Mike Brock, general manager of TBD at Block, discusses how TBD’s yet-to-be-released DEX is structured, explains why he thinks decentralized solutions do not necessarily need blockchains, and tells the humorous story about how Jack Dorsey convinced him to start working on a Bitcoin project. Show highlights:

  • what TBD is and what its relation to Block (formerly Square) is
  • how TBD differs from Spiral, another Block-based Bitcoin firm
  • how tbDEX works and why building on-ramps and off-ramps to crypto is so important
  • who will be supplying the liquidity for tbDEX
  • why Mike is passionate about creating digital identity infrastructure
  • how tbDEX will incorporate digital identity tooling into its protocol
  • what Mike thinks about Vitalik Buterin’s misgivings concerning tbDEX’s design
  • why Mike fell down the rabbit hole (thanks Jack Dorsey)
  • what lessons Mike learned at CashApp that he is using at TBD
  • which stablecoin TBD will be working with
  • why Mike is not a believer in DeFi
  • why tbDEX (or, seemingly, other TBD products) will not utilize tokens

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021

Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance

Cross River Bank: https://crossriver.com/crypto

Ether Cards: https://ether.cards/

Episode Links

Mike Brock

  • Twitter; https://twitter.com/brockm
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-brock-9030813/
  • Introduction to TBD: https://twitter.com/brockm/status/1415795490914856961

TBD

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbd54566975?lang=en
  • GitHub: https://github.com/TBD54566975/tbdex-whitepaper
  • Whitepaper
    • https://tbd54566975.ghost.io/introducing-tbdex/
    • https://tbdex.io/whitepaper.pdf
  • Careers: https://block.xyz/careers?search=tbd
  • Other
    • Origin of name: https://twitter.com/TBD54566975/status/1424818221652324355
    • Vitalik’s reticence: https://cryptopotato.com/vitalik-buterin-tells-how-jack-dorseys-tbd-might-build-the-bitcoin-dex/

Other Topics

  • Spiral (lightning development). Brock helped set up Spiral.
    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/spiralbtc
    • Website: https://spiral.xyz/
  • CashApp
    • Impressive BTC revenue: https://decrypt.co/93793/block-bitcoin-earnings-cash-app-hit-nearly-2-billion-q4
    • Lightning network: https://blockworks.co/cash-app-integrates-lightning-network-for-bitcoin-payments/
  • Aaron Levie
    • https://twitter.com/levie