index, which introduces unnecessary risk,” says LEVERJ CEO Bharath Rao. “By partnering with Brave New Coin, we give our users more transparency in the benchmark methodology and instrument design process as well as a greatly expedited product roadmap. It’s our goal to bring the best practices of capital markets into the DeFi space, thus attracting new institutions.”

    Key takeaway:

    Interest in DeFi has exploded in 2020. Trading on decentralized exchanges reached $4 billion in July. To cater to this demand, LEVERJ has built a high-frequency, multi-currency spot and futures trading platform.

    The explosion of DeFi in 2020 has seen Ethereum gas prices rise significantly. The huge spike in demand for transaction space on the Ethereum chain has put strain on the Ethereum and DeFi ecosystems. Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have faced challenges with security and performance, often falling short of the standards set by traditional financial exchanges.

    LEVERJ solves these challenges with their Gluon sidechain, a mathematically rigorous protocol preventing fraud, compromise, and collusion to provide the benefits of blockchain without the limitations. Gluon is an advanced, fully operational Ethereum Layer 2 chain, giving LEVERJ high-transaction, low-latency throughput similar to centralized exchanges.

    Other developers can also build decentralized applications using Gluon, including their own decentralized exchanges.

    Gluon has been in development for over three years and is currently the only Layer 2 solution purpose built for high-capacity trading, that has instant-finality, strong composability and conventional APIs for sophisticated traders to feel like they are using a regular centralized exchange without counterparty risk.

    Supporting links:

    LEVERJ

    LEVERJ on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Start your own fund - Melon is the infrastructure for asset management 3.0 Aug 24, 2020

    Mona El Isa is the founder of the Melon protocol. Melon is an Ethereum-based protocol for decentralized on-chain asset management. Melon empowers anyone to set up, manage, and invest in customized on-chain investment vehicles. The process of setting up an investment fund on Melon costs less than $60 and takes ten minutes using the Melon terminal.

    Why you should listen:

    After spending a decade building a career as a successful trader at Goldman Sachs and at a hedge fund, Mona was approached to set up and run her own investment fund. It did not work out. Mona realized that successful traders at investment funds were shielded from the many administrative processes required. Companies like Goldman hire entire teams of people to look after the many legal and financial requirements needed to run a fund. This means that setting up a new fund is out of reach except for those with the resources to do so.

    Melon is a decentralized protocol to set up and manage on-chain investment funds. By automating the back and middle office processes of fund management through the use of smart contracts, Melon enables fund managers to create their own tokenized funds.

    Managers can write a fund prospectus in code. Mona says “You can think of Melon as a technology that helps managers customize the set-up of their fund. You can pre-define all sorts of rules from fees, to number of positions, types of assets, risk management etc.”

    The protocol takes care of investments and redemptions, it takes care of the NAV calculations, it enforces any of the rules that managers have in their funds. And everything is automated using smart contracts. Users can write as many rules as they want, so they can create uniquely individual funds.

    The process of setting up an investment fund on Melon costs less than $60 and takes ten minutes using the Melon terminal.

    Key takeaway:

    The Melon target market is what Mona describes as the “long tail of investment managers”. This could be any fund below $150 million dollars. 90% of new funds in this category fail, many due to the high level of compliance, fees and processes involved.

    It will soon be possible to set up a Melon fund that has a yield-farming strategy, or lends to market-making pools, or a DAO that invests in other Melon funds, or can interact with synthetic assets.

    No other protocol is permissionless in the way that Melon allows any non-technical person to set up an on-chain investment fund in a matter of minutes.

    Ethereum Gas prices are putting a strain on DeFi. The Melon team is slimming down contracts to make them more efficient and less gas-intensive for V2. Medium-term the team are looking at layer two solutions to mitigate against high gas prices.

    Supporting links:

    Melon Protocol

    Melon Terminal

    Melon on Twitter

    Mona on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    DeFi & ETH 2.0 - Building the Ethereum ecosystem with MEW Aug 17, 2020

    Kosala Hemachandra is the founder and CEO of MyEtherWallet, one of the original and most popular Ethereum wallets. MEW is now at the center of a fast growing ecosystem designed to become the nexus of Ethereum.

    Why you should listen:

    MyEtherWallet was founded in 2015, ten days after the launch of Ethereum - as one of the first client-side interfaces for the Ethereum blockchain. With first-mover advantage, it became the default Ethereum wallet for the first users of Ethereum. MyEtherWallet was a popular and user-friendly wallet that supported ERC-20 tokens — important for engaging with ICOs. As a result, MEW attracted a large user-base during the ICO boom of 2017.

    Kosala says, “the MEW motto is that if it works with Ethereum it works with MEW. Our goal is to become the nexus of Ethereum.”

    MEW is the umbrella brand for the MEW ecosystem that includes MEWwallet, MEWtopia, and MEWconnect.

    Key takeaway:

    Kosala says there are some similarities between the ICO boom of 2017 and the current interest in DeFi. He says that is human nature to be attracted to hype and speculation. However, he says he is excited by the promise and potential of DeFi as a technology and what it brings to Ethereum.

    The first MyEtherWallet DeFi integrations are with Ren and Aave, with more to come. The new MyEtherWallet DeFi integrations use MEWconnect, a connection protocol designed to let Dapp developers make their Dapps available to MEW users. Dapp developers can make their products available to a large user base while MEW users can access the growing suite of decentralized tools and apps designed to navigate the Ethereum ecosystem.

    Supporting links:

    My Ether Wallet

    MEWwallet

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Return of the Bulls - Are we set for a multi-year crypto bull run? Aug 10, 2020

    Josh Olszewicz is a professional crypto trader at Techemy Capital and the lead analyst at Brave New Coin. On this episode of the Crypto Conversation Josh joins Andy to discuss the recent positive price action, the TokenSets platform, and Josh confirms that we’re in a crypto bull market.

    Why you should listen:

    Josh says that the technical indicators are looking very strong for BTC with strong echoes of 2017. “There is a possibility we’re set for a multi-year bull run, especially post-halving. It’s almost eerie the similarities we’re seeing in the price chart and in the fundamentals to 2017. It’s ramping up for quite an exciting situation. With Gold at all-time highs, ongoing money printing, and with chaos in the world, it’s an ideal macro backdrop for BTC to perform well.”

    Josh says that for ETH, a price target of $750 is on the cards, and for BTC $13K might happen in the next two weeks. “$33k sounds like a ridiculous target, but for me, that is where we are headed. One of the big banks released a target recently of $125K based on the 2017 bull run, so all of a sudden my targets are low compared to traditional financial analysts. All the signs are converging, so seeing BTC at an all-time-high soon is an expectation. It’s not that I think it might happen, at this point I‘m expecting it will happen.”

