When The Music Stops

Latest Episodes:

Exposing Binance w/ Francis Kim Aug 23, 2021

Show notes

It all started on May 19th of 2021 when Francis Kim made the perfect call to short Bitcoin on the Binance exchange. While the markets tanked, he saw over a 100 thousand USD of profits, but he would soon realize that Binance was not like the exchanges he was familiar with in legacy finance.
A power outage, an exchange that banned the closing of orders... and POOF, all of his 171 thousand dollars vanished.
What started as a simple quest to get what he deserves turned into a rabbit hole of red flags. Francis Kim soon realized that this was not the only issue with Binance. His tweet from August 6th, just a month and a half later, went viral when he revealed the findings of his dive into the largest crypto exchange in the world.
https://twitter.com/franciskim_co/status/1423658703174082567
Join me in the (August 11, 2021) conversation with a man who has risked everything to find the truth, uncover the lies and get justice.
To get engaged with Francis Kim, please check out the following:
https://twitter.com/franciskim_co
http://exposingbinance.com/
http://binanceclaim.com/
Follow me and my producer on twitter!
https://twitter.com/milner_aviv
https://twitter.com/gordolven
A link to the response blog from Binance:
https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684902502/ecosystem/our-commitment-to-responsible-trading-and-combating-distrust
If you want to discuss anything, whether it is a story of loss or an insight on the Binance exchange, my DMs are always open.

The Impact of Crypto w/ Keyword: Michael Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

sMichael (a synthetic podcasting asset created from the depths of Defi) has joined us to talk about the broader impact of crypto on society. In this short excerpt from our conversation that was nearly twice as long. we discuss the role of government in maintaining fair markets while still giving room for free innovation. Who do we blame for frauds and scams? Find out in this episode with Keyword: Michael of the Keyword: Crypto Podcast.
Find Michael:
https://twitter.com/michaelcrupto
https://www.keywordcrypto.com
https://twitter.com/keywordcrypto
https://anchor.fm/keywordcrypto
Make sure to support his work via his Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/keywordcrypto
Follow me and my producer Gordon for more upcoming episodes!
https://twitter.com/milner_aviv
https://twitter.com/gordolven
Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this episode! Stay tuned!

A Bitcoin Maximalist Confronts Tether w/ Max Hillebrand Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

Max Hillebrand is more than a freedom-loving student of Austrian economics. If you ever used open-source software in the Bitcoin space, you have likely benefitted in some degree from his work.
Max and I go way back- In 2018 we both saw privacy in Bitcoin as a fundamental problem and a concern that is worth addressing. By no coincidence, he and I crossed paths at an open-source project that claimed to offer an unfair amount of user privacy in Bitcoin transactions (Wasabi Wallet). From there, we quickly became friends and even had the uncommon pleasure of meeting in person in Amsterdam and Taiwan.
This episode I change things up a bit. A lot of proponents of Bitcoin don't feel comfortable, for perhaps obvious reasons, to discuss the systemic risk of Tether. The discussion is typically classified as 'FUD' and the conversation stops before it has even started.
Well not with Max! Max walks valiantly down this path to discuss his thoughts on Tether and how he personally interprets both events from the past and his expectations of the future. He does what a lot of his peers are not able to do, but what he is best at - discussing systemic risks and attack vectors to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
For more on Max Hillebrand:
https://towardsliberty.com
https://twitter.com/HillebrandMax
https://github.com/MaxHillebrand
Follow me on twitter for more episodes!
https://twitter.com/milner_aviv
And as always, this wouldn't be possible without my producer and editor - Gordon Dolven. Check him out on twitter!
https://twitter.com/gordolven

Nano & Digital Cash w/ Patrick Luberus Aug 03, 2021

Show notes

The Nano community has challenged skeptics in a recent twitter exchange (see backstory). The result? A passionate exchange between two minds and a deep dive into $Nano and what it takes to become the ultimate digital cash.
Patrick Luberus is an IT professional by day and holds a masters degree in informational security. Since 2013, he has been thinking deeply about the search for an ideal digital money for the modern world. Although his initial fascination was mostly around Bitcoin, he would later observe the challenges and technical trade-offs that would compel him to investigate a crypto that promised it all- instant, scalable and free. Enter $Nano.

Patrick would then become a much more active member of the Nano community, publishing helpful videos on his YouTube channel covering topics like Byzantine Fault Tolerance, technical challenges and even his second video, where he warns people (in November of 2017) to avoid Bitconnect (the now well understood failed Ponzi Scheme).
This conversation is deep and it covers a lot of aspects. I highly recommend listening to the end, as the trajectory goes to interesting places, but the conclusion is open to interpretation. Patrick has agreed to come back in the future to discuss these ideas further.

Check out those videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PatrickLuberus
Find him on twitter here:
@patrickluberus

Backstory

It started with a podcast episode with a Director of the Nano Foundation.

https://twitter.com/rarlop/status/1420675475530297348

Which inspired a challenge to the skeptics to have a listen.

https://twitter.com/rarlop/status/1420713299155595268

Well, challenge accepted!

https://twitter.com/milner_aviv/status/1420716770483007491

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A huge thank you to my audio editor and official podcast producer Gordon! Lucky to have him help me on short notice. Check him out on twitter: https://twitter.com/gordolven
Follow me on twitter to stay up to date on the latest!

https://twitter.com/milner_aviv

Target Letter Tether w/ Amy Castor & David Gerard Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

What exactly happened on Monday morning with #Tether?
You know her from her independent journalistic work on financial fraud in cryptocurrencies that has been published nearly everywhere- Artnet News, Business Insider, The Block, Bitcoin Magazine, Coindesk, Forbes, Modern Consensus, Decrypt and elsewhere!

You know him from his hilarious best-selling book- Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and his poorly timed dissection of Facebook's attempt to takeover money- Libra Shrugged.
Amy Castor and David Gerard join me in a deep dig past the completely organic (organic like what comes out the end of a cow) behavior following the leaking of the Tether Target Letter. The original leak was published via Bloomberg and is paywalled here:
https://www.bloomberg.co m/news/articles/2021-07-26/tether-executives-said-to-face-criminal-probe-into-bank-fraud
Castor, with the help of Gerard, published an excellent piece later that day, that both covers the history of the Tether banking issues as well as the meaning of the news that many of us struggled to understand. This discussion surrounds that article:
https://amycastor.com/2021/07/26/the-dojs-criminal-probe-into-tether-what-we-know/
If you enjoyed hearing from the dynamic duo, follow them!
Amy Castor
https://amycastor.com/
https://twitter.com/ahcastor
https://www.reddit.com/user/amycastor/
Support Amy on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/amycastor
David Gerard
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/
https://twitter.com/davidgerard
https://www.reddit.com/user/dgerard/
Find both his books on his website!
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/book/
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/libra/
A huge thank you to my audio editor Gordon! Lucky to have him help me on short notice.
Check him out on twitter:
https://twitter.com/gordolven
Follow me on twitter to stay up to date on the latest!

https://twitter.com/milner_aviv

Easy Money with Professor Jorge Stolfi Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

Did you ever wish you had a computer science professor would could ironically and hilariously explain the deceptive trickery of cryptocurrencies? Well, so do we, and if you are a student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, you know what that's like!
Professor Jorge Stolfi is a well cited computer scientist specializing in graph theory, image processing and computational geometry, which gives him the power to shoot lasers out of his nose and take down the masses of rambunctious children that we call crypto-reddit. He understands Bitcoin, almost too well, and likes to educate those of us already 45 thousand dollars deep in credit card debt from Coinbase auto-purchases on why we should think twice about our "investments". Pfft. What would the most cited computer science professor from Brazil know about blockchaining?
We talk at length about the financial nature of cryptocurrencies, non-speculative investments (and their much larger speculative counterparts) and why it may not be the wisest thing to leverage your first born child to get more exposure to Bitcoin. We discuss Tether, Elon Musk, El Salvador, Smart Contracts and so much more!
Introduction Joke - How I Plan to Make Some Easy Money (Stolfi, 2014)
https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2014-02-17-HowToMakeSomeEasyMoney.html
Music - Blue Bossa
Follow all of his hilarious take-downs on twitter, reddit and on the many public debates he has attended!

https://twitter.com/JorgeStolfi (@JorgeStolfi)
https://www.reddit.com/user/jstolfi (u/jstolfi)
Special thanks to the last minute help from some folks on twitter! Especially @gordolven !
Follow me on twitter (@milner_aviv) and stay tuned for more awesome episodes!

Skepticism, Journalism and Tether w/ Cas Piancey Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

Our favorite journalist and Crypto Critic discusses a healthy approach to skepticism and journalism in a space that very much requires it. Although published one month after the conversation took place (I was moving! Sorry!), the discussion around managing personal bias and responsible means to convey and challenge fraud remain equally valuable today as they did then.
Tether is the largest stable coin in the cryptocurrency space, with more than 60 billion USD equivalent in circulation. It acts as the the shadow bank for a majority of exchanges worldwide, exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex. In 2014 Tether made a promise that each unit of Tether would be 1-to-1 backed by a real dollar. Since then, a lot has changed.
Check out Cas' work on his Medium and by subscribing to Protos:
https://www.protos.com/
https://thecaspiancey.medium.com/
Find him and his partner in crime on twitter:
@CasPiancey
@BennettTomlin
@CryptoCriticPod
Their latest show on investigating the Bitfinex head office is available here:
https://cryptocriticscorner.com/
Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at aviv@goodterrain.com
Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry.
And special thanks to @Bitfinexed
Upcoming podcasts:
Professor Jorge Stolfi!

Poker Chips, Tether and Crypto Casinos w/ Matt Ranger Jun 25, 2021

Show notes

Follow Matt on twitter: https://twitter.com/vhranger

Check out Matt's work on his blog: https://www.singlelunch.com/

Subreddit's mentioned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/

Bitcoin and Bad Economics w/ Matt Ranger Jun 25, 2021

Show notes

Follow Matt on twitter:

https://twitter.com/vhranger

Check out Matt's work on his blog:

https://www.singlelunch.com/

Subreddit's mentioned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/

Proof of Waste & Chia w/ David Gerard Jun 10, 2021

Show notes

Bestselling author, David Gerard, goes in-depth into a seemingly harmless idea that has wreaked havoc on the hard drive market. The creator of the highly successful file-sharing software, Bram Cohen, gains new notoriety with his latest invention in the blockchain space. Chia is a mining-based distributed system, much like Bitcoin, but with a seemingly positive new contribution. Rather than wasting the electric capacity of Iceland, Chia purports to be the eco-friendly solution. With a reward system enticing to any consumer with a computer or a phone, it seems too good to be true. David Gerard talks proof of work vs proof waste, Tether, NFTs, crypto-investors' psychology and the blockchain industry as a whole. Much of this interview talks about his 2017 book, "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain", a bestseller that brought much needed skepticism towards crypto. His latest book. "Libra Shrugged", details the attempt of Facebook to try to take over money. Both are available on Amazon. Find more from David Gerard: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/book/ Follow him on Twitter: @davidgerard https://twitter.com/davidgerard His recent blog on Chia: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/23/foreign-policy-chia-is-a-new-way-to-waste-resources-for-cryptocurrency/ Want to come on the podcast? Reach out to me at aviv@blacktieconsultants.com Special thanks to the r/buttcoin community for encouraging skeptical inquiry. And special thanks to @Bitfinexed, my good friends Robin and Gavin, @CasPiancey and another big thanks to David for a great read and a great interview! Upcoming podcasts: Amy Castor talks NFTs! Buttcoin Redditor discusses Microstrategy & Will Bitcoin Save us from Inflation? As well as a very special secret guest who may be a moderator on our favorite subreddit.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected