CoinDesk Reports: Recent Episodes
CoinDesk
Podcasts featuring news, illuminating discussion and insightful commentary from the editorial team at CoinDesk.com.
This episode is sponsored by Roofstock onChain
The crypto world has been a little different every week after the fallout with FTX and the image of Sam Bankman-Fried versus the reality of what was actually happening has created distrust in the crypto industry. So where do we begin to ask the right questions to balance the need for security with privacy in the future?
On this episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with Juan Zarate, senior adviser for Transnational Threats Project and Human Rights Initiative at CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies; to discuss how crypto companies can better prepare themselves for financial risks and what is a “rogue state.”
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer, Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Roofstock onChain allows you to instantly transfer ownership of real-world homes using standard NFT smart contracts. Buy and sell homes with one-click, pay with crypto, and access DeFi lending options. Find our web3 homes at onchain.roofstock.com or your favorite NFT marketplace.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Roofstock onChain
This is a story of how something can appear to be what it is not.
It’s a tale of a jarring contrast between the image the world had of Sam Bankman-Fried before FTX’s meltdown pushed the crypto world into a nauseating tailspin and the reality of a wildly mismanaged multibillion-dollar empire with what Bankman-Fried’s appointed successor described as an “unprecedented” failure of accounting, oversight and discipline.
Before Ian Allison’s Nov. 2 CoinDesk scoop on FTX sister company Alameda Research’s suspect balance sheet, Bankman-Fried was seen as a philanthropic, well-connected, celebrity-hobnobbing, marketing-savvy leader, a wunderkind who made crypto respectable. Two weeks later, he is viewed as a laughing stock, a suspected criminal, an irresponsible, wildly underqualified, selfish child who has destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands. Wow. What a difference two weeks make!
In this episode of Money Reimagined, host Michael Casey chats with two CoinDesk colleagues who’ve delved deeply into the SBF story: Deputy Managing Editor for Companies coverage Tracy Wang and Managing Editor for Global Policy and Regulation, Nikhilesh De. Together they dig into how the erstwhile FTX CEO could have misled the world to such a degree.
They explore Bankman-Fried’s journey, how it begins with his adherence to the principles of effective altruism, a stated desire to get as rich as possible to do maximum good, and how it all seems to fall apart as FTX gets bigger. They discuss how his philanthropy, political donations, and marketing efforts hid the dark reality underneath and delve into what needs to happen, at the community level and in regulation, to protect people falling from such distortions in the future.
See also: Divisions in Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Blur on His Trading Titan Alameda’s Balance Sheet
Sam Bankman-Fried's Frequent Commenting Draws Icy Response From FTX's Restructuring Chief
FTX Employees Worldwide Learned of Bankruptcy Along With the Public
The FTX Collapse Looks an Awful Lot Like Enron
The Long Arm of FTX
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer, Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Roofstock onChain allows you to instantly transfer ownership of real-world homes using standard NFT smart contracts. Buy and sell homes with one-click, pay with crypto, and access DeFi lending options. Find our web3 homes at onchain.roofstock.com or your favorite NFT marketplace.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Even before the pandemic, social scientists knew that the infinite social-media scroll and offline social isolation left humans more depressed. At the same time, faith in traditional party politics continues to wane.
Kevin Owocki, founder of Gitcoin; Nathan Schneider, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Ellie Rennie, a professor, and researcher at RMIT University in Australia; and Tanisi Pooran, a partner at The Ready join David Morris, CoinDesk’s chief insights columnist, to discuss how DAOs can help address both challenges by offering a new model for tighter-knit digital communities and better incentive models for public goods.
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The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Yuta Takanashi, director for International Digital Strategy and Policy at the Financial Services Agency in Japan, Kristin Smith, executive director at the Blockchain Association, and Rebecca Rettig, general counsel at the Aave Cos., join CoinDesk’s U.S regulatory reporter Cheyenne Ligon to discuss the government role in the regulation of DeFi.
They discuss what exactly DeFi is and why it is important for the government to learn about the decentralized system and why people in the DeFi community should speak with policymakers before the government issues any regulations or imposes any rules.
They go into detail about how certain events, like the collapse of Terra, have aided in the recent push for regulation and what they expect in the future.
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The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
According to Merriam-Webster, “pseudonymity” is the fact or state of being signed with a pseudonym, and a pseudonym is a fictitious name.
Tasheme Thomas, also known to some as Default Friend, is an internet historian who talks about the difference between pseudonymity and anonymity
She breaks down the history of pseudonymity throughout different time periods, from the start of authors writing books under fake names, to its evolving to people existing in various digital spaces under a false or different identity. She breaks down why people have reverted back to this way of disguising themselves.
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The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council of Innovation and co-host of CoinDesk’s “Money Reimagined” podcast discusses her theory of the philanthropic industrial complex. She digs into whether the system of philanthropy as we know it is broken.
She gives information about her background in various positions, including blockchain team founder at the World Economic Forum, which helped her notice the ways in which the traditional philanthropic efforts and philanthropic efforts within the crypto spaces are similar. She also points out how crypto efforts are more genuinely human-forward, and how the model can change philanthropy altogether.
While she provides detailed ways why crypto is important in the push to change the system, she also gives ways in which the community still has work to do.
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The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sean Farrell, the head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat; Nicola White, the CEO of B2C2 USA; and Akshi Federici- Kraken, a ventures partner, join Lyllah Ledesma, CoinDesk markets reporter, to discuss who is investing in bitcoin during the dip, from different angles of the industry.
They speak about what they are watching to prepare for the slow crypto season, including consolidation, new non-fungible token projects and traditional finance entering the space. They end with their views on the long- and short-term trends for the market.
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The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On this final episode, the hosts discuss standout moments in crypto history over the course of the show’s run.
Every week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova have taken an in-depth look at the biggest topics in the crypto industry, discussing topics from policy to tech and sharing the latest casual controversy alongside special guests.
As the series comes to a close, the hosts recount how crypto has played into the biggest narratives, sometimes in unexpected ways. The hosts interpret the past battles in crypto regulation, failures in governance and proliferation of memes as lessons for what the industry can and should prepare itself for next.
But as one podcast ends, another begins: Coming in December to the CoinDesk Podcast Network is “Carpe Consensus,” a fast-paced, entertaining yet always informative podcast bringing the latest thought-provoking discussions, debates and coverage of crypto news to your favorite podcast app. Stay subscribed to this feed and you can listen to “Carpe Consensus” after it launches. Or, head to the CoinDesk Podcast Network for the new podcast and more.-
And finally, an ode to “Opinionated”:
There once was a boisterous trio,
Who grabbed their mics to chat as friends.
And a mighty show it was so,
Though all good things must end.
Oh, “Opinionated” has spent its last breath,
The recording light finally dim
As the show has come to a rest.
But, alas, this story is far from grim
Just you wait, and see what comes next!
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The CoinDesk Podcasts team, along with “Opinionated” hosts Ben, Danny and Anna, extend thanks to the listeners for their support of the show.
– “Opinionated” Producer Eleanor Pahl
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
George Howard, Distinguished Professor of Music Business/Management at Berklee College of Music, takes the stage to discuss the history of “Pancho and Lefty,” a song by Townes Van Zandt made famous by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.
He breaks down what the Song That Owns Itself (STOI) project is and how it is working to help artists get all of the money they are owed.
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chris Gabriel, host of MemeAnaylasis on YouTube, sits CoinDesk’s Chief Insights Columnist David Z Morris to discuss the meme economy. They get into a conversation about what the meme economy is and how people are more connected to the space than they know.
See also:
The Meme Economy
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Near.
The Bermuda government has taken an interesting approach to encourage the development of crypto, blockchain, and digital assets within the territory.
The insurance sector is one area where Bermuda seems well-positioned to dominate crypto finance and its territory is one of the largest insurance and reinsurance hubs in the world.
Does its model set the stage for other countries in the quest for viable insurance?
On this episode of “Money Reimagined” host Michael Casey is at the Bermuda Tech Summit in Bermuda and is joined by his co-host Sheila Warren to speak with Joseph Ziolkowski the CEO of Relm. Relm describes itself as the leading global insurer for companies operating in new and emerging business sectors, such as digital asset/web3, cannabis, and alternative therapeutics.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Community tokens are a form of social tokens that are created as a means of incentivizing community and governance,” says Whale Shark.
The speakers discuss what community tokens are. They get into the history of the tokens and how social/community tokens are used throughout different industries. They also talk about the difference between community tokens and loyal rewards programs.
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Near.
Now in the bear market, we are approaching the potential for a secure, privacy-preserving Web3.
Why is it so important or even possible to have a truly portable identity now more than ever?
On this episode of “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with Greg Kidd, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of the Hard Yaka investment group. As an early investor in companies such as Twitter, Square, Ripple, Coinbase, and Twilio, Gregg also started a digital identity company called GlobaliD.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bradley Miles, CEO of Roll, a platform that uses blockchain to bring social tokens to life, and Rob Collier, CEO of Rally, a platform that allows creators and artists to launch their own digital currencies, sit down with Jess Sloss, instigator of Seed Club, a leading network for DAO builders and operators, to discuss social tokens.
They break down what social tokens are, their importance and how people are using this form of currency to make lots of money.
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Insights into the realities of hiring during a bear market.
The 2022 bear market has left many of the industry’s workers in the cold of crypto winter as rounds of layoffs are continually announced. Today’s episode explores a recruiter’s perspective of hiring in a bear market.
Dani Schlarmann, senior recruiter at Ava Labs, joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss trends in the recruiting space throughout the market downturn. Plus: Schlarmann tells the hosts some of his experiences of the early days of the industry.
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Kevin Zhou, co-founder of hedge fund Galois Capital, sits down with CoinDesk reporter Sam Kessler to discuss all things Terra. They discuss why the stablecoins and its sister coin collapsed and what Zhou noticed and warned people of before the implosion.
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jenn Kalidoss, go-to-market and growth lead at SyndicateDAO, a decentralized investing protocol and social network, Alexander Ye, “hokage” at Republic Crypto, a private investing platform, and Jocelyn Cheng, CEO of Luno Expeditions, a global early-stage investor, sit down with CoinDesk senior reporter Tracy Wang, sat down to discuss venture capital in crypto.
They talk about how VC investing in Web3 differs from investing in Web2 and how they are similar. They break down how they decide which companies to invest in and how regulations play into those decisions.
The panel discussion took place on June 10, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Todd Kaplan, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo, and Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing officer at Mastercard, sit down with Keith Grossman, president of Time to discuss how brands are re-imagining their views on Web3 growth.
They discuss each company's different approach to bringing Web3 experiences to their users in ways that include live non-fungible token (NFT) minting at the Billboard Music Awards.
The panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz and Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and Near.
Over the past year, Michael and Sheila have talked quite a bit on this show about the quickly evolving crypto policy environment. A big theme in all of that has been the intersection – and quite often the clash – between the industry’s breakneck pace of innovation and regulation. As the industry grows, governments around the world are looking to get up to speed, and increasingly their actions have ramifications in the sector.
One regulatory body that’s increasingly engaging with the crypto community is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC is an independent U.S. agency that regulates the $200+ Trillion derivatives market including futures contracts, options, and swaps.
Since 1974 its mission has been to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives markets through sound regulation. Now, based on the proposals of some legislative initiatives, it could be poised to take a leading role in the regulation of cryptocurrencies and digital assets in the U.S. – something many in the community are supporting, perhaps in the hope that it will reduce the sway of the seemingly less-friendly Securities and Exchange Commission.
To help us understand what all this means, hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with former CFTC commissioner Dawn Stump on this 100th episode of “Money Reimagined.”
Dawn Stump became a commissioner in 2017 following a presidential appointment and Senate confirmation.
As one of five CFTC commissioners, she helped to shape the priorities of the agency while overseeing policy direction and internal planning. In particular, she was instrumental in negotiating the reform of derivatives regulations contained in the Dodd-Frank Act and in efforts to conduct oversight of commodity and financial derivatives under the jurisdiction of the CFTC.
This is a must-listen to better understand the crypto policy environment. As Dawn put it, “The impetus for regulation should not be a crisis; the impetus for regulation should be an opportunity.”
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Austin Hill, a principal at angel investor firm Intentional Ventures, and Salim Ismail, chairman and co-founder of OpenExO, a management consulting ecosystem and marketplace developer, sit down with Liv Boeree, a poker champion, effective altruist and filmmaker to discuss crypto cities.
They discuss how these cities are benefiting people everywhere and why they believe we can no longer live in a centralized economy.
The panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz and Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Preston Van Loon, co-founder of Prysmatic Labs, technical infrastructure builder for the Ethereum blockchain; Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of ConsenSys, a blockchain software technology company; and Dani Osorio, a partner with MetaWeb Ventures, a crypto-native investment research team, sit down with Christine Kim, an associate of Research at Galaxy Digital, a digital asset and blockchain leader, to discuss the Ethereum Merge.
They break down what the Merge is, the community reaction, risks and more.
The panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
NFTs brought culture to crypto. But with floor prices dropping, are crypto and culture doomed to remain separate?
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova break down CoinDesk contributing writer Jeff Wilser’s article “Investing in Web3: Culture and Entertainment,” which categorizes potential investment opportunities in crypto. The hosts debate how the biggest culture-focused crypto projects – non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, gaming, sports and more – have fared to date, and how they might take off or fizzle out in the future.
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Brian Forde, CEO of Numero Inc., talks with Leah Butler, manager at Emfarsis, an Asian-focused technology specialist company, to discuss how politicians are using, and can use, non-fungible tokens (NFT) to fund political campaigns.
They discuss some of the similarities between political campaigns and sports and how Numero helps to provide support through its business model, which includes help with organizing data, setting up call times and more.
The panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas. The moderator is Christine Lee, the lead anchor at CoinDesk TV.
The executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz. Nia Freeman edited this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and Near.
Can financial inclusion be achieved without a bank account or a digital money solution, such as crypto?
Host Michael Caseyis solo on this episode of “Money Reimagined,” to speak with Brett Scott, journalist, financial hacker, activist, and author of ‘Cloud Money: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for Our Wallets.’
According to Scott’s thesis, digitizing money is putting humanity at risk. He argues that cash, with its unique capacity to preserve privacy and avoid central surveillance, is an important escape valve for societies to sustain their freedom. And while those concerns align with the views of many in the crypto community, Scott is not a big fan.
However, if crypto is to evolve, his perspective is an important one for people to absorb.
This is a must-listen episode.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Mohammed Badi, the President of Global Network Services at American Express, and Bill Barhydt, CEO at Abra, sit with Coindesks’ lead anchor Christine Lee, to announce the Abra crypto card rollout and to discuss why it is important to the crypto space.
Barhydt defines it as “the first U.S. market-based product that allows you to earn unlimited crypto rewards on any purchase you make.” In addition to unlimited crypto rewards, the Abra card offers all the perks of an American Express card.
This panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas.
This episode was edited by Nia Freeman. The executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Details on the SEC’s million-dollar fine for the influencer’s promotion of a token without disclosing payment.
Celebrities regularly accept promotional deals, hyping products from swimsuits to weight loss tea on social media to their hordes of followers. Trouble arrived when a crypto token deemed by regulators a security entered the mix.
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova are joined by writer and Assistant Opinion Editor Daniel Kuhn to dissect the bull market trend of celebrity crypto endorsements, and particularly Kim Kardashian’s shilling of the ethereumMax token.
Kardashian was fined $1.26 million this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for her promotion of a security without disclosing the payment she received in return. Was Kardashian an unlucky scapegoat, or is this penalty a harbinger of broader enforcement action to come?
See also:
- What Is EthereumMax? Inside the Crypto Kim Kardashian Lost $1.2M Promoting
- Kim Kardashian, EthereumMax and the SEC's Publicity Grab
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and Near.
By what means do we think about identity? A substantial amount of regulation and policy work that is happening in crypto right now, is about how and when one will need to classify a transaction or exchange and to what extent do pre-existing rules apply in the Web3 space.
On this episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are together again but this time, at Converge22 by Circle. They discuss the challenges of identity and verification in the U.S. and in other countries with Daniel Buchner, Head of Decentralized Identity at Block; and Chi Nnadi, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Mara.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There are many ways for creatives to make money while having control of the art they release. Calaxy is an open social marketplace, where creators buy and sell tokens for profit.
In this panel, Baron Davis, former National Basketball Association player and founder of More Than Us, a genesis NFT collection, sits down with Calaxy’s Spencer Dinwiddie and Solo Ceesay to talk about the importance of Web3 being used by everyone. They also discuss social tokens and their importance.
The panel occurred on Friday, June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin, Texas. The moderator is Daniel Nelson, managing editor of news at CoinDesk.
This episode was edited by Nia Freeman. Executive producer for CoinDesk Reports is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The latest in Craig Wright’s series of lawsuits against those who question that he is Satoshi Nakomoto.
The identity of Satoshi Nakomoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, has been an ongoing mystery since the figure’s retreat from the public eye over a decade ago. Australian computer scientist Craig Wright has asserted he is Satoshi, and has fought those who say otherwise in courts around the world. Few in the crypto community believe his claim.
Cheyenne Ligon, CoinDesk regulatory reporter, joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss the latest lawsuit involving Craig Wright, this time in Norway. The group assesses new, and at times dubious, evidence put forth by Wright’s lawyers. After many unsuccessful attempts, does Wright still believe he can convince the world he is Satoshi?
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Avalanche, according to their website is an open, programmable smart contracts platform for decentralized applications.
John Nahas, Vice President of Ava Labs, on how Avalanche will look like in the future of Web3 by focusing on three important improvements:
- Wallets
- Assets
- Applications
The panel occurred on Friday June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin Texas.
Editing and post-production for this episode was done by Nia Freeman and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and Near.
A Part 2 climate change edition from Lisbon, Portugal at Nearcon2022.
On this episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are still together at Nearcon2022 for a second discussion on carbon credits and climate change.
They speak with guests Robert Schmidt, chief operating officer and co-founder of Toucan, and Phil Fogel, chief blockchain officer and co-founder of FlowCarbon.
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A discussion on the future of layer 2 blockchains in a post-Merge era.
Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge, the transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, successfully occurred last week.
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson look to the future on this week’s episode with a discussion about the Merge’s impact on decentralization, Ethereum adoption, energy consumption and planned network updates with StarkWare co-founders Eli Ben-Sasson and Uri Kolodny. The guests provide insights from their perspective as longtime developers in the Ethereum ecosystem.
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and Near.
A climate change edition from Lisbon Portugal at Nearcon2022.
“Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are together again at Nearcon2022 to discuss blockchain sustainability and the data needed to combat the concerns of climate change. This topic is “near and dear to their hearts” because Michael and Sheila co-founded CISA, the Crypto Impact Sustainability Accelerator, at The World Economic Forum precisely to focus on topics such as this and the use cases for crypto and blockchain.
On this episode they speak with guests Marc Johnson, an environmental solutions architect for Protocol Labs, and Fred Fournier, CEO of Open Forest Protocol.
Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Is crypto still bullish on play-to-earn?
Play-to-earn cryptocurrency game Axie Infinity skyrocketed in popularity in 2020, with many of the newly onboarded users residing in the Philippines and Venezuela. The game provided a unique – though ultimately temporary – economic model that allowed users to earn an income while at home in lockdown.
In the time since then, Axie suffered an exploit ultimately attributed to the North Korean Lazarus group and its users dropped off as the game lost its early profitability.
CoinDesk columnist Leah Callon-Butler joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to chart Axie’s recovery and predict what the future of the game might look like. Will the play-to-earn model continue in the years to come, or will it fall off as a short-lived experiment?
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
Think tanks are research institutions with an evidence-based approach. They have recently been called upon to provide data points for crypto to support informed policy decision-making.
On this episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with
Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, where he manages the Atlantic Council's CBDC's tracker project, and John Soroushian the senior associate director for technology at the Bipartisan Policy Center, to discuss the big focus areas for crypto research agendas over the next year and predictions for the upcoming congressional session.
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What happens when a crypto bro walks into a Wall Street bar?
CoinDesk reporter Cameron Thompson’s piece, “A Crypto Bro Walked Into a Wall Street Bar, and It Went Just Fine,” details the physical intermingling of both crypto and traditional finance (TradFi) industry professionals at a networking event.
Thompson joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson as the trio discuss the ways in which crypto culture differs from the rules of the traditional financial world, often by design. As institutional adoption of crypto continues, will the two industries’ cultures begin to merge together?
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Can an astronaut be black?” is a question retired Major League Baseball player Michah Johnson’s nephew asked him one day. From that question Aku NFT was created. Aku is one of the world’s first digital explorers, which “proves that no obstacle is too large,” according to its website. In just a year since its creation, Aku has become the first NFT to be optioned for film and TV.
Aku’s creator, Johnson, and The SpringHill Company Chief Marketing Officer Paul Rivera sit and discuss how Johnson got started in art but also how he was able to transfer that skill into the Web3 space.
The panel occurred on Friday June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival in Austin Texas.
Editing and post-production for this episode was done by Nia Freeman and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
In the attempt to contain the inflationary outbreak in the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening by hiking interest rates will continue for some time. Recently, the U.S. central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, made it clear that our present crypto winter was here to stay.
However, this is a good time for development in the crypto space.
On this episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with Near Foundation’s CEO, Marieke Flament.
The Near Foundation is committed to expanding its ecosystem of developers and project leads working on top of the Near blockchain. Its proof-of-stake blockchain has introduced a number of the scaling solutions that Ethereum developers have been working on for years. And there is great encouragement around decentralized finance (DeFi) development.
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Crass Kitty, founder of adult content platform Proof of Peach, describes how Web3 tools can make porn creation and consumption more ethical.
For CoinDesk’s Sin Week, “Opinionated” explores where the crypto and sex work industries intersect.
Crass Kitty joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss the intersection of porn and crypto. Kitty’s newly launched site Proof of Peach takes advantage of Web3 tools and blockchain technology to create a more fair, safe and ethical platform for sex workers to publish their content.
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Royal is a token platform that gives buyers the opportunity to earn royalties alongside their favorite artist. According to its website, it gives artists creative control of their music without the backing of large record companies.
Nait Jones, executive founder of Royal, sits down with Grammy Award-winning artist Big Boi of Outkast to discuss the intersection of music and technology, and the many ways platforms like Royal can improve the industry.
This panel occurred on June 10, 2022, the second day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 festival. Will Gottsegen, culture and tech writer at CoinDesk, was the moderator.
This episode was edited by Nia Freeman, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
The massive web of regulations that entangle the legacy financial sector have been, in the recent past, a guidepost for governors to apply to the crypto industry. But the argument for many in the crypto community is that those same rules aren’t really applicable to crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi), especially without considerable changes.
As the industry matures and seeks more clarity concerning governance and regulation, larger questions arise for the future of crypto commerce. How do we appropriately assess risk in new systems? Should regulators impose stricter constraints on crypto’s centralized finance sector?
Who has regulatory authority over which assets and why?
Today on “Money Reimagined,” host Sheila Warren examines alternative frameworks for regulation and world banking with Jai Massari, co-founder and chief legal officer of Lightspark; and Alexandra Barrage, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, who also previously worked at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Open source development, free speech and privacy are all under fire with the arrest of an alleged Tornado Cash developer. Plus: interviews from the #FreeAlexPertsev protest.
“The message you got from U.S. authorities is, if your privacy-enhancing tool as a side issue also enables money laundering, then we’d rather not have it.”
Jack Schickler, regulatory reporter at CoinDesk, joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss the developing story of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Tornado Cash protocol for its use by North Korean hackers to launder stolen funds. Two days later, an alleged Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands.
The local decentralized finance (DeFi) community gathered to draw attention to Pertsev’s case and ensure a fair trial. Schickler captured interviews from some of the attendees of the protest, many expressing concerns about the implications of Pertsev’s arrest to the right of privacy and the future of open source development. Listen to hear the voices of Buzko Krasnov, Eléonore Blanc, Naomi Schettini, James Murdza, Rinke and two individuals who wished to remain anonymous.
Schickler also wrote a follow-up after a closed-door hearing in Pertsev’s case.
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
For many in the crypto community the practice of pseudonymity for security and privacy is common and has purpose in working toward self-sovereignty. But is there a downside of pseudonymity? In our society especially, we are all too often familiar and perhaps too comfortable with sharing our identity or at least some form of it with others and sometimes the world. Does that make it hard for us to interact with those around us who choose to remain anonymous or create an identity that allows them to be protected… to be pseudonymous?
For an interesting analysis of how pseudonymity affects how we interact with people, “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren speak with guest Punk 6529. The identity and voice of the person behind this pseudonym will not be disclosed, and therefore, both the video and audio have been modulated.
See also: Who You Really Are: A Conversation About Pseudonymity With Default Friend at Consensus
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
After debate about the role of politics in the workplace erupted surrounding cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, CEO Jesse Powell offered a severance package to employees who weren’t ready to leave politics at the door. More than a month after the offer, less than 1% of employees have accepted.
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova are joined by CoinDesk reporter Cheyenne Ligon to discuss her piece “In Crypto Winter, Jesse Powell’s Pirate-King Leadership Style Might Be the New Normal” detailing the workplace culture war waging at Kraken, and how a crypto winter might be altering employees’ decisions. Are Kraken’s new standards for workplace culture going to become standard across the crypto industry?
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
Until this year’s massive correction in token prices with the related collapse of Terra, Celsius Network and other once-big players, industry leaders could argue that a lightweight touch to regulation would allow innovation in this booming sector to flourish, however the extent of the losses has swung the balance in favor of regulators.
Recently, concerns have been raised with Tornado Cash, a decentralized software that mixes ether (ETH) payments to hide users’ tracks. The usage of this Ethereum-based smart contract has been banned for all US citizens and companies since it was added to the U.S. OFAC SDN list due to North Korean hackers using the program.
On today’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” discussing crypto regulation with host Michael Casey, is Tonya Evans, professor at Penn State Dickinson Law, a published author and influential crypto adviser with expertise in blockchain and crypto asset law, information privacy, administrative law and social justice.
Overcompensation happens in finance and there’s a good chance it will happen with crypto.
See also: Time for Crypto to Make Nice With Regulators
Crypto-Mixing Service Tornado Cash Blacklisted by US Treasury
What Happens When You Try to Sanction a Protocol Like Tornado Cash
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries at the Investing in Digital Assets and Enterprises Summit. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“If DeFi is going to work without being subject to the rules of the old systems, then there has to be some sort of accountability. Even in systems where there’s anonymity,” Danny Nelson says.
Danny Nelson breaks down his recent investigative story, “Master of Anons: How a Crypto Developer Faked a DeFi Ecosystem,” with “Opinionated” Ben Schiller and Anna Baydakova. Nelson’s investigative piece uncovered how one Solana ecosystem was largely faked by a pair of brothers and their “anon army,” or their 11 faked anonymous identities. What does this cautionary tale say about allowing the right to pseudonymity, a right deeply ingrained in crypto culture?
I.D.E.A.S. 2022 by CoinDesk is the place to see your idea for the next big thing through – meet with leading investors, vet service providers and meet fellow visionaries. Learn more and apply to become a presenter today: coindesk.com/ideas
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle and NEAR.
What is it with sports and crypto? Crypto does reward and incentivize actions that reinforce a sense of belonging to a community that sporting institutions, athletes and fans all know well. But with this crypto winter, will fans be left with something of lasting value that enhances their engagement with their favorite teams and athletes – or are they merely being exploited for money?
On today’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” to dive deeper into this topic with hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are CoinDesk contributing writer Jeff Wilser and Sean O’Brien, from BuyTheBroncos DAO, which was launched to set up a fund to acquire the storied Denver football team.
See also:
For the Fans: How DAOs Could Change Sports
How Is Being in Crypto Like Playing a Sport?
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR’s fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“It’s about labels, it’s about people having fun fighting each other… Nothing regarding technology is at stake here,” says host Anna Baydakova of the bitcoin maximalism debate.
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Anna Baydakova discuss the long-running and fundamental debate at the center of crypto subculture that pits bitcoin maximalists, those who believe bitcoin is the best and only cryptocurrency that should exist, against the broader crypto community.
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Circle.
Can decentralized organizations help lower the costs of medications and accelerate medical research?
On today’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” host Michael Casey sits down with Genetic Networks Founder & Chairman Gennaro D'Urso to talk about his efforts to change the inefficiencies of Big Pharma by using a revolutionary DAO-like model to help fund drug discoveries and possibly cure future diseases.
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Money Reimagined listeners get a special discount on Converge22, Circle’s first annual conference on the blockchain-driven future of money. Coming this September, Converge22 is for change makers looking to build what’s next in Web3. Use the code “CoinDesk” at checkout https://hubs.li/Q01hpy4w0.
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This episode was produced by Nicole Link, edited by Michele Musso and announced by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Elon rugged you. He said they had diamond hands, he said that they were committed for the long term. This was actually another accounting play by Tesla that benefited them, and they don't really care about bitcoin.” - David Z. Morris
Morris, chief insights columnist at CoinDesk, joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss Tesla’s recent sale of 75% of its bitcoin holdings. Tesla first purchased bitcoin 18 months ago and arguably contributed to the bull run at that time. Now, markets have hardly reacted to Tesla’s sale. Are the paths of Musk and the crypto industry diverging?
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This crypto fallout didn’t just randomly happen. The vulnerabilities in crypto protocols for users and the protocols themselves have presented many threats. Where do we go from here? Is there a balance between security/regulation and a decentralized approach?
On today’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” to dive deeper into this topic with hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren is Mitchell Amador, CEO and founder of Web3 security services platform Immunefi, and Timothy Massad, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Amador breaks down Immunefi’s recent second quarter report that displays the volume of crypto funds lost by the community due to hacks and scams.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Crypto needs to optimize for mobile. Anatoly Yakovenko believes the way to accomplish this is not by developing better Web3 apps for mobile phones, but to rethink the mobile phone from the ground up with a complete operating system that optimizes crypto applications for mobile.
Yakovenko joins “Opinionated” with hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson to discuss Solana Lab’s newest endeavor: building a mobile phone geared towards Web3 use cases. Yakovenko’s experience with mobile phone development dates back to his time at Qualcomm, where he worked on operating systems.
Solana’s mobile experiment might just determine whether the grand vision of crypto’s use in everyday life is attainable. But is a crypto-native phone something the world needs?
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The bear market has brought a mass of unrest within the crypto sector. Certainly, with the crypto sagas progressing amid endless news about mismanagement of finances, token manipulation, bankruptcy, debt and lawsuits, the bitcoin-crypto attackers are all encompassing. However, if you are in the crypto industry, especially if you are a financial adviser, this is a time of opportunity.
Listen as "On Purpose" host Tyrone Ross discusses the path forward through the crypto quagmire and how to prepare for better days ahead.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso . Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.” Check out Coindesks’ Crypto For Advisers Newsletter.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As the industry matures, how we’re communicating about the technology and who we’re communicating with is more important than ever. As more new models to help others to understand and use blockchain technology are arising around the world more and more, how do we help the less fortunate communities that this new technology is designed to serve, build and grow?
On today’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren explore this important topic with two guests who have innovative approaches to education in Africa and the Americas. To delve deeper into technology education is
Oluwaseun David Adepoju, head of research at the Africa Blockchain Institute and editor of the Africa Blockchain Report; and Rhonda Eldridge, founder of Harness All Possibilities (USA) and Harness All Possibilities (Bahamas).
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
OneCoin was the promise of a hot new cryptocurrency that was sold to millions of people across hundreds of countries under a multilevel marketing strategy. But when the founder disappeared, the pyramid scheme collapsed, and victims were left with empty pockets.
Jamie Bartlett joins “Opinionated” with hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova to discuss his new book “The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It.” The group reflects on the scam’s impact in the early days of crypto and how the fear of missing out contributed to a multibillion-dollar scam.
This show is produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl with additional production support and announcements by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
At a Consensus panel from Austin, Texas, "Money Reimagined" host Michael Casey starts off the introductions of an engaging conversation with Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor at Coindesk; and Edward Snowden, a former CIA officer, and National Security Agency (NSA) consultant who is now the author of the new memoir, Permanent Record. Hochstein and Snowden discuss the importance of securing internet privacy.
This episode was edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Self-proclaimed bitcoin maximalist Phil Snyder drops by the CoinDesk Studio in the Austin Convention Center.
University of Houston Professor Phil Snyder teaches a class about bitcoin. Of note, the title of the course doesn’t have the word “bitcoin” in it. CoinDesk podcast producer Rob Mitchell talks to Phil about the class and bitcoin maximalism, but not without interruption from some unexpected guests.
Consensus 2022 ignited hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Check back on CoinDesk Podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “Opinionated” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend. This episode was edited by Jonas Huck and Rob Mitchell, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Photo: Frank Stevens.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has faced many trials in this crypto bear market: firms collapsing, withdrawals halted and many users are left wondering what will happen to their money entrusted to these DeFi companies.
One of the latest crises occurred on Solend, a lending and borrowing protocol on the Solana Network. “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova discuss Solend and the larger problems facing DeFi with Teddy Woodward, co-founder and CEO of borrowing and lending platform Notional Finance.
This show is produced, and announced by Michele Musso with additional production support and editing from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elison.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
CoinDesk's Talent Search at Consensus 2022
CoinDesk Podcast Network held a talent search on June 11-12 during Consensus 2022 in Austin, Texas. Contestants were asked these questions:
- What do you think is the most interesting element of the cryptocurrency technology ecosystem or cultural movement? Why?
- What do you believe will happen in the next five years that will impact cryptocurrency? Will it have a positive or negative impact?
Contestants brought up insights across all aspects of the crypto ecosystem, from NFTs to crypto neobanks. Tune in to hear their analyses and predictions for the future of the industry.
This episode was edited by Nia Freeman and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. The intro is “Honolulu Beach Party,” and the background music is “The Adventure Begins.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A Consensus 2022 panel from Austin, Texas, "Money Reimagined" host Michael Casey starts off the introductions of an important discussion with Emily Parker, CoinDesk's executive director of global content; the Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo, dubbed “CryptoDad,” served as 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission; and Neha Narula is the Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, to discuss the social and geo-political implications of the rise of international competition between central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and native crypto currencies.
This episode was edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
How can NFTs be used for social good?
Metagood Chief Operating Officer Amanda Terry and Chairman Bill Tai join Danny Nelson on “Opinionated” to discuss their platform and how it connects communities to social causes with NFTs.
This show is produced, edited and announced by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elison.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A walkthrough of an industrial, portable BTC mining rig.
CoinDesk Deputy Podcasts Producer Rob Mitchell learns the ins-and-outs of bitcoin mining containers by stepping into Foundry’s demo unit on exhibit at Consensus 2022. Todd Sharpe, Foundry’s director of tech ops engineering, explains the basics of mining containers, how the portable units can be deployed and what the future might bring for containerized mining. (Disclosure: Foundry is owned by CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group.)
If you’d like to see the video of this walkthrough, come visit:
https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/coindesk-reports/exploring-a-bitcoin-mining-container/
Consensus 2022 ignited hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Check back on CoinDesk Podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “Opinionated” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend.
This episode was edited by Jonas Huck and Rob Mitchell, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Thanks to Frank Stevens for his camera work.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Nolan Bauerle, previous director of research at CoinDesk, and Norm Nelson, join “Opinionated” with Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson to discuss the growth of conferences, especially leaving the pandemic, and the impact of macroeconomics on the crypto space.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
At a Consensus panel from Austin, Texas, "Money Reimagined" host Sheila Warren sits down with Natalya Thakur, co-founder and chief operating officer of Knox Networks; Diana Biggs, chief strategy officer of Valour; and Patrick Murck, president and chief legal officer of Transparent, to discuss the pros and cons of corporate control of digital money. The panel examines the meaning of “open money.” What does it mean to our society? What is closed now, and what do we recognize as being open? How we think about corporate influence and the challenges that will arise affects our ability to be inclusive of those often excluded from legacy systems and to be mindful of our imprint on our planet.
This episode was edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra, discusses how decentralized technology is fundamentally altering the banking industry.
“Bitcoin and Ethereum are the future of banking, they're the future of transaction processing,” said Bill Barhydt, CEO of crypto brokerage platform Abra. But, he noted that the industry is still in early stages: “If I use a baseball analogy: Innings one to nine, maybe we're the end of inning one, maybe the beginning of inning two.”
Barhydt joins “Consensus Conversations” for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the banking industry, the state of the markets and his beliefs in the value of decentralized technologies.
Consensus 2022 ignited hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Check back on CoinDesk Podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “Opinionated” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend.
This episode was edited by Ryan Huntington and Eleanor Pahl, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alex Adelman, CEO of Lolli, discusses why the shop-to-earn model is an effective on-ramp to crypto.
“Our goal is taking something that historically you could only get through mining or through investing, and we're trying to make bitcoin a part of everyday life,” says Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards app Lolli.
Adelman joins “Consensus Conversations” to discuss why Lolli has solely offered bitcoin rewards since the company’s founding in 2018, how spend-to-earn differs from other models like play-to-earn and move-to-earn, and where crypto fits into the future of finance.
Consensus 2022 ignited hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Check back on CoinDesk Podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “Opinionated” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend.
This episode was edited by Ryan Huntington and Eleanor Pahl, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tor Bair, founder of Secret Foundation, lays out the basics of privacy in crypto.
Tor Bair’s best piece of advice for those interested in crypto?
“You'll be overwhelmed, but don't get overwhelmed. Because you're never going to be more than six months to 12 months behind the time about what's hot in the space.”
Bair, the founder of Secret Foundation, one of the core organizations supporting the private-by-default blockchain Secret Network joins “Consensus Conversations,” providing a beginner-friendly, privacy-focused guide to entering the crypto space.
Consensus 2022 ignited hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Check back on CoinDesk Podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “Opinionated” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend.
This episode was edited by Ryan Huntington and Eleanor Pahl, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What’s been going on in Austin, Texas?
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson are joined by Adam B. Levine to discuss the many panels and experiences underway at Consensus 2022. From the prevalence of the phrase “It’s time to build” to discourse on preserving evidence of war crimes on the blockchain, Consensus has ignited conversations in all aspects of the crypto industry.
This show is produced, and announced by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl and edited by Mike McCarthy. Our theme song is by Elison.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
Live from Consensus in Austin, Texas, "Money Reimagined" hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren sit down with Kimbal Musk, co-founder and executive chairman of Big Green, and H.E.R. DAO Founder, Tracey Bowen to discuss their ESG projects and how DAOs are advancing them.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"It's about the permissionless innovation that is possible... it's about the fact that users can take their tokens from us and use them on some other exchange that we didn't build at all," Blake West says.
Michael Sall and Blake West, co-founders of Goldfinch, join "On Purpose" with host Tyrone Ross to discuss how their company plans to make borrowing accessible to everyone in the decentralized world.
For years, people have looked to big banks for how financial lending and borrowing should look. Goldfinch is a decentralized credit platform that empowers financial inclusion. Instead of completely reinventing lending, Sall explains that Goldfinch aims to use blockchain technology to help “existing financial systems benefit from the kind of interoperability, efficiency and openness that DeFi brings.”
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl and Nia Freeman. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A pre-Consensus panel on the state of the NFT industry and what investors can do to mitigate risk.
Michael Levy, Magdalena (Mags) Kala and Derek Edward Schloss join David Z. Morris to discuss emerging forms of investing in this pre-Consensus panel that was originally released on Twitter Spaces.
Consensus 2022 will ignite hard-hitting conversations about how crypto technologies and communities are remaking the worlds of finance, investing, culture, entertainment, marketing, governance and more.
Be sure to check back on CoinDesk podcasts to hear live shows like “Money Reimagined,” “The Breakdown,” “On Purpose” and more recorded at the event, plus bonus episodes from the most exciting panels over the weekend.
This episode has been edited by Eleanor Pahl, and our executive producer is Jared Schwartz.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Amidst numerous other scandals, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has added a crypto one: The U.S. House of Representatives House Committee on Ethics has announced an investigation into Cawthorn’s promotion of the “Let’s Go Brandon '' meme coin.
“Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson dive into the story, explaining the inspiration of the “Let’s Go Brandon” coin and Cawthorn’s involvement in the coin. Nelson’s reporting included an investigation into Cawthorn’s wallet address, revealing a better timeline of Cawthorn’s investing, along with some unique trading behavior.
See also: Rep. Cawthorn’s Crypto Wallet Reveals Undisclosed Trades Amid House Ethics Investigation
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code OPINIONATED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
In the Web 2 era of the internet, online abuse, loss of autonomy over personal data and the proliferation of disinformation are rampant.
Frank McCourt, billionaire and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, believes blockchain has the power to solve many of our Web 2 problems by strengthening individual autonomy and harmonizing online communities into one cohesive whole, free from abuse or misinformation. But he's not alone! This idea may seem like a long shot at first glance, given how quickly technology changes nowadays. However, there are those who believe in what McCourt is trying to do with his company-, and everyone is paying attention.
McCourt, now CEO of Unfinished, joins “Money Reimagined” with Michael Casey and Sheila Warren to discuss Project Liberty, an initiative to reimagine the internet from the ground up.
The future internet needs to be built with societal governance at its core. McCourt argues for entirely new protocols designed to follow the principles and governance structures researched and established to address faults within the current web.
A safer internet is on the horizon, one with stronger personal data rights, decentralized power and a balance of truth, trust and transparency.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
The future of blockchains is in question, with some experts warning that their power could be vulnerable to quantum computing techniques. The problem lies within the fact they are currently based on outdated technology and would eventually become obsolete if not updated soon enough - which means this issue needs urgent attention from developers who want their projects protected against any potential risks arising out of it!
Join "Money Reimagined'' hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren from Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum Annual meeting, as they dive deep into this topic of Quantum computing with guest Jack Hidary of Sandbox AQ,an enterprise company combining AI and Quantum tech to solve hard problems facing society.
Jack discusses how the application of these new quantum techniques to process massive amounts of data, in conjunction with blockchain-based verification systems can speed up innovation; such as improving battery storage or finding drugs which have yet to be discovered.
And as Hidary suggests these new quantum techniques can accelerate computation and encryption to speeds that would have been unimaginable just 30 years ago. This will change everything we know about data storage and transmission of information- it's almost like science fiction!
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Crypto can wait and portfolio assets don't matter if we don’t fix this problem.
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross expresses his pain and shares his frustration with the recent mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso . Our theme song for this episode is “Those Lost” by artist Adrian Walther.
If you or a loved one is experiencing grief from the loss of a child help can be found at www.willowhouse.org
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
There's no doubt that the crypto space is experiencing explosive growth even with the latest volatile upheaval.
However, this growth is happening away from traditional financial advisers. With platforms like Uniswap, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Metamask, you don't need permission to get started. Everything you need is right in the palm of your hand. Right on your phone. Permissionless!
This makes it easier than ever for people to self custody. You don’t need to go through an adviser, firm or any traditional financial arm to get started with crypto. With more people participating, the crypto community can continue to build a better decentralized and inclusive world however the wealth management space needs to participate if it wants to remain relevant!
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross shares his thoughts and new found data from what came out of the biggest DeFi conference of the year; Blockworks Permissionless 2022.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso . Our theme song is “Walk With Swag."
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
The crypto community is faced with the challenge of scalability. Can we build a blockchain that is secure, permissionless and scalable? And what needs to happen in order for people all over the world to start using it easily?
The answer to the first question is still up for debate. There are many different solutions being proposed, but no clear consensus has emerged. The second question is easier to answer. In order for blockchain to be adopted on a mass scale, it needs to be easy to use. This means building user-friendly interfaces and simplifying the process of buying, selling and exchanging blockchain-based assets. It also requires increasing the efficiency of blockchain networks so that they can handle large numbers of transactions without slowing down. These are daunting challenges, but if the blockchain is going to achieve its full potential, they must be conquered.
Join "Money Reimagined'' host Michael Casey as he discusses these issues with Alex Zinder, the global head of Ledger Enterprise, and Dr. Naveen Singh, the CEO of Inery. They'll discuss Ledger's Nano series of hardware wallets, which allow users to keep their tokens safe in their hands, and Inery's blockchain protocol, which helps manage both a decentralized storage network and a decentralized database. They'll also talk about how these technologies can help make blockchain more user-friendly as they also dive deeper into the core elements of security, decentralization and efficiency.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
UST, the algorithmic stablecoin created by Terraform Labs, was de-pegged this week from the U.S. dollar.
UST's price initially dropped from a one-to-one U.S. dollar value to 60 cents and then fell further. The cause of the de-pegging is due to the sell-off in crypto and in financial markets. The price drop in UST highlights the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and their volatility, which further poses the question of when regulators will step in. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a few remarks concerning the de-pegging and reaffirmed to the world that the Fed is watching.
Join “Money Reimagined” host Michael Caseywith Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, the lead manager of USDC, a prominent stablecoin backed by dollar-based liquid assets, and CoinDesk technology reporter Sam Kessler as they discuss this complicated issue of how the UST peg system is supposed to work and what really went wrong.
After UST lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, $1.5 million of bitcoin reserves was used to defend the peg. Is the underlying algorithm sufficient to keep the token at a stable rate of one dollar? What are the alternatives? Are there other models, collateralized models that would be more effective?
Allaire further explains on how the structure of Circles model may offer more stability and security to investors.
- Recorded on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by EY.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are enabling entrepreneurs to rapidly raise funding and reach global markets in countries where traditional structures might not be effective or even available.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey is Geoffrey See, founder of Choson Exchange, an organization training North Koreans in entrepreneurship, and chief DAOist at Poko, which focuses on replacing LLCs with DAOs in emerging markets. See joins to explain the unique value DAOs offer to entrepreneurs in frontier hubs worldwide.
See explains that an on-chain governance structure can offer stability and security to a newly founded company in ways that existing institutions might not and enable access to an enthusiastic global market of investors and customers. The question of regulation and when the regulatory tone might sway against this new corporate structure remains a challenge entrepreneurs must prepare for.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Blockchains are systems of governance written into code, algorithms dictating how users behave. The question of who gets to develop these systems and these rules becomes immensely important.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are Susan Joseph, executive director of fintech at Cornell, and Cleve Mesidor, executive director of the Blockchain Foundation. The guests provide insights on why crypto is not yet a diverse industry and steps to improve access and education for all.
Crypto, with its innovations in financial technology, provides underbanked populations with better access. But even when these groups have access, they might not receive the same treatment as others. Crypto needs to incentivize inclusion, respect, inclusion and empowerment to improve the industry for all who partake in it.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Small-scale bitcoin mining – think machines whirring away in basements, eating up home electricity bills – have become more popular in recent weeks.
Colin Harper, head of content and research at Luxor Mining, joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson to explore why the mining community has recently gained a new cohort of at-home miners. The influx goes back to China’s mining ban and is influenced by the economics of a bear market, but Harper explains the less tangible factors drawing those to mining, including a sense of community and partaking in securing the network.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code OPINIONATED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross provides a high-level overview of NFTs for financial advisers. He covers big players like NBA Top Shot and Bored Ape Yacht Club, platforms to pay attention to and financial trends in the NFT space.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Quantstamp and EY.
The tone in Washington has shifted over the past year, with lawmakers joining regulators in recognizing that the crypto industry should be taken seriously.
But how does Washington actually see crypto?
To answer this question, “Money Reimagined” host Sheila Warren is joined by two guests intimately familiar with the attitudes of Capitol Hill: Cory Gardner, former senator and representative from Colorado, and Niki Christoff, CEO of Washington-based strategic consultancy Christoff & Co. and host of the podcast “Tech’ed Up.”
The trio debate Washington’s perceptions of crypto, and how that perception might impact future policy decisions. The speed of innovation in the crypto industry is bound to create educational gaps for lawmakers, while policy lags even further behind. How can the crypto industry present itself in digestible and compelling ways for those in Washington?
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From cash to crypto in no time with Nexo. Invest in hot coins and swap between exclusive pairs for cash back, earn up to 17% interest on your idle crypto assets and borrow against them for instant liquidity. Simple and secure. Head on to nexo.io and get started now.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross provides a set of data points that he believes every financial adviser and client should know. Ranging from blockchain gaming trends, large trades in bitcoin and publicly traded companies with crypto, this data helps to provide insights into regulation, custody and volatility concerns that advisers may hold.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bitcoin 2022 drew masses of bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts to Miami Beach last week, where attendees congregated to discuss the future of the cryptocurrency.
Joining “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson is George Kaloudis, research analyst at CoinDesk. The trio recap their experiences at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami Beach, from encounters with Bitcoin Maxis to promising announcements in the future of the Lighting Network.
Last year’s Bitcoin conference came with the explosive news from El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that he would introduce legislation to make cryptocurrency legal tender in his country. This year, the nation-state adoption narrative stalled slightly. What might this indicate about bitcoin’s future on the global stage?
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code OPINIONATED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross recounts his experiences at the Exchange ETF Conference in Miami. He notes the extensive crypto coverage at different panels, focusing on the promises of the technology and the hurdles that need to be overcome before advisers are ready to integrate crypto into their practice.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Quantstamp and EY.
U.S. securities laws, largely dating back to the 1930s, are proving to be a challenge to integrate into the developing world of blockchain technology.
Joining this episode of “Money Reimagined” with Sheila Warren and Michael Casey is Chris Brummer, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Brummer introduces what defines a security, then describes where these definitions fall short when it comes to blockchain technology.
Brummer’s recent white paper, “Disclosure, Dapps and DeFi,” published in the Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law and Policy, details his ideas for a new disclosure framework for crypto markets. He walks through how disclosure integration with decentralized finance could achieve key policy goals like protecting against fraud, maintaining level playing fields and promoting consumer education without burdening innovation.
From cash to crypto in no time with Nexo. Invest in hot coins and swap between exclusive pairs for cash back, earn up to 17% interest on your idle crypto assets and borrow against them for instant liquidity. Simple and secure. Head on to nexo.io and get started now.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Crypto is inherently diverse. Representative, equitable, fair, this is what people care about. This is why they are driven to it.”
The accessibility of crypto is driving many first-time investors to crypto instead of traditional markets. On this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross explains the importance of comprehensive financial education and the best techniques to help those first starting in investing. He then provides insights into the Ariel-Schwab Black Investor Survey 2022, released this month.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I get that some advisers don't believe in [crypto]. But that doesn't mean that you don't learn about it,” says guest Treyton DeVore.
AllStreet Wealth co-founders Treyton DeVore and Thomas Kopelman join “On Purpose” with Tyrone Ross to discuss advising the next generation of investors: millennials and Gen Z. This younger demographic stands apart from the older generations in their goals and interests. What should advisers need to know to best serve these clients?
Crypto is a financial vehicle as much as it is an identity to some younger clients. Non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and altcoins are blending finance with community in a new way to which advisers will need to adapt. The guests have developed a strategy for “meeting clients where they’re at” by integrating education into a comprehensive advising experience.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
-
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Quantstamp and EY.
Critics of blockchain forensic technology see the surveillance as a breach of a vital right to privacy. But the privacy features that blockchain technology introduces isn’t in its secrecy, but in its transparency.
Simone Maini, CEO of blockchain analytics company Elliptic joins “Money Reimagined” with hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren to debate the balance between privacy and transparency. Maini explains what analytics techniques can do to help build trust in the entire ecosystem.
The openness of transactions, paired with a setting of pseudonymity and limited personal information, creates an environment where secure and trusted transactions can take place without the need for a centralized entity overseeing the market.
In order for crypto to continue to evolve, Maini believes collaboration with regulators as an important step: “We shouldn't expect that crypto can really become part of mainstream financial services, if we don't have a layer of regulatory compliance around it.” How does blockchain analytics factor into policy changes?
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From cash to crypto in no time with Nexo. Invest in hot coins and swap between exclusive pairs for cash back, earn up to 17% interest on your idle crypto assets and borrow against them for instant liquidity. Simple and secure. Head on to nexo.io and get started now.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MONEYREIMAGINED15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Thejas Nalval, co-founder and chief information officer of Parataxis Capital, joins today’s episode of “On Purpose” with host Tyrone Ross. Nalval explains his journey from equity trading at Goldman Sachs (GS) to founding an investment firm focused solely on the digital asset sector.
Crypto is developing an asset class pertinent to deviations in both strategy and behavior from what traditional investors might be used to. Nalval dives into benchmarks and strategies that investment managers can benefit from while exploring digital assets.
After seeing crypto’s strong performance this quarter compared with traditional assets, Nalval believes more institutional investors might be enticed to add crypto to their portfolios in the coming months. How should advisers and investment managers prepare for this incoming institutional wave?
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) led sports leagues into the non-fungible token (NFT) space with the successful Top Shot collection. But how much further will it explore Web 3 technologies?
Magdalena Kala joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson to discuss her recent opinion piece, “The NBA’s Web 3 Innovation Dilemma.” Kala expands upon her research and analysis of the NBA’s many ventures into the Web 3 space, and what technologies the NBA is likely to explore in the future.
Beyond just fan engagement, crypto technology presents new ways for fans to interact with the teams they love. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) are the next logical step for the NBA, as Kala explains, where fans could own an entire team through a DAO. But would the NBA ever allow such an ownership structure?
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
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This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The transparency inherent in the crypto industry makes it easy for advisers to see all the inner workings of crypto assets. But seeing all that complexity can at times be overwhelming, and not always useful to the adviser.
Is there a way to simplify the behind the scenes of clearing and settling crypto transactions?
Rosario Ingargiola, CEO of decentralized financial markets infrastructure company Bosonic, joins “On Purpose” with Tyrone Ross to explain how to make crypto investing and trading more approachable for those familiar with traditional asset classes. Tools are being built to make sure advisers can access the best pricing and execution for their crypto assets, without the need for advisers to worry about the intermediate steps.
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9–12 in Austin, TX. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at www.coindesk.com/consensus2022.
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This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Quantstamp and EY.
“While there is quite a bit of interest, there's still quite a bit of skepticism” when it comes to crypto solutions for humanitarian aid, Jeremiah Centrella says.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey is Jeremiah Centrella, a partner at the law firm of Nichols Liu and former general counsel at Mercy Corps. Centrella explains where humanitarian aid organizations are on their journey of exploration of crypto and the value proposition these organizations provide for the crypto ecosystem.
Centrella identifies the common hesitancies organizations experience before considering crypto, including a fear of the more negative narratives surrounding crypto. Increased awareness, education and technology integration can help crypto solutions take hold.
The many complexities of humanitarian aid solutions prove a challenge for crypto integration. A carefully crafted solution, always with the needs of the people prioritized over the technology, must be flexible and adaptable in order to best assist those in need.
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From cash to crypto in no time with Nexo. Invest in hot coins and swap between exclusive pairs for cash back, earn up to 17% interest on your idle crypto assets and borrow against them for instant liquidity. Simple and secure. Head on to nexo.io and get started now.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
EY is proud to sponsor “Money Reimagined.” As businesses prepare for the token economy, EY is committed to building a better working world and connecting global business ecosystems on the public Ethereum blockchain. To learn more about the EY Blockchain portfolio of products and services, visit blockchain.ey.com.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9–12 in Austin, TX. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MoneyReimagined15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at www.coindesk.com/consensus2022.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Ukrainian government kicked off an impressive crypto donation campaign, receiving over $50 million in cryptocurrency contributions in just a few weeks.
Kim Bazak of blockchain PR and marketing firm Market Across has an inside perspective on the campaign. Bazak joins “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Danny Nelson to explain the story of how Market Across worked with the Ukrainian government to organize some of the first and largest crypto donations, including Polkadot founder Gavin Wood’s $5 million contribution.
The donation campaign has spotlighted the power of borderless money. Ukraine continues to support the proliferation of crypto assets in the country with the decision to make Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchanges as legal as banks. How will crypto continue to develop in Ukraine?
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Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9–12 in Austin, TX. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code Opinionated15 to get 15% off your pass at www.coindesk.com/consensus2022.
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This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
Our faith in the reliability of digital media is, simply put, broken.
The proliferation of disinformation online has seeped into all aspects of life. Elections, the pandemic, and now, a war are all targets of organized campaigns to obfuscate or even rewrite truth and facts. At the same time, censorship of vulnerable populations is on the rise, only further restricting the flow of information.
Enter cryptography, decentralized networks and the blockchain.
Joining “Money Reimagined” with Sheila Warren and Michael Casey is Jonathan Dotan, founding director of the Starling Lab. Dotan and the Starling Lab are prototyping cryptographic methods and decentralized web protocols with the aim of establishing trust in the future of history, journalism and law.
Irrefutable evidence of war crimes was brought forth during the Nuremberg trials following World War II, ensuring some form of justice would come to fruition. In 2022, Ukrainian citizens are now the ones recording this irrefutable evidence, equipped with smartphones and social media. New tools are needed to preserve this unprecedented flow of information to eventually render justice for those impacted by the war.
Is blockchain technology the solution?
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Take your crypto to the next level with Nexo. Invest and swap instantly, earn up to 20% APR on your idle assets or borrow cash against them at industry-leading rates. Get started today at nexo.io to receive up to a $100 welcome bonus. Valid through March 31.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9–12 in Austin, TX. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code MoneyReimagined15 to get 15% off your GA and Pro pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Joining “On Purpose” with host Tyrone Ross are Steve Larsen and Adam Blumberg. The pair founded PlannerDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for financial service professionals.
The guests assess how far the wealth management industry has come in terms of embracing crypto and what barriers need to be overcome before mass adoption.
Larsen and Blumberg believe that education for financial advisers on crypto topics is crucial. They’ve taken it even one step further and created a certification designation, the certified digital asset adviser, managed entirely by PlannerDAO. What are the benefits and challenges of running a certification through a DAO?
Consensus 2022, the industry’s most influential event, is happening June 9–12 in Austin, TX. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the fast-moving world of crypto, Web 3 and NFTs, this is the festival experience for you. Use code ONPURPOSE15 to get 15% off your pass at coindesk.com/consensus2022.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The much-anticipated executive order from U.S. President Biden’s administration outlining an approach to crypto regulation arrived this month. As Tyrone Ross puts it, the order is “all bark and no bite,” and a promising step forward for increased regulatory clarity without excessive restrictions.
On this episode of “On Purpose,” Ross dives into a regulatory-themed update for those in the wealth management industry. Ranging from Biden’s crypto executive order to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent comments on the custody rule, Ross explains what is changing and how it will affect advisers.
Ross sorts through the nuances within the executive order’s outlined approach to regulating digital assets, highlighting the most important takeaways for advisers. Ross also recaps comments from the Department of Labor about crypto in retirement accounts. Lastly, Ross explores the SEC’s most recent discussion on custody rules and how it would change crypto advising.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
Explorations into digital currency technologies will shape the evolution of the global financial system, so understanding the African continent’s approach to money is key.
Joining this episode of “Money Reimagined” with hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey is Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO of African fintech firm AZA Finance. Rossiello previously joined the show in 2020 to discuss international crypto adoption.
AZA announced this week a partnership with exchange FTX to build continent-wide infrastructure, education programs and crypto solutions to help accelerate Africa's integration into the emerging Web 3 economy.
Though there were challenges, innovative solutions were found to implement effective digital payment solutions across the continent. How will crypto’s influence impact Africa in the coming years?
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Take your crypto to the next level with Nexo. Invest and swap instantly, earn up to 20% APR on your idle assets or borrow cash against them at industry-leading rates. Get started today at nexo.io to receive up to a $100 welcome bonus. Valid through March 31.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“There are millions of people who want to invest and want to get started in crypto. They just need the right set of tools to do it.”
Michael Doniger of MoneyLion joins “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross to emphasize the importance of education, access and tools for financial services. MoneyLion, a platform to help navigate finances, strives to create products to help all Americans have access to budgeting and investing services.
Apps and online services are popping up to provide a new data-driven style of advising. Are these tools the future of investment advice?
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Managing digital assets comes with unique challenges that do not arise in traditional assets. What are the biggest differences, and how can asset managers prepare for them?
On this episode of “On Purpose” with Tyrone Ross, Mikael Johnson of accounting firm KPMG explains the unique aspects of digital assets that directly affect a wealth manager. He addresses some of the findings in KPMG's recent report “Crypto as an Asset Class: What Asset Managers Should Know Before Going Crypto.”
Johnson helps to answer pressing questions for asset managers looking to get into crypto, like how to define appropriate cutoff times and how to vet custodians. What needs to happen in the crypto industry before mass adoption can take place?
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) joins “Money Reimagined” with Sheila Warren and Michael Casey to reflect on the impact of the infrastructure bill, explain the difficulties of applying regulation to an evolving technology and take a look at where policy on stablecoins and token investing might be headed.
When the infrastructure bill introduced language that could be damaging to the crypto industry, a bipartisan group including Sens. Toomey, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) proposed an amendment. Crypto stood out as common ground in a polarizing era of politics.
In the time since then, regulators have struggled to fit crypto into existing regulatory frameworks. U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent executive order, signed the day after this episode was recorded, addressed some of these challenges by directing federal agencies to unify their efforts toward regulating crypto.
See Also: Biden Issues Long-Awaited US Executive Order on Crypto
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Take your crypto to the next level with Nexo. Invest and swap instantly, earn up to 20% APR on your idle assets or borrow cash against them at industry-leading rates. Get started today at nexo.io to receive up to a $100 welcome bonus. Valid through March 31.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Will Gottsegen, CoinDesk's media and culture reporter, joins “Opinionated” hosts Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller to discuss what recent events in the Ethereum Name Service Foundation (ENS) say about the limitations of DAO governance.
When homophobic and transphobic posts from ENS director Brantly Millegan were uncovered, Millegan was promptly fired from his role at the nonprofit that operates the ENS. However, the ENS put the decision to remove Millegan from the organization as a whole to a DAO vote, but it failed to pass.
Millegan himself was able to sway the vote. Without his voting power, obtained through tokens and delegations, the vote would not have failed. Additionally, almost a fifth of the total votes cast were abstentions.
What does the ENS voting outcome tell us about the effectiveness, ethics and future of DAOs?
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
Crypto’s public image has been dominated in the past week by two contrasting perspectives: financial freedom and sanctions evasion.
While the Ukrainian resistance has raised millions in crypto donations when traditional fundraising methods failed, some call for regulation to prevent Russia from using crypto to evade sanctions.
Jonathan Levin, co-founder and chief strategy officer of blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, joins “Money Reimagined” to contextualize the current conversations on wartime cryptocurrency donations.
The recent uncovering of suspects in both The DAO and Bitfinex hacks represent how transparency inherent to blockchain technology can be an effective tool for law enforcement. But what if state actors exploit this tool?
As the complexities of crypto’s use in Ukraine and Russia continue to play out, it brings to light broader issues about how a society might maintain a balance of access, privacy and inclusion alongside security and the rule of law.
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Take your crypto to the next level with Nexo. Invest and swap instantly, earn up to 20% APR on your idle assets or borrow cash against them at industry-leading rates. Get started today at nexo.io to receive up to a $100 welcome bonus. Valid through March 31.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard."
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Rev Miller, co-founder of Unchain, a decentralized fundraising crypto for humanitarian needs in war-besieged Ukraine.
The situation in the war theater in Ukraine is getting more and more bleak, but people are bracing to fight on, and the crypto community is ramping up its own arsenal, too. Over the past week, multiple crypto fundraising efforts have been launched in Ukraine by both the government and various activists, including the Russian art collective Pussy Riot.
Unchain is a fund that unites multiple crypto projects in an attempt to raise funds in a decentralized and transparent way that the blockchain technology can offer. Each donation wallet will be configured as a multisig, so that Unchain’s team of key holders, distributed across Ukraine and other countries, can have access to funds at all times.
Listen to Anna and Danny talk to Rev about how the Ukrainians are holding up amid the war, what are the plans of Unchain and how things are going with the crypto fundraising.
Check out the CoinDesk story about Unchain: https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/03/01/absolutely-surreal-inside-a-fund-raising-millions-in-crypto-for-besieged-ukraine/
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“They all want to know, what can they do? How can they do it? Is there an easy way to do it? What's the best step?”
On this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross takes a look into the current wealth management landscape from the perspective of all types of advisers including Registered Investment Advisors, independent broker-dealers, wirehouses, banks and more. Education, access and tools for crypto are critical for advisers as clients increasingly have an interest in crypto.
When and how will the wealth management, asset management and banking industries make big moves into crypto? Listen for insights into the inflection points Ross is looking for in the next few months.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Does the future of media companies lie in decentralized models?
“Even successful magazines right now are rethinking their model… One of the ways you give power to your readers is to give them the direct ability to allocate funds.”
Former CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen joins Anna Baydakova and Ben Schiller on “Opinionated” to discuss Des Femmes, the magazine for women in finance and tech. Cuen co-founded the magazine to address a lack of representation and voice for women entrepreneurs, especially in the crypto industry.
Des Femmes is printed and managed by a DAO-inspired structure. Cuen discusses Des Femmes’ decision to pursue a bitcoin multisig structure to manage the funds the publication generated from an Ethereum crowdfunding campaign, and its plans for further decentralization in the future. Converting a media organization into a decentralized autonomous organization presents unique opportunities to get the community more involved in the co-creation of the publication.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
During CoinDesk’s Tax Week, “Money Reimagined” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey dive into the fears and debates around crypto during tax season. Last year’s infrastructure bill called out crypto taxing directly, and in the time since, regulators have attempted to retrofit old rules and concepts to the completely new world of digital assets.
Crypto technology has outpaced laws as regulators scramble to find ways to integrate crypto into reporting requirements. David Kemmerer, CoinLedger co-founder and CEO, joins to provide perspective on the challenges associated with crypto taxation, while author Dan Jeffries tackles the clash between reporting requirements and the privacy principles inherent to the crypto industry.
A difference in taxation strategy could establish crypto-friendly geographic regions, attracting capital, talent and innovation to those states or countries. As decentralized organizations continue to evolve, will digital communities eventually create their own tax and regulatory structures for those who pass through their virtual spaces?
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 18% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
As discussions around NFTs have increased in frequency, they are also increasingly divisive. Some see NFTs as the ultimate solution to all that is wrong with Web 2.0, while others see a space rife with plagiarism, fraud and false ownership.
This week on “Money Reimagined,” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey are joined by two individuals well versed in NFTs: the NFT analyst and cohost of “Edge of NFTs” podcast Eathan Janney; and the NFT evangelist, musician and entrepreneur Scott Page.
Janney and Page dive into the many complexities of NFTs, ranging from property rights to social impacts. As NFTs’ popularity has grown, so has their utility, with artists of many different mediums finding ways to tokenize their work. At the same time, scams and copyright infringement has been on the rise while regulation lags behind.
As NFTs continue to evolve, will they continue to empower creators, or will they instead become instruments of corporate greed?
Would you like to attend NFT/LA this March 28 - 31, 2022? Go to nftla.live and receive 10% off when you use the promo code MoneyReimagined10LA.
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 18% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Will AI be coming to DeFi anytime soon?
Joining Anna Baydakova and Ben Schiller on “Opinionated,” is Jesus Rodriguez, CEO of analytics platform IntoTheBlock. Rodriguez explores a future where artificial intelligence merges with decentralized finance (DeFi) to create an even smarter, more automated and possibly better regulated DeFi.
Machine learning and AI are rapidly becoming innovative solutions to software problems across a variety of applications, and Rodriguez sees AI in DeFi as the next logical step. Integrating AI solutions and analysis into DeFi protocols could have vast impacts to user protection, contract efficiency and market dynamics.
AI integration could be used to predict major market moves, prevent undesirable usage of contracts and even potentially in financial regulation of DeFi platforms. While the possibilities sound endless, are they practical?
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Non-fungible tokens (NFT). Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Decentralized applications (dapp). Stablecoins. What do all of these terms mean, and why might clients be interested in them?
While the ETHDenver conference takes place, host Tyrone Ross takes this episode of “On Purpose” as an opportunity to help bring advisers up to speed on all things Ethereum.
If they do not already, clients will soon have some form of Ethereum assets in their portfolio. What wallet will they be using? Why does it matter? What is yield farming and staking? What is the difference between tokens and coins?
Though advisers do not need to understand every line of code, an adviser must be conversant with the terminology of the space in order to best serve clients. Listen for a brief rundown on Ethereum.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
“I think that the philosophy of cryptocurrency, the decentralization concept, wasn't meant to be a speculation opportunity.”
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren is crypto OG Francesco Rulli. Rulli’s career history ranges from founding a fashion company with actor John Malkovich, to building a film distribution network, to creating a bitcoin-based payments program for young female students in Afghanistan, to helping guide the cathedral in Florence, Italy, through a digital transformation.
A core thread running through Rulli’s varied career is the belief in one’s purpose and responsibility to contribute to their community and to the world as a whole. Rulli believes the core value of proposition for blockchain technology is less in its current status as a generator of speculative assets and more as a tool to do social good.
The project Rulli founded with acclaimed Afghan entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, the Women’s Annex Foundation, which aimed to foster digital literacy and financial opportunities for Afghan women through bitcoin, successfully proved that the decentralization and anonymity features bitcoin could be used to better serve underrepresented populations. More recently, he has started working with museums and educational institutions to integrate donors’ patronage with NFTs so these institutions can continue to be funded as the technology advances.
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 18% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“The market will go up and down, but I am going to be here.”
Jeff Garzik has been a prominent figure in the crypto industry for a long time, starting with his involvement as an early Bitcoin Core developer to his work with Vesper today, aiming to create a safe and secure gateway experience for new users to decentralized finance (DeFi). He has also expanded his efforts towards a TV show in the works, building houses and founding a trucking startup.
On this episode of “On Purpose,” Garzik joins host Tyrone Ross for a wide-reaching conversation on the current state and future of the crypto industry from DeFi to non-fungible tokens (NFT) to Web 3. Garzik previously joined the show in November, where he discussed his career changes and Bitcoin’s evolution over the years.
How will advisers and clients interact with their money in the future? Will NFTs continue to grow as an investment class? How will DeFi change the financial landscape? Through the transformations and ups and downs of the crypto industry, Garzik is certain he'll stay to see it all and work to keep innovating new solutions.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Quantstamp.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren is Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Parity Technologies, which produces Polkadot. More recently, Wood founded the Web3 Foundation, an organization aiming to fund development teams building the decentralized internet.
First, Wood walks through the founding ideals of Polkadot, including its focus on decentralization, interoperability and efficiency. He next explains the technologies Polkadot introduced to meet the ideals and help accelerate experimentations into the future Web 3.
Wood views the transition from Web 2 to Web 3 not as an optional step, but a necessary one, adding, “We cannot afford to base our infrastructure on fundamentally flawed centralized technologies.” The current internet’s flaws in centralization and privacy concerns will be challenging to overcome in the next iteration of internet technologies, but Wood is optimistic that with the right incentives, these new solutions will be created that align with the needs of users.
How long until this vision of a better web is actualized?
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 18% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The cypherpunks dreamed of a world where a person’s information would be revealed only if that individual so desired. A legendary group of cryptographers who came together in the 1990s, they fought back against government attempts to create backdoors to encryption and enforce key escrow.
The cypherpunks laid the groundwork for the crypto revolution we see today. But, arguably, says the futurist Dan Jeffries, theirs is a dream deferred. Today, we’re more watched and surveilled than ever and the dominant internet business models are based on a quid pro quo of “your data, their free-services.”
Where do we go from here?
In an interview for CoinDesk’s “Opinionated” podcast, Jeffries argues that we need to get away from political messaging around privacy. That doesn’t work: Not enough people care about privacy to pay for it and ensure it. Most of us don’t care until intrusions of privacy become material to our well-being.
Instead, we have to make privacy a part of the design of products, whether that’s money transactions or informational ones. “Make privacy the plumbing, not the marketing tagline,” Jeffries says.
Relatedly, the “Opinionated” team – Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson – also discuss the failure of the Libra/Diem Facebook/Meta stablecoin project and look at what it means for the future of digital currency.
Does its demise indicate that governments hold the cards when it comes to issuing currencies, or that open-source projects like Bitcoin or Ethereum are more likely to succeed than closed systems like Facebook’s?
Tune in to listen to the discussion.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
The Trojan Horse of Privacy by Dan Jeffries
Reflecting on Facebook’s Hilarious, Well Deserved Crypto Failure by David Z. Morris
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
Just in time for CoinDesk’s Privacy Week, this episode takes a deep dive into the ideals, tools and future of privacy and crypto, addressing all facets of privacy in Web 3.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are two guests familiar with not just the privacy pitfalls of today’s internet, but the possible solutions available to protect users. Often recognized as the father of digital currency, David Chaum has had an accomplished career in privacy-focused digital tools, first as the founder of DigiCash and now with his new secure messaging platform xx messenger. Alongside Chaum is Tor Bair, the founder of Secret Foundation, one of the core organizations supporting the private-by-default blockchain Secret Network.
Though most people understand that online privacy is a problem, the majority seem willing to trade privacy for convenience and connectivity. As a result, the privacy concerns in Web 2 have become staggeringly large, as displayed in the countless data access hacks, scandals like Cambridge Analytica and Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency revelations, among others.
Within the crypto industry, the concept of transparency is highly valued, but where is the balancing point between that transparency and privacy? Creating a secure network is important, but security is often directly tied with identity. Cryptographers have devised ways to separate the two, but will these methodologies become pervasive in Web 3?
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 17% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Crypto has deep roots in the privacy space. But today’s bitcoiners aren’t quite as skittish about sharing their ID as the maximalists of yesteryear were. This week on “Opinionated,” Lili Rhodes of Foundation Devices argues why they should. Keeping one’s identity hidden – away from the government, from companies, from counterparties – is a table-stakes demand in the privacy game.
Does it have to be? Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller spar over the nature of modern-day privacy, where and why it's necessary, and whether bitcoin has been “corrupted” by those who link trades with names. For those who think it has, buying beyond the banks and exchanges is a must. Check out CoinDesk’s “Privacy Week” package for an inside look.
You scanned your ID at the bitcoin checkout, anon? Anna wrote a guide to help you do better next time ;)
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I think getting smart on crypto is one of the biggest business development opportunities for advisers of the next handful of years.”
Joining “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross is Matt Hougan, CIO of crypto asset manager Bitwise. Hougan and Ross discuss Bitwise and ETF Trend’s joint benchmark survey of adviser attitudes towards the crypto asset class. The report surveyed over 600 advisers and revealed key indicators of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry’s perceptions of crypto.
How many advisers have personal crypto holdings? Why is there a discrepancy between advisers’ personal holdings and client allocations in crypto? What factors are holding advisers and investors back?
Adviser engagement with crypto assets is on the rise, but client involvement is lagging behind. Continued education is key to relieving concerns on regulation, volatility and more surrounding crypto.
Retail and institutional investors alike have a significant presence in crypto. Will 2022 finally be the year the RIA industry joins them?
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on “Opinionated,” the gang dives deep into some big news out of Russia, looks at the issue of rampant intellectual-property theft with NFTs and examines Vitalik Buterin’s idea for synthetic wombs.
(Yes, you read that last one right. The founder of Ethereum thinks babies should be made in Cosmic Cocoons.)
Could Russia ban crypto? That’s a possibility raised by a highly critical Bank of Russia report this week. It said cryptocurrencies are volatile and widely used in illegal activities, such as fraud. The report called for the Kremlin to outlaw mining and issuance, if not the holding of crypto.
Anna Baydakova said banning bitcoin would be a “nightmare” if the West imposes further financial sanctions should Russia invade Ukraine.
Next up, we spoke with Sam Ewen, head of CoinDesk Studios, about an op-ed he wrote this week (“The Balance Between Art and IP Theft in NFT Culture”). Unauthorized NFT projects like MetaBirkins, The Squid NFT and Non-Fungible Olive Gardens have been making thousands of dollars. Ewen expects Web 3 to change the norms around IP online, posing headaches for brands and platforms like OpenSea.
Finally, the gang unpacked Buterin’s baby pod idea, which he floated as a means of female empowerment:
“Disparities in economic success between men and women are far larger once marriage+children enter the picture. Synthetic wombs would remove the high burden of pregnancy, significantly reducing the inequality,” he wrote on Twitter.
While it might be admirable for a tech leader to care about gender inequality (everyone should care more about that!), the team didn’t rate the idea too highly. It smacks of techno-Utopianism.
As we wait for pods to arrive, there may be more practical solutions, noted Baydakova. Like, say, paid maternity leave.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
“I don't think we should feel like this is going to be entirely a good thing … if Web 3 is becoming more like the offline world, in the sense of being exclusive and gate-kept in the ways that our physical world has been for so long.”
Web 3, the metaverse and NFTs have potential to be a force for good in the world, to improve decentralization, raise underrepresented voices and empower creators. But with a digital land grab for virtual real estate growing fast, will people soon find themselves locked out of the metaverse?
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren is Kevin Roose, New York Times tech columnist and author of “Futureproof,” a cautiously optimistic look into an automated, AI-filled and algorithmically driven future. Roose has also delved into the world of crypto: In March of 2021, he wrote a column explaining non-fungible tokens (NFT), and then sold that column as an NFT for 350 ETH ($1.14 million at current prices.).
The future is rapidly approaching and the crypto industry is determined to establish its place in it. Web 3 is shaping up in opposition to the current Web 2, moving away from the centralized, data-driven approach of today's internet. Alongside Web 3 is the metaverse, where individuals can fragment themselves into two parts: their physical self, and their digital persona.
Before Web 3 and the metaverse take hold, important discussions should be had now about the opportunities and obstacles abound in a crypto future. What is the role of media in Web 3? What responsibilities do journalists in the crypto sector have today? Is it possible to remain hopeful and yet cautious of crypto’s role in shaping the coming years?
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 17% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
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This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It’s time for the wealth management industry to pay attention to the exploding ecosystem of stablecoins.
At the same time, host Tyrone Ross explains: “Advisers just can’t jump into this stuff without knowing the counterparty risk, smart contract risk and understanding all of the things that come along with DeFi.”
This episode of “On Purpose” serves as a primer on stablecoins for financial advisers. What are they and where do they fit into the wealth management space? What are the biggest stablecoins on the market today? Where does regulation on decentralized finance stand and what are the associated risks and rewards for clients?
As stablecoins become an attractive option for clients, the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry needs to adapt in order to integrate this new technology into the existing infrastructure. Advisers need to educate themselves today to prepare for a future filled with stablecoins.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is “Walk With Swag.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
In theory, crypto and blockchain technology present unique opportunities to improve, accelerate and strengthen global aid efforts. In practice, geopolitical challenges and complexities in distribution hinder projects before they’ve even had a chance to deploy the new technology.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are Sara Pantuliano, chief executive of ODI and member of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, and Sasha Kapadia, director in the Humanitarian and Development group at Mastercard. The guests are intimately familiar with the processes and challenges associated with cross-border aid efforts, as well as the opportunities for blockchain integrated aid in the future.
How can blockchain-based digital aid solutions improve the lives of those in crisis? Even if the technology could be helpful, is it ethical to test emergent technology on a vulnerable population?
Blockchain technology is likely to be increasingly included in aid solutions in the next decade. Alongside the sweeping potential , it’s also important to maintain awareness of its dangers if communities are to avoid widening the “digital divide” that developing technologies can easily create.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 17% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“By the end of the year, all of the notable RIAs in this space are going to be in. I don’t necessarily mean allocating, but just doing something whether it’s education, webinars, tax planning, estate planning."
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross dives into his predictions for crypto and the wealth management industry in 2022. Perhaps this will be the year for regulation in areas like stablecoins, investor protections and securities designations. How would this change the role of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA)?
RIAs will need to stay knowledgeable in areas like Web 3, play-to-earn and the metaverse as associated crypto technologies and assets continue to develop. In 2022, it will no longer be possible for advisers to ignore the crypto industry. Ross highlights the most important areas to pay attention to as the year progresses.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk With Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
2022 has just begun. What will the hot topics in crypto be this year?
On this episode of “Opinionated,” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson kick off the new year with a discussion on the future and purpose of emerging technologies such as Web 3 and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Though both include egalitarian philosophical interests like freedom, democracy, self-custody and decentralization, many worry the ideals will fall as well-funded companies and individuals step in.
How will the ideals of Web 3 and DAOs pan out as the technology develops further?
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
“We can’t use 1920s to 1940s definitions in securities laws for digital assets … We need to bring our laws into the 21st century,” Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) says.
Cryptocurrency has emerged as a topic around which representatives from both sides of the aisle can create coalitions with aligned interests and values while constructively disagreeing on other matters. Last year, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), a co-chairman of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, joined “Money Reimagined” to discuss how crypto is being received in Congress.
In this episode, hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Soto, the second co-chairman of the caucus, to provide a Democrat’s perspective on the state of crypto legislation. Soto introduced two bipartisan bills last summer, the Blockchain Innovation Act and parts of the Digital Taxonomy Act, which were the first blockchain bills to ever pass the House as part of H.R. 3723, the Consumer Safety Technology Act.
Soto explains the many challenges facing crypto’s advocates in Washington, from educating colleagues to outdated securities laws. With representatives like Soto and Emmer pushing for more education, recognition and legislation for crypto, will 2022 bring more certainty and jurisdiction to the industry?
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 17% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Onramp does write three things: education, access and tools. ‘E.A.T.,’ we help the RIA space eat.”
In this second part of “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross’ state of the union episode, Ross explains how Onramp aims to help registered investment advisors (RIAs) integrate crypto into their services by providing education, access and tools.
As crypto as an investment class quickly becomes too big to ignore, advisers need to understand how the introduction of crypto alters the core four topics that RIAs need to keep in mind: risk tolerance, investor policy statements, financial planning and estate planning.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk With Swag with an added tune by Sam Barsh.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“The crypto space and the traditional financial advisor space, they don't speak the same language, they're dancing to a different beat. Onramp needs to be the DJ.”
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross recounts the origin story of Onramp Invest. From Onramp’s founding principles to its impact to today, Ross covers the key moments in the company’s history and how it changed both the crypto and financial advisor industries.
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk With Swag with an added tune by Sam Barsh.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp, Nexo.io and KuCoin.
For the last day for 2021 and the end of a two-week break for Money Reimagined, we’re serving up the second of two of our favorite episodes from the past year.
Michael Casey’s pick was the episode from Sept. 15, not because that’s his birthday and not only because in that one he had the pleasure of meeting co-host Sheila Warren’s “chithi” (aunt), Dr. Usha Ramanathan. It was mainly because Ramanahan’s insights and those of the second guest, Marta Belcher, zeroed in on why maintaining data privacy is a matter of protecting our very humanity.
Ramanathan is a lawyer and an influential human rights activist in India. She has worked since 2009 to challenge India’s controversial digital identity program, Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric ID system. Belcher serves as general counsel of Protocol Labs, chair of the Filecoin Foundation and special counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Aadhaar has long been a lightning rod for the kind of privacy advocates who are often drawn to crypto and warn of the authoritarian threats from a government controlling such a large, centralized database of personal information. To that critique, the tech firms that built and now support India’s system have typically responded that they are overcoming the so-called “digital divide,” providing powerful, “programmable” IDs to the poor so that they can not only access the kind of services we take for granted but build new services on top of them.
Ramanathan turns that counter-argument on its head. She suggests backers of Aadhaar and other universal identity systems have fostered a myth that official IDs are necessary for citizens to participate in the economy when it’s perfectly possible to conceive of an effective economic system in which people prosper without compromising their privacy. Belcher then puts all this into the context of how our private data is being captured by centralized corporate internet platforms and whether or not decentralized solutions using cryptocurrencies and blockchains can free us from this.
It’s a great episode and well worth a lesson as we head into a new year in which the battle of the future of our digital economy is poised to intensify.
This episode was produced, edited and announced by Michele Musso. Our Holiday theme songs are from Joshua Spacht.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
KuCoin was listed on Forbes Advisor’s “The Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2021,” which highlighted hundreds of tradable coins, low fees, plus automated and margin trading. Sign up NOW to claim a $500 welcome bonus atKuCoin.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp, Nexo.io and KuCoin.
This week and next we’re taking a year-end holiday from new episodes of “Money Reimagined.” Instead, we’re serving up a couple of our favorites from this year.
This week’s pick was Sheila Warren’s: the Haiti episode from May 21.
That’s when Sheila and co-host Michael Casey were joined by Jerry Tardieu, a Haitian author, entrepreneur and politician who represents Petion-ville in the Chamber of Deputies, and by Daniele Jean-Pierre, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Zimbali networks, which delivers smart-ledger solutions for the decentralized economy.
The pair walked us through Haiti’s history to show how a shameful, century-long legacy of a slavery-era debt continues to be a burden for the country. The debt, imposed by France to punish Haiti’s citizens for freeing themselves from their slave masters in a rebellion that won their independence in 1804, later became a U.S.-owned asset serviced by a bank that would become Citibank. In that sense, this long-standing problem is directly related to the issue of Wall Street’s power and dominance in the age of dollar hegemony, a power that is challenged, in theory, by cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
The discussion then turns to what solutions, technological or otherwise, might exist to create a system that empowers people rather than leaves them dependent on charity and foreign aid, with all the strings that come attached to that.
It’s the kind of episode that reminds us why the ideas behind crypto and blockchain matter.
This episode was produced, edited and announced by Michele Musso. Our Holiday theme song is "Father Christmas" by Cody Martin.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
KuCoin was listed on Forbes Advisor’s “The Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2021,” which highlighted hundreds of tradable coins, low fees, plus automated and margin trading. Sign up NOW to claim a $500 welcome bonus atKuCoin.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking about the most exciting and most annoying things that happened in crypto this year.
For Ben, the crypto hearings in the U.S. Senate – a whole bunch of them, actually! – really marked this year. Now it’s clear cryptocurrencies have some prominent opponents on Capitol Hill including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). What will the crypto politics be in 2022? Ben has some ideas.
On another regulatory note, this year the U.S. started an offensive on illegal crypto use, and also demonstrated that the seemingly decentralized and global world of blockchains is not above sanctions policies. That offensive might expand in 2022, Anna believes.
And, of course, NFTs! What would characterize this year better? Whether the hype will die down or the NFT wave will keep engulfing the world in 2022 is up in the air, but Ben, Anna and Danny have theories to share.
Also in this episode: Ben singing and Danny as the Crypto Grinch. Enjoy your holidays!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Robert Reich: The crypto-congressional complex
- Senate Banking Committee Bashes Bitcoin's 'Phony' Populism
- This Imprisoned Russian Artist Is Selling NFTs to Support His Family and Fellow Inmates
- ConsenSys Suddenly Bars Iranian Students From Ethereum Coding Class
- Chatex Users Ask US Treasury to Release Crypto Frozen by Sanctions
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our Holiday theme music is by Hill and Dresden.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Last week, “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross envisioned the future integration of crypto with the registered investment adviser (RIA) industry. Ross touched on an on-chain financial future where clients’ financial plans, estate plans and assets will all be on-chain and even navigated and altered from their phones.
This time, Ross goes deeper into the operational ways the RIA of the future may work and interact with clients. Everything from account generation to billing, from funding to transfers and more will change in the future as crypto technology permeates the financial world.
“This is a world that is coming. And it is coming fast. And, man oh man, am I excited by it,” says Ross. There is no better time than now to start preparing for this new era of RIA.
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp, Nexo.io and KuCoin.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Matt Homer, who is the former executive deputy superintendent for research and innovation at the New York Department of Financial Services. The two walk through the expected crypto integrations coming to their cities and the anticipated challenges that come with introducing this new technology at the municipal level.
MiamiCoin is the first coin of its type, where a city is granted yield from the mining of their coin. Close on Miami’s heels is New York City, with its newly elected and crypto-friendly Mayor Eric Adams and the new NYCCoin. Both New York’s NYCCoin and MiamiCoin are issued by CityCoins, whose tokens operate with smart contracts on Stacks, a protocol built on Bitcoin.
Though these city coins present an exciting opportunity for cities to tap new sources of revenue and to experiment with engaging their communities in new technologies, they also come with potential challenges ranging from volatility to accessibility. How do Miami and New York and Homer intend to mitigate these risks?
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
KuCoin was listed on Forbes Advisor’s “The Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2021,” which highlighted hundreds of tradable coins, low fees, plus automated and margin trading. Sign up NOW to claim a $500 welcome bonus at KuCoin.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on “Opinionated,” we sit down with David Z. Morris, CoinDesk’s chief insights columnist.
DZM gives us the highlights and lowlights from 2021, and looks ahead to 2022.
His highlight? El Salvador.
“For me, the bitcoin policy in El Salvador was the landmark moment of the year,” he says.
El Salvador has been buying bitcoin at a rapid clip, attracting bitcoin entrepreneurs. It has issued a “Bitcoin Bond” that’s available to nationals through the Chivo bitcoin wallet.
This points to how bitcoin may point to an opportunity for indebted nations that are often excluded from traditional credit markets to find new ways to grow.
“It potentially gets El Salvador and other countries out of the yoke of the [International Monetary Fund] and World Bank, which maybe do some good work but by and large have not been great actors over the last 30 years,” Morris said.
DZM’s lowlight?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the man who needs no introduction.
“Elon Musk has to be top of that list of things that annoyed me this year. He’s a guy with a ton of influence who decided he was curious about crypto and didn’t want to bother learning anything about it, and then came in and created a lot of disruption in the market and confused a lot of people.
“I don’t think there’s anywhere to go for his reputation other than down from here,” Morris said.
“You’ve got to be not just nuts but somewhere on the not-caring-about-other-people spectrum to have a million of followers and tweet #baby doge with no context or explanation or consideration of how people are going to respond to that.”
“He’s financially abusing people who support him and it’s irresponsible. He’s been fined by the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] before in reference to tweets about his own company. So imagine how responsible he’s going to act when he’s giving financial advice when he's talking about things he’s not responsible for.”
Morris also looked ahead to 2022, offering three predictions. Top of the list:wars between the likes of layer 1 (base) chains Avalanche and Solana and longer-standing chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“Given the issue with fees that Ethereum has had, it became a real opportunity for people to stand up new layer 1s that have had genuine adoption,” Morris said.
Listen in for more insights from David Morris and “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova.
Articles mentioned in this podcast:
David Z. Morris: Behind the Scenes of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bond With the Man Who Designed It
David Z. Morris: CoinDesk Most Influential 2021: Jack Mallers
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross envisions the future of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry. A shift in clientele is set to occur as the baby boomer generation passes the baton to the millennials. The wealth management industry, as it stands today, is not prepared for the millennial client of the future.
As phones continue to permeate more and more aspects of daily life, Ross says the RIA of the future is on the phone, on an app. Clients will hold their financial plan, estate plan and assets on-chain, all being navigated and altered from their phones. Gaming, the metaverse and Web 3 will be the topics of conversation with clients more and more as time goes on.
Ross expresses that one thing will remain true, no matter what: Clients will always need advice. They will always pay for advice. What does the adviser of today need to learn in order to be a successful adviser in the next five, 10, 15 years?
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp, Nexo.io and KuCoin.
On this week’s “Money Reimagined” podcast, Michael Casey and Sheila Warren discuss with CoinDesk’s managing editor of global policy and regulation, Nikhilesh De, his recent review of another cryptocurrency-themed hearing on Capitol Hill by the House Financial Services Committee.
“Today's hearing is part of this committee’s ongoing [effort]” to understand crypto and the issues around it.’ Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the committee chairwoman, stated as she kicked off the hearing.
Financial inclusion appeared to be a big selling point from the industry representatives, but were the congressmen and women buying it? And yet even though the tone was comparatively more positive then before, regulation seemed to still remain a major issue.
For more information and an examination of the intersection of cryptocurrency and government, read Nik De’s Newsletter ‘State of Crypto’.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
KuCoin was listed on Forbes Advisor’s “The Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2021,” which highlighted hundreds of tradable coins, low fees, plus automated and margin trading. Sign up NOW to claim a $500 welcome bonus atKuCoin.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A Florida jury kinda sorta ruled in Craig Wright’s favor: The man who claims to be Satoshi won’t need to cough up half his multi-billion-dollar bitcoin stash. But he does owe $100 million to the estate of his former business partner. So who won? The gang discusses ramifications of a high-stakes trial and its often-misleading coverage in the press.
Also on the table are 2021’s big crypto influencers. CoinDesk's “Most Influential” dropped this week and featured Elon Musk, Cynthia Lummis, Do Kwon and others who made a difference this year. But who got snubbed? Who got rugged? Listen to find out.
Finally, Danny and Ben look back on NFT week in Miami, where crypto culture and mainstream art converged. It was one big party, to be sure. But it was also a cultural coming out and reflected how “crypto” means more than the “future of money” these days. It’s art, entertainment, the media; it means culture.
CoinDesk coverage discussed in this episode:
Most Influential 2021 – The 50 people who defined the year in crypto.
There Was No ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ Lawsuit – Be careful what you read and where you read it.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp, Nexo.io and KuCoin.
This week’s “Money Reimagined” podcast comes to you from Miami, where the annual Art Basel event spawned an explosion of sub-conferences and parties associated with non-fungible tokens (NFT).
There, we ran into Pierina Merino, the founder of FlickPlay, an exciting new app that combines real-world, camera-captured imagery with digital artifacts so that users can create and place geo-located NFT collectibles. It’s best described as a merging of Pokémon GO with TikTok and NFTs.
Co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren sat down with Merino to discuss her vision for this project. What emerges is a fascinating discussion around how we human beings project our own “storylines” and how content-generation technology is allowing the merging of the digital with the physical realm.
Merino’s background as Venezuelan-born, U.S.-trained architect (as in a physical building architect, not a software engineer) is part of what makes this conversation so interesting. She speaks to how that sensibility with the limits of physical space shapes people’s creativity and their self expression for how they live in the world.
What does this all have to do with money? A lot more than you’d think.
With NFTs now in the mix, this combination of identity, user-generated content and hybrid physical-digital content constitutes a new form of value creation and transactions.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard."
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
KuCoin was listed on Forbes Advisor’s “The Best Crypto Exchanges Of 2021,” which highlighted hundreds of tradable coins, low fees, plus automated and margin trading. Sign up NOW to claim a $500 welcome bonus at KuCoin.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking about Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual international art fair that took place in Florida last week.
Danny was reporting from the ground: This year, a new kind of art made its way to Miami, under the picky gaze of art collectors, curators and, yes, artists themselves. And yes, it’s NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
NFTs used to be seen as merely cute funny antics of the crypto world (remember Crypto Kitties?) back in 2017, but now, they go for millions of dollars in the world’s most prestigious auction houses, like Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
The auction houses are aggressively hiring, fashion brands and music labels are signing up international stars to do exclusive NFTs, and artists are learning how to store files on IPFS and use MetaMask – are NFTs here to stay and become a necessary fixture of the future?
Listen to Ben, Danny and Anna discuss Danny’s impressions from Art Basel Miami Beach – and learn what Tina Turner high heels have to do with it!
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Crypto in and of itself represents access. It represents freedom. It represents inclusion and digital social justice.”
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross returns from a Thanksgiving holiday to provide an introduction to the macro landscape in the Registered Advisor (RA) industry. As the emerging crypto industry continues to increase its relevance to clients, advisers need to be up to date on topics such as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), the metaverse, Web 3, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT).
One emerging technology in particular has the potential to transform the entire RA industry. DAOs present a new opportunity for groups to come together and exercise their combined power for the global good. Ross emphasizes that advisers who start learning now will be ready to embrace “an industry that is going to rush in new ideas, creativity, wealth generation, financial inclusion, diversity and inclusion.”
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Last week a ramshackle group of crypto investors tried (and failed) to buy the U.S. Constitution. This week on “Opinionated,” Ben, Anna and Danny talk about why. Recorded one day prior to the auction, this week’s episode explores the tough questions decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) face in the wake of ConstitutionDAO.
For starters, how should DAOs organize themselves? Should it be one wallet, one vote or should larger contributors get a bigger share of the pie? Most projects follow the latter, but ConstitutionDAO’s unique focus on an important document in the history of democracy forces the question, Danny thinks.
This could prove to be an inflection point for DAOs as a whole, no matter the outcome. Media attention is rampant, new wallets are joining the movement. It may not have worked out for ConstitutionDAO but, as the gang points out, this form of flash crowdfunding is only just getting started.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I love this space and all its rough edges, evolutions and spits and spats. It’s a reflection of humanity.”
Jeff Garzik joins “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross for a wide-ranging conversation on all things bitcoin. Listeners get a peek into Garzik’s journey, from his involvement in the initial stages of web journalism, to his work as an early Linux kernel developer, to his contributions to Bitcoin Core. At one point, Garzik was even the third most prolific Bitcoin Core contributor.
Throughout his varied career, Garzik has been motivated by a need to do good in the world. He’s achieved that goal through creating sustainable business models and leading by example, ranging from everything from a micro-trucking model to innovative crypto education.
What does someone with so much experience in the space think bitcoin is? As Garzik describes, “it's an evolving organism,” whether in forms such as currency, digital gold, financial freedom and so much more. How will bitcoin evolve next?
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
With the advent of cryptocurrency and related technologies, and with the failure of the existing banking-centric monetary architecture to address inequities and avoid financial crises, the one thing people tend to agree on is that our system of money needs an overhaul, specifically an upgrade to meet the needs of the digital economy.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
But what form should it take? And who gets to decide?
This week, “Money Reimagined” co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren talk to two guests who’ve thought as much about these issues as anyone.
Brett King is the author ofsix books and the founder of payment app Moven. Via his “Breaking Banks” podcast, he has been talking about the disruption of money since well before the crypto boom.
Patrick Murck, a research affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, is probably the very first lawyer to ever take an interest in bitcoin. That led him to help found the Bitcoin Foundation in 2012. More recently, Murck has moved somewhat away from bitcoin. As president and chief legal officer at stealthy startup Transparent Financial Systems, he is seeking to take our existing system of money and transform it into a digital, community-based framework that’s open, programmable, interoperable and privacy-preserving.
The launching pad for the discussion was King’s latest book, co-written with Dr. Richard Petty, which carries the provocative title of “The Rise of Technosocialism.” Does new money technology allow us to get away from some of the core tenets of contemporary capitalism to provide things like Universal Basic Income? Or, do we run the risk of undermining the notion of private property and ownership, feeding some of the more radical, decentralizing principles of the crypto movement?
From there, the conversation goes to the heart of what matters to society, and the big questions of how we optimize for them.
It rounds out with a look at money itself. What is the role for the state in money? What is the role for communities to apply their own values to monetary systems?
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
-
Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your assets. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 12% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M and audited in real-time by Armanino, Nexo is rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io.
-
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Gurvais Grigg, global public sector chief technology officer at Chainalysis, a blockchain investigative firm.
Grigg spent 23 years at the FBI, rising from a trainee to assistant director. But this April, he took a career turn and joined a private sector company, which is often helping law enforcement agencies investigate crypto-related crimes.
In his intro blog post, Grigg said crypto becomes a tool of global economic influence, and it’s important for the U.S. to keep up to speed with the technology, unless it wants rivals like China or Russia to outpace it. But do we think the U.S. is the world’s best possible crypto cop? Gurvais have some ideas to share about this.
2020 and 2021, indeed, became years of a ransomware pandemic, with cybercriminal groups hitting vast numbers of companies in the U.S. and Europe. In response, the U.S. government started a massive campaign against the hackers, or rather, against people and entities who helped those hackers cash out ransom crypto.
Two Russian crypto services have been sanctioned already, the over-the-counter (OTC) trading firm Suex and crypto trading bot Chatex, and another OTC founder, Denis Dubnikov, was arrested in Amsterdam last two weeks ago, allegedly for helping launder proceeds from the Ryuk ransomware attacks.
Chainalysis has been involved in some of these investigations, and Grigg said he expects there will be more indictments, sanctions and arrests. Also, there will probably be more ransomware attacks in the future. What is the role of companies like Chainlaysis in all that?
Listen to Anna, Ben and Danny to talk to Gurvais about all that, and more.
Gurvais Grigg’s Twitter handle is @gurvais
Mentioned in this episode:
- US Sanctions Enforcer Blacklists a Crypto Exchange for First Time
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“The future of wealth management is a non-custodial plus discretion relationship.”
Host of “On Purpose” Tyrone Ross recaps his lessons learned from spending the past few weeks travelling and speaking with bank executives, RIAs, broker dealers and financial advisers across the country.
Those who are already sold on crypto will resonate with Ross’ sentiment that many of the largest institutions are reluctant to embrace crypto in any capacity. Regardless of their reluctance, clients will search for and invest in products with asymmetric returns. Clients will have a portfolio of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), they will be staking at Coinbase and they will have a MetaMask wallet.
Even if the clients are self-custodying crypto assets such as these, they will still search for advice on what to do with their wealth. Recognizing this future and preparing for it is the best an adviser can do for themselves and their firm.
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Why was the Philippines uniquely primed for the rapid and widespread adoption of Axie Infinity and other crypto opportunities?
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
Joining “Money Reimagined” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are Maoi Arroyo, serial entrepreneur and founder of Ignite Impact Fund, the first fund focused on eradicating income and access poverty in the Philippines, and Leah Callon-Butler, director of Emfarsis and screenwriter of the recent “Play to Earn” documentary. Maoi and Callon-Butler bring a depth of understanding of the economic, political and social context of the Philippines and the recent Axie Infinity phenomenon that swept the nation.
The island nation is heavily dependent on its Overseas Filipino Workers, whose U.S.-based workers sent a combined $12 billion dollars in cash remittances back in 2020 alone. The country also faces extensive corruption dating back to the Spanish colonial administration. The low trust of Filipinos in the national economy have pushed them to innovate new ways to interact with money.
Over the summer, the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity exploded in popularity, with a significant portion of its user base hailing from the Philippines. Many Filipinos recognized the opportunities abound within the play to earn economy, and more broadly with digital payment solutions and blockchain technology. What will this ambitious, mobile-native population adopt next?
This episode was produced by Michele Musso and Adam B. Levine, with editing by Jonas. This episode was announced by Adam B. Levine with additional support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are discussing Anna’s investigative piece on the black market of “verified” accounts on crypto exchanges and payment apps.
Know-Your-Customer (KYC) at crypto exchanges might be a painstaking process for users but there is a way to avoid all the troubles by simply buying a verified account in someone else’s name, Anna’s investigation found.
Online forums and Telegram groups where people buy and sell accounts registered to other people count thousands of members and thrive all over the world. Accounts on virtually any exchange, from Huobi to Coinbase Pro, services from Paxful to BlockFi and apps like CashApp, Wirex and Revolut – the offerings are abundant.
The price tag, somewhere between $50 and $500 for an account, makes such accounts a cheap and disposable tool for taxation avoidance, money laundering and getting around sanctions and other restrictions.
How does the black market of KYC work, what it takes to fool video-verification and what crypto exchanges and payment services are doing about this all? Listen to Ben, Danny and Anna dive into the life of underground black markets and read Anna's piece, For $200, You Can Trade Crypto With a Fake ID.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I think there is a new age of wealth coming… a massive transformation of wealth that’s occurring right now from Baby Boomers to their children.”
Sean Ristau of FinTech infrastructure company Prime Trust joins “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross for an in-depth discussion of the growing intersection between technology and finance. Ristau sees an incoming new age to finance as the next generation takes over and sees crypto as pivotal in that shift.
For advisers looking to dive into crypto, Ristau has two pieces of advice: “you decide where [crypto] falls on your risk curve,” and to “work not only with investors, but also fellow industry colleagues.” With Ristau’s advice in hand, advisers can better prepare a strategy to go to market with their clients.
As Ristau says, crypto “is only going to grow,” the time to learn is now.
This episode has been produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
New York City was all about NFTs this week as the third edition of NFT.NYC, New York’s non-fungible token conference, took place. It went off with a bang!
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Nexo.io.
The event has come far from its humble origins in 2019 and this year’s featured 600 speakers across three days and six venues throughout the city. Over the course of the event, 15 different NFT-themed billboards were featured in Times Square.
In this episode of “Money Reimagined” Sheila Warren and Michael Casey figure out what to make of the overwhelming display of innovation, creativity and speculative fervor that was unleashed with this event. To do so, they tapped the insightful mind of Sam Ewen, the head of CoinDesk Studios, who explains what this week’s conference represents and how the greater phenomenon of NFTs is sweeping through society.
The discussion explored the driving factors behind the energy that was on display, and it says about the current NFT zeitgeist. The event, which attracted 5,500 registered attendees and many more who turned up for the sideline parties and entertainment, has exploded in size since its last showing in February 2020. Back then, the event was in just one theater housing a modest gathering of early NFT enthusiasts. This year, there were more than 600 speakers appearing in concurrent programming across six venues.
Just as important was the massive amount of promotion underway. There were hundreds of exhibitors with products using NFTs for everything from music rights to wine collecting. Meanwhile, many NFT platforms, flush with cash from this year’s investment boom, put on raging parties with A-list DJs and bands and spectacular digital art installations.
To Ewen, what stood out was the passion of the various NFT communities. He described it as “evangelism,” a force that is helping to grow this space at as rapid a clip as the money that early investors are making.
But he also highlighted the hurdles, including the challenge of “gas fees,” the high transaction costs users incur for trading NFTs, especially on the Ethereum blockchain.
Either way, the conclusion from the discussion is that something big is happening in this sector, something could transform the digital economy as we know it. It’s just that with things moving so fast, it’s very difficult to predict what exactly that change will look like.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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Nexo.iolets you borrow against your crypto at 6.9% APR, earn up to 12% on your idle assets, and exchange instantly between 100+ market pairs with the tap of a button. Get started at nexo.io.
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This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to PaperImperium, the first and only pseudonymous crypto advocate, lobbying on behalf of MakerDAO in the corridors of power.
PaperImperium, or Paper, or Chris (his real name, but he’s not keen to publicize his full name), is advocating for a clear regulation for DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organisations.
DAOs are a brainchild of the crypto-anarchist culture, and the concept implies that communities can make decisions and solve problems by common voting, using their crypto tokens as voting mandates.
Interestingly, Chris is not a huge fan of this idea itself, and he’s still on the fence on whether the concept is viable. Also, not everybody shares a belief that decentralized finance (DeFi) needs regulation at all, and recently the DAO members voted down the proposal to compensate Chris for his work.
Why then is he so passionate about educating congressmen and regulators about MakerDAO and everything around it? What got him into crypto in the first place, and why is he so excited about Maker?
Listen to Anna, Ben and Danny talk to Chris about his observations about the moods towards crypto in Washington, D.C., his hopes for DeFi and other things.
PaperImperium’s handle on Twitter is @ImperiumPaper.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Meet the DeFi Delegate Knocking on the Doors of Congress
What Is a DAO?
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“If you're just now getting started, you’re behind.”
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross is joined by Amber McLeod, director of customer success at Onramp Invest for a conversation on adviser education in all things crypto. Whether an adviser is starting at ground zero, ready to trade or a full-blown crypto believer, there is always more to learn and a bevy of educational resources to draw from.
In the crypto investment class, clients also bring varying levels of understanding, from those who are wary of the volatility to those who are ready to jump in but aren’t sure where to start. Sometimes, advisers can even be behind their advisers when it comes to understanding the complexities of crypto.
To create the best possible relationship between advisers and their clients, an in-depth understanding of crypto is required, as well as an innovative and inquisitive mindset, ready to think outside the traditional RIA box.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“You’re moving from a very slow, archaic world into a fast-moving world. There’s a lot to bridge there.”
Lacey Shrum, CEO of Smart Kx, joins “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross to discuss the improvements technology can make in the adviser space, starting with the modernization of the billing process. A smarter billing system improves compliance, transparency and transaction speeds. Instead of billing once per quarter, advisers can work according to clients’ needs to bill monthly, weekly or even daily. Working with technology instead of against it will improve the client-adviser relationship.
Advisers need to prepare themselves for an incoming technology-focused financial ecosystem. To meet this future head-on, advisers need to become faster, more flexible and more agile with the growing trends.
The first step: Start building trust in technology wherever applicable, from smart contracts for billing to trading crypto.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Christopher Giancarlo is the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and founding principal of the Digital Dollar Foundation, a group that supports the U.S. adopting a digital currency.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp.
Giancarlo has written a book and he came on our “Money Reimagined” podcast recently to talk about it. The book is called “Crypto Dad,” which is a nod to the affectionate nickname that members of the crypto community started giving Chris when, as head of the CFTC, he made some regulatory moves that were seen as constructive to the industry, such as the approval of bitcoin futures, which was a contentious move at the time.
The book is packed with inside-the-Beltway insights into the sausage-making behind regulation. It’s also a great primer for understanding the challenges that the U.S. faces as the technology around money goes through a dramatic transformation.
And it makes a very strong case for the federal government to act proactively to support crypto technology in a way that preserves core U.S. values.
It’s timely because right now the regulatory conversation around crypto is front and center. Just last week, the first bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund was launched after the Securities and Exchange Commission gave it the green light after years of resistance to launching a bitcoin ETF that holds physical bitcoin. Ironically, the ETF version the SEC approved is focused on bitcoin futures, a product Giancarlo’s CFTC set in motion.
But if that sounds like the SEC is now seen as a friendlier force by the crypto community, think again. Many view with concern the rather harsh tone the current SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, has taken with the industry.
There’s a lot at stake here. Not just for investors but for geopolitics, too.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is “Shepard.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The first bitcoin-linked ETF to ever hit U.S. markets has finally arrived. But what does that mean for bitcoin as an investment?
For starters, hundreds of millions of dollars in speculative bets from traders whose brokerage accounts have never tasted crypto before. But are they betting on bitcoin? Not exactly…. They’re betting on bitcoin futures contracts. And it’s not quite the same.
Karan Sood joins the “Opinionated” squad to break down crypto’s hot new investment trend. His investment company, Cboe Vest, was one of the first to wrap bitcoin futures in a traditional finance shell. It's no wonder that he believes products linked to futures contracts are mainstream investors’ best way into crypto.
Ben, Anna and Danny don’t completely agree.
Listen to this week’s “Opinionated” for a contrarian take on the big bitcoin news.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Adrian Blust. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We think it’s fitting that this, the 50th episode of “Money Reimagined,” is being published inside an historic week for the crypto community, when the launch of a futures-focused bitcoin exchange-traded fund helped drive the leading cryptocurrency to a new all-time-high just shy of $67,000.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp.
It’s also fitting that at this moment in time – one that is truly looking like a “crypto moment,” defined not only by soaring bitcoin prices but also explosive interest in non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) – the “Money Reimagined” guest this week is someone who’s been involved in the crypto journey for almost a decade.
Joining Michael Casey and Sheila Warren for this special “OG edition” is Balaji Srinivasan, a serial entrepreneur, investor and influential essayist. Srinivasan is a former CTO of Coinbase, a former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and the founder of 21.co, earn.com and a variety of other startups. His eclectic interests range from genetics – in which he led research at Stanford – to finance, to political history, to the future of journalism.
Last year, Srinivasan was recognized as one of CoinDesk’s “Most Influential,” as much as for his prescient warnings about COVID-19 and for mobilizing the crypto community to respond to it as for his insights into the direction of the blockchain technology. More recently, he has become a somewhat controversial critic of media organizations and an advocate for new, decentralized models of truth.
That latter topic is where this week’s conversation ended up. What began as a discussion about Srinivasan’s early interests in bitcoin and how it saw it playing into his view of technological disruption as history’s main driver of economic and social transformation moved into an even deeper consideration of the nature of “truth” and who gets to define it.
Have a listen as Srinivasan breaks down his arguments for why the future lies in trusting distributed “cryptographic truth” rather than the values of centralized news organizations.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine. Our theme song is Shepard.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It’s Policy Week here at CoinDesk!
We’re diving deep into Washington, D.C., lobbying, DeFi regulation, how non-fungible tokens (NFT) could be seen as securities, and much more through a series of feature stories, op-eds, interviews, research and video.
For the “Opinionated” podcast, co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss some regulatory hot topics.
First up: Is crypto a threat to financial stability?
A senior Bank of England official recently suggested as much, comparing crypto to the subprime mortgage securities that blew up the world economy in 2008.
Similarly, the International Monetary Fund said the other day that digital assets could cause as much disruption as COVID-19 and climate change.
If the high priests and priestesses of finance once ignored crypto, no longer! This once-insignificant industry is now firmly on the agenda.
Next: The SEC is looking at NFTs.
Non-fungible tokens have been one of the big stories of 2021. Artworks and collectibles have sold for many millions and the NFTs have served to bring many new faces into the crypto sector.
But will 2022 raise compliance issues for NFT platforms and makers as regulators step in?
That’s the belief of many lawyers and NFT execs. Fractionalization, where works are split into pieces and sold off to investors, seems particularly likely to interest our overseers.
Finally: Will Russia embrace crypto as a way around the dollar’s domination of international oil markets?
Recent comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin have raised hopes on this one. But, speaking from Moscow, Anna says it’s not likely, at least in the short term.
Listen to the episode for more on the big policy questions of the moment. And subscribe to the podcast via your favorite podcast service.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish became personally infatuated with non-fungible tokens (NFT) earlier this year. He’s now helping his sports betting giant navigate digital collectibles. It's one of the few publicly traded companies with an on-platform NFT marketplace. This week on “Opinionated,” Danny, Ben and Anna learn more about the Bored Ape Yacht Club-owning president of DraftKings.
In a wide-ranging conversation, the hosts spar over what makes an NFT valuable, whether fundamental tech specs matter, and why it's important to see big names like DraftKings jumping in. Non-fungible tokens are more than a phase, Kalish says: They’re a new way of trading and owning goods online.
Kalish, who has long loved sports collectibles, thinks NFTs are a natural evolution of the baseball card era. His platform is primed to take a hefty cut. It has signed up a long line of A-list athletes in some of their first NFT deals. That includes Tom Brady, the five-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback who sat through multiple sessions of digital autograph signing for DraftKings’ NFT debut.
The gang learns more about Kalish’s philosophy and DraftKings’ crypto plans. Is this a one-off act by the lucrative gaming outfit? Or is crypto here to stay, with NFTs only the vanguard? Listen to the latest edition of the “Opinionated” NFT series to find out.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week’s edition of “Money Reimagined” explores the ramifications of a startling shift in the rankings of the world’s top locations for bitcoin mining. The U.S. has leapt into first place and China, the world leader just a few months ago, now has essentially zero mining capacity following a regulatory crackdown there in June. Co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren talk to Justin Podhola, the CEO of Elite Mining, and George Kaloudis, who leads CoinDesk’s Bitcoin-focused research.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp.
The show keys off a report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) that found that as of the end of August, the U.S accounted for more than 35% of the global Bitcoin hashrate – a measure of the total worldwide computational power used to mine bitcoin – more than double its 16.8% stake at the end of April. Over the same period, the report says, China dropped from 46% of total hashrate to zero.
Another point of interest is the rise of alternative centers, – in particular, Kazakhstan, which is now in second place with 18.1% of total hashrate, followed by Russia with 11%.
How can an industry with all that equipment and complicated energy needs move so quickly to a new location? What are geopolitical implications of China’s bitcoin mining leadership - once as high as 75% of total hashrate – now being ceded to the U.S., Kazakhstan and Russia? What does this mean for regulation, especially in the U.S., where new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler has been talking a hardline against crypto? Would the presence of a dominant, profitable and strategically important bitcoin industry sway policymakers toward being more or less crypto-friendly?
And most importantly, to address a topic that we’ve dived into a number of times on “Money Reimagined”: does this create an opportunity for the U.S. to lead the push for renewable energy-based mining, not only to make Bitcoin greener but to collaborate with energy developers to fund the expansion of a green grid more generally?
All that and more is discussed in this wide-ranging discussion.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Shepard.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross is joined by Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful. Youssef brings history-backed answers to philosophical questions about the true value of money and how corruption has wormed its way into financial systems. He introduces some historical analogs to peer-to-peer networks and delves into how his own personal history led him to founding Paxful.
Youssef describes Paxful as a “barter for money,” where users can exchange among 400 different payment forms, ranging from crypto tokens to gift cards. More than just a digital money exchanging tool, Paxful is a platform for the historically underserved to get online and get transacting, despite the lack of access through their governments or banks.
In the end, Youssef believes that “when humans can actually transact with each other … we're creating more and more value.”
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme song is Walk with Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week’s “Money Reimagined” episode is framed by some bombshell news developments that are adding fuel to a fire of mistrust in authority that’s been allowed to kindle into a raging threat to global financial institutions.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp.
Hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey are joined by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael S. Derby and crypto entrepreneur Maya Zhehavi to discuss two sets of revelations that go to the heart of these problems and what they imply for the crypto industry.
One is the Pandora Papers investigation, the results of which were released last week and which the blew the lid off an elaborate global system of obfuscation by which a very long list of rich, powerful political leaders, business people and celebrities have evaded trillions of dollars in taxes and avoided scrutiny of their questionable business activities.
The other revolves around some revelations about stock trading activity by Federal Reserve officials, which led to the resignation of the heads of two regional Fed banks and has put Chairman Jerome Powell’s renomination prospects in jeopardy.
The show dives into what has happened and what this means for confidence in the financial system and its stewards. How much does it matter that people feel as if the system is designed not for them, but for elites? Will these feed into faith in money itself? And, if so, what comes next? Is it bitcoin? Stablecoins? Central bank digital currencies that compete with each other?
Having a seasoned Fed reporter in the mix of guests, the conversation inevitably also dives into the outlook for a digital dollar and what objectives it would serve.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine.
Our theme song is Shepard.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Art Blocks CEO Erick Calderon has turned generative NFT squiggles into a digital art behemoth. This week on “Opinionated,” we speak with “Snowfro” about the artists whose algorithms power one of the hottest corners of the metaverse. Their NFT sales recently helpedArt Blocks raise $6 million from equity investors, Snowfro told “Opinionated.”
Ben and Danny (Anna’s out this week) sort through the term sheets to find what makes Art Blocks tick. Their conversation begins with its cap table. Galaxy’s an investor; so is FlamingoDAO, the crypto-native community of NFT investors. Believe it or not, the DAO apes into equity rounds, too.
Snowfro helps demystify the philosophy underpinning the digital art scene. He doesn’t define success by making it to the MoMA – though that would be cool, he admits – or by billion-dollar transaction volumes – a milestone Art Blocks already crossed. He’s more interested in providing an outlet for really cool and unique art.
Speaking from his home in Houston, Snowfro walks “Opinionated” through his entrepreneurial history, which began with a college snow cone stand and evolved into an artisanal tile import business. His NFT side-hustle, Art Blocks, is less than a year old. And it’s not quite a side-hustle anymore.
This episode is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our Theme Music is by Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It’s hard to believe it has been a year since Michael Casey and Sheila Warren launched the “Money Reimagined” podcast.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp
And what a year it has been: some rich, probing discussions about the past and future of money, the challenges of regulation and blockchain governance, the battle for financial inclusion, the shifting geopolitical landscape, the anthropology of money and much, much more. All of that while the crypto market soared to a valuation of more than $2 trillion, NFTs went parabolic, the U.S. government got tougher with the sector, China kicked out its bitcoin miners, El Salvador made bitcoin a legal tender, DeFi innovation exploded, and a relentless pandemic continued with no end in sight.
To look back on all of that and to help them celebrate this anniversary, Michael and Sheila were joined by a pair who delivered one of the more memorable discussions of the past year: Jill Carlson, the founder of the Open Money Initiative, and Raoul Pal, CEO and founder of Real Vision.
With the controversial recent rollout of El Salvador’s Bitcoin project as its backdrop, the discussion updated the somewhat competing perspective that Carlson and Pal had explored in a December 11 episode last year on whether speculation on bitcoin as an asset is compatible with its prospects as a tool for payments and financial inclusion for the poor.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is Shepard.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller address an emerging global trend: an increasing frequency of clashes between state and private money. Three recent stories bring these clashes front-and-center, through surveillance programs, regulator biases and crypto as a single-issue campaign.
Leaked documents show Chainalysis has a hush-hush advantage in the analytics race: its scraping of suspects’ IP addresses from walletexplorer.com. As CoinDesk reported, the honeypot preys on those wary of exchanges who might log their data, allowing the world’s largest crypto tracer to capture their IP address instead. As Chainalysis expressed in the documents, it’s providing “meaningful” leads for law enforcement. What are the ethical implications of such a scheme?
Next: whiz-kid Gary Gensler is not the hero crypto hoped for; the SEC chair has become a persona non-grata for bitcoiners and altcoiners alike. Gensler’s campaign against fraud, waste and abuse should not surprise insiders. Anna, Ben and Danny parse through the intricacies of a regulatory chief with his sights set on crypto.
Finally, we debate crypto and politics. With Messari CEO Ryan Selkis potentially running for senate (in 2024), how important has crypto regulation become to voters? To Selkis, it's a single-issue campaign. How effective could that messaging be against a fractured voting field?
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our theme song is from Elision.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross is joined by Akin Sawyerr, Chief Innovation Officer at Onramp Invest, to discuss the changing financial landscape and associated transformation of the scope of advisers’ work. As wealth shifts from boomers to millennials, advisers need to stay on top of the developments to best assist their clients.
Millennials pose two existential threats to the current adviser systems: the financial crisis of 2008 imbued the generation with a fundamental distrust of financial institutions, and their proficiency with technology reduces the need for intermediaries. These two factors push millennial investors straight to crypto, to DeFi, to DAOs and beyond.
DeFi threatens to disrupt the financial status quo. As Sawyerr suggests, advisers should stay ahead of the oncoming metaverse wave and “disrupt or be disrupted.”
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Recent comments from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler have reignited the discussion of the future of crypto ETFs in the U.S.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Insider Protocol.
In this week’s episode of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey dive into the world of crypto ETFs and their rocky history with U.S. regulatory bodies. Fred Pye, CEO of 3iQ Corp., joins Warren and Casey to walk through 3iQ’s journey to become the first Canadian investment fund manager to offer a public bitcoin investment fund.
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a vehicle through which an investor can access a diversified portfolio of crypto tokens and coins. Though there are many ETFs covering bonds, stocks, commodities and more available to American investors, the SEC has yet to approve a crypto ETF. The first Bitcoin ETF up for consideration was filed in 2013. Since then, 18 applications have been rejected or delayed.
With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seemingly inching closer to approving a narrowly defined version of a bitcoin ETF, Pye’s insights offer some useful lessons learned from the launch of 3iQ’s Canadian dollar- and U.S. dollar-denominated bitcoin fund.
3iQ now manages over $2.5 billion in assets, offering an indication of the kind of money that might flow into the sector if the giant U.S. institutional market were given the opportunity to invest in bitcoin ETFs.
We discuss the work 3iQ did to get regulators comfortable with its price references and the way it structures and manages its funds. There’s something of a square peg-meets-round hole problem with digital assets that trade 24/7, often on unregulated exchanges and with highly volatile moves and social media-driven narratives. But as Pye points out, it’s not the regulators’ job to contain an asset’s volatility. It’s to ensure that what the asset manager is promising is delivered.
So, with that in mind, what will a U.S. ETF mean for bitcoin (and later or ether and other digital assets when these are added to the approved U.S. offerings) if and when it is approved?
Will people own crypto in their 401 (k)s? Will there be a surge of institutional money into bitcoin? Does it matter that the SEC is leaning toward first approving a bitcoin ETF backed not by the underlying bitcoin but by bitcoin futures? And what does that mean for all the spot bitcoin-backed ETF proposals that have been pending approval for what has, for some, been as long as eight years of waiting?
These questions and more, all discussed in this week’s episode of “Money Reimagined.”
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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The Option X algorithm from Insider Protocol allows not only hedge funds but also ordinary users to earn up to 25% per month using the High Frequency Trade Layering method with our Bitcoin bot. You can swap your crypto instantly with our Atlas Swap. For more information, visit insiderprotocol.com
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This episode was produced by Michele Musso, edited by Jonas with announcements by Adam B. Levine.
Our theme song is ‘Shepard’.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I don't think you're going to replace the stock market with the blockchain just because it's better. I think they can coexist. Take all the benefits that you have from blockchain and figure out a way to adapt it."
Jaime Rogozinski is the founder and ousted chief of Reddit’s infamous trading community: WallStreetBets. He spent years watching crypto from the sidelines as a die-hard “stonks only” investor. This week on “Opinionated,” he tells Ben, Danny and Anna how he finally came around.
Now, Jaime is playing a leading role in WSBDapp.com, a project he says mixes global equities, smart contracts and borderless finance. The idea is to give investors a crypto token whose value is linked to trades they might not otherwise make. Jaime says it’s an innovative evolution of TradFi and DeFi.
The project is in its early stages, but the gang still has plenty of questions for Jaime. For example: Why would regulators allow tokenized stocks? How do tokenized ETPs differ from ETFs? Is this really going to be a boon for retail investors?
Listen to this week of “Opinionated” to find out.
This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Eleanor Pahl.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the second of our “OG edition” episodes, “Money Reimagined” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey sit down with legendary investor, startup mentor, prodigious networker, kite surfer and passionate conservationist Bill Tai.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Insider Protocol.
And as an added bonus, he is joined by Danny Yang, the CEO and cofounder of NFTs-for-charity provider Nfinita, of which Tai is the chairman. According to its website, Nfinita is working to “make giving more sustainable and scalable through NFTs, and to enable any NFT to be charitable.”
The episode is timed with the launch of OnChain Monkey, a
10,000-part collection of monkey-themed NFTs. Uniquely, the collection was created in a single transaction, dramatically reducing the transaction costs that would have otherwise been incurred by any charity that was looking to issue such NFTs for fundraising purposes.
In the episode, Tai and Yang explain how the project is looking to tap into the organizing power of communities of interest to drive the development of environmental and social impact projects. Danny also laid out Nfinita’s thinking in a blog post released shortly before this episode.
But to get this part of the story, the episode starts with Bill Tai’s personal journey. It began in bitcoin way back in 2010, famously captured in a tweet in which asked whether anyone else was experimenting with bitcoin, which he described as a “P2P digital currency” with “fascinating potential.”
But before that, as Tai recounts, it was his experience with the online game Second Life, founded by his friend Philip Rosedale, that led him to discover bitcoin. Money, he explains, is a force that drives the formation of communities, which is why Second Life took off after it created the Linden dollar.
From there it is a decade-long journey to a related idea and Tai’s latest passion: NFTs as a motivator of value to bring like-minded people to form communities around causes they believe in. It is a natural extension of Tai’s work as a conservationist, cultivated particularly in relation to the oceans, where he spends a great deal of his time kite surfing.
The conversation also delves into Tai’s enviable investment record, having been an early investor in massive success stories such as Zoom, Canva and BitFury, and his reputation as an uber-networker who has a knack for building relationships across ideas and communities.
In a period in which angst and concern loom heavy in many places, it’s a conservation that generates an infectious positivity and a hopeful view of how to solve the world’s many problems.
This episode was produced and edited by Michele Musso with announcements by Adam B. Levine.
Our theme song is ‘Shepard’.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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The Option X algorithm from Insider Protocol allows not only hedge funds but also ordinary users to earn up to 25% per month using the High Frequency Trade Layering method with our Bitcoin bot. You can swap your crypto instantly with our Atlas Swap. For more information, visit insiderprotocol.com
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The biggest piece of advice for advisors: “Be conversant, listen, learn and lead.”
Join “On Purpose” host Tyrone Ross as he addresses the recent inflection points changing the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) space. In today's technology-focused era, zero-point-something bank account yields are no longer the most sound investment vehicles. Investors, especially the up-and-coming younger generation, are bound to ask about decentralized finance, or DeFi, and how it’s possible to achieve 5%, 20% or even 400% returns.
Investors want quality advice for the changing financial ecosystem. What aspects of DeFi do advisors need to be aware of to best support their clients?
How can RIAs stay relevant in the age of phones with one-tap access to information, financial services and more?
This show is produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support from Eleanor Pahl. Our New Theme song is Walk With Swag.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller are talking to Eric Wall, chief investment officer at a Swedish hedge fund Arcane Crypto – and one of Crypto Twitter’s favorite trouble stirrers.
“I spent my entire 20s in bitcoin. What the f*ck,” Eric tweeted in July on the day of his 30th birthday, and that decade did not pass in vain for him: He’s been trading bitcoin since Mt. Gox (and lost his money there), he worked as a crypto guy in the legacy fintech firm Cinnober, and now he’s advising a hedge fund on crypto investments. Throughout crypto and mainstream. Eric saw a lot and has a lot to say.
You might be surprised to learn he doesn’t believe in technical analysis as a basis for trading decisions. Why, and what is he using instead? Just wait and listen.
From bitcoin trading basics, we’re going right into the wild world of DeFi. Are there better protocols for DeFi than Ethereum? Is it better to invest in totally decentralized projects, or those that can freeze their coins? Will the regulators clamp down on DeFi and destroy it?
And, last but not least, what is the “digital condom” Eric thinks beginning traders might want to use when they jump into the dangerous world of DeFi? Listen to and learn from Eric together with Anna, Ben and Danny!
Eric Wall’s Twitter handle is @ercwl.
Mentioned on this episode:
- CoinDesk: Thorchain's RUNE Token Tumbles After 2nd Exploit in 2 Weeks
- CoinDesk: Poly Network Hacker Releases Private Key for Remaining Looted $141M
- U.Today: Arcane Assets CIO Ridicules Charles Hoskinson And Cardano For Bitcoin Criticism On TV
This was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The fight that crypto exchange Coinbase took to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week highlighted that the federal government’s approach to regulation is broken.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Insider Protocol.
What can be done to improve the relationship between the crypto community and the powers in Washington, D.C.? Is a more comprehensive legislative approach to regulating the industry viable, one that properly protects consumers but also embraces the positive aspects of blockchain technology to encourage innovation that serves the public good?
For this week’s episode, “Money Reimagined” co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren talked to Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) about the crypto industry’s standing in Washington and what needs to be done to foster a more constructive relationship with policymakers.
Emmer has become one of the most vocal supporters of the industry in Congress. He is the co-chair, along with Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.
In this episode Emmer talked about the bipartisan nature of the small but growing community of crypto supporters on Capitol Hill and why the technology encourages people to cross party lines. He also discussed what needs to be done to build on that collaborative base to get meaningful reform, and what’s at stake in terms of U.S. global leadership in technology and finance if it doesn’t happen.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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The Option X algorithm from Insider Protocol allows not only hedge funds but also ordinary users to earn up to 25% per month using the High Frequency Trade Layering method with our Bitcoin bot. You can swap your crypto instantly with our Atlas Swap. For more information, visit insiderprotocol.com
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller are getting a bit more light-hearted, discussing the hottest topics of this summer, which (sigh!) is officially over.
First, let’s get it clear: We’re not crazy about all those central bank digital currency (CBDC) announcements the central banks did throughout this year and summer. To Ben Schiller, they pretty much remind him of the 2018 hype around enterprise blockchains, which mostly came to nothing.
The reason we are talking about it now? Nigeria announced it would work with a crypto startup, Bitt Inc., on a future launch of the eNaira, one of the rare instances of a central bank named a partner in the industry. Will the central banks of the world do something meaningful with all these CBDC plans in the end?
On the other side of the stablecoin agenda, Tether is resisting the full disclosure of its reserves with teeth and nails. Last week, the company appealed CoinDesk’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request on information about Tether’s reserves composition, which the company provided to the New York Attorney General as part of the investigation into iFinex settled earlier this year.
Turned out, at least part of the crypto community is sympathetic with Tether, arguing the company has the same right to privacy as any individual. We’re discussing this point of view.
Last but not least, we couldn’t miss the latest Udi Wertheimer trolling campaign on Twitter where he stated that “bitcoin is the digital real estate.” Crypto Twitter gleefully picked the punch, and we did, too! But with the narrative ever shifting, what is bitcoin for you? Let us know in replies, and give the podcast some love wherever you’re listening to it!
Happy autumn, subscribe for more great guests and discussions in September!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Nigeria’s Central Bank Taps Bitt to Launch CBDC by Year’s End
- Tether Asks Court to Block NYAG From Releasing Documents to CoinDesk
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Cryptocurrencies were once an obscure topic in Washington, something a lawmaker could comfortably ignore without worrying about the impact on their political prospects. Not anymore.
This episode is sponsored by Quantstamp and Insider Protocol.
In this week’s episode of Money Reimagined, co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren examine the small but growing political clout that the crypto industry is acquiring. The wealth the industry generates buys influence and drives the creation of products and services that threaten the incumbent interests of the existing political-financial system.
They do so with the help of Jarrod Loadholt, a partner within law firm Ice Miller’s Public Affairs Group, who, among other prior roles, has acted as senior counsel to the House Committee on Financial Services and CoinDesk’s own Nikhilesh De, our managing editor for policy and regulation.
Loadholt and De walk us through the many regulatory issues coming down the pike for the crypto and digital assets industry. They discuss the fight over the infrastructure bill’s flawed crypto tax-reporting provision and what it means for crypto companies’ compliance obligations, the outlook for ETFs and the need for an international regulatory framework for the industry.
They also talk about the possibility of a turf war between the Commodities and Exchange Futures Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose crypto-savvy chairman, Gary Gensler, is signaling an expanded role for the SEC in areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi).
The story that emerges is one of the legitimization of the industry as it starts to earn a seat at the table. However, extreme tensions will also continue to generate around this highly disruptive technology as the pace of innovation accelerates and continues to develop products that either skirt the law or occupy an ambiguous space within it.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over $100 billion worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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The Option X algorithm from Insider Protocol allows not only hedge funds but also ordinary users to earn up to 25% per month using the High Frequency Trade Layering method with our Bitcoin bot. You can swap your crypto instantly with our Atlas Swap. For more information, visit insiderprotocol.com.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on “Opinionated,” the hosts dive deep into the non-fungible token (NFT) boom with guest Andrew Steinwold, managing partner at Sfermion, an NFT fund. Andrew works with wealthy clients from around the world who want a piece of the digital art boom.
Our biggest question for Andrew was last week’s biggest news: Visa bought a CryptoPunk.
By Andrew’s telling, paying $150,000 for a pixelated head is a relative bargain, especially as an advertising tool. It’s good for CryptoPunks, too: Its narrative firepower only grows stronger with a name brand such as Visa buying in.
But what of the wacky NFT world beyond? Do other digital art pieces carry the same gravitas? Could Danny, who blew $150 on an NFT of a duck, ever recoup his cash? Andrew dredges up the ugly truth: Not all projects are going to make it.
He’s more bullish on the burgeoning internet economy that NFTs could support, things like digital land rights, digital clothing, digital games. His bets – and his clients’ bets – are that NFTs can create a new rail in online commerce and ownership.
Andrew provides the gang with some insight into the current NFT boom and debates what makes something valuable, even if it doesn't physically exist.
Mentioned in this episode:
Andrew’s podcast: Zima Red
Andrew’s NFT fund: Sfermion
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the latest episode of “Mapping out Ethereum 2.0,” CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington announce the podcast is coming to a close, but finish strong, discussing Visa’s $165,000 CryptoPunk purchase, “orphaned blocks” on the Beacon Chain and the Ethereum gas limit debate.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Visa announced on Monday that it acquired a member of one of the most valuable non-fungible token collections within crypto, called a “CryptoPunk”. CryptoPunks are 24x24 pixel art images depicting eccentric cartoon characters with mixed traits and accessories.
Kim noted that Visa’s purchase of an NFT “wasn’t so much an investment decision as … really [an experiment] with NFTs wanting to learn more about how they work.”
Even so, market participants responded to the news by making investments in NFTs of their own. $100 million in trading volume took place in the 24 hours following Visa’s announcement, Edgington said.
The duo also discussed a recent issue with the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain that caused network participation rates to drop a few percentage points and some validators to miss out on rewards.
The root cause of the issue originated with validator operations by staking as a service Lido. Due to a misconfiguration of their validator software client, Lido was producing orphan blocks that had ripple effects on validators across the network. Orphan blocks refer to blocks proposed by validators that are not included in the blockchain.
Edgington noted that the issue has since been resolved and participation rates are back to 99% from their recent lows between 96-98%.
Joining Kim and Edgington for their final episode, CoinDesk Research’s Teddy Oosterbaan discusses a recent debate in the Ethereum community about the governance process for raising Ethereum’s block gas limit.
To learn more about the significance of gas limits on Ethereum and the controversial project seeking to improve governance around changing the gas limit, listen to the full episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Links:
The Ethereum Gas Limit Project Twitter - https://twitter.com/ETH_EGL/status/1429530226908930048
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
For this special inaugural “OG edition” of “Money Reimagined,” hosts Sheila Warren and Michael Casey sit down with crypto entrepreneur, investor and long-time cypherpunk Austin Hill.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
This is the first in an ad hoc series in which “crypto OGs,” people who’ve been working in the space for some time and have made significant contributions to it, discuss their origin stories, their experiences and their views of the industry’s future.
Austin Hill is the ideal person to kick this off. He is perhaps best known in the crypto community for being the first CEO of Bitcoin development company Blockstream. But his roots in crypto run much deeper than that, back to before even the arrival of Bitcoin, when he founded a company in the 1990s called Zero Knowledge Systems whose mission was to use the tools of cryptography to build business models around services designed to protect people’s privacy online. It was one of the first attempts to align business opportunities with the Cypherpunk ethos of “Don’t Trust. Verify” – a paraphrasing of Ronald Reagan that Hill and fellow Blockstream founder (now CEO) Adam Back coined together.
What we get from Hill is a journey. He tells of being influenced early on by the radical ideas of Timothy May and the Cypherpunk movement, which leads, among other projects, to some early, failed dabblings in electronic money. He then describes his discovery a decade later that Bitcoin had solved many of the problems of those first prototypes, which leads to the founding of Blockstream. We learn of why he left that well-funded company amid the stress of the brutal “block size war,” and how he has now found peace doing his own thing even as he turns his focus to the very biggest of challenges, how to save humanity from itself.
Keep your eye out for later “OG Edition” episodes in the near future.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson talk to Angela Walch, a professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio and a research associate at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
An original and independently minded commentator on the crypto industry, Walch was a key voice in the recent debate over the infrastructure bill and its cryptocurrency-related tax-reporting provision. Walch testified before the U.S. Senate about the increasingly systemic role played by cryptocurrencies and why the legislation shouldn’t be rushed.
She wrote an op-ed for CoinDesk saying the “process being used to regulate crypto through an unrelated bill on infrastructure is deeply flawed and risks increasing rather than reducing harms to the public.”
On our show, Walch shared her experience talking to the legislators and why the most controversial part of the bill may not have been as unfair as the industry has claimed. The bill suggests that anyone who facilitates crypto transactions should be considered a broker for the legal and tax purposes.
Should crypto miners actually be considered brokers? Are large crypto celebrity investors doing the industry a favor in their advocacy? What is the best way forward for crypto regulation in the U.S.?
Listen to Ben, Anna and Danny discuss these and some other burning questions with Angela Walch and watch out for her new coming op-eds on CoinDesk.
Angela Walch handle in Twitter: @angela_walch
Mentioned in this episode:
Angela Walch’s op-ed for CoinDesk: Congress, Don’t Rush Regulating Crypto
Angela Welch’s testimony in Congress, July 27, 2021: Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Image credit:Stephen Emlund/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by Coindesk
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Blockchain technology has accelerated conversations around decentralization, anonymity, agency and empowerment around the world. On this week’s “Money Reimagined,” hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by two experts to discuss digital security and privacy, with a focus on India.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Dr. Usha Ramanathan is a lawyer and human rights activist in India. She has worked since 2009 to critique and challenge India’s controversial digital identity program. Marta Belcher serves as general counsel of Protocol Labs, chair of the Filecoin Foundation and special counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Belcher recently testified on crypto before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Initiatives have been popping up around the globe, claiming to address social issues such as banking the unbanked, humanitarian data within refugee camps and identification programs to increase access to governmental programs. There is a romantic appeal to believing these initiatives are built upon a foundation of good intentions, but the reality is often far more complicated, with motivations like a simple money grab, user data collection, or surveillance coming into the mix. And regardless of intentions, these efforts often result in harmful consequences to the users they are engaging.
India’s Aadhaar structure, a biometric, digital and physical identity system, is the world’s largest biometric ID system. It is highly centralized, and the data honeypot it presents has gotten the government of India in trouble more than once. An increasing number of systems, from the mundane like grocery shopping to the official like marriage registrations, require an Aadhaar number.
And it’s not a perfect system. Individuals can and have been barred from receiving essentials because of technical snags in the registration process with Aadhaar. The system also brings up serious privacy concerns.
While some choose to use blockchain technology for its ability to transact anonymously, others work towards establishing digital self-sovereign identity solutions. Where is the balancing point between anonymity and ease of use? Is the additional space anonymity provides around an individual essential to their rights in markets and society?
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Image credit: anand purohit/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by Coindesk
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode of “Mapping out Ethereum 2.0,” CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington invite Alexander Blum, the managing director of digital asset investment fund, Two Prime, to discuss institutional interest in ether, regulatory trends in DeFi and key metrics to suggest ether is outperforming bitcoin.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Two Prime is a fund that only invests in two crypto assets, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). The firm also trades BTC and ETH options to further amplify the returns of their underlying holdings. Near the beginning of the year the fund was equally exposed to both ether and bitcoin, but outperformance and rebalancing have now given the fund an allocation to ether of about 70%.
“I am not here ideologically. I am here trying to make money for people … and on both a fundamental and technical level, ETH looks more promising right now,” said Blum. “Ether is really open source. People are trying new stuff, they're experimenting, they're making mistakes, there are people who are excited about stuff. To me, bitcoin feels like a bunch of like monks protecting their holy sacred grail.”
On the decentralized finance (DeFi) side, Blum noted there’s high technical risk associated with these applications due to the composability and lack of segmentation in the DeFi market. Similar to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, the leveraged and layered nature of DeFi products means it could be easier for an error in one application to introduce cascading risk to other applications.
Kim and Edgington also discussed the first release of formal verification code specifications for the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain. Formal verification goes beyond normal software testing and allows developers to see how their code could react to a variety of real world situations.
Edgington noted, “Ethereum bugs are particularly serious. I mean, they have devastating effects. If the protocol forks because clients disagree with each other about the state, then there's a huge amount of value at stake.”
Formal verification is the largest step forward in ensuring that serious bugs in Ethereum 2.0’s protocol layer code are caught before the merge to proof-of-stake. Kim saw taking these extra precautions as an important step to transitioning Eth 2.0 from an “experimental project” to a production-ready network.
To hear the full conversation featuring Blum, Kim and Edgington, check out this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Ethereum 2.0.”
Links:
A Derivatives Trader's Guide to Institutional Crypto and Defi, A Report by Two Prime - https://twoprime.io/a-derivatives-traders-guide-to-institutional-crypto-and-defi/
The Rise of Institutional Ethereum Investors, A Report by Two Prime - https://twoprime.io/the-rise-of-institutional-ethereum-investors/
Formally Verifying the Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 Specifications, Blog Post by Consensys - https://consensys.net/blog/developers/formally-verifying-the-ethereum-2-0-phase-0-specifications/
Eth 2.0 Formal Verifications Specs - https://github.com/ConsenSys/eth2.0-dafny
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, “Opinionated” hosts Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Ben Schiller, are talking to Anita Posch, an Austria-based bitcoin educator, advocate and bilingual podcaster. Anita has just published a book about the leading cryptocurrency basics entitled “(L)earn Bitcoin.”
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
We invited Anita to talk about the topic she knows so well – cryptocurrencies in Africa.
LocalBitcoins said that Africa delivered 12% of its $600 million in global volume between January and March and that demand is growing. Countries like Nigeria are seeing an increased interest in crypto even as the banks block crypto-related transactions in the country.
Anita traveled Africa and interviewed crypto influencers there like no other bitcoiner has. She knows what people think about bitcoin in Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Eritrea, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and is keen to share her insights.
What can crypto do in a country where less than a half of the population has access to the internet? Why is it easier for Africans abroad to send money back home via crypto? The KYC/AML (know-your-customer/anti-money-laundering) policies in crypto around the world are getting stricter – how will that affect people in Africa, where personal IDs aren’t widespread?
Anita shares her thoughts on how crypto use in Africa is different from that in Europe and the U.S., and a possible future for African central bank digital currencies under China’s influence, and she gets into a heated debate with Ben on bitcoin’s viability as a form of payment given its volatility.
Listen to Anita, Ben, Anna and Danny discuss the optimistic – and disturbing things about crypto in Africa.
Anita Posch’s Twitter handle is @AnitaPosch
Mentioned in this episode:
Anita’s podcast “The Anita Posch Show”
Anita’s book “(L)earn Bitcoin”
Anita’s YouTube channel
LocalBitcoins: Bitcoin in Africa: Top 5 Countries
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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This week on “Money Reimagined,” we reflect back on the “Nixon Shock” of Aug. 15, 1971 - 50 years ago this week – when the dollar was removed from its peg to gold and the world of finance was turned upside down.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of a number of books on currencies and the international monetary system, joined Michael Casey and Sheila Warren to discuss the legacy of this moment. Also chiming in was CoinDesk’s managing editor of podcasts, Adam B. Levine.
When President Richard Nixon made his drastic decision to remove the dollar from its peg to gold, it prompted all other countries to de-peg their currencies from the dollar, thereby ending the Bretton Woods managed exchange rate system that had been in place since 1944. By extension, it kickstarted the era of fiat currencies that we still live in.
The world that emerged out of that move – one in which the supply of currencies was now at the discretion of monetary officials – set the tone for the current challenges of the global financial system and the powerful role that central banks now play. This monetary history also provides vital context for the efforts by bitcoin and cryptocurrency advocates to build an alternative to that system.
Prasad recognized the disruption that digital currency technology seems poised to bring to the world of money and sees a competition for supremacy emerging. However, he was lukewarm about the utility of bitcoin in that future, in part because he believes the element that most bitcoiners are drawn to – its fixed supply – is more of a bug than a feature. The real risk in the global economy, he says, is a fall in prices, not inflation. To stave off the threat of a self-destructive deflationary spiral, he said, monetary issuers need discretionary power to increase money supply
That set up a healthy debate with Levine, who argued for the superiority of the Bitcoin protocol’s predictable supply function to generate public “trust” over the discretion of central bankers and who claimed that inflation has been severely understated ever since the Nixon Shock.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable platform for DeFi-enabled NFT marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross-chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington are joined by cybersecurity and privacy litigator Sean C. Griffin to discuss the regulatory environment of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Edgington bought his first NFT from English contemporary artist Damien Hirst. Hirst is expected to raise up to $20 million by selling 10,000 tokens worth $2,000 each. Upon purchase, the NFTs can be redeemed for a physical painting but only for a limited time period of one year. At the end of the year, Hirst will burn the corresponding NFT or painting that the buyer decided not to keep.
Owning a piece from Hirst’s NFT collection gives the buyer rights to a physical painting and comes with the assurance of limited token supply, which Griffin explains is not always the case with all NFTs.
The underlying technology of blockchain is able to prove that each NFT token is one of a kind. However, linking NFTs to a physical piece of art requires off-chain trust and verification. Griffin said he often sees NFT buyers “believe they are getting the associated artwork, too,” which is typically not true. According to Griffin, fraudsters have been selling NFTs of valuable artwork and leading people to believe they are buying the rights to the underlying artwork.
Griffin also highlighted the importance of private key security and avoiding malicious phishing attacks. As the cryptocurrency markets grow in value, so do the privacy and security risks associated with investing in digital assets.
Griffin hopes increased regulation over NFTs in the U.S. will enforce standards that benefit all market participants. His concern is that regulators will come in from a “zillion” directions and create unnecessary regulations that do more harm than good.
Kim asked Griffin, “When it comes to holding [individuals] accountable and liable, do you think the main people responsible for abiding to these guidelines are the developers of the marketplaces and developers of the protocol? [Are these] the people that justice authorities go after?”
Griffin believes the marketplaces facilitating the trading of NFTs are the most at risk of penalties. However, in such a new and changing space it is difficult to judge how regulators will go about governing the industry.
To hear the full conversation featuring Griffin, Kim and Edgington, check out this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Ethereum 2.0.”
Links:
Damien Hirst NFTs -- https://www.heni.com/
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Grant Gulovsen, a private attorney specializing in crypto space.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Grant is fascinated by the story of Tether, and so are we. Tether is the $62 billion stablecoin powering much of the liquidity in the crypto markets. What would happen if that mammoth project went belly-up?
Grant has been watching Tether for years and has a few thoughts on the checkered history and unclear future of crypto’s favorite controversy. Why is tether’s backed/unbacked status so contentious? Why are so many in the crypto space skeptical of its centralized issuer? Why aren’t so many others?
Listen to Grant sharing his thoughts on Tether’s recent (and long awaited) treasury disclosure, how it looks compared to other stablecoins, rumors about bank fraud allegations, what actually can happen if USDT loses its peg to the U.S. dollar, and more.
Mentioned in this episode:
CoinDesk: Tether’s First Reserve Breakdown Shows Token 49% Backed by Unspecified Commercial Paper
CoinDesk: Tether Executives Facing Criminal Bank Fraud Charges: Report
Unchained podcast: Is Tether a Fraud? Its Bank Says It's Not
CoinDesk: Tether Confirms Its Relationship With Auditor Has 'Dissolved'
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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In this week’s episode, we go to Ireland.
“Money Reimagined” co-hosts Sheila Warren and Michael J. Casey are joined by Michael O’Sullivan, the author of “The Levelling,” which describes the post-globalization era, and Lory Kehoe, director, Digital Assets & Blockchain at BNY Mellon and the founder of Blockchain Ireland.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
The topic, nominally, is the Biden Administration's proposal to harmonize international tax rates and Ireland’s resistance to that.
What does this have to do with crypto? A lot, it turns out.
A common concern among regulators of cryptocurrencies is that a lack of international harmony across jurisdictions creates “regulatory arbitrage” for developers of what is a global, borderless 24/7 technology and market.
The idea, flagged by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler in his impactful speech this week, is that if there’s no consistency in rules around the world, crypto businesses will pick and choose where they base their operations and tend toward the most lax regulatory regime. Regulators like Gensler fear this fosters a race to the bottom, opening the door for criminals and the worst actors to find their way in.
Makes sense, right?
But there’s another side to the story about the policy variance around the world. That is, it allows smaller countries to find opportunities they might not otherwise have to attract international investors and to build their own vibrant domestic economies on the back of that.
As we learn from Sullivan and Kehoe, Ireland’s use of competitively low corporate tax rates had a sweeping impact on the Irish economy that went far beyond multinationals setting up headquarters there. It was the spark that generated a vibrant ecosystem of innovation, a holistic growth machine that continues to underpin Ireland’s decades-long economic expansion.
With many in Ireland looking to create a crypto-friendly regulatory framework to encourage innovation in digital assets and fintech, that experience poses real questions about how far governments should go toward harmonizing their rules.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable platform for DeFi-enabled NFT marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross-chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss Uniswap Lab’s contentious decision to censor assets on its website and the release of a new Ethereum 2.0 software client called Lodestar.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Uniswap is the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Ethereum blockchain by both market capitalization and trading volume, facilitating nearly $340 billion in trades annually. The DEX has become a cornerstone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry by enabling any token issuer to list their assets on the exchange.
A recent decision by Uniswap Labs, the development firm behind Uniswap, resulted in the delisting of several tokens from the Uniswap.org website. CoinDesk Research intern Teddy Oosterbaan stated that it was important to note the tokens are “delisted from their front end, which is basically just the Uniswap Labs website for interacting with protocol.” There are additional access points to listing and trading tokens on Uniswap through DEX aggregators such as 1inch.
The decision by Uniswap Labs was controversial for three main reasons. First, censorship goes against the ethos of decentralization. In addition, there was no vote on the decision with UNI governance token holders, and finally, the decision may be one of several forthcoming actions taken by Uniswap Labs in its bid to partner with mainstream consumer finance applications.
While discussing Uniswap’s connection with venture capital and a potential look toward consumer finance, Edgington compared Uniswap with one of its largest competitors, SushiSwap. He said, “It’s definitely a hint of corporatization of Uniswap … and this seems to set a more respectable trajectory for them, whereas Sushi is perhaps a bit more like the Wild West.”
The future of decentralized finance could very well have tiers of decentralization, with certain applications built for the individual DeFi user and others built for institutions and mainstream inventors, sometimes called centralized DeFi (CeDeFi).
Edgington and Kim also discussed the official release of a new Ethereum 2.0 software client dubbed Lodestar. The addition brings the total Eth 2.0 client number up to five and offers users looking to run validators on the Ethereum Beacon Chain more “lightweight” options for their computers.
Speaking to the importance of lowering the barrier to becoming a validator on Eth 2.0, Kim said, “I do think it is very important to maintain a sense of ability to keep on that course of trying to make this technology do what it's supposed to do, which is cut out reliance on centralized providers and centralized businesses.”
Tune into the full episode of “Mapping Out Ethereum 2.0” to hear Kim, Oosterbaan and Edgington discuss the latest news about Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0.
Links:
DEX aggregator that bypasses Uniswap Lab’s front-end - https://app.1inch.io/#/1/swap/ETH/DAI
Public Ethereum blockchain explorer - https://etherscan.io/
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller and Anna Baydakova are talking to Sebastian Serrano, who is the CEO of Ripio, a popular crypto wallet and exchange in Latin America.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.
Ripio was founded in 2013 and since then has been expanding in the region with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay as well as Mexico and Spain. Ripio bought Brazil’s second-largest exchange, BitcoinTrade, in January. (Full disclosure: One of Ripio’s early investors was Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent company.)
Latin America has been in the middle of the crypto community’s attention after El Salvador adopted bitcoin as a legal tender. But is it actually a good thing for bitcoin and for El Salvador, and will it benefit the country’s citizens? Serrano has his own take on this.
Listen as Ben and Anna talk to Sebatian about crypto use cases in Latin America, his thoughts on whether other countries would follow El Salvador’s lead and accept bitcoin as money, and what Latin American nations should do about bitcoin.
Sebastian Serrano’s Twitter handle: @sserrano44
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Stablecoins are suddenly all over the news, with their explosive growth posing all sorts of questions for investors and regulators alike.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network, Mimo and Quantstamp.
To discuss, co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined this week by Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Avanti, a Wyoming-based digital assets bank, and George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute.
We start with a striking fact: the supply of the top 10 stablecoins pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar is up fourfold from the beginning of the year, at $109 billion. That’s more than three times the combined value of PayPal and Venmo’s outstanding customer accounts at the end of last quarter.
This spectacular growth is encouraging stablecoin issuers to play it big.
Circle, the issuer of the highly successful dollar-pegged token USDC, is going public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Tether, the controversial issuer of USDT, has settled a lawsuit with the New York attorney general’s office and is providing regular updates on its token’s reserve backing. It is also now branching out into other markets, including a euro-backed stablecoin. And Paxos is expanding a digital asset servicing agreement with PayPal that’s sure to bring opportunities for PAX and Binance’s BUSD, the two stablecoins it manages, to play a back-end role in a growing market of consumer crypto transactions.
Regulators are getting nervous.
Federal Reserve officials are worrying about potential systemic risk from economy-wide exposure to de facto dollar substitutes that may not be sufficiently backed by reserves to stand up the value investors expect them to hold. And anti-money laundering enforcement agents are worried that these tokens will facilitate illicit transactions among criminals.
So, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convening a high-powered meeting of the most important financial regulators this week to discuss the topic, it seemed like an opportune time to dive into the outlook for stablecoins and the evolving regulatory framework.
Will regulators strike the right balance by using smart disclosure and management rules to give customers and investors confidence to use stablecoins? Or will they adopt a draconian, restrictive posture that kills off the sector’s huge innovation potential?
Long and Selgin are ideally placed to discuss these issues. Both are steeped in crypto knowledge, the structure of the banking system and regulation.
Long’s company, Avanti, is issuing its own digital dollar token, the Avit, for which it is seeking support from the Federal Reserve. Selgin, a monetary historian, is finding that his expertise in the United States’ free-banking era of the 19th century is proving especially relevant to the outlook for stablecoins in the 21st century.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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You can think of this week’s episode as a nod to what crypto people call the “no coiners,” an effort to listen to the community’s critics and weigh the value of their analysis.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network, Mimo and Quantstamp.
To do so, “Money Reimagined” co-hosts Sheila Warren and Michael J. Casey are joined by Noelle Acheson, head of Market Insights at Genesis. (A trading company, Genesis is owned by CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group.) The trio take a couple of crypto-critical essays and dissect them.
At a time when cryptocurrencies seem to be under attack, especially from government officials, it’s tempting for people in the crypto community to drop into defensive mode, which mostly translates into dismissive mode.
Whether it’s criticisms of bitcoin’s energy usage, complaints about illicit activity through crypto, or people pointing out how many outrights scams are run through this technology, the industry’s response is typically to mock the critic for their ignorance or hypocrisy in ways that can sound to outsiders like whataboutism.
Sure, sometimes it’s warranted, as with Crypto Twitter’s response to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) claim earlier this week that a crypto-based financial system would be run at the “whims of some shadowy, faceless group of super-coders.” Some memes were acutely on point; many others were just downright hilarious.
But often the knee-jerk dismissiveness backfires against the community. It can come across as cult-like, a failure to embrace and learn from criticism and a reluctance to consider the views of others. This is not how you bridge divides and expand adoption.
So, in its own humble attempt to take a more reflective stance, “Money Reimagined” takes a look at two noteworthy criticisms of the crypto space.
One is a thoughtful essay entitled “I, Token: The untold story of the hole in Bitcoin's heart” from Brett Scott, an essayist who explores the intersection of money and society, often with the bent of an anthropologist. The piece argues that bitcoin enthusiasts fail to imbue the cryptocurrency with true meaning because they focus on the “function” of bitcoin (what it does) and not its structure (what it is). Along the way, he makes some compelling points about the difference between “price” and “value.”
The other is a blog post by International Monetary Fund staffers Tobias Adrian and Rhoda Weeks-Brown, in which they argue cryptoassets are not viable for governments to explore as alternatives to state-run currencies.
We hope you enjoy listening.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington are joined by Flashbots researcher Alex Obadia to discuss the noble yet futile fight to vanquish Miner/Maximal Extrable Value (MEV) on Ethereum.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
MEV is the additional rewards earned by miners as a direct result of their ability to reorder, censor or insert transactions into a block. Since November 2020, Flashbots has created research and built software to assess the impacts of MEV on the network, its users and decentralized applications (dapps).
The research shows, according to Obadia, that MEV cannot be stopped fully.
“At Flashbots we definitely believe that MEV should be mitigated, but we also believe that it can't be fully mitigated down to zero,” said Obadia.
There will always be financial incentives for miners to rearrange transactions within a block due to the auditability and permissionless nature of decentralized blockchains like Ethereum.
In efforts to mitigate the negative impact of MEV on users, Flashbots created a separate channel for transaction and block ordering earlier this year known as Flashbots Auction.
Roughly 85% of Ethereum mining computational power, also called hash power, now uses Flashbots Auction to extract MEV rewards. Obadia described Flashbots Auction as a “communication channel between Ethereum users and miners, where they can express their preference over transaction ordering in a more granular way than simply by upping their gas price.”
While it is difficult to measure the precise impact of the channel on reducing high fees on Ethereum, Edgington asserts that the introduction of Flashbots Auction has been working positively.
“We can see that gas prices are much better than they were two, three months ago. It seems like Flashbots is working in that sense,” said Edgington.
Looking ahead, Obadia and his team are figuring out ways to decentralize Flashbots Auction and create mechanisms within it to distribute MEV rewards in a “democratic” way.
To learn more about Obadia’s work, listen to the full episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.0.
Links:
Ethereum Community Conference Panel Recordings - https://ethcc.interspace.chat/
Flash Boys 2.0 Paper - https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.05234
Flashbots Data Dashboard - https://dashboard.flashbots.net/network
Vitalik Buterin’s Proposal on Fee Market Designs to Mitigate MEV - https://ethresear.ch/t/proposer-block-builder-separation-friendly-fee-market-designs/9725
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss mounting concerns over the potential for block reorganizations on Ethereum. They also discuss the lack of supply growth in the world’s largest stablecoin, tether (USDT), and the annual Ethereum conference in Paris, France, EthCC.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
Time bandit attacks are a Miner/Maximal Extrable Value (MEV) strategy involving the reorganization of past blocks. If the reward is great enough, Ethereum miners may be incentivized to propose competing blocks containing altered transactions at the expense of users and other network stakeholders.
Edgington highlighted the negative effects these attacks would have on the network, saying, “You think your transaction is confirmed and then suddenly it goes away, and it may or may not be included in the next block. So it breaks user experience to a certain extent, and is not really good for the stability of the blockchain.”
Luckily, these types of network attacks are difficult to pull off. Kim said miners would need to “split the network” using vast amounts of computational power, also called hash power, in order to have their version of transaction history rewrite the main Ethereum chain.
Miners would need approximately 40% of total network hash power in order to reliably utilize a time bandit attack. This is an exceptionally difficult task, especially in a zero-sum game where miners are competing with each other for block rewards. However, in light of the fact all Ethereum miners will need to retire as the network upgrades to a proof-of-stake consensus protocol, certain miners may not be so resistant to collusion for short-term profit.
Early attempts to create an open-source application that facilitates time bandit attacks on Ethereum were met with backlash last week on social media. The negative community response to “open exploration” exposing the root of this issue on the network in Edgington’s eyes sets a bad precedent for transparent discussion about the ways Ethereum needs improvement.
This kind of reaction “discourages people from coming forward with creative ideas or speaking up about things and turns gray hats into black hats, which is not what we want,” Edgington said.
To listen to the full conversation between Kim and Edgington, check out this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Links:
The Ethereum Community Conference - https://ethcc.io/
Tether Hasn't Printed New USDT in Weeks - https://www.coindesk.com/tether-hasnt-printed-new-usdt-in-weeks-3-possible-explanations
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
-
Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“One thing that is important is you separate the short term versus the long term,” recommends Kevin Kelly to digital asset advisers aiming to build their understanding of crypto.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross delves into adviser education with Kevin Kelly, founder of Delphi Digital. With increased demand for crypto advice from traditional investors, Delphi brings institutional-grade analysis in the form of digital asset research, consulting and a big-picture fund investing in new technologies in decentralized networks.
Kelly emphasizes the importance of maintaining a data-informed, long-term conviction on the direction of each crypto asset class. He recommends market metrics resources and providers to help build a numbers-driven outlook, but also to study macro trends as the world and crypto become more entwined.
Listen to this episode for essential educational resources, rewarding mindsets for advisers and a peek into Kelly’s own outlook on the state of crypto.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington interview Elina Sinelnikova, the Co-founder and CEO of Metis and CryptoChicks, about her Layer 2 scaling project and her role in bringing women into crypto.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
Metis, named after the Greek goddess of prudence and wisdom, is a Layer 2 solution to help boost the speed and lower the cost of transactions on Ethereum.
Sinelnikova called the Greek goddess the icon of her project and explained her goals to “move forward with the same spirit as Metis as well as hiring more women,” who make up half of the project’s team.
Sinelnikova also heads up CryptoChicks, co-founded with the mother of Vitalik Buterin, Natalia Ameline. CryptoChicks is a non-profit organization with the goal of educating women of all ages about blockchain and cryptocurrency. Without outside funding, the team is made up of predominantly volunteers, but has secured sponsorships from the likes of Microsoft, IBM and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Blockchain engineering jobs have typically been dominated by males and Kim noted that there are “implicit biases that females are less technically minded,” which makes foundations like CryptoChicks even more important. In Sinelnikova’s hiring experience, all of her female employees have been over-qualified for their jobs.
“We noticed that when the guys apply, they apply without experience and knowledge. When women apply, they’re 200% ready for that job,” said Sinelnikova.
The female led Metis team is gearing up for a main network release of their product later this month. While boasting a higher transaction throughput than Ethereum, the Metis network will not sacrifice decentralization or security for its speed, according to Sinelnikova.
Among the many technical solutions for blockchain scalability being developed on Ethereum’s Layer 2 such as state channels, side chains, zk-rollups, plasma and others, Metis uses a technology known as optimistic roll-ups to process and validate transactions in batches.
To learn more about optimistic roll-ups, female empowerment in crypto, and Circle’s recent $4.5 billion dollar SPAC deal, listen in to this week’s episode of Mapping Out Ethereum 2.0 with Christine Kim and Ben Edgington.
Links:
Crypto Chicks (https://cryptochicks.ca/)
Dai Collateralization Data (https://daistats.com/)
Metis (https://metisdao.medium.com/)
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Jameson Lopp, developer and chief technology officer of Casa, a bitcoin custodian.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
Lopp is a vocal bitcoin advocate and one of those people you probably think about when you hear “bitcoin maximalist.” In this conversation, Jameson explains his attitude toward non-bitcoin projects, DeFi projects and how he, himself, likes to kick the tires of various new projects to see what they are worth.
Lopp is a hardcore crypto anarchist. He believes that bitcoin is the kind of “F-you money” that allows financial autonomy unparalleled by any other financial tools. But are there many people ready to take the risks and responsibility of bitcoin self-custody for the sake of this freedom? For Lopp, it’s a “billion-dollar question” and a matter of constant work and improvement.
Listen to Ben, Anna and Danny talk to Lopp about his views on the challenges of bitcoin adoption, the quality of the DeFi projects he’s involved in and the most exciting project he is working on now.
Jameson Lopp’s Twitter handle: @lopp
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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As we mentioned last week, this is part two of our two-part series of “Blockchain meet ESG,” an exploration of the challenges and opportunities that confront the crypto and blockchain communities as investors and businesses increasingly demand compliance with environmental, sustainability and governance objectives. This episode was recorded live Tuesday, May 25 2021 at Consensus 2021.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network, Mimo and Quantstamp.
In this second episode, our guests address subtleties and niches within environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG). Increasingly, blockchain technologies are employed in a variety of forms across the world to combat specific areas within ESG. These range from indigenous resource allocation and tracking to building sustainable supply chains from the ground up and applying big data to consumer water conservation. And that’s just a taste of what’s underway. At the same time, the blockchain back end’s impact on ESG is being refined, with initiatives angling to avoid worst-case scenarios of innovation, accurately quantify bitcoin energy consumption and reinforce incentives for using clean energy sources.
This time we’ll hear from a diverse array of fascinating guests:
Julius Akinyemi, founder and CEO of UWINCorp, and Lucía Gallardo, founder and CEO of Emerge, discuss blockchain solutions for free and fair trade. The two companies both focus on resource assessment. UWINCorp encodes the data and location of indigenous plants onto the blockchain, while Emerge is building an agricultural resource database.
Tanya Stephens, senior innovation leader at Procter & Gamble, addresses ways to track sustainability through supply chains and a consumer-focused water conservation coalition. The “50L Home” initiative believes that if consumers have the right data at the right time, they will be able to reduce their water consumption to only 50 liters a day.
Austin Hill, founder of Brudder Adventures and the first CEO of Blockstream, explains the “Vulnerable World Hypothesis,” which investigates how current innovations could be abused or misused in the future. Though “Vulnerable World” predicts a dim future, Hill outlines several strategies to avoid the worst-case scenarios.
Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of Coinshares, and Anton Dek, research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, outline methods for quantifying bitcoin’s energy consumption and interpret recent figures. A trend of co-locating mining facilities and renewable energy plants is placing decentralized, smaller-scale facilities on the grid.
Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry (Foundry is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk), and Jesse Morris, chief commercial officer of the Energy Web Foundation, present the miner’s perspective on the incentives of clean energy sources.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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In this week’s episode, Christine Kim and Ben Edgington chat with CoinDesk Senior Markets Reporter Omkar Godbole about the evolution of ether trading markets. The duo also discussed the earnings of CoinDesk’s Ethereum 2.0 validator in recent months and the ways validator reward dynamics are expected to change after the network’s first system-wide upgrade, Altair.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
“Compared to 2017, the [ether] market has matured and we have more sophisticated players,” said Godbole. “I’m not surprised by just how fast the ether markets have grown because it’s actually the bitcoin market that first picked up the pace and now we are seeing activity flowing into ether and the [ether] options market.”
Increasingly sophisticated and deep-pocketed investors are turning to the ether derivatives markets as a way to diversify their crypto asset portfolios beyond just bitcoin, according to Godbole. In the process, certain market players are making millions.
On Tuesday, June 22, 5,000 ether options contracts representing 5,000 ether were bought out at an estimated $5.44 million through a single trade on cryptocurrency exchange Deribit. As Godbole explained, the trade was executed by a market maker who bets on both sides of the market and profits from the spread between bid and ask prices for an option.
Essentially, “they get commission for providing liquidity,” said Godbole.
This particular market maker, according to Deribit CCO Luuk Strijers who spoke with Godbole about the events of June 22, made over $3 million from the trade.
Outside of analyzing individual trades, Godbole also looks at aggregate data on trade activity in crypto derivatives markets in order to glean insights and hints about investor sentiment and broader market trends.
The put-call skew is one metric measuring the price of put options relative to calls that can signal how worried investors are feeling about further potential sell-offs in bearish market conditions.
“There is still considerable fear in both the ether and bitcoin options markets where put options are driving more demand or higher prices than calls,” said Godbole.
Kim and Edgington also discussed a drought in block rewards for CoinDesk’s Eth 2.0 validator, Zelda. It has been over two months since Zelda has proposed a block on the network, which Edgington chalks up to being simply “super unlucky.”
To listen to the full conversation between Godbole, Kim and Edgington, check out this week’s episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.0.
Links:
- Ethereum Cat Herders (https://ethereumcatherders.com/index.html)
- How One Ether Options Trader May Have Lost $3M in a trade gone bad (https://www.coindesk.com/how-one-ether-options-trader-lost-3m-in-a-trade-gone-bad)
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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This week on “Opinionated,” Ben Schiller and co-host Anna Baydakova are joined by Paul Brody, head of blockchain at consulting powerhouse EY.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
If you read CoinDesk in 2017 and 2018, you’d have come across many stories like this:
Big Company joins Big Industry Blockchain Consortium to work on technology set to shake up Everything.
These days, many of those consortia are closed, others are barely issuing press releases, and “enterprise blockchain” is often struggling to take off.
In recent months, IBM has laid off most of its blockchain services staff and Microsoft has shuttered its Azure-based blockchain-as-a-service platform.
What happened?
Blockchain industry veteran Paul Brody unpacks why many corporate blockchain projects fail, and what works and doesn’t work when companies adopt decentralized technology.
He pinpoints where blockchain is having a dramatic impact, the validation that comes from DeFi and how blockchains can re-engineer enterprises in the years ahead.
Brody’s Twitter is: @pbrody
CoinDesk stories mentioned in this episode:
Brody: Web 3.0 Is Coming for the Sharing Economy
Brody: Public Blockchains Are Set to Reshape Global Commerce
IBM Blockchain Is a Shell of Its Former Self After Revenue Misses, Job Cuts: Sources
Microsoft to Shutter its Azure Blockchain Service This Autumn
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s cross chain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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With Sheila out on vacation, we’re doing something different on the Money Reimagined podcast this week and next. We’re bringing you remastered versions of two one-hour CoinDesk TV shows we recorded during the Consensus virtual conference in late May.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network, Mimo and Quantstamp.
The theme for this two-part series was “Blockchain meet ESG,” an exploration of the challenges and opportunities that confront the crypto and blockchain communities as investors and businesses increasingly demand compliance with environmental, sustainability and governance objectives. A total of 14 guests over the two days helped us dive into how blockchain technology can help communities collectively address climate change or boost financial inclusion, and how the technology might overcome its own ESG challenges, such as Bitcoin’s carbon footprint and the crypto industry’s relative lack of diversity.
These issues have become more urgent for the crypto industry as public attention has grown on the heavy energy usage within Bitcoin’s and other protocols’ proof-of-work mining systems. These were especially aroused by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who walked back the company’s initial intention to accept bitcoin for its cars, citing environmental concerns. As Wall Street banks and asset managers put ever more resources into ESG investment vehicles and as the Biden Administration puts environmental and other concerns at the center of its regulatory agenda, these matters will only become of greater importance to the crypto industry.
Industry insiders are trying to flip the debate. With the right deals and policies in place, Bitcoin mining could be used to underwrite the rollout of renewable energy infrastructure, for example. And blockchain technology could help resolve what is arguably the biggest barrier to the effective deployment of ESG mandates: a consistent record-keeping system to accurately measure their impact. The technology could also help align incentives within an economic ecosystem so that all profit-seeking participants are motivated to achieve outcomes that serve the public good.
This first episode, recorded on Monday, May 24, tackles the complexities of counting, tracking, and reporting ESG, including climate accounting, sustainable investing, Wall Street’s ESG movement, blockchains for ESG tracking and tokenizing ESG.
You’ll hear from the following guests, each in short 5-10 minute segments:
- Massamba Thioye, co-chair of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Martin Weinstein, founder of Open Earth Foundation, discussed the planet’s carbon accounting needs. They offered a high-level view of the humanity-wide challenge of how to consistently measure our collective ability to meet the Paris Accord’s 2050 targets for carbon neutrality and of how blockchain technology could help.
- Kevin O'Leary, the Chairman of O'Shares ETF chairman and investor on CNBC’s “Shark Tank” show, explained how increasingly powerful ESG committees are making institutional investors more picky about the assets they funnel money into. He shared some of his ideas on how the Bitcoin community can better adjust to this new reality.
- Mark McDivitt, CEO of Context Labs and former global head of ESG at State Street, ran with the mantra of “what we can measure we can manage” to argue for sophisticated blockchain-based models involving multiple calibrations and analyses to ensure that environmental data is trustworthy enough for investors.
- Cristina Dolan, the CEO of InsideChains, spoke of her work for a forthcoming book about data science and ESG demands, in which she and co-author Diane Barrero Zalles, detail the need for standardization and how this technology might help.
- Marc Johnson, senior associate at Rocky Mountain Institute, highlighted his organization’s work using a blockchain model for tracking cumulative carbon emissions and reductions at each stage along a supply chain.
- And Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at Ernst & Young, outlined a vision for how tokenization based on trusted environmental and sustainability data can generate digital assets that economically incentivize both investors and the businesses that issue them to consistently strive for positive ESG outcomes.
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
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Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
-
Quantstamp is the leader of blockchain security, having secured over 100 billion USD worth of digital assets. Visit quantstamp.com to learn why top DeFi projects like Maker, Compound and BarnBridge trust Quantstamp to secure the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. Learn more at quantstamp.com/blog.
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss the activation of EIP 1559 on Ethereum’s test network Ropsten and two potential protocol-level changes impacting Ethereum 2.0 validators.
This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.
The London upgrade containing Ethereum’s fee market change, otherwise known as Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, was activated Friday, June 25, on the Ropsten test network.
Kim noted early statistics about the activation of London on Ropsten, saying, “It looks like about over 80,000 testnet ETH was taken out of circulation, that is burned, as a result of EIP 1559. And the base fee, which is this new mandatory minimum fee payment required to send a transaction … was trending at about 100 gwei.”
If these figures were also seen on Ethereum after activation of London, it would mean average fee payments at minimum double from roughly 50 gwei to 100 gwei and about 30% of new coin issuance gets counterbalanced on the network through fee burning.
Edgington warned these figures shouldn’t be taken too seriously as the high gas prices on Ropsten are partially a result of deliberate spamming in efforts to battle test the upgrade for main network deployment.
“Also, Ropsten ETH is free, right? It’s costless. It’s testnet ETH. Sending a million transactions costs nothing except a bit of time so it differs from mainnet in that respect as well,” said Edgington.
Looking further down the road to upgrades on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain, Edgington and Kim discussed the recurring idea to potentially lower the amount of ETH required to become a network validator. While this would make it less costly for users to validate and earn rewards on Eth 2.0, it would also require an “immense” engineering effort on the part of protocol developers, according to Edgington.
“You can’t just change it to 16 ETH because what about all the people who have already got 32 ETH staked. They now have two validator entities. What a nightmare,” he said.
Kim also noted that changing the required amount of ETH for validators would not be a long-term solution for encouraging a greater number of validators given the price volatility of the crypto asset, as well as the protocol-level decisions that still need to be made about the overall size of the Eth 2.0 network.
Edgington and Kim also touched on the recent dispute between cryptocurrency custody provider Fireblocks and Eth 2.0 staking pool StakeHound. For the full overview on the dispute and what Eth 2.0 developers are considering to help users in similar situations, listen to this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- Camila Russo’s The Infinite Machine (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-infinite-machine-camila-russo?variant=32123333836834)
- Matthew Leising’s Out of the Ether (https://www.amazon.com/Out-Ether-Amazing-Ethereum-Destroyed/dp/1119602939)
- Data about EIP 1559 on Ropsten (http://watchtheburn.com)
- Legal Dispute Between Fireblocks and Stakehound (https://www.coindesk.com/fireblocks-being-sued-for-allegedly-losing-over-70m-of-ethereum-report)
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Unique One Network is an interoperable Platform for DeFi enabled NFT Marketplaces, in a variety of sectors, built on Polkadot Parity Substrate. Unique One Network’s crosschain NFT hub facilitates transfers between a variety of blockchains and ecosystems, unleashing the power of NFTs with myriad innovative capabilities. Find out more at Unique One Network.
-
Mimo is home of the world’s #1 euro-algorithmically pegged token minted at an interest rate of just 2%. Lock in your crypto assets, access their liquidity, and stabilize your portfolio by hedging against inflating coins. Open a Vault and experience the power of Mimo today at mimo.capital.
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller and Anna Baydakova are talking to Dovey Wan, partner at San-Francisco-based VC Primitive Ventures.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
China is getting serious about banning crypto. In a fresh onslaught on the industry this month, the country has blocked bank transfers related to crypto, and five regions, including the key hydropower province of Sichuan, have shut down the local miners. OTC desk operators are getting arrested en masse and mentions of crypto exchanges are getting censored on social media.
The market responded with another downfall starting June 21, Chinese miners are reportedly relocating to other countries, including the U.S., and crypto firms are looking for ways to survive in China without serving Chinese clients.
Dovey Wan has a good grasp of the way things operate in China, and she aptly unpacks the intricacies of the country’s power structure and the main forces behind the political and economic events.
Listen to the “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller and Anna Baydakova talking with Dovey about this latest crackdown, what it might be driven by and why it should be taken very seriously. Is China letting its crypto dominance go? How can this change the global crypto market, for good or bad?
Dovey Wan’s Twitter handle is: @DoveyWan.
