Unchained

Latest Episodes:

Camila Russo on the Most Pivotal Moments in Ethereum's History - Ep.182 Jul 21, 2020

Show notes

Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant and author of a new book on Ethereum, "The Infinite Machine," speaks about how currency controls in Argentina got her interested in crypto and explains why she chose to tell the Ethereum story. She discusses:

how she started covering the crypto space
what it was like living through currency controls in Argentina
why she started focusing on Ethereum instead of Bitcoin
what’s in her new book, The Infinite Machine
the most pivotal moments in Ethereum’s history
possible risks to Ethereum 2.0 because of delays
whether competing protocols could take market share away from Ethereum
the most surprising aspect of the Ethereum story
starting her own DeFi-focused media platform, The Defiant
why she launched ‘CAMI’ tokens and how they are used
the significance of ERC-20 tokens having a higher market cap than ETH
her predictions about trends and promising projects in the DeFi space

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com

Tezos: https://tquorum.com/

Episode links:

Camila Russo: https://twitter.com/CamiRusso

The Infinite Machine: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-infinite-machine-camila-russo

The Defiant: https://thedefiant.substack.com/

Excerpt from The Infinite Machine on CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/sale-of-the-century-the-inside-story-of-ethereums-2014-premine

Decrypt review: https://decrypt.co/35466/the-incredible-story-of-ethereum-the-infinite-machine

Camila on what Ethereum has accomplished in five years: https://www.coindesk.com/five-years-on-ethereum-really-is-the-minecraft-of-crypto-finance

Hidden Forces podcast with Camila: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rise-ethereum-future-defi-transformation-crypto-media/id1205359334?i=1000484635053

Camila in the Keen On podcast: https://lithub.com/camila-russo-on-ethereum-and-the-future-of-the-internet/

Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 may not go live until 2021: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/71155/eth-2-phase-0-ama-2021

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Why Bitcoin Now: Michael Casey and Niall Ferguson on How Bitcoin Fits in the History of Money - Ep.181 Jul 14, 2020

Show notes

Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the author of numerous books including The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and most recently, the Square and the Tower: Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook, and Michael Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk and coauthor of two books on crypto, The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine, discuss the history of money and the macro environment for Bitcoin. We cover:

how they became involved in crypto
historically, what has made things money, or how people have decided that something is money
the difficulty of managing fiat currency
modern monetary theory and the role of the state in the financial system
Satoshi’s message in BTC’s genesis block and what that indicates about Satoshi's intentions with Bitcoin
whether a more transparent, blockchain-based financial system could eventually lead to a new financial order
how Bitcoin behaves like an option on digital gold, and when it will behave like digital gold
whether Bitcoin is simply a reversion to previous forms of money that weren’t controlled by the state
how crypto/blockchain and fintech innovation from startups and the Chinese government will affect the USD
how a hypothetical war between the US and China would affect the dollar's dominance
how China's DCEP could disintermediate banks
how Bitcoin fits into all of the different macro conditions facing the global economy
whether Libra is going to be the initial gateway getting people into our digital currency world
how well the recovery from coronavirus will go, and how it will affect the development of the crypto space in the near-term

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Tezos: https://tquorum.com/

Episode links:

Niall Ferguson: http://www.niallferguson.com

The Ascent of Money: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302900/the-ascent-of-money-by-niall-ferguson/

Michael Casey: https://www.michaeljcasey.com

Money Reimagined: https://www.coindesk.com/tag/money-reimagined

The Age of Cryptocurrency: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551

The first episode in the Why Bitcoin Now series: Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on 'the Single Greatest Brand' ofo the Last 10 Years: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/

How Niall got into Bitcoin:

http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/finance-economics/bitcoin-may-go-pop-but-its-revolution-will-go-on

Niall and Michael at Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/disruption-money-and-a-world-of-change-feat-niall-ferguson

Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya, who believes Bitcoin is a hedge on everything blowing up: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/