    Key takeaway:

    Josh says that while it is an uncertain time in the world, the U.S. election might not be too disruptive to the markets. “As soon as Bernie lost the nomination, traditional financial markets exhaled dramatically. He was the potential change agent for anything that would affect them. But now, with Biden and Trump, they don’t mind too much, either is fine at this point. Biden is not going to rock the boat and Trump is Trump.”

    Josh is a pro trader at Techemy Capital who has just launched two actively managed investment portfolios on the TokenSets automated asset management platform. This allows investors to gain exposure to BTC and ETH price action. Investors are now able to take advantage of the crypto market’s price moves without having to trade themselves - and because Techemy’s new products are non-custodial - without having to release control of their crypto assets to a third party.

    Techemy Capital’s BTC and ETH portfolios are actively traded using strategies designed to generate capital gains. Trades are executed by Techemy Capital’s professional in-house trading team, led by Rob Brewis and Josh Olszewicz.

    Supporting links:

    Techemy Capital

    TokenSets

    Josh on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    tFOSE - Brave New Coin is building crypto indices for the Toronto Futures Options Swaps Exchange Aug 03, 2020

    James Beattie is the CEO of the Toronto Futures Options Swaps Exchange (tFOSE), a new Canadian-based derivatives exchange and clearinghouse. tFOSE is currently seeking regulatory approval in Canada and plans to open for trading in early 2021.

    Why you should listen:

    Canada has been slow to bring institutional-grade crypto asset products to market. The Canadian exchange-traded derivatives market is ripe for disruption. Issues include a lack of liquidity driving order flow out of Canada, high FX cost and currency risk, high trading fees, and a lack of product innovation. There’s a growing demand for traders to diversify their portfolios and exposure, hedge risk, and access an emerging asset class without having to directly hold the underlying crypto assets. tFOSE aims to provide a solution to these issues.

    James Beattie, tFOSE CEO says they are working closely with regulators in Canada. “Regulators have put forward a definitive affirmative effort to understand crypto. It's incumbent on ecosystem participants to build the right way. If they want the benefits of regulation, they should understand process and due diligence. You must play by the rules, there is no downside to transparency.”

    Key takeaway:

    tFOSE CEO James Beattie says the team is committed to new derivative solutions that will repatriate order flow to Canada and unlock new global markets. Brave New Coin has signed a contract with tFOSE to design, calculate, and administer a suite of crypto indices to power tFOSE’s cash-settled options trading. tFOSE expects production on the indices to be completed during Q3 2020 with cash-settled crypto options trading beginning in early 2021. James says Brave New Coin was selected as tFOSE crypto index builders after a due diligence process. ”BNC meets all of our needs,” he said, “taking a unique approach to index design, methodology, and governance that will help tFOSE meet the specific, exacting needs of both our retail and institutional investors.”

    Supporting links:

    tFOSE

    Crypto Indices Program

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.


    Kyber Network - building the liquidity infrastructure for DeFi Jul 27, 2020

    Loi Luu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kyber Network - one of the best used Defi protocols in the world. Kyber is an on-chain liquidity protocol that powers decentralized applications, exchanges, funds, and DeFi lending protocols.

    Why you should listen:

    Loi Luu has a PhD in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore, where he worked to improve the base technical layers of decentralization, scalability and security for the public blockchain infrastructure. His work benefits many blockchain companies and projects world wide and collectively these companies are worth tens of billions of US dollars.

    The idea for Kyber Network came from Loi’s belief that he could bring the benefits of decentralized technologies to a bigger audience and facilitate real-world use cases. When a project approached him to accept a different token in addition to Ethereum, Loi realized that there was no practical solution to this problem. He then began work on developing the liquidity infrastructure for what would become known as the decentralized finance ecosystem.

    Key takeaway:

    Kyber is the liquidity infrastructure for decentralized finance (DeFi). Kyber aggregates liquidity from diverse sources into a single pool, which provides the best rates for takers such as DApps, wallets, and DEXs. Kyber is a fully on-chain liquidity protocol that enables the decentralized exchange of crypto assets in any application. Liquidity providers are integrated into one single endpoint for takers and users. When a user requests a trade, the protocol will scan the entire network to find the reserve with the best price and take liquidity from that particular reserve.

    Kyber was the most used project in DeFi in 2019. To date, more than 100 blockchain projects have integrated Kyber for their liquidity needs.

    Supporting links:

    Kyber Network

    Loi Luuu on Twitter

    Kyber on Twitter

    The DeFi Liquidity Vortex

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    A DeFi Hedge - The people-powered alternative to insurance Jul 21, 2020

    Hugh Karp is the founder and CEO of Nexus Mutual - a people-powered alternative to insurance. Nexus Mutual uses the power of Ethereum so individuals can share risk together without the need for an insurance company.

    Why you should listen:

    Hugh is an insurance professional and actuary with 15 years of experience. An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries are employed by insurance companies or risk management firms to calculate the "risks" associated with insuring individuals against downside events.

    A mutual is simply a group of people coming together to share risk. Hugh says the only reason we’ve moved away from a mutual (in legacy systems) to shareholders is that it’s a more efficient way of connecting capital with people. However, thanks to smart contracts, we can start to do that in a peer to peer fashion which optimizes for efficiency when it comes to capital pooling. When joining the mutual you become a legal member of a UK company. All members have legal rights to the pool of funds.

    Key takeaway:

    Hugh first became interested in blockchain technology in 2011. He became fascinated by the emergence of Ethereum. Hugh recognized that the traditional insurance industry wasn’t yet prepared to provide any meaningful cover for crypto-related risks. Hugh watched the DAO being drained live and realized there was a need for a company like Nexus Mutual to provide cover against Smart Contract risks.

    Smart Contract Cover is not an actual contract of insurance but rather an insurance like product. Members of the mutual vote to decide on claims. Claims payments are enforced by token economic incentives rather than placing trust in an insurance company.

    In DeFi there are three primary risk categories; technical smart contract risk, external risk, and economic incentive failure risk. It’s important to understand these risks are in addition to the normal use of the particular smart contract. For example, if you use a gambling app there is a risk you could lose all of your money through the normal usage of the system. Nexus Mutual is focused on the more severe risks, and provides cover against system failure.

    Supporting links:

    Nexus Mutual

    Nexus Mutual on Twitter

    Hugh Karp on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Blockchain Australia - Steve Vallas is Australia’s Mr. Blockchain Jul 15, 2020

    Why you should listen:

    Vallas says “the promise of the Blockchain industry is extraordinarily expansive. Before we build out that capability we need a renewed focus on establishing confidence. Confidence in our vision, confidence in the regulatory frameworks that underpin this emergent technology, and confidence in the people and organizations that will drive the uptake in this space.”

    Key takeaway:

    As the new CEO of Blockchain Australia, Vallas says he is focused on building confidence in blockchain and improving the image of blockchain technology among businesses and governments.

    He says Blockchain Australia’s success will be judged by its ability to educate (grassroots to the boardroom), elevate (drive innovation), and leverage partnerships (with industry leaders across the economy).