CoinDesk stories mentioned in this episode:
- China Says Banks Must Block Crypto Transactions; Market Falls
- Sichuan Becomes Latest Chinese Province to Order Bitcoin Miner Shutdown
- Chinese Police Arrest 1.1K People on Crypto-Related Money Laundering Charges
- Chinese Internet Services Are Censoring Binance, Huobi and OKEx-Related Keywords
- Ether Drops Below $2K, Bitcoin Wilts as China Tells Banks to Cut Off Crypto Transactions
- Chinese Logistics Firm Airlifting Bitcoin Mining Machines to Maryland: Report
- Chinese Brokerages Look Overseas to Offer Crypto Trading: Report
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750,000,000 PMA tokens are now up for grabs. By depositing today, you will become part of the next evolution of DeFi payments. Go to PumaPay.io.
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With all the multiple, differing blockchain and tokens now live on the crypto universe, it’s hard not to worry the industry is recreating the same problems of the original internet.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
This week, co-hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Denelle Dixon, CEO of Stellar Development Foundation, and Peng Zhong, CEO of Tendermint.
Developers will emphasize that their particular blockchain protocol is decentralized and devoid of gatekeeping intermediaries. But how do users move assets across those chains and how can one chain validate the transactions in another? More precisely, how do you do that without once again having to rely on a trusted intermediary to act as a conduit of information or custodian of value? This is eerily reminiscent of the Web 2.0 internet structure that arose at the turn of the century, an economic model that now dominates our lives and falls far short of the early internet founders’ dreams of an open, decentralized system. As Web 2.0 consolidated around large “walled garden” platforms whose corporate owners were the sole gatekeepers to those platforms’ data, we handed immense power to a few key internet companies.
How do we avoid making the same mistake again? The answer seems to lie in interoperability protocols and cryptographic tools that essentially stitch blockchains together in a way that users of each can trust information and asset management systems managed by the others, all without a need for trusted custodians.
Much is happening in this field. Protocols such as Polkadot, founded by the Berlin-based Parity Labs outfit of early Ethereum developers Gavin Wood and Jutta Steiner, is setting itself the lofty goal of creating the next internet via the aptly named Web3 Foundation. There are blockchains focused on financial interoperability such as Ripple’s Interledger and Stellar. And there’s Cosmos, the blockchain of blockchains developed by Tendermint, which provides a suite of tools for blockchain developers to build cross-chain applications.
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750,000,000 PMA tokens are now up for grabs. By depositing today, you will become part of the next evolution of DeFi payments. Go to PumaPay.io.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington chat with the CEO and founder of Allnodes, Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky. Allnodes is a blockchain node hosting, monitoring and staking service supporting over 25 cryptocurrency networks.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Among the networks for which Allnodes provides hosting services, Boyko-Romanovsky said, the set up for validator nodes on Ethereum 2.0 was by far “the most stressful.”
“Ethereum 2.0 is like playing Diablo in nightmare mode. I didn’t sleep well for two months when Ethereum [2.0] was launched because there is a risk of slashing,” said Boyko-Romanovsky.
The risk of slashing, or getting penalized, on Eth 2.0 is greater for staking-as-a-service platforms like Allnodes than for individual users. According to Edgington, this is by design in order to encourage network decentralization.
“The Ethereum [2.0] protocol was not designed with staking services in mind. It was very much designed for individual stakers,” he said. “It is deliberately not supposed to be easy for [staking] services.”
Even so, Edgington noted that among staking services Allnodes consistently operates the best-performing Eth 2.0 validator nodes in terms of rewards earned.
While Boyko-Romanovsky attributed most of that success to “luck,” he also noted that using a single Eth 2.0 software client, Teku, and investing time into understanding Teku enabled him and his team to make “improvements” to their validator set-up based on their knowledge.
The trio also discussed the downfall of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Iron Finance and Mark Cuban’s call for action from U.S regulators in light of the fiasco. To listen to the full discussion, check out this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- CoinDesk article about Iron Finance token price crash (https://www.coindesk.com/iron-finance-says-it-suffered-cryptos-first-large-scale-bank-run-in-token-crash-postmortem)
- Iron Finance blog post (https://ironfinance.medium.com/iron-finance-post-mortem-17-june-2021-6a4e9ccf23f5)
- Mark Cuban’s statement in Bloomberg (https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1405536487630798859/photo/1)
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750,000,000 PMA tokens are now up for grabs. By depositing today, you will become part of the next evolution of DeFi payments. Go to PumaPay.io.
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Jonathan Koomey, researcher and book author.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Koomey, the author of “Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving” and “Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs,” spent a lot of time studying and debunking the current narrative around bitcoin’s impact on the environment.
In 2019, he conducted a study for CoinCenter, titled “Estimating Bitcoin Electricity Use: A Beginner’s Guide,” where he separates real numbers from baseless assumptions. Koomey likes to run numbers and he’s indifferent to bitcoin, so he stays cool above the raging fire of the bitcoin climate debates.
How much electricity does bitcoin actually consume? Is it a lot, and compared to what? What are the most reliable sources of actual numbers? Is buying carbon offsets a good way to make your bitcoin “green”?
Listen as Anna, Ben and Danny discuss these complicated topics with Jonathan.
Jonathan Koomey’s Twitter handle is: @jgkoomey.
Materials mentioned in this episodes:
- Jonathan Koomey’s research for CoinCenter: “Estimating Bitcoin Electricity Use: A Beginner’s Guide”
- Jonathan Koomey’s books: “Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving” and “Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-Based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs”
- Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI)
- Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor, Making Climate Policy Work
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750,000,000 PMA tokens are now up for grabs. By depositing today, you will become part of the next evolution of DeFi payments. Go to PumaPay.io.
Image credit: D-Keine /iStock/Getty Images Plus/ modified by Coindesk
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As society moves increasingly online, so do the kinds of risks that businesses face. With cybercrime growing exponentially and businesses liabilities expanding as they accumulate giant honeypots of sensitive user data, this week’s Money Reimagined explores a new approach toward risk, one fueled by a blockchain mindset.
- An analysis of the state of cybercrime with the explosion in ransomware attacks
- The new mindset based on principles of openness and decentralization
- The case for resiliency and cost-based risk tolerance over efficiency and total protection
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle whose career was previously centered on radical insurance innovation, and digital pioneer Pindar Wong, chairman of VeriFi, an internet infrastructure consulting firm.
A recent report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicted cybercrime costs are on track to total $6 trillion this year. If cybercrime were a country, it would be the third latest economy in the world.
How can a blockchain mindset reduce those costs? The Colonial Pipeline attack was a case study in the danger of centralization. The wider distribution of value, data and attack points that’s inherent to decentralized blockchain technology, as well as its collective witness feature and the power of collective, iterative improvement in open-source development hints at more effective strategies for managing such risks.
It comes down to a different framing for how to strengthen security. The classical notion of “secured versus not secured” is a prohibitive way of thinking that ignores the grey areas of “at-risk.” Is a healthcare model, with different levels and types of sickness, a more constructive mindset?
With governments poised to introduce CBDCs around the world – tempting cybercriminals with the biggest honeypots of them all - a new antifragile risk-management framework is crucial for society as these changes shape the digital future.
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750,000,000 PMA tokens are now up for grabs. By depositing today, you will become part of the next evolution of DeFi payments. Go to PumaPay.io.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss why the term “validator” is a misnomer on Ethereum 2.0 and the different ways decentralization can be measured on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
The community behind the PoS network, Avalanche, attacked Kim on Twitter for her use of the term “validator” when describing the growth of the Eth 2.0 network.
“The kind of comments I was getting was, Christine, you’re misleading and intentionally misrepresenting the growth of the Ethereum network. You don’t know what you’re doing,” said Kim. “And to that, I obviously got very riled and said, ‘No, I’m not using this term wrong.’”
In the context of Ethereum 2.0, validators affirm the validity of blocks and transaction data on the network in exchange for earning rewards in the form of interest on a minimum locked deposit of 32 ether. Their growth is directly correlated to the amount of total stake on Eth 2.0 but not with the number of machines or computers, also called “nodes,” running Eth 2.0 client software. This is because a single node can run multiple Eth 2.0 validators concurrently.
In comparison, a validator on other PoS blockchains such as Avalanche is equivalent to a single node. On these blockchains, having more validators indicates increasing levels of network decentralization and resiliency against single points of failure.
“Having 10 beacon nodes with one validator each is 10 times more resilient than having one beacon node with 10 validators. So from that point of view, it’s better to have one [validator] per node,” Edgington said. “But what if your 10 nodes are all hosted on [Amazon Web Services] and AWS goes down? It’s the same, right? So, in a sense, you don't really learn much by that comparison.”
In Edington’s view, nodes like Eth 2.0 validators can still be “politically centralized” and controlled by a single user or entity, which is why a blockchain that is architecturally decentralized by the number of nodes may not be politically or logically decentralized.
The term “validator” on Eth 2.0 can still be misleading for other reasons, the primary of which is that Eth 2.0 validators don’t really validate anything. Beacon chain nodes ensure block validity while the role of validators is to attest and affirm the finality of these blocks.
Listen to the full conversation between Kim and Edgington on this week’s Mapping Out Eth 2.0 episode where they discuss the role and function of validators on Eth 2.0, as well as the impact of El Salvador’s announcement about bitcoin as legal tender in the country.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- The Meaning of Decentralization by Vitalik Buterin (https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentralization-a0c92b76a274)
- El Salvador’s Legislature Votes to Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender (https://www.coindesk.com/its-official-el-salvadors-legislature-votes-to-adopt-bitcoin-as-legal-tender)
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson dig deep into two of the biggest storylines in crypto: the proliferation of ransomware (and what crypto’s got to do with it) and El Salvador’s upstart bid to become a global bitcoin capital.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Just over a month after ransomware group DarkSide held gas company Colonial Pipeline hostage for $4.4 million in bitcoin, there’s been a major development. The feds say they’ve gotten most of the payment back – an almost unheard of feat, and one shrouded in mystery.
How did they pull it off? The gang runs through some of the most popular theories, from FBI honeypot mixing services to good old police work. Then, they hash out what it might take to pull off the perfect crypto crime.
Even as the U.S. is moving to (possibly) crack down on bitcoin, another nation, El Salvador, is racing to embrace it. President Nayib Bukele closed out Miami’s crazed bitcoin conference with the blockbuster news that he’d make bitcoin legal tender. It's being framed as a means to give El Salvador’s majority unbanked population access to financial services – but is that really the case?
Ben, Anna and Danny discuss these and other topics, plus an update on where the ESG movement stands.
Ben Schiller’s Twitter handle is: @btschiller
Anna: @baidakova
Danny: @realDannyNelson
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In the early days of blockchain technology, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) seemed like a far-out, unattainable idea. How could an organization, a company or a collective, ever manage itself without anyone in charge?
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Then came the launch of The DAO, an Ethereum-based investment vehicle that subsequently collapsed due to a devastating hack, which in appropriating the acronym gave it a dirty name. It seemed real, functioning DAOs would forever be a pipe dream.
Yet, thanks largely to the success of decentralized finance (DeFi), DAOs are now here. They’re real.
In this week’s episode, we explore how developers and investors are working through the complex process of bridging the human and legal needs of the outside world with these complex, decentralized systems run by blockchains, automated smart contracts, “multisig” tokenized collateral agreements.
We were joined by two great guests, who helped us turn what might be otherwise seen as a nerdy topic into one of huge significance for the future of investing, innovation and economic development:
Rune Christensen, chief executive officer of the Maker Foundation, which founded MakerDAO, the first truly successful DeFi DAO on the Ethereum blockchain, which generates the algorithmic stablecoin, dai.
Ian Lee, managing director of IDEO Co-Lab Ventures and a co-founder of Syndicate, which enables groups of investors to fund DeFi projects and other ventures using DAOs and DAO-like structures.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington interview Kosala Hemachandra, the co-founder and CEO of My Ether Wallet (MEW), about MEW’s two-step solution to staking on Ethereum 2.0.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
“Whenever we see a bottleneck, whenever we see a problem, like an accessibility problem for us … that’s where we jump in,” said Hemachandra. “We’re like, okay, let’s reduce it down to three steps maximum and then let’s take [users] through these steps and then it'll make it easy for them to get into Ethereum and use Ethereum. Therefore, Ethereum will grow.”
Hemachandra has watched Ethereum grow from as early as 2014 when the network was merely a technical concept defined by a yellow paper. When the network officially launched in July 2015, Hemachandra noticed a major pain point for users trying to access the network.
There was no user-friendly interface to send and receive on-chain transactions.
As a back-end developer and web programmer by trade, Hemachandra along with his co-founder Taylor Monahan created MEW as a wallet service that could offer users an alternative for interacting with the Ethereum blockchain, which at the time could only be done through a command line interface.
Fast forward to 2021 and a lot has changed about Ethereum, as well as MEW.
MEW is one of several crypto wallet services actively helping onboard new users to the Ethereum blockchain, which has now amassed a market capitalization of over $272 billion. Ethereum has also spawned a second, parallel blockchain network known as the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain on which ETH holders can stake their coins and earn rewards.
Eth 2.0 is envisioned to one day replace Ethereum’s existing consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) and thereby significantly reduce the overall energy costs of the network.
Similar to 2015, Hemachandra noticed another pain point at the creation of Eth 2.0.
“[To stake,] you have to be knowledgeable in running nodes, running validators, having them on 24/7, and like a lot of backend stuff,” said Hemachandra. “That’s when we jumped in. We’re like, okay, a regular user will not be able to accomplish these things so we have to make it easy for them.”
This was how the idea to introduce staking services on MEW was born. Since launching their staking services in December 2019, close to $200 million worth of ether has locked into Eth 2.0 using MEW’s 2-step solution.
To learn more about the MEW’s Eth 2.0 staking services and what Hemachandra sees as the next major pain point on Ethereum to solve, listen to this week’s episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- MEV estimations by Ryan Berckmans (https://twitter.com/RyanBerckmans/status/1401586370678829069)
- Overview of MEV concerns on Ethereum 2.0 (https://hackmd.io/@Izzy-/Eth2VevStaking)
- Vitalik Buterin’s ideas around MEV (https://ethresear.ch/t/proposer-block-builder-separation-friendly-fee-market-designs/9725)
- What is Flashbots? (https://github.com/flashbots/pm)
- Quarterly review of the staking industry by Staked (https://staking.staked.us/state-of-staking)
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DeFi, as the world of decentralized finance is known, is growing up.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Venture money is being dedicated to the space, decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity protocols are being upgraded to add flexibility, and so-called layer 2 solutions are being deployed to help scale this vibrant new, ever-evolving decentralized financial system while preserving decentralization. The community has also just successfully gone through a stress test in the form of a sharp decline in crypto prices, which produced none of the systemic risk fallout that some people had hypothesized would arise at such times for DiFi collateral contracts.
So, where does this strange new world of finance go from here? In part, that question is about governance and regulation. How will the decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that run the DeFi ecosystem’s various interoperable protocols connect the choices of its human investors with the decentralized, pseudonymity-dependent, on-chain consensus mechanisms on which these smart contracts depend? And what, if anything, should or could external government regulators and internal self-regulators do to protect people if the machines that run it all go bad?
For insights into how this fascinating new environment is shaping up, listen in while we chat to Rebecca Rettig, general counsel of Aave, and Marc Boiron, general counsel at decentralized exchange dYdX, about all of the above.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss major investments in layer 2 Ethereum scaling solutions and debate whether Elon Musk’s attempts to “greenwash” the Bitcoin network are working.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
Over the last few months, investments in Ethereum startups focusing on layer 2 technologies have been on the rise.
In late March, billionaire investor Mark Cuban made an investment in Polygon, previously known as the Matic Network. Polygon enables users to send transactions on Ethereum with greater speed and lower cost by moving computations to a separate side blockchain or “sidechain.”
On March 1, venture capital firm Union Square Ventures led a Series A funding round for Matter Labs, another Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution. In February, Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz led a $25 million investment for the team behind the Optimistic Ethereum Network, another still yet different layer 2 Ethereum-scaling service.
“It seems like capital galore going into layer 2s and if any of our listeners we’re around for Consensus [last] week, we also heard a lot of [decentralized finance] developers … talking about how layer 2 scaling is going to be the solution to one of their biggest challenges, which is high fees and limited transaction throughput on Ethereum,” Kim said.
Along with greater investment in various layer 2 scaling solutions, there is heightened competition among these startups. As end users have started to compare and contrast the merits of one layer 2 solution over another, controversy has been brewing on social media according to Edgington.
“There are trade-offs all over the space and it’s hard to see how this is going to fall out,” he said. “With Polygon, it’s certainly gaining a lot of traction and [its future] will depend on how people feel in the long term about the security trade-offs in the security model.”
Speaking of controversies, Edgington and Kim also discussed Elon Musk’s latest attempts to improve the environmental footprint of the Bitcoin blockchain by creating a new “green” initiative within the North American Bitcoin mining community.
While Edgington viewed these efforts as nothing more than a “PR effort to greenwash Bitcoin,” Kim pushed back on whether these efforts could make a significant impact in making bitcoin mining more energy sustainable in the long run.
Even if bitcoin mining were to become more sustainable, Edgington noted bitcoin would still consume magnitudes more energy than Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain because PoS doesn’t rely on intensive computer computations for network security but instead relies on the collective stake, or wealth, of users.
To listen to the full debate between Edgington and Kim on bitcoin’s energy consumption, listen to this week’s episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.0.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are discussing one of the most interesting topics raised during CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 virtual conference – bitcoin’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) moment.
This episode is sponsored by PumaPay.io.
The question of bitcoin’s impact on the environment has been hovering over the industry for years, but recently, it got a real momentum after Elon Musk first sent bitcoin prices surging, then plunging, then going up again, by tweeting about bitcoin’s environmental impact.
After showing disapproval of bitcoin’s ecological impact, Musk soon returned with a new message: he met with the North American bitcoin miners to get them to adopt greener standards of work.
Cathie Wood, the founder of Ark Investment Management, believes the move was dictated by some very pragmatic reasons, as she said in a Consensus interview with Nathaniel Whittemore:
“Elon probably got a few calls from institutions,” Wood said. “I noticed that BlackRock is [Tesla]’s number three shareholder and Larry Fink is the CEO. He is focused on ESG and especially on climate change. I’m sure BlackRock registered some complaints and perhaps there are some very large holders in Europe who are extremely sensitive to this.”
In setting up the Bitcoin Mining Council, some wondered if Musk and his fellow founder-whale Michael Saylor wanted to centralize bitcoin mining. This is hardly possible (for now). However attempts to create various white lists and black lists for bitcoin, depending on how green or dirty, sanctioned or politically clean they are, and so on, might harm bitcoin’s core value: borderless money with no rulers to control it.
Ben, Anna and Danny discuss these and other topics related to the heavily controversial bitcoin environmental agenda.
Ben Schiller’s Twitter handle is: @btschiller
Anna: @baidakova
Danny: @reaDannyNelson
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Central bank digital currencies have evolved from a loosely formed concept to tangible, real-live projects and an array of models have emerged.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Michael Casey and Sheila Warren host a live CBDC edition of their “Money Reimagined” podcast at Consensus 2021. In this program, they discuss the further development and future direction of CBDCs with Christian Catalini, the chief economist of the Diem Association, and Benedicte Nolens, head of the Bank of International Settlements’ Innovation Hub in Hong Kong.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss a “severe threat” against Ethereum that was recently fixed and disclosed by non-profit organization the Ethereum Foundation.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
On Tuesday, May 18, the Ethereum Foundation published a blog post detailing a previously unknown attack vector on Ethereum where certain transactions could overwhelm the network and delay block production from a matter of seconds to minutes.
“It wasn’t a sort of classic security vulnerability in that nobody was going to get hacked,” said Edgington. “It was more a [Denial of Service] opportunity, a griefing attack. So there was potentially a way that the chain could be slowed down. Blocks would take much longer to produce and process than they ought to.”
According to the blog post, this security vulnerability was first discovered by Ethereum researchers Hubert Ritzdorf and Matthias Egli who shared their findings with members of the Ethereum Foundation through the organization’s bug bounty program on October 4, 2019 .
While attempts were made to reduce the effects of the attack by the broader Ethereum developer community, it wasn’t until April 15, 2021 that the issue was solved for good as a result of the activation of two Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), EIP 2929 and EIP 2930.
For the six months that developers were working on a solution to the known threat, it was important to keep work somewhat hidden from the public view. The last thing developers wanted was for a potential attacker to find out about this security vulnerability and take advantage of it before a fix to the network was implemented.
While this may raise concerns about transparency and centralization, Kim notes that “no code is absolutely perfect.”
“These kinds of security vulnerabilities are unavoidable,” said Kim. “It’s just a matter of preparing for them by having these centralized players like the Ethereum Foundation to fund bug bounties and to have a known core development team … to keep [things] on the down low until they figure out a fix.”
To listen to the full commentary about Ethereum development and ongoing progress for Ethereum 2.0, listen to this week’s episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.0.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
- Dodging a bullet: Ethereum State Problems (https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/eth_state_problems/)
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In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross announces his “Big Day'' for the official launch of his consulting company, OnRamp Invest, and the integration of “Riskalyze” a financial risk rate platform for advisers. Ross talks about the current state of the crypto markets, the expectations from governmental statutes and the guidance for advisers in the present regulatory environment.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Tyrone Ross is the CEO of OnRamp Invest, founder of 401STC, a storytelling consultancy; is a graduate of Seton Hall University, and named a top ten adviser of 2019 set to change the industry by Wealthmanagement.com
A message from Tyrone:
The greatest number of people living in poverty are children, we need to change that. If you can, get involved and give back to NoKidHungry.org. Love and Light. I appreciate you!
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim welcomes special guest Tim Beiko who recently took over as chair of the bi-weekly All Core Developers (ACD) meetings. ACD calls bring together various Ethereum stakeholders to discuss and reach consensus on proposed changes to the Ethereum protocol. They are streamed live on YouTube and generally reach an audience of roughly 10,000 viewers for each call.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
For Beiko, the most nerve-racking thing about his newest role as chair of the ACD calls is setting up the YouTube livestream.
“Setting up the [Open Broadcaster Software] and all that for streaming and getting the audio right to the mic; this stresses me out so much because there was one call where I streamed it to everybody except myself,” Beiko said.
Before taking over this role from the previous chair, Hudson Jameson, Beiko had been an active participant in these calls for three years as product manager of one of the Ethereum software client teams.
As background, ACD calls are a long-running tradition in the Ethereum community that started as early as 2015. Aimed at bringing together and coordinating development of the Ethereum protocol, these meetings are a crucial component of the informal governance process that shapes the ongoing evolution of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
These calls, according to Beiko, are also how Ethereum protocol developers provide transparency to the broader community of the network, which includes a growing number of users, decentralized application (dapp) developers and investors.
“It’s very easy for core developers and folks like myself who are basically paid to be on the calls to spend time and prepare for them,” said Beiko. “But if that’s not your job, if you’re running an application or you’re a journalist, you don’t have five hours per week to spend on protocol development for Ethereum. So I’ve tried to summarize it … [and] find ways to describe to the community what’s happening so that folks can keep tabs on [Ethereum] but don’t need to invest hours.”
One area of continued discussion and debate is around the upcoming change to Ethereum’s fees, as outlined by Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559.
Beiko is confident the majority of users and dapp developers are in favor of activating EIP 1559 later this July. As for other stakeholders such as miners who have not been as enthusiastic about the upgrade, Beiko explained that there are other incentives he believes will encourage their support for the fee market change when it comes time for activation.
To hear Beiko’s full remarks on EIP 1559 implementation as well as more on the governance process around the other code changes that will be bundled along with EIP 1559, tune in to this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
- London Network Upgrade Specification (https://github.com/ethereum/eth1.0-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/london.md#ecosystem-readiness-checklist)
- Why EIP 1559? By Tim Beiko (https://hackmd.io/@timbeiko/why-1559)
- Flashbots: Frontrunning the MEV Crisis (https://medium.com/flashbots/frontrunning-the-mev-crisis-40629a613752)
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The story of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is a tragic reminder of the lasting impact of colonial injustice and how it extends into modern finance.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
It’s why this episode, on the potential for blockchain technology and digital currencies to empower people in such places, begins with a powerful monologue by Sheila about the shameful, century-long legacy of a slavery-era debt. That debt, imposed by France in punishment of Haiti’s citizens for freeing themselves from their slave masters in a rebellion that founded their independence in 1805, later became a U.S.-owned asset serviced by a bank that would become Citibank. In that sense, this long-standing problem is directly related to the issue of Wall Street’s power and dominance in the age of dollar hegemony, a power that is challenged, in theory, by cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
We learn from guest Jerry Tardieu, a Haitian author, entrepreneur, and politician who represents Petion-ville in the Chamber of Deputies, of how that debt legacy and the dependence on aid that came with it, has challenged Haiti’s capacity to strike its own economic path. He calls for technologies and policies that boost access to investment capital rather than aid.
We also hear from Daniele Jean-Pierre, the co-founder and COO of Zimbali networks, which delivers smart ledger solutions for the decentralized economy, on the kinds of solutions that entrepreneurs like her are developing to meet that call to action.
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Aaron Lammer, author of a podcast series about the now-defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
The QuadrigaCX saga, first broken by our colleague Nik De and still not finished, could be a dark detective novel: Gerald Cotten, a CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, reportedly dies in India, the crypto wallets are empty and his widow inherits a mind-blowing fortune, while users are trying to get their money back in court for years (the case is still ongoing).
Aaron Lammer, an experienced crypto podcaster, took on a tricky task to tell the QuadrigaCX story to people who might not know about crypto but definitely can learn a thing or two from this thriller story. Aaron told us how he was investigating the QuadrigaCX story and trying to explain the basics of crypto to a non-crypto audience. The first episodes of his show, “Exit Scam