Unchained

Latest Episodes:

Why the Ooki DAO Case Could Hurt Participation in DAOs - Ep. 402 Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

Nikhilesh De, CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, comes to talk about the CFTC lawsuit against Ooki DAO and the potential consequences across the crypto industry.

Show highlights:

the enforcement action against Ooki DAO and the CFTC’s arguments behind it
whether bZx’s statements that the DAO would be beyond the reach of regulators made it a target for the CFTC
whether the broader implication of these charges could mean that all DeFi is illegal
whether the hacks of bZx made it a high-profile target
the CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger's dissenting statement and her concerns
who the targets of the CFTC enforcement action are
the consequences of the lawsuit for token holders and how to determine which token holders are liable
why the CFTC chose to post a notice in the Ooki DAO forum and whether that is sufficient notice
what the next steps for DAO members are and whether there will be wide community support

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1inch

Crypto.com

Nik

Twitter

Previous Coverage of Unchained on regulation:

The lawsuit against Ooki DAO

CFTC Filing
$250,000 fine
Nik’s article
CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger’s dissenting statement
Jake Chervinsky’s opinion
Ooki DAO’s options
CFTC serving the members of the Ooki DAO via their forum
Tim Copeland’s article on what’s next for DAOs

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How Will the Legal Case Against Do Kwon Play Out in South Korea? - Ep. 401 Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

Zack Guzman, journalist and Coinage host, and Jongbaek Park, partner specializing in blockchain and crypto assets at Bae, Kim & Lee, discuss how the case in South Korea against Do Kwon and TerraForm Labs will likely go, whether Do Kwon is on the run, and what his sentence could be.

Show highlights:

Jongbaek’s and Zack’s disclosures regarding Terra
how big the Terra phenomenon was in South Korea and how Do Kwon was perceived in the country
whether Do Kwon posed any conditions for his interview with Zack
what Do Kwon is being charged with
the colliding opinions on which tokens are considered securities
whether the collapse of Terra had any negative impact on the South Korean President’s image
whether Do Kwon feels like a charge for violating the capital markets law is unfair
whether Do Kwon is “on the run,” despite his denials
how the potential revocation of Kwon’s passport could make him go back to Korea
whether Terra was a failure or a fraud, and how prosecutors are looking into it
whether Terra was centralized
the chance of prosecutors going after other people from Terraform Labs and the probability of the entity’s assets being frozen
how much jail time Kwon could be facing and whether he is prepared to go to prison

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Crypto.com

a16z

Chainalysis

Guests:

Jongbaek

Zack: Twitter

Episode Links

Previous Coverage of Unchained on Do Kwon and Terra:

SEC Actions Against Terra

SEC Investigating UST Stablecoin Blowup in Fresh Threat to Terra
Terraform Labs Loses US Appeal over SEC Subpoena

Allegations against Do Kwon

Seoul Police Probe Allegation of Embezzlement by Terraform Staff
South Korea Launches Investigation into Company Behind Luna Crypto Crash
Class action against Do Kwon
Was LUNA a Security?
Korean prosecutors are looking into Terra

Do Kwon

Stablecoin Regulation

Haseeb Qureshi’s summary of the Terra collapse:

Zack’s Interview with Kwon

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The Chopping Block: Why ETH Dumped So Hard After the Merge - Ep. 400 Sep 24, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry.

Show topics:

Why the ETH price slumped after the Merge even though it was successful
Whether the BTC security model is flawed and why Robert thinks Bitcoin will change
Why Tarun thinks Bitcoin won’t change and why he’s bearish on Bitcoin development
Whether the Lightning Network can succeed with so many competitors getting better more quickly
ETHPoW’s performance after the Merge, whether it’s dead and why Robert wouldn’t rule out the PoW fork
Why Haseeb thinks the criminalization of the collapse of Terra is a bad precedent
The broader impacts of the Terra meltdown and whether Do Kwon not disclosing the fact that he had been involved with Basis Cash, which failed, is problematic
The House’s draft bill on stablecoins and whether it is necessary to study algo stablecoins
What happened with the Wintermute hack
Why Tarun thinks the Wintermute team is incompetent
Whether there is any positive news in crypto lately
Who would be a better pick for deploying treasury funds between Three Arrows Capital and Wintermute
What Haseeb, Tom, Robert and Tarun are excited about

