Unchained

Latest Episodes:

How NFT Platform OpenSea Plans to Maintain Its Competitive Advantage - Ep.232 Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace OpenSea, talks all things non-fungible. Check out the whole show to hear Devin answer the following questions:

First Half: Breaking Down NFTs

Why did he become so interested in NFTs ?
What is an NFT? Why have NFTs become so popular recently?
Who is creating NFTs? Who is purchasing NFTs?
Are we in an NFT bubble?
How is the NFT ecosystem going to evolve over the next few years?
What are people purchasing when they buy an NFT?

Second Half: OpenSea Q+A

What is OpenSea?
How will OpenSea maintain its competitive advantage in the open-source blockchain ecosystem?
How does OpenSea make money?
Are artists making money on OpenSea?
How is OpenSea planning on integrating with layer 2 solutions on Ethereum and other blockchains?
How do royalties work on OpenSea? Why are they hard to enforce?
What can be done about content being minted on OpenSea without an artist’s permission?
What issues in the NFT world still need to be resolved?
How is OpenSea handling the environmental concerns surrounding NFTs?
What’s next for OpenSea?

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2

Kyber Network: Dmm.exchange

Episode Links

Basic Links

Devin Finzer

Content

Podcast appearances
- https://www.owltail.com/people/YzIoa-devin-finzer/appearances
The NFT Bible
- https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/

Blockchain gaming (2018)
- https://www.coindesk.com/the-emerging-trends-in-the-blockchain-gaming-world

OpenSea

Profiles
- Fortune
- - https://fortune.com/2021/03/18/nft-art-crypto-marketplace-opensea-amazon/
- CoinDesk 50 for 2020 (#47)
- - https://www.coindesk.com/the-coindesk-50
Recent announcements
- scaling solution w/ Immutable X (Mar 31)
- - https://www.coindesk.com/nft-opensea-immutable-layer-2-protocol-ethereum
  - https://decrypt.co/65828/immutable-x-ethereum-nft-gods-unchained
- A16z investment (Mar 18th)
- - https://a16z.com/2021/03/18/investing-in-opensea/
- updating terms of service (Mar 13)
- - https://twitter.com/opensea/status/1370895902068637697
- taking down the hacker NFT (Mar 9)
- - https://www.coindesk.com/hacker-selling-cybersecurity-exploit-nft
- unlockable content (early March)
- - https://twitter.com/opensea/status/1366780226416631817
- Tezos collab (Feb 10)
- - https://twitter.com/opensea/status/1359519631275352064
- creating NFTs for free (Dec 29)
- - https://opensea.io/blog/announcements/introducing-the-collection-manager/
  - https://twitter.com/xanderatallah/status/1358848443356221445
- recent usage:
- - https://duneanalytics.com/rchen8/opensea
2018 investing round
- https://www.coindesk.com/ebay-cryptokitties-raises-2-million-star-vcs
- https://opensea.io/blog/announcements/opensea-raises-2-million/

Other

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Unconfirmed: This Layer 2 Solution Processed More NFT Trades in 24 Hours Than Ethereum Did in 1 Week - Ep.231 Apr 23, 2021

Show notes

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of Immutable, talks about how Immutable is transforming the NFT industry through its layer 2 solution, Immutable X, which just launched April 8. In this episode, he discusses:

what sort of problems Immutable is solving by creating a layer 2 solution (1:21)
why scalability is especially an issue for NFTs in gaming (1:59)
how Immutable X, built with partner Starkware, addresses the problems with scaling NFTs (3:28)
how Immutable is scaling Ethereum and the definition of a layer 2 solution (5:46)
the Immutable business model and how the company makes money (6:40)
how validity proofs like ZK-rollups differ from fraud proofs like Optimistic rollups (7:52)
how Gods Unchained has performed since the April 8th launch of Immutable X (8:27)
why building on Ethereum is so important to Immutable (10:54)
why Immutable is obsessed with bringing liquidity to NFTs (14:54)
what sort of partners Immutable is looking to attract and how Immutable X is different from a traditional marketplace (18:00)
why Immutable decided to purchase carbon credits to offset the gas the protocol consumes on Ethereum (21:33)
what we might see from Gods Unchained, Immutable X, and NFT gaming in general by the end of this year (23:32 )
weekly news recap (26:22)

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021

InterPop: https://hellointerpop.io/?utm_source=Unchained&utm_medium=episode-sponsorship&utm_campaign=interpop-launch&utm_content=interpop

NEAR: https://near.org

Episode Links

Robbie Ferguson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbieferguson/?originalSubdomain=au

Immutable

Miscellaneous Links

Hearthstone link
- https://decrypt.co/48379/gods-unchained-review-and-beginners-guide
Carbon Credits
- https://twitter.com/immutable/status/1377099577178779659?lang=en
StarkWare relationship
- https://medium.com/starkware/starkware-immutable-8896aabab4e5
- StarkWare’s recent Unchained appearance
- - https://unchainedpodcast.com/can-dydx-become-a-decentralized-bitmex-how-it-is-scaling-with-starkware/

Link to the Crypto News Recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/2600-eth/

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Thanks, Forbes: Laura on How the Unchained Podcast Came to Be - Ep.230 Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

In a fun change of pace, I was interviewed by the On Deck Podcaster Fellowship about the origins of Unchained pod, how my background as a journalist prepared me for podcasting, and tips for aspiring creators. Episode highlights:

why I believe the Unchained podcast has been successful and how my penchant for asking tough questions came about (1:48)
how my background in journalism prepared me for hosting a podcast (6:35)
how I choose guests for the show and how they feel about being asked difficult questions (9:10)
why I feel my background in traditional media is so important (15:46)
whether my podcast helped me land a book deal (20:35)
the Unchained podcast origin story (26:37)
how I’ve brought my sense of journalistic integrity and ethics to podcasting (33:56)
the top tips for choosing a good podcast title (41:58)
advice for aspiring podcasters on sifting through BS answers and warming up shy guests (48:19)
who I look up to in the podcast space (53:25)
what future creators and podcasters from underrepresented backgrounds can learn from my experience breaking into the world of finance and technology (57:33)

Thank you to our sponsors:

E&Y: https://ey.com/globalblockchainsummit

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2

Kyber Network: Dmm.exchange

Episode Links

On Deck:

https://www.beondeck.com/

Laura Shin:

https://twitter.com/laurashin

Unchained Podcast:

https://twitter.com/Unchained_pod

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Unconfirmed: Why This Analyst Puts Coinbase in the Most Exclusive Club of Stocks - Ep.229 Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

Gil Luria, director of research at D.A. Davidson, talks about Coinbase’s performance on its first day as a public company. In this episode, Gil discusses:

the significance of Coinbase going public (1:05)
why doing a direct listing was a risky move (1:31)
why he revised his price target for COIN from $440 to $650 (3:17)
how investing in COIN as a “pure play” crypto company compares to buying stock in companies like MicroStrategy and Square (5:06)
why some people are disrupting Coinbase’s actual market cap (7:11)
whether Coinbase can smooth out revenue over the long term and not be so correlated to the crypto markets themselves(10:45)
what sort of statistics Gil is looking for in valuing Coinbase (13:08)
why Gil thinks Coinbase can meet its goal of growing non-transaction revenue from 4% to 50% in five to ten years (15:32)
how Coinbase could navigate the compression of fees that will occur as competition increases among exchanges (17:33)
whether Coinbase’s stance as an apolitical company could affect the stock price in an era in which companies are getting involved in issues like voting rights (19:45)
whether the Bitcoin price and COIN stock price will always be highly correlated (21:18)
which other crypto companies are good candidates for going public as well (22:35)
weekly news recap (24:03)