    In February, the Australian government released a National blockchain roadmap titled “Progressing towards a blockchain-empowered future.” The report projects that Blockchain technology will generate an annual business value of over US$175 billion by 2025 and in excess of US$3 trillion by 2030.

    The roadmap identifies three key areas where blockchain technology can provide solutions. These are in supply chains, trusted credentials in the university sector, and transferable customer checks in the finance sector.

    Steve says his personal vision is for Australian stakeholders to gain confidence in blockchain tech. He wants developers to keep building, and for industry and investors to get buy-in.

    Supporting links:

    Blockchain Australia

    Australia’s blockchain roadmap

    Steve on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Building Web 3.0 - Why Conflux Network is endorsed by China Jul 08, 2020

    Eden Dhaliwal is the Global Managing Director at Conflux Network, a high-performance, layer-1 blockchain protocol designed for scalability, security, and extensibility for the next generation of open commerce, decentralized applications, and Web 3.0. Conflux is the most endorsed DLT project in China.

    Why you should listen:

    Conflux Network is an open protocol for a new world of Dapps, finance, and Web 3.0. As a fast and secure public blockchain, Conflux Network combines Proof of Work and a Tree-Graph structure to power a new generation of decentralized commerce.

    Prior to joining Conflux, Eden was a Partner at Outlier Ventures, where he worked on crypto tokenomics. Eden helped develop Outlier’s Convergence Thesis - the Convergence Stack is a set of privacy-protecting, peer-to-peer, open-source technologies that will decentralize the cloud and unbundle internet platforms to build Web 3.0.

    Key takeaway:

    Founded in 2018, Conflux Network raised $35 million in capital from investors including Sequoia China, Metastable, Baidu Ventures, F2Pool, Huobi, IMO Ventures. Conflux Network has backing from the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

    Currently in Testnet, Conflux Network seeks to provide the security of a POW network with transaction speeds an order of magnitude faster. The key enabler technique is a novel DAG-based ledger structure together with an optimistic concurrency control to achieve a consistent order of transactions among all the nodes in the network. In Conflux, the throughput bottleneck is no longer at consensus layer. Unlike other scalability solutions such as DPOS and hybrid consensus, the Conflux consensus algorithm is decentralized and permissionless without any hierarchy.

    Supporting links:

    Conflux Network

    Conflux Network on Twitter

    Eden on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Money Lego - Techemy Capital launches investable DeFi portfolios on TokenSets Jul 02, 2020

    Techemy Capital and TokenSets have collaborated to launch a suite of DeFi-based investable products to help investors tap into the open finance ecosystem. Hosted on the TokenSets automated asset management platform, Techemy has created two actively managed investment portfolios that allow investors to gain exposure to BTC and ETH price action. Investors can take advantage of the crypto market’s price moves without having to trade themselves - and because the products are non-custodial - without having to release control of their crypto assets to a third party.

    Guests:

    Fran Strajnar and Anthony Sassano

    Why you should listen:

    Anthony Sassano, Product Marketing Manager at TokenSets, says “Holding is no longer enough. If you want to get outsized returns in crypto, you can play in the altcoin market, which is basically like a casino. Trying to pick the ones that will do well, and knowing when to sell is extremely difficult. Most users don’t want the stress and pressure of having to make trading decisions themselves. They want to make a return, and they want someone else or an algorithm to do the trading for them. That’s where TokenSets comes in.”

    Key takeaway:

    DeFi refers to the interconnected crypto assets, smart contracts, protocols, and decentralized applications built on the Ethereum blockchain. Run by programmable code, DeFi reduces friction and capital inefficiency and offers the possibility of higher yields.

    Fran Strajnar, CEO at Techemy Capital says, “We’ve been talking about DeFi being a game-changer since 2014. It has taken until now for the infrastructure to mature enough for innovative investable products that can scale globally. Money and value are now woven into the fabric of the internet. Liquidity is abundant and risk is manageable. This has created an environment that is appealing to many investor classes.”

    Hosted on the TokenSets automated asset management platform, Techemy’s new offering consists of two actively managed investment portfolios that allow investors to gain exposure to BTC and ETH price action. Investors are now able to take advantage of the crypto market’s price moves without having to trade themselves - and because Techemy’s new products are non-custodial - without having to release control of their crypto assets to a third party.

    Techemy Capital’s BTC and ETH portfolios are actively traded using strategies designed to generate capital gains. Trades are executed by Techemy Capital’s professional in-house trading team, led by Rob Brewis and Josh Olszewicz.

    A third portfolio that Techemy will launch soon on TokenSets is a passive yield portfolio based on the yield-bearing cDAI/cUSDC stablecoin pair. This portfolio protects against price volatility and offers other benefits including the ability to earn interest through the Compound Finance network.

    Techemy’s new portfolio products are aimed at investors already familiar with digital assets and those entering the market for the first time. While the former can interact with the new portfolios with ease due to the seamless user experience, for users needing additional support Techemy offers personalized services - from custody to OTC and wallet management.

    Supporting links:

    Techemy Capital

    TokenSets

    Techemy Capital on Twitter

    TokenSets on Twitter

    Fran On Twitter

    Anthony on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Cryptopia the movie - Bitcoin, Blockchains & the Future of the Internet Jun 18, 2020

    Torsten Hoffmann is a documentary filmmaker who has completed two full length blockchain films. Bitcoin: The End Of Money As We Know It from 2015, and his new film Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet which is now available online.

    Why you should listen:

    After writing a research paper on alternative currencies as part of his MBA at Oxford University, Torsten was intrigued by Bitcoin. In 2014 he started working on Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know it, his first documentary. Hoffmann’s award-winning first film looks at Bitcoin in the context of the history of money. His new film, Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet is a bigger budget, ambitious follow up that takes a 360 wide-angle approach to the technology that may define Web 3.0.

    “Since the release of the first film, the industry has grown by a factor of 100. Bitcoin has been called one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. However, media coverage is often misinformed and the general public is still confused about the technology and its implications,” says Hoffmann. “Can this technology, designed to operate independent of trust and within a decentralized network, really provide a robust alternative? Or are cryptocurrencies just as unfairly distributed, easily manipulated, and dangerous as our current systems? That was my starting point.”

    Key takeaway:

    Filmed over two years Hoffmann says the new documentary has three arcs. "First we look at Bitcoin, then we look at the ecosystem, public / private blockchains and ICOs, and then we look forward at the potential of blockchain to unlock Web 3.0."

    He interviewed some of the ecosystem’s biggest brains and biggest egos including Andreas Antonopoulos, Roger Ver, Charlie Lee, Samson Mow, Craig Wright, Preethi Kasireddy, and Wences Casares.

    While the film has a global feel, with filming taking place on four continents in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Switzerland, and Melbourne, Hoffmann says the highlight of the filming schedule was being granted access to the Xapo vault located in a top secret location buried deep in the Swiss mountains.

    Founded by Bitcoin entrepreneur Wences Casares, the Xapo vault is a decommissioned military bunker dug into the mountainside in a remote part of Switzerland. Its exact location is secret, and access is protected by a complex series of security measures.

    “The bunker scene was a highlight and we are the only film crew to be allowed inside. Allegedly up to 10% of all Bitcoin private keys are stored in the Xapo vault. It was a James Bond style adventure to get clearance and film inside the bunker,” said Hoffmann.

    Supporting links:

    Cryptopia Film

    Torsten on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Stack Sats - How Vimba makes it easy to Dollar Cost Average into Bitcoin Jun 15, 2020

    A New Zealand software engineer, Sam Blackmore is the CEO and co-founder of Vimba, a platform that makes it easy for users to save Bitcoin using an automated dollar cost average strategy.

    Why you should listen:

    After growing up as a surf photographer, Sam moved to Bristol in the early 2000s where he documented the street art culture popularized by Banksy. As a software engineer, Sam became fascinated by open source technology such as Linux. He first discovered Bitcoin when he saw a headline on a Linux magazine that described Bitcoin as the most powerful open-source technology ever created. Intrigued, Sam became fascinated by Bitcoin’s philosophy and potential. He created Vimba to make it possible for friends and family to easily accumulate Bitcoin without having to join an exchange. Vimba is now available in over thirty countries, making it easy for anyone to save in Bitcoin using an automated dollar cost average strategy.

    Key takeaway:

    To scale Vimba, Sam moved to the UK to leverage the UK’s open banking framework and FinTech friendly regulations. The 2018 open banking legislation forced banks to open up their APIs so that users can share their data with other services. This has allowed a wave of innovative new financial products. Vimba will integrate with these products allowing users to easily purchase Bitcoin or use it as collateral. Vimba’s mission is to make it as normal to accumulate BTC as it is to save dollars. A recent survey suggests that 42% of millennials are planning to buy BTC in the next 5 years.

    Banksy is anonymous. Satoshi Nakamoto is anonymous. This anonymity allows Banky’s artwork and Satoshi’s Bitcoin to be judged on their own merits without being tainted by the individual creator and their beliefs or flaws.

    Supporting links:

    Vimba

    Vimba on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    Neuromancer

    Banksy

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Crypto Oceania - Why Bittrex and Dasset have joined forces Jun 09, 2020

    An OG Bitcoiner from Colorado with a background in precious metals, Stephen Macaskill is the co-founder and CEO of the Dasset digital asset exchange. Based in New Zealand, Dasset has announced a strategic partnership with the U.S. based Bittrex exchange. The new partnership will give Dasset users access to deeper liquidity.

    Why you should listen:

    Stephen says the impetus for Dasset came from the realization that there was a gap in the local crypto market. “When we looked at the New Zealand market four years ago, there was a 20% premium over the global spot prices of crypto assets in New Zealand due to a lack of liquidity, and a lack of local exchanges,” he said. “Dasset has helped that situation, so the spread has dropped by around 80%. That means that compared to global spot prices, New Zealanders can now access rates that are within 1-3% of those prices.”

    Key takeaway:

    Dasset provides the ability for New Zealanders and Australians to buy, sell, and trade over thirty different crypto assets. Stephen says that Dasset provides the on-ramps and off-ramps between the legacy financial system and the digital asset financial system.

    Stephen is a Bitcoiner who pays his bills in crypto. He says he has opted out of the legacy financial system and uses crypto for all of his financial transactions. While Stephen is a passionate supporter of Bitcoin as the world’s largest decentralized digital currency, he says ultimately it is up to the market to decide which digital asset will win the future.

    Supporting links:

    Devs

    The Sovereign Individual

    Bitcoin Billionaires

    Dasset on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    The DeFi bull case for Chainlink and Synthetix May 28, 2020

    Framework Ventures is a San Francisco based venture firm with a strong DeFi thesis. Framework believes a new age of venture capital is upon us, known as ‘Network Capital.’ Rather than just hold onto the asset, this type of investing aims to be more holistic.

    “If you're going to be investing in decentralized networks, this requires a new hybrid model where the stakeholders can participate in market-making, staking, and governance.”

    Framework is a major holder of Chainlink’s LINK token.

    Why you should listen:

    Framework Ventures is a thesis-driven venture firm that partners with founders and teams to build token-based networks and develop the requisite cryptoeconomics, governance, and community to scale. Framework are very bullish on the DeFi space in general, and particularly on Chainlink and Synthetix. Vance Spencer, a co-founder at Framework, spent time as head of strategy for Netflix Japan. His co-founder Michael Anderson spent time at Snapchat and Dropbox. This gives Framework unique insight into digital products and networks which they apply to DeFi.

    Key takeaway:

    Vance says DeFi is still early and just needs time to mature. Chris Dixon said that most new disruptive technology starts out looking like a toy. This is a good analogy for DeFi right now. As DeFi building blocks start to be put together in new and increasingly useful ways, exciting new use cases will be unlocked.

    Framework doesn’t invest in Bitcoin and it doesn't invest in Ethereum killers. Framework is long Ether as a core position. Ethereum built liquidity for Ether, it built tooling for Solidity, and it built a passionate dev community. These are significant achievements. 2000 ETH devs dancing on stage at Devcon is not something you can easily replicate. The ETH community is hard to disrupt.

    Supporting links:

    Framework Ventures

    Aggregation Theory

    The next big thing will start out looking like a toy

    Donnie Darko

    Framework Ventures on Twitter

    Vance on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Zero to One - Why Bitcoin is an unstoppable idea May 21, 2020

    Robert Breedlove wrote The Number Zero and Bitcoin. Robert says Satoshi gave the world Bitcoin, a true “something for nothing.” This discovery of absolute scarcity for money is an unstoppable idea that is changing the world tremendously, just like its digital ancestor: the number zero. Robert is the CEO of Parallax Digital, a firm specializing in digital asset investments. The company is founded on the premise that Bitcoin will radically reshape the global economy.

    Why you should listen:

    Robert says that Satoshi gave the world Bitcoin, a true “something for nothing.” This discovery of absolute scarcity for money is an unstoppable idea that is changing the world tremendously, just like its digital ancestor: the number zero.

    Like the invention of zero, which led to the discovery of “nothing as something” in mathematics and other domains, Bitcoin is the catalyst of a worldwide paradigmatic phase change. What numeral is to number, and zero is to the void for mathematics, Bitcoin is to absolute scarcity for money: each is a symbol that allows mankind to apprehend a latent reality (in the case of money, time). More than just a new monetary technology, Bitcoin is an entirely new economic paradigm: an uncompromisable base money protocol for a global, digital, non-state economy.

    Key takeaway:

    Robert says that many believe that Bitcoin is “just one of thousands of crypto assets”—this is true in the same way that the number zero is just one of an infinite series of numbers. In reality, Bitcoin is special, and so is zero: each is an invention which led to a discovery that fundamentally reshaped its overarching system—for Bitcoin, that system is money, and for zero, it is mathematics. Since money and math are mankind’s two universal languages, both Bitcoin and zero are critical constructs for civilization.

    Zero and Bitcoin are unstoppable ideas gifted to mankind; gestures made in the spirit of “something for nothing.” In a world run by central banks with zero accountability, a cabal that uses the specious prospects of “infinite cash” to promise us everything (thereby raising the specter of hyperinflation), nothingness may prove to be the greatest gift we could ever receive…

    Supporting links:

    The Number Zero and Bitcoin

    An Open Letter to Ray Dalio

    Robert’s Tweet Storm

    Sapiens

    Interstellar

    The Sovereign Individual

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Bittrex Global - Building a regulated altcoin exchange May 14, 2020

    Stephen Stonberg is the COO/CFO at Bittrex Global, a digital asset exchange based in Liechtenstein. Bittrex Global is a spin-off from one of the OG crypto exchanges, the original Bittrex, based in the U.S. Bittrex Global serves all Bittrex users based outside of the U.S.

    Why you should listen:

    Stephen Stonberg is a graduate of Harvard who spent time at Goldman Sachs. Working in the finance industry in London, Stephen became interested in the potential of the crypto asset class in 2017. After a short stint working in business development in the early days of Binance, Stephen moved to Bittrex where he is now as COO/CFO at Bittrex Global.

    Key takeaway:

    Bittrex Global moved from Malta to Liechtenstein. The Liechtenstein Blockchain Act that was passed in January is a good piece of legislation that best supports their exchange activities.

    Liechtenstein is a professional financial services hub and is a much better fit than Malta for Bittrex Global. Bittrex Global aims for the highest possible standards of regulation, security, and compliance to protect itself and its users. A new Bittrex Global exchange token is coming soon.

    Supporting links:

    Bittrex Global

    Bittrex Global on Twitter

    Stephen On Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

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    NEM 2.0 - Launch the Catapult, Symbol is coming May 07, 2020

    Jeff McDonald is the co-founder of the NEM Foundation. Jeff was one of the first members of the NEM community and has helped build the NEM project to where it is today. NEM is preparing for the launch of Symbol (codename Catapult), the second generation of the NEM blockchain.

    Why you should listen:

    Jeff McDonald shares recollections of the NEM journey to date. NEM was one of the earliest enterprise blockchains and began life as a thread on the BitcoinTalk forums before growing into a top 5 market cap asset with NEM communities all over the globe. Symbol (codename Catapult) represents a full rewrite of the NEM protocol. NEM core dev Jaguar recently published an update that unifies the governance plans for all NEM ecosystem entities to support one goal - the launch of Symbol later in 2020.

    Key takeaway:

    In building Symbol, Jeff says NEM has applied all the learning that comes from running version 1 of their blockchain in production for four years. Symbol is a more performant, scalable, and feature-rich protocol as a result. It will become the core NEM engine, powering both private and public blockchains. Jeff says the 3 other blockchain projects that he sees as the most formidable competitors are Libra, Hyperledger, and Ethereum.

    Supporting links:

    Symbol Roadmap

    Nem Ecosystem Updates

    Nem.io

    Nem on Twitter

    Jeff on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Safe Havens - How gold and Bitcoin can adapt to the new paradigm Apr 30, 2020

    Chris Brookins is the founder of Valiendero Digital Assets, a quantitative cryptocurrency investment fund. Chris is the co-author of a new report titled Safe Havens - How gold and bitcoin can adapt to a new paradigm. In the current global crisis - the world is trending towards negative interest rates, money printing, and a decline in cash - traditional safe-haven assets are being turned on their head. The report explores what the function of a 21st-century safe haven should be.

    Why you should listen:

    Bitcoin is on the path to becoming a store of value. The narrative of bitcoin being uncorrelated with any other asset class, and being a safe haven store of value took a hit on March 12, black Thursday when it crashed along with other global markets. However, Bitcoin has since recovered, proving itself surprisingly resilient, and its recovery didn’t require central bank intervention or a government bailout.

    Key takeaway:

    The COVID-19 pandemic is a black swan event that will impact all industries. It will affect the economy, supply chains, and political and social systems. Bitcoin is antifragile and may benefit from the current global uncertainty. However, as a risk asset, due to rising unemployment retail investors will likely have less income to buy Bitcoin.

    Expectations of risk to the global economy based on historical events are underestimated because events are inherently fat-tailed and because the tail has become fatter with increased connectivity. In other words high impact, low probability events are becoming more probable.

    Supporting links:

    Safe Havens - How gold and bitcoin can adapt to a new paradigm

    Valiendero Digital Assets

    Chris on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    BNC Pro

    The Crypto Conversation is sponsored by BNC Pro, the new digital wealth platform featuring an all-in-one suite of customizable, institutional-grade applications that help you manage your crypto investments. Research, chart, screen, analyze, optimize, report, and more. BNC Pro is the ultimate portfolio tool for individual or enterprise use. Streamline your workflow, manage your crypto, and master this brave new asset class with BNC Pro. Go to BNC-Pro.com to create your free account.

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Sound Money - A hip-hop story about Bitcoin Apr 23, 2020

    DJ J-SCRILLA is a critically acclaimed hip-hop producer and illustrator from Washington DC. His discography includes hall of fame rappers Killer Mike, Raekwon, and Smif N Wessun. DJ J-SCRILLA has released a new hip-hop album called Sound Money that tells the story of Bitcoin, and samples John Mcafee, Hotep Jesus, and Andreas Antonopoulos. Why you should listen:

    Sound Money by DJ-SCRILLA is a body of Bitcoin art combining audio clips, samples, dirty drums, and some of the hip-hop underground’s best rappers. The album serves as a soundtrack for Bitcoiners and serves up audio inspiration for no-coiners interested in the future of decentralized money. This podcast features music highlights from the album including the new crypto anthem ‘Faith In My Money (Money Printer Go Brrr)’.

    Key takeaway:

    On the hip-hop edition of the Crypto Conversation podcast, we discuss the lockdown trend that has seen top rappers engage in Instagram battles, such as the recent soundclash between DJ Premier and RZA.

    DJ J-SCRILLA says “the album is not a foolishly positive take on Bitcoin. It’s a rational angle that condemns the abuses of central banking and portrays Satoshi Nakamoto’s currency as an alternative.”

    Following the Crypto Conversation hot take round, DJ J-SCRILLA shares his top 5 hip-hop albums. Sound Money is available on major streaming services.

    Supporting links:

    Rarescrilla.com

    Money Printer Go Brrr

    DJ J-Scrilla on Twitter

    Sound Money on Spotify

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Capital Markets 2.0 - Fixing the Bitcoin Market's fragile infrastructure Apr 17, 2020

    Hugo Renaudin is the CEO and co-founder of LGO Group, a digital asset exchange for institutions. Hugo says that Bitcoin has a fascinating market infrastructure. It is both revolutionary, but imperfect. Hugo says the Black Thursday crash revealed underlying problems with Bitcoin's market infrastructure. The crash triggered a wave of liquidations that could have sent BTC to zero. What can be done to avoid this risk?

    Why you should listen:

    The Bitcoin and crypto markets have a fascinating market infrastructure that is potentially revolutionary, and a vital part of the capital markets 2.0. However, there are serious problems with Bitcoin's market infrastructure due to the centralization of existing trading platforms. These problems surfaced on Black Thursday, March 12, when the global markets crash triggered a wave of liquidations that could have sent BTC to zero on Bitmex.

    Key takeaway:

    Volatility is a natural part of markets but the potential for volatility remains extreme in the crypto markets. The current financial crisis means that the months and years ahead are a make or break time for Bitcoin and the digital asset space. Bitcoin emerged out of the 2008 financial crisis and it now has the potential to establish itself in the current COVID-19 economic crisis. Bitcoin is not controlled by governments, it has a fixed supply, limited inflation, and it is decentralized. That makes Bitcoin uniquely positioned as a hedge when central banks are forced to inject new fiat into the system.

    Supporting links:

    LGOGroup on Twitter

    Hugo on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Connecting the Unconnected - How REN is solving DeFi interoperability Apr 10, 2020

    Loong Wang is the CTO and co-founder of Ren, a DeFi protocol that enables the private, permissionless transfer of value between any blockchain. Ren is solving the blockchain interoperability problem.

    Why you should listen:

    Loong studied computer science and distributed systems and then became increasingly interested in the potential of blockchain and decentralized finance. The goal of Ren is generic interoperability to enable the trustless, permissionless transfer of value between blockchain. Ren is part of the DeFi ecosystem but Loong sees Ren as helping to build out the decentralized future internet.

    Key takeaway:

    Ren will make it possible to exchange value between different blockchains. The launch of the Ren mainnet is one month away. The goal of interoperability is to make it possible for users to exchange value on any chain, without even knowing that they are interacting with a blockchain. Everything should happen seamlessly in the background. Blade Runner is Loong’s favorite sci-fi movie, a masterpiece of patient world-building and story-telling.

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    Supporting links:

    Ren Project

    Ren on Twitter

    Loong on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Game of Attrition - Bitcoin Mining & the Bitcoin Halving during the pandemic Apr 03, 2020

    Marco Streng is the CEO of Genesis Mining, one of the largest Bitcoin cloud-mining companies. Genesis has mining locations in Iceland, Greenland, Norway, and Europe. Marco studied mathematics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He set up a Bitcoin mining operation in his dorm room that ended when the electricity bill arrived.

    Why you should listen:

    Bitcoin mining is a contest for cheap energy and efficient mining rigs. Miners who are able to operate for long time frames at low costs are in the best position. All other miners are at risk of being buffeted by external market forces.

    Key takeaway:

    Any professional miner is well prepared for the Bitcoin halving in May. It is a known event therefore competent miners are able to prepare for all scenarios well in advance.

    Marcos says that worries about Bitcoin’s energy footprint are overblown due to Bitcoin mining’s increasing use of cheap renewable energy.

    The Crypto Conversation is proudly sponsored by DeFi leaders NEXO

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    Supporting links:

    Genesis Mining

    Genesis on Twitter

    Marco on Twitter

    Marco on VICE

    Life 3.0

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Continuous Custody - Speed and stability in uncertain times Mar 26, 2020

    Diogo Monica is the president and co-founder of Anchorage, the leading crypto custodian for institutional investors. Anchorage was selected as a founding member of the Libra Association and recently completed a $40m Series B fundraise, led by Visa.

    Why you should listen:

    Diogo says that custody needs have evolved beyond simple cold storage. With proof-of-stake assets allowing on-chain governance and 24/7 trading opportunities, there’s a need for a custody solution that allows institutional-grade security as well as near-instant access to assets. Anchorage aims to be the leading provider of that solution.

    Key takeaway:

    Anchorage uses multiple types of biometric signals and behavioral analytics about the client and device to verify their identity. This is the cutting edge of crypto custody.

    Digo thinks that Facebook’s Libra stablecoin will launch in some form in 2020. Anchorage is a founding member of the Libra Association.

    The Crypto Conversation is proudly sponsored by DeFi leaders NEXO

    Click here to borrow instantly in 45+ fiat currencies

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    Supporting links:

    Anchorage

    Anchorage on Twitter

    Diogo on Twitter

    Glacier Protocol

    The Way of Kings

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Snow Crash - Why Blockstack is the inverse of the world computer Mar 19, 2020

    Muneeb Ali is the co-founder and CEO of Blockstack, a decentralized computing network that gives users control of their data. Muneeb talks about the limits of Web 2.0 and how that led to an intrusive ad model, and how web 3.0 changes this model by giving individuals control of their digital sovereignty.

    Why you should listen:

    Muneeb explains that over a dinner with Balaji S. Srinivasan in February, Balaji convinced him that COVID-19 was about to crash the world and all precautions should be taken. Balaji was right.

    The simple but robust protocol design for the Internet Protocol (IP) took the internet to 15B connected devices through the period of the fastest technological change in history. Muneeb says Bitcoin’s protocol has the same properties - it is simple and robust - that’s why Bitcoin is the ideal narrow waist for Web 3.

    Key takeaway:

    Blockstack completed its capital raise six months ago and rebalanced its portfolio in February - leaving them in a strong position to keep building in these turbulent times.

    Blockstack aims to be simple and powerful - like Bitcoin. Blockstack can be thought of as the inverse of the world computer - or platform blockchains such as Ethereum and EOS.

    Muneeb says that in trying and uncertain times - it is important for individuals to have a sense of purpose to help them keep pushing forward.

    Snow Crash is Mnueeb’s fav sci-fi novel and it informs his thinking about Web3 and Web4.

    The Crypto Conversation is proudly sponsored by DeFi leaders NEXO

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    Supporting links:

    Blockstack

    Blocktack Blog

    Bitcoin as the narrow waist for Web3

    Fireside chat with Balaji S. Srinivasan

    Snow Crash

    Simulation Theory

    Why Decentralization Matters

    Google creepily records you

    Muneeb on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    COVID-19 is spreading - How to bound the downside Mar 13, 2020

    Trent McConaghy is a data and statistical modeling expert. Alarmed at the exponential spread of COVID-19, Trent became concerned that if the virus followed the same trajectory as in Wuhan and Lombardy - other cities would be similarly overwhelmed. Trent created a model to answer the question - how long before hospital capacity gets overwhelmed; at which point the death rate jumps? The focus of the modeling is on the hot zones of the U.S. and Germany: Washington state (WA) and Berlin. According to the model WA will hit capacity by March 25, and Berlin by April 5.

    Why you should listen:

    There are things we can do now, as citizens, organizations and governments, to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to bound the downside. If we don’t, the downside could be severe. Trent has a Ph.D. in EE from KU Leuven, Belgium. He undertook machine learning research for the Canadian Department of National Defense. He is the founder of Ocean Protocol, a decentralized data marketplace.

    COVID-19 is a Black Swan. It’s gone from highly unlikely, to likely, to happening. No one has perfect models of how it will unfold, exactly. But, we can identify possible worst-case scenarios and take action to minimize the negative impacts if those scenarios do occur. The most rational thing that we can do is to bound the downside.

    Key takeaway:

    The virus will not hit nations in a uniformly spread fashion. It will take out one city at a time, not one country at a time. In China, Northern Wuhan was taken out first. In Italy, it was Lombardy, Venice, and Milan. So while we can start with analyses at the national level (USA, Germany), it’s critical to drill into specific hotspots (Washington state, Berlin) which will experience capacity constraints sooner than the national average.

    What can be done? For starters, get more beds. Cancel large gatherings, start remote work, and accelerate universal testing. We should act now. We can learn a lot from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

    The Crypto Conversation is proudly sponsored by DeFi leaders NEXO

    Click here to borrow instantly in 45+ fiat currencies

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    Supporting links:

    When does hospital capacity get overwhelmed

    What we can do about Coronavirus

    Systemic Risk of Pandemic via Novel Pathogens

    Ocean Protocol

    Trent on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    American Crypto - Binance.US is making moves Mar 09, 2020

    Catherine Coley is the CEO of Binance.US - the San Francisco based digital asset marketplace that serves American traders under the blue-chip Binance brand. Catherine says that CZ led Binance to the top by adopting a remote-first, decentralized approach.

    Why you should listen:

    Catherine says Binance U.S. is the perfect mix for the ‘ambitious trader’, someone who knows markets, wants to see order depth and market structure, and wants to use the best trading tools available. Binance executed flawlessly in its first year of operation, growing at a scale beyond any other exchange. By adopting a remote-first, decentralized approach, CZ allowed the Binance team to be their best selves.

    Catherine also talks about her time as the head of XRP Institutional Liquidity at Ripple during the 2017 bull run. There was a button on the Ripple website that traders could push to find out where to buy XRP that sent an auto-email to Catherine. She says at the peak of the rally, she received 17,000 emails in a six-hour window.

    Key takeaway:

    The U.S. exchange market is competitive, but Catherine is confident to be the CEO of the leading exchange brand in crypto and working with the best trading engine available. While some see the U.S. as falling behind in the global crypto market, Catherine sees an incredible opportunity to get it right. She says crypto represents freedom and we are at the very beginning of the crypto revolution globally.

    Catherine still does customer support which gives her invaluable insight into Binance customer needs. Catherine is a major Star Wars nerd, a mega Mandolorian fan and she proudly wears her Darth Vader costume every year for May the 4th and Halloween.

    The Crypto Conversation is proudly sponsored by DeFi leaders NEXO

    Click here to borrow instantly in 45+ fiat currencies

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    Supporting links:

    Binance.US

    Binance.US on Twitter

    Catherine on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    The Bitcoin Halving

    NEXO

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Inflection Point - Did the Coronavirus kill the Everything Rally? Feb 28, 2020

    Kevin Kelly is a co-founder and macro strategist at Delphi Digital, an independent research boutique providing institutional-grade analysis on the digital asset market. Kevin has been tracking what he calls an “inflection point” in the “everything rally.” Is the Coronavirus the black swan event that will trigger a major correction across global financial markets? What does this mean for the crypto markets?

    Why you should listen:

    Kevin was a U.S. Equity Strategist at Bloomberg before falling down the crypto rabbithole and taking his macro skills to the digital asset space. Kevin gives his helicopter view of the fast-moving macro situation. All markets are extremely volatile and the situation is changing daily as markets react to rising concern over the potential for a global Coronavirus pandemic.

    Key takeaway:

    The Coronavirus is a black swan event that is likely to get worse before it gets better. When confronted by a highly contagious virus, it is better to be paranoid early, rather than panic late. Google, Amazon and Facebook have too much market power and too much control over user data. The promise and potential of Web 3.0 is to give power back to the individual by giving them the tools to monetize their data and attention.

    Supporting links:

    Delphi Digital

    Systemic Risk of Pandemic via Novel Pathogens

    The Transall Saga

    The Bitcoin Halving

    Kevin Kelly on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    Flash Loans - Mapping the esoteric landscape of DeFi Feb 24, 2020

    Andy talks with self-described ‘flash loans maximalist’ Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of the Aave Protocol. We explore the increasingly exotic and esoteric landscape of Decentralized Finance or Money Lego - the DeFi ecosystem built on Ethereum. Against the backdrop of the recent DeFi exploits, we discuss the new flash loan innovation that allows traders to take out a loan without collateral by paying back the loan in the same smart contract transaction.

    Why you should listen:

    Ethereum developers and the DeFi community see the emerging decentralized finance model as a genuine alternative to the legacy financial system. Listen as Stani explains his vision for the Aave protocol and the use cases for flash loans. DeFi is still in a nascent stage andexploits are an inevitable part of the growth cycle as the technology matures. These events are necessary to strengthen the system before it is ready for mainstream use.

    Key takeaway:

    Decentralization is a journey, not a destination. DeFi may be the decentralized, accessible, immutable financial system of the future, however, the technology is new and still in the experimental stage. The current smart contract attack surface remains open to exploits.

    Supporting links:

    Aave

    Flash Loans

    Stani on Twitter

    Aave on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Proof of Space - Chia is a green, environmentally-friendly cryptocurrency Feb 19, 2020

    In part 2 of our conversation with Bram Cohen, Bram outlines the flaws in the financial system, and how Bitcoin was supposed to address them. Bram then takes on Bitcoin, his view is that Bitcoin is too centralized and that its energy footprint is wasteful. Bram explains how his new cryptocurrency project Chia hopes to build on the blueprint of Bitcoin, but instead of using the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus algorithm, Chia uses proof of space and time, free hard disk space, to create a new Nakamoto-style consensus algorithm.

    Why you should listen:

    Bram’s vision for Chia is to create a cryptocurrency with the same properties as Bitcoin, but without the enormous energy footprint, and he wants it to be decentralized, and for any individual to be able to farm (mine) the network and participate. Bram says Chia has several unique features that will encourage adoption and even capture market share from Bitcoin.

    Key takeaway:

    Bitcoin is a revolutionary idea that solved the trusted third party problem and the double spend problem but miners are too centralized and the energy footprint is wasteful. Bram’s vision for Chia addresses these two perceived weaknesses.

    Links:

    Bram Cohen’s Wikipedia page

    Chia

    Chia Green Paper

    Bitcoin

    Bitcoin Hash Rate By Mining Pool

    Dr Who

    Bram on Twitter

    Chia Project on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Information wants to be free - Bram Cohen on BitTorrent, content, copyright & crypto (part 1) Feb 17, 2020

    This is part one of a two-part conversation with Bram Cohen. Bram is the inventor of the peer to peer BitTorrent protocol that changed the world in the early 2000s, disrupting the way we understand copyright, how we consume content, and leading to the destruction and rebirth of corporate media companies. Bram is now working on Chia Network, a cryptocurrency with the same properties as Bitcoin, but without the intensive energy footprint. Chia uses a new consensus algorithm called Proof Of Space and Time.

    Why you should listen:

    The BitTorrent protocol was a catalyst for the golden age of file-sharing in the early 2000s. Bram says it was never about being a crusader against copyright, he was simply interested in moving data from point A to point B. Listen to Bram’s memories of being a childhood programming prodigy, his early start-up failures, and his impressions of Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto during the early years of Bitcoin.

    Key takeaway:

    At its peak, BitTorrent had hundreds of millions of users and accounted for 40% of all internet traffic. At the core of this was the idea that information wants to be free - and the tension behind that idea is still at the root of what it means to be extremely online today.

    BitTorrent is the world’s largest decentralized protocol. Bitcoin is the second largest. Bitcoin is a revolutionary idea but miners are too centralized and the energy footprint is growing. Bram’s vision for Chia addresses these two perceived weaknesses.

    Links:

    Bram Cohen’s Wikipedia page

    Chia

    Chia Green Paper

    United States of America Mathematical Olympiad

    Mojo Nation

    BitTorrent

    Copyright

    Hal Finney

    Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

    Bitcoin IRC Channels

    Bram on Twitter

    Chia Project on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin

    If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.


    Deepfakes - AI, synthetic media, and the rise of virtual influencers Feb 12, 2020

    In this episode of the Crypto Conversation Andy is joined by Arif Khan, CEO of Alethea AI, a decentralized Synthetic Content Network that allows users to own the rights to their AI-generated identity, secured by a blockchain. Are you ready to monetize your likeness, face and voice data in a trusted environment?

    Why you should listen:

    Deepfakes are hyper-realistic AI-generated synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. Deepfakes can be used to deceive, such as a manipulated video of a politician deployed in an attempt to cause political unrest. However, individuals and media companies are now using the tech in exciting and creative new ways to enable virtual influencers and new digital and social media opportunities. The result is that the lines between virtual, digital, social, and reality continue to blur.

    Key takeaway:

    Synthetic Media is an emerging creativity multiplier that enables a new kind of storytelling. Like all technology, it can be used in both positive and negative ways. China’s attempt to contain the Coronavirus is likely to accelerate the trend towards remote work, VR, and virtual identities. The future is likely to be weirder and stranger than you dared hope.

    Supporting links:

    Alethea AI

    War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast 1938

    Lil Miquela

    Sapiens

    Alethea AI on Twitter

    Arif on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    The Bitcoin Halving - price-performance, past, present, & future with Rekt Capital Feb 05, 2020

    In this episode of the Crypto Conversation Andy is joined by Rekt Capital, a trader and technical analyst who has been studying Bitcoin’s price history to look at the effect of the previous halving events on Bitcoin’s price performance. Rekt Capital says the Bitcoin Halving is an important catalyst that will propel Bitcoin into a new bull market.

    Why you should listen:

    Andy and Rekt Capital discuss the Bitcoin Halving in a macro context to address the following questions: How did each of the previous two Bitcoin Halvings affect Bitcoin’s price? Are there any recurring tendencies as to how these two Halvings affected Bitcoin’s price? How could Bitcoin’s upcoming third Halving potentially affect Bitcoin’s price? Is the Bitcoin Halving priced in?

    Key takeaway:

    The amount of Bitcoin that is created every 10 minutes gets cut in half every four years. This is why the Bitcoin Halving can be seen as a catalyst that leads to Bitcoin price appreciation. It is important to develop an understanding as well as the ability to appreciate, with a level-head, the historical significance of the Bitcoin Halving effect on Bitcoin’s price. Of course, past performance doesn’t guarantee future outcomes. But as Mark Twain said, two things can be said about history. “History doesn’t repeat itself — but it often rhymes.”

    Supporting links:

    Brave New Coin Halving Countdown

    Rekt Capital Bitcoin-Halving-Everything-You-Need-To-Know

    Rekt Capital TA Course (use discount code cryptoconversation)

    Brave New Coin Bitcoin Liquid Index

    Rekt Capital on Twitter

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    The Bitcoin Halving - the countdown begins Feb 04, 2020

    In this episode of the Crypto conversation I’m joined by Pierre Ansaldi and Paul Salisbury from Brave New Coin to discuss the Bitcoin halving, and the new halving countdown page on Brave New Coin. The Bitcoin halving is a key macro event for Bitcoin in 2020, and as we get closer to the halving, Bitcoiners and the rest of the world alike will be watching Bitcoin’s price action.

    Why you should listen:

    With increasingly turbulent global financial markets and less than 100 days until the Bitcoin halving, while stock markets fall, the BTC price is soaring. Investors are asking when is the halving, and is it priced in? Find out more!

    Key takeaway:

    Brave New Coin’s new halving countdown page is dedicated to estimating the date and time of the next Bitcoin Block Reward Halving. We have created four scenarios based on different block time metrics. Each scenario is a moving estimate and the timestamp, charts, and values shown on the page are re-calculated daily. The page provides everything you need to watch all of the data around the halving.

    Supporting links:

    Brave New Coin Halving Countdown

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin


    The Market Maker - Coronavirus & Bitcoin halving lead the macro news cycle Jan 30, 2020

    Scott Freeman, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, is the co-founder of JST Capital, a firm specializing in providing a full suite of traditional financial services to institutions and high-net worth individuals in the digital asset market. On this episode of the Crypto Conversation, Scott and Andy discuss institutional investors, whether the Bitcoin halving is priced in, and the effect of the Coronavirus on the financial markets.

    Why you should listen:

    As we begin a new decade, many market watchers had expected turbulence and volatility, and 2020 is not playing around. The Coronavirus is driving the global news cycle and impacting all financial markets as governments scramble to contain the virus and prevent a pandemic. In the meantime, with just 100 days until the Bitcoin halving, while stock markets fall, the BTC price is soaring, is the halving priced in?

    Key takeaway:

    It’s too early to know what will happen with the Coronavirus but it’s already having a negative impact on the global economy. Andy and Scott discuss a note on the virus by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a statistician and risk analyst whose work concerns problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. Taleb’s take is that in order to contain such a virus, all resources must be diverted to containment as soon as possible, an opportunity that China missed. Taleb’s view is that while there is a very high probability for humanity surviving a single such event, over time, there is eventually zero probability of surviving repeated exposures to such events.

    Supporting links:

    JST Capital

    Systemic Risk of Pandemic via Novel Pathogens

    Andy on Twitter

    Brave New Coin on Twitter

    Brave New Coin