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital

Episode Links

Post Merge

ETHPoW

ETH issuance

Do Kwon and Terra

Red Notice

“Not on the run”

Kwon’s Passport

Wintermute hack

House’s Draft Bill on Stablecoins

Bloomberg’s Article

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Why Senator Pat Toomey Thinks SEC Chair Gary Gensler Is Wrong About Crypto - Ep. 399 Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

Pat Toomey, U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania, talks about legislation in the crypto industry, how to determine if something is a security, the future of CBDCs, and much more.

Show highlights:

the structural differences between crypto tokens and securities
why Sen. Toomey is demanding crypto legislation
why “regulation by enforcement” does not provide clarity
how to determine if a token is decentralized
whether proof of stake consensus turns tokens into securities
Sen. Toomey’s take on the new framework for stablecoin regulation
whether it is appropriate to ban algorithmic stablecoins
the importance to make disclosures so that regular users understand the risks of crypto
how the collapse of Terra and other crypto companies like Voyager and Celsius affected lawmakers’ perception of crypto
whether the US Treasury made a mistake with the Tornado Cash sanctions
what the government should take into account in regards to a central bank digital currency (CBDC)
why he believes the White House reports on crypto are not helpful and whether entrepreneurial talent is migrating to other countries
the likelihood of any of the crypto bills passing soon

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Crypto.com

Messari

Sen. Toomey

Twitter

Previous Coverage of Unchained on regulation:

SEC Views

Gary Gensler’s comments on PoS tokens

Sen. Toomey’s opinion

White House Reports

Stablecoins

Stablecoin Draft Bill
Bloomberg article: Senator Pat Toomey Still Sees Chance of Stablecoin Legislation This Year
Sen. Toomey’s framework for payment stablecoins that he released last spring

Tornado Cash

Treasury Press release
Previous coverage of the Tornado Cash Sanctions on Unchained:
Is TRM Labs Blocking Addresses From DeFi Protocols? Ari Redbord Says No
Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?
The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?
Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant?
Preston Van Loon on Ethereum's Merge and His Lawsuit Against Treasury

Ian Balina charges

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Is Bitcoin Doomed to Fail? Eric Wall and Justin Bons Face Off - Ep. 398 Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

In a heated debate, Eric Wall, crypto blogger and investor, and Justin Bons, founder and chief investment officer of Cyber Capital, discuss Bitcoin’s security model, whether there are fundamental flaws in its design, and which is the best consensus mechanism.

Show highlights:

why Justin stopped believing in Bitcoin and why he calls it “technically one of the worst cryptocurrencies”
how Eric’s views on Bitcoin changed over time
the problems they see with Bitcoin’s security
why Eric attacks BTC maximalism, even when he is a Bitcoiner
how the Bitcoin community will change in the next decades, and why the security problem is a challenge that could be solved
whether BTC should increase its inflation and whether that would break the store of value proposition
why Justin thinks that BTC fails as money and won’t play a relevant role in the future
what happened around the time of the blocksize debate back in 2015-2017
whether there’s something wrong with Bitcoin’s culture and why Eric compares it to a doomsday cult
why Ethereum has external dependencies that can impose systemic risks, according to Eric
whether proof of stake or proof of work is a better consensus mechanism
whether Ethereum is more censorship resistant than Bitcoin
why BTC is a speculative asset and what Justin believes is needed for crypto to finally flourish

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Ava Labs

a16z

Justin:

Twitter

Eric:

Episode Links

Previous Coverage of Unchained:

Bitcoin’s Security, Blocksize and Culture

Surprisingly, Tail Emission Is Not Inflationary by Peter Todd

Justin’s thread that kicked off the debate

A (brief and incomplete) history of censorship in /r/Bitcoin

Theory On Bitcoin Governance; Three Stage Model by Justin Bons

Centralization:

Ethereum Post-Merge Centralization

Lido’s validators

BTC Centralization

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Did the Merge Make Ethereum 'the Most Secure Blockchain in the World'? - Ep. 397 Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

Justin Drake, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, talks about the Merge, how this transition affects Bitcoin, where Ethereum’s road map is going, and more.

Show highlights:

how Justin was feeling prior to and during the Merge
whether the upgrade is complete or there are other things to watch out for
why Ethereum has slashing and why it is a better form of removing any attackers
the concern about centralization due to liquid staking derivatives providers, like Lido or Coinbase
how the Merge affects MEV and the long-term vision of proposer-builder separation
whether the Merge puts pressure on BTC to also transition to proof of stake
what impact ETH’s more deflationary nature will have on BTC’s narrative as digital gold
why Ethereum is the settlement layer for the internet of value
whether there is a winner take all dynamic in the blockchain industry
why Ethereum is more secure than Bitcoin, according to Justin
what Justin thinks about the ETHPoW fork and its team and the risks of interacting with the ETHPoW fork
the next steps in Ethereum’s roadmap

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Justin

Previous Coverage of Unchained on the Merge:

The Merge:

Vitalik announcement of the Merge
Ethereum carbon emission reductions
A guide on the Merge by Dan Chen from Sequoia Capital

ETH Post-Merge Dynamics:

Ultra sound money
ETH issuance and burn
Cumberland on the Ethereum dynamics after the merge
Miles Suter on the implications of the Merge
The triple point asset

Post Merge MEV:

PMCGoohan’s tweet
Pintail on post-Merge MEV

ETH Proof of Work

Poloniex announces a different token
ETHPoW team Mainnet announcement

Ethereum’s roadmap:

ETH Vision

Haym on Ethereum’s roadmap

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The Chopping Block: ETHPoW Is 'a Terrible Way to Fork the Blockchain' - Ep. 396 Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. In this episode, Emin Gün Sirer, the emperor of Avalanche, also joined the conversation

Show topics:

Gün’s take on the Ava Labs conspiracy story and whether there was any truth in the videos
The impact of the Merge on ETH issuance and energy usage
What’s going on with the ETHPoW fork, and how the team has been messing up
The TL;DR of the technical side of Ethereum scaling, explained by Tarun
How, in the beginning, proof of stake was designed to resemble proof of work
What Ethereum miners are going to do after the Merge
Whether increasing hash rates spike prices of PoW coins
How the Basic Attention Token is like the Stanford prison experiment
Whether the fights between Gün and other founders were positive or negative
How an exchange delisted every privacy coin
Whether Coinbase's support of the lawsuit against the US Treasury over Tornado Cash was a PR move
How this moment in history resembles the 90s and the rise of the internet
Whether there are blockchain-haters and what the crypto industry can do better
How there can’t be a single chain to meet every need
How FTX and Coinbase have different approaches to regulation
How would everyone celebrate a successful Merge and whether there’s a chance of it failing

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound

Guest

Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO of Ava Labs

Episode Links Ava Labs Accusations:

Tornado Cash

Treasury Press release
Coinbase supports lawsuit against US Treasury
Huobi delisting privacy coins
Previous coverage of the Tornado Cash Sanctions on Unchained:

ETH Proof of Work and Miners:

ChainID missing; the request from Coinbase

CoinDesk article

The ETHPoW team said the fork will be deployed within 24 hours of the Merge

ETHPoW team’s promise to abolish EIP-1559

ETHPoW first blocks

The Merge:

Ethereum Foundation Merge announcement.
Ethereum carbon emission reductions.

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How Traders Are Thinking About the Merge -- and a Potential ETHPoW Chain - Ep. 395 Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galois Capital, and Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of Wintermute, discuss how to trade the Ethereum Proof of Work fork, what the market is telling about the Merge, and whether the Merge affects Bitcoin.

Show highlights:

what will happen at the time of the Merge according to Kevin and whether there’s uncertainty
when the ETH Proof of Work chain will emerge and how that affects trading opportunities
the mistakes of the ETHPoW team, like repealing EIP-1559
what percentage of ETH market cap ETHPoW will accrue
what the first few blocks of ETHPoW will be like
what the strategies are to earn the ETHPoW airdrop and what the on-chain activity looks like
whether there is an “up-only” monoculture in Ethereum
what stETH is, how it should be priced and what the futures market indicates
where the value of a chain comes from and the likelihood of ETHPoW failing catastrophically
how to protect from replay attacks
the price action of ETH after the Merge
how ETH becoming deflationary affects Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold
how the ESG-friendly image of Proof of Stake could affect the narratives of ETH and BTC

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Ava Labs

a16z

Kevin:

Twitter

Evgeny:

Twitter

Episode Links

Previous Coverage of Unchained on the Merge:

ETH Proof of Work:

ChainID missing; and the request from Coinbase
Kevin’s analogy

CoinDesk article

ETHPow Token

Summary of Kevin’s thoughts

ETHPoW team’s promise to abolish EIP-1559

ETHPoW first blocks

Tether supports PoS

Circle (USDC) supports PoS

ETH Trade

Ether’s backwardation
Eth-Flexive by Arthur Hayes
Whether Ethereum’s Merge is priced in
Gauntlet’s view on the Merge
BTC correlation with stocks

ETH Post-Merge Dynamics:

Onchain Wizard post
Cumberland on the Ethereum dynamics after the merge
Miles Suter on the implications of the Merge

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Preston Van Loon on Ethereum's Merge and His Lawsuit Against Treasury- Ep.394 Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

Preston Van Loon, cofounder and Ethereum core developer at Prysmatic Labs, talks about the Merge, its impact on an environmental level, and why he is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Treasury Department over Tornado Cash.

Show highlights:

what the Merge is on a technical level and what its impact will be
whether the proof of stake consensus mechanism makes the network more decentralized and secure
what happens if the Merge fails and whether there’s a contingency plan
why Preston founded Prysmatic Labs and how Prysm works
what the next steps are for Ethereum and what the community is working on
whether Preston thinks a proof of work Ethereum fork would succeed
when and how Ethereum’s high fees and scaling issues are going to be resolved
why Preston joined the lawsuit against the US Treasury over the Tornado Cash sanctions
how Preston would celebrate a successful Ethereum Merge

Thank you to our sponsors!

Preston

Episode Links

Previous Coverage of Unchained on the Merge:

Lawsuit against the US Treasury:

Coinbase is supporting a lawsuit against the Treasury Department by six users of Tornado Cash.
Fortune article on the lawsuit
Why Preston joined the lawsuit.

The Merge:

Ethereum Foundation Merge announcement.
Ethereum carbon emission reductions.

ETH Post-Merge Dynamics:

Cumberland on the Ethereum dynamics after the merge
Miles Suter on the implications of the Merge
The triple point asset

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Arthur Hayes, Former Ethereum Skeptic, on Why the Merge Makes Him Bullish on ETH - Ep. 393 Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

Arthur Hayes, cofounder of BitMex, discusses how he’s trading the Merge, the impact of macroeconomic policy in the markets, his career as a writer, and much more.

Show highlights:

how crypto is reconfiguring how humans do finance over the internet
why Arthur initially thought Ethereum was worthless
how NFTs allow users to trade human culture and will unlock trillions of dollars of value
why Ethereum doesn’t even need to be deflationary
whether other layer 1s can take some market cap from Ethereum
why Arthur thinks that a successful Merge is understated and why this is a valid reason for hedging
why he thinks an Ethereum proof of work chain won’t succeed and how Arthur will trade ETHPoW
why LDO, Lido’s token, is a riskier bet but has more potential gains
how he believes the Shanghai upgrade will impact ETH’s price
whether the Merge affects BTC’s narrative as digital gold and whether the inflation hedge theory of Bitcoin still holds
why Bitcoin is a measure of USD liquidity and why the Fed rates don’t matter as much as everyone thinks
whether hedge funds and institutional investors would want to invest in crypto given the high correlation with traditional markets
what Arthur believes the impact of a potential US recession would be on the crypto markets
why he believes the real economy is not relevant to the financial markets
whether algorithmic stablecoins are doomed to fail
how the credit cycle works and how it repeats again and again
Arthur’s method for identifying good projects to invest in
how Arthur became such a good writer
whether BTC is money and the religious aspect of the Bitcoin culture