Carlota Perez at CoinDesk's Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/video/carlota-perez-on-blockchains-and-technological-revolutions

Unchained interview about the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/

Unchained interview with Christopher Giancarlo about a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/

Unconfirmed episode with Michael about Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/

Unchained episode with a co-creator of Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/

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DeFi Yield Farming: Why It's All the Rage But Risky - Ep.180 Jul 07, 2020

Show notes

Dan Elitzer, investor at IDEO CoLab Ventures, and Will Price, data scientist at Flipside Crypto, discuss the yield farming craze. In this episode, we cover:

the goals of protocols offering liquidity mining
the goals of users yield farming right now
whether users of Compound will have much awareness of COMP in the future
how Compound is trying to dampen inorganic activity and properly align incentives
how incentives in one DeFi protocol can screw up another's such as changes in Compound's liquidity mining program causing Dai to lose its peg
whether the activity created by liquidity mining is sustainable and how
whether Compound is overvalued and how to determine valuations for DeFi tokens
the security risks that come with trying yield farming
how teams can keep their protocols safe given the composability of DeFi and the growing number of developments in the space
whether the yield farming craze will cause the price of ETH to rise and why the prevalence of stablecoins might prevent that
whether new DeFi tokens could push flagging layer 1s out of the top 10
what will happen if even more Bitcoin comes to DeFi
how the next big thing in DeFi might be trying to stack yield across protocols and eventually prime brokerage protocols

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com

Episode links:

Dan Elitzer: https://twitter.com/delitzer

IDEO CoLab Ventures: https://www.ideocolab.com/ventures/

Will Price: https://twitter.com/will__price

Flipside Crypto: https://flipsidecrypto.com

Total value locked in Compound: https://defipulse.com/compound

What liquidity bootstrapping pools are: https://medium.com/balancer-protocol/building-liquidity-into-token-distribution-a49d4286e0d4

Dan on earning more from borrowing USDT than lending it on Compound: https://twitter.com/delitzer/status/1272642107128164354

Tony Sheng on how yield farming works and how much you can earn from it: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274393189231689728

And his followup on the risks of yield farming: https://twitter.com/tonysheng/status/1274780457729617920

The purpose of COMP for governance: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-community-ownership-ee0ed1252cc3

https://medium.com/compound-finance/expanding-compound-governance-ce13fcd4fe36

Risks of so much BAT being held in Compound: https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1276897377446776832?s=20

https://twitter.com/defiprime/status/1277026665952980992?s=20

https://twitter.com/devops199fan/status/1274732220192829441?s=20

Cyrus of MakerDAO concerned about the risks COMP poses to the Dai peg: https://forum.makerdao.com/t/upcoming-comp-farming-change-could-impact-the-dai-peg/2965

Dan Guido and Taylor Monahan on Unchained discussing DeFi security: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/

Twitter discussion on whether ETH price will rise due to yield farming: https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1274781676875452421

What will happen to other Layer 1s? https://twitter.com/Shaughnessy119/status/1274376237239189504?s=20

Aquaponic yield farming: https://bankless.substack.com/p/aquaponic-yield-farming

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Why Bitcoin Now: Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on 'the Single Greatest Brand' of the Last 10 Years - Ep.179 Jun 30, 2020

Show notes

This episode is the first in a series, Why Bitcoin Now, that takes a deeper dive into Bitcoin and the history of money in the macroeconomic environment of the coronavirus. Mike Novogratz, founder, CEO and chairman of Galaxy Digital, and Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor and Real Vision Group, tell us where they think Bitcoin is going amidst this macro uncertainty and the global crisis due to the coronavirus. We discuss:

why Bitcoin’s price hasn't risen in price due to the global turmoil, and instead fell with the rest of the market on Black Thursday
why quantitative easing is the catalyst for institutional investors to turn to Bitcoin, but why that takes time, and why registered investment advisors may be on the cusp
why they think retail investors will continue to buy Bitcoin despite record unemployment
why Bitcoin will benefit from social unrest
why any particular country's success in dealing with the coronavirus won’t really lessen the economic impact there
whether China's first-mover advantage with the DCEP and its comprehensive enterprise blockchain initiatives will undermine the global dominance of the US dollar
why they believe there will ultimately be a dollar-based stablecoin
why they believe Libra will be a strong player in the future of stablecoins
how election outcomes, and in particular a potential movement to break up Big Tech, could affect Bitcoin and the vision for Web3
whether Ethereum, and staking, will see more adoption from institutional investors
why they believe yield farming is ultimately not sustainable, but still profitable
the impact the Bitcoin halving will have in this macroeconomic environment

Unchained is hiring!

Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here!

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://crypto.law

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org

Episode links:

Mike Novogratz: https://twitter.com/novogratz

Galaxy Digital: https://www.galaxydigital.io

Raoul Pal: https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI

Real Vision: https://www.realvision.com

Unchained interview with Kyle Samani on what happened in the crypto markets on Black Thursday: https://unchainedpodcast.com/teetering-on-the-edge-how-black-thursday-exposed-the-flaws-in-the-crypto-markets/

Unconfirmed interview with Antoine Le Calvez on what happened on BitMEX during Black thursday: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-happened-on-bitmex-during-black-thursday/

Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya on Bitcoin: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/

Brian Armstrong tweet about deposits to Coinbase the same size as the $1,200 stimulus check: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1250907110730170370?s=20

China's DCEP and blockchain initiative: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/

Unchained interview on Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/

Unconfirmed interview with the Libra Association's Dante Disparte: https://unchainedpodcast.com/libras-dante-disparte-on-why-we-should-trust-a-financial-system-designed-by-facebook/

Unconfirmed interview with Michael Casey on why it would it would be good if Libra rivaled the USD: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/

Christopher Giancarlo's digital dollar project: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/

Ethereum 2.0 staking: https://www.coindesk.com/3-ways-staking-will-upend-the-economics-of-ethereum

Unconfirmed with Kain Warwick on COMP's launch: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-comp-5xed-on-day-1-and-what-this-means-for-a-defi-bull-market/

Unconfirmed interview with Tony Sheng on yield farming: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-you-can-double-your-money-or-lose-everything/

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Chamath Palihapitiya: Why Bitcoin Will Be 'the Category Winner' - Ep.178 Jun 23, 2020

Show notes

Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital and chairman of Virgin Galactic, talks about a wide range of issues, including Bitcoin, COVID, civil unrest, and broad economic trends and forecasts. We discuss:

Whether his economic forecasts have shifted throughout COVID
Why he believes a debt crisis will occur
How he views the success of BTC as a hedge against the ruling class
How the economic pendulum will swing back toward consumers
Why he doesn't mind if big corporations and hedge funds get wiped out
Whether he subscribes to the thesis that Bitcoin is uncorrelated
Why the pandemic has not spurred institutional adoption of crypto
Why he sees no merit in Ethereum
How the economy will become more decentralized in the future and whether blockchain will be a part of it
Why he prefers SPACs over ICOs
Why he started capital as a service
Why he believes the government should bust up large corporations

Unchained is hiring!

I'm looking for a remote editorial assistant. If you love crypto and have journalism experience, get in touch! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org

Kelman Law: https://www.kelman.law

Episode links:

Chamath Palihapitiya: https://twitter.com/chamath

Social Capital: https://www.socialcapital.com/

Turmoil at Social Capital: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/social-capital-founder-gives-his-account-of-turmoil-at-firm

https://observer.com/2018/09/chamath-palihapitiya-social-capital-turmoil/

https://medium.com/@chamath/the-reports-of-our-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated-11bcc80ee4ab

2019 interview with Kara Swisher: https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2019/3/4/18247010/chamath-palihapitiya-social-capital-happiness-identity-crisis-kara-swisher-teddy-schleifer-podcast

Chamath on Recode Decode in 2020: https://podcastnotes.org/recode-decode/chamath-palihapitiya-kara-swisher-investing/

Fed buying up to $250 billion in individual corporate bonds: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/federal-reserve-begins-individual-corporate-bond-purchases-secondary-market-relief-2020-6-1029309910

CNBC interview where he says Bitcoin is an uncorrelated hedge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gDmcU8bDw

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/12/social-capitals-palihapitiya-bitcoin-is-going-to-1-million-in-the-next-20-years.html

SPAC: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-modern-ipo-is-useless-lets-reinvent-it-1506361770?mod=searchresults&page=2&pos=13

China’s blockchain efforts: https://www.coindesk.com/from-banking-giants-to-tech-darlings-china-reveals-over-500-enterprise-blockchain-projects

Capital as a service:

https://caas.socialcapital.com

https://medium.com/social-capital/from-experiment-to-product-capital-as-a-service-one-year-later-6d8b4b9c038b

2019 investor letter: https://www.socialcapital.com/annual-letters/2019

At Stanford GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk

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Christopher Giancarlo: Why the US Needs to Have a Digital Dollar - Ep.177 Jun 16, 2020

Show notes

At an event at the NYU Stern School of Business, Christopher Giancarlo, former CFTC Chairman and co-founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, discusses his proposal for a US central bank digital currency (CBDC), and how that fits into the broader geopolitical environment. We cover:

Why he has focused on pushing for a US digital dollar after leaving the CFTC
How a US CBDC would be different from other stablecoins
How the proposal is designed to build off of the traditional banking infrastructure
What pilot programs would look like
How a digital dollar would foster economic inclusion even though using the digital dollar requires owning a smartphone
How it would handle privacy
How the network would be secured
Whether the US is falling behind China in terms of central bank digital currencies and blockchain exploration
Whether Libra will be a proxy for the digital dollar
How COVID-19 has affected the discourse around a digital dollar
Whether the election will affect the future of the digital dollar

Unchained is hiring!

Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here! https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://crypto.law

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org

Episode links:

Chris Giancarlo: https://twitter.com/giancarlo

Digital Dollar Project : https://www.digitaldollarproject.org

Previous Unchained interview with Chris: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-on-the-craziness-of-becoming-crypto-dad/

Chris and Daniel Gorfine’s WSJ op-ed advocating for a digital dollar: https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-sent-a-man-to-the-moon-we-can-send-the-dollar-to-cyberspace-11571179923

Digital dollars in stimulus bills — March: https://www.coindesk.com/house-stimulus-bills-envision-digital-dollar-to-ease-coronavirus-recession

April: https://www.coindesk.com/digital-dollar-reintroduced-by-us-lawmakers-in-latest-stimulus-bill

Pew Research on smartphone adoption: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/

FDIC survey on the unbanked and underbanked: https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf

Banks keeping some of customers’ stimulus money: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/stimulus-paychecks-garnish-banks.html

Why a digital dollar is politically more feasible at this moment than before: https://www.coindesk.com/the-overton-window-opens-for-a-digital-dollar

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown also proposes digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/us-senate-floats-digital-dollar-bill-after-house-scrubs-term-from-coronavirus-relief-plan

Philadelphia Fed paper: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2020/wp20-19.pdf

Receptivity in Congress to the idea of a digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/how-a-flurry-of-digital-dollar-proposals-made-it-to-congress

Libra white paper: https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#cover-letter

Congressional hearing on using FedAccounts and for stimulus: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=406612

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Rep. Warren Davidson: 'I Think Bitcoin Is a Great Store of Value' - Ep.176 Jun 09, 2020

Show notes

U.S. House Representative, Warren Davidson, contextualizes the state of crypto legislation in terms of widespread civil unrest, COVID-19, and global shifts in power. He explains where crypto plays a role in these paradigm shifts and talks about:

Why he believes in crypto, and how he came into the space
How his Token Taxonomy Act creates regulatory clarity for token issuers
What four conditions tokens would have to meet to not be considered securities
Other features of the Token Taxonomy Act, including a de minimus exemption for taxes and no taxation of crypto-to-crypto trades
How the pandemic and coronavirus-related fiscal stimulus affects the prospects for the Token Taxonomy Act
What he thinks about China's blockchain push and its DCEP digital yuan
Whether and how that creates a credible threat to US dominance in global markets
Whether Libra could be a counterweight
How a shift toward digital currencies could undermine the global reserve status of the USD and whether that affects the US's ability to enforce sanctions
How outcomes of the upcoming election will affect the potential passage of crypto-friendly regulation
Why it is easier for crypto legislation to be more bi-partisan than other bills
What help he needs from the industry right now to push along crypto-friendly bills

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://crypto.law

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org

Episode links:

Rep. Warren Davidson: https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson

His House page: https://davidson.house.gov

Press release on the Token Taxonomy Act: https://davidson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/token-taxonomy-act-address-blockchain-innovation-flight-america

Token Taxonomy Act on GovTrack: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2144

Text of the Token Taxonomy Act: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2144/text

Letter requesting IRS clarify some crypto tax policies: https://www.coindesk.com/us-lawmakers-ask-irs-to-clarify-crypto-tax-rules-around-airdrops-forks-in-new-letter

Congressman Patrick McHenry on Unchained discussing his “permanent beta testing” idea for crypto: https://unchainedpodcast.com/congressman-patrick-mchenry-bitcoin-will-be-of-enormous-value/

Unchained interview on the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/

Unchained interview with Libra co-creator Christian Catalini: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/

Unchained with Christopher Giancarlo on his proposal for a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-on-the-craziness-of-becoming-crypto-dad/

Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Libra and a digital dollar: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-05/mnuchin-powell-see-no-need-for-fed-to-issue-digital-currency

Video in which Rep. Davidson says “shitcoin”: https://www.coindesk.com/lawmakers-amp-up-pressure-on-facebook-to-halt-libra-cryptocurrency-development

Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson on the Shitcoin Waterfall on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/meltem-demirors-and-jill-carlson-on-the-shitcoin-waterfall-ep-74/taxes

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How to Decentralize a Crypto Project Without Harming Security - Ep.175 Jun 02, 2020

Show notes

Jesse Walden of Variant Fund, and Robert Leshner of Compound explain all of the problems associated with the decentralizing process in terms of governance and compliance, pulling from their own lessons and their commentary on other projects. We cover:

Why projects must start with some level centralization
How projects can both monetize and not put their code at risk of being forked
How they can decentralize while also maintaining security, especially for composable DeFi projects that may become vulnerable as new technology and new protocols are introduced
How and when to distribute the token so as not to attract only speculators and also not trip regulatory wires
How Compound’s current governance works, how it is decentralizing, why they decided to use a governance token, and what Compound (the company) will do after full decentralization
Why open-sourced projects are still able to extract profits, even after a fork
Whether or not teams should have admin keys, such as what was used in response to the bZx attacks
Whether or not projects should be upgrade-able
What Block.One, which raised $4 billion in an ICO, did right to only pay a $24 million fine to the SEC

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://crypto.law

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org

Episode links:

Jesse Walden: https://twitter.com/jessewldn

Robert Leshner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rleshner/

A16z Crypto startup school: https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/

Compound: https://compound.finance

Progressive Decentralization playbook: https://jessewalden.com/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building-crypto-applications/

What recent moves by the SEC say about mutability when it comes to crypto networks: https://a16z.com/2019/10/22/mutability-sec-recent-cases/

Compound’s $COMP token: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-governance-5531f524cf68

More on Compound’s governance token: https://www.coindesk.com/compound-extends-defi-ethos-to-itself-launches-governance-token

Unchained discussion about bZx attacks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-bzx-attacks-unethical-or-illegal-2-experts-weigh-in/

Eric Wall tweet storm on admin keys: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1229198599264907264?s=20

tBTC shutting down: https://twitter.com/keep_project/status/1262483526437556228

More on tBTC: https://www.coindesk.com/bug-forces-shutdown-of-bitcoin-backed-ethereum-token-tbtc

Unchained interview about tBTC in which Matt Luongo explains the admin key: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tbtc-what-happens-when-the-most-liquid-crypto-asset-hits-defi/

Is the SEC trying to kill the SAFT? https://www.coindesk.com/with-kik-and-telegram-cases-the-sec-tries-to-kill-the-saft

Block.One settlement with SEC: https://www.coindesk.com/eos-maker-block-one-settles-with-sec-over-unregistered-securities-sale

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Ready Layer One: Who Competes With Ethereum? - Ep.174 May 26, 2020

Show notes

This week’s Unchained is my panel at Ready Layer One! We talk everything layer one with four key players and projects -- Illia Polosukhin of NEARprotocol, Zaki Manian of Cosmos, Rob Habermeier of Polkadot, and Arthur Breitman of Tezos — to find out how these projects plan to compete with Ethereum and attract developers and users. We discuss:

What platforms they are building and at which stage in development they are
How they differentiate themselves from Ethereum, and what problems they believe need to be solved
How they plan to attract devs in an industry of network effects
Whether or not Bitcoin and Ethereum are direct competitors
Whether, in the long run, crypto will be more winner-take-all or there will be multiple, interoperable chains
How they plan to bring new users into the space
How they think the transition to ETH2.0 will shake up the existing blockchain space

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Unchained is hiring!

Come work at Unchained! We have an opening for a remote editorial assistant — find out more about the gig and apply here: https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org/

Episode links:

Illia Polosukhin: https://twitter.com/ilblackdragon

Near protocol: https://near.org

Zaki Manian: https://twitter.com/zmanian

Cosmos: https://cosmos.network

Rob Habermeier: https://twitter.com/rphmeier

Polkadot: https://polkadot.network

Arthur Breitman: https://twitter.com/ArthurB

Tezos: https://tezos.com

Near protocol on mainnet: https://near.org/blog/near-mainnet-genesis/

Electric Capital report on the number of developers in Ethereum: https://unchainedpodcast.com/electric-capital-on-the-coins-punching-below-their-weight/

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Listen to CZ Compare Binance to Bitcoin - Ep.173 May 19, 2020

Show notes

Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, cofounder and CEO of Binance, and I kicked off the Ethereal Virtual Summit with a fun fireside chat! He talked about Binance’s current operations, its plans for the future, and the crypto industry as a whole. He explains:

Why he thought the questions I asked him in our first interview were misleading
Whether Libra’s new plans are affecting Binance’s strategy for Venus
What impact China’s DCEP will have on crypto
Why the confluence of circumstances caused by COVID are a “perfect storm” for crypto, and how this will affect crypto in the long-term
Whether the Binance Smart Chain will leech away Ethereum developers and users
Why he thinks competition in the industry only grows it
How Binance can own CoinMarketCap without affecting its objectivity
What he says to the class-action lawsuit against Binance, him and the other cofounders of Binance accusing them of offering unregistered securities
How he views the role of Binance in governance in delegated proof-of-state systems, such as when Binance flip-flopped on a contentious hard fork in Steem
Where Binance is headquartered

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Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Stellar: https://www.stellar.org/

Episode links:

CZ: https://twitter.com/cz_binance

Binance: https://www.binance.com/en

My first interview with CZ: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-binance-became-the-most-popular-crypto-exchange-in-5-months-ep-84/

Details on BUSD: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/38607/binance-launching-its-own-usd-pegged-stablecoin-busd-with-paxos-as-custodian

Binance announcement about BUSD: https://binance.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032604131-Binance-Announces-Open-Blockchain-Project-Venus-

BUSD marketshare: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-stablecoin-busd-tops-100m-but-lags-behind-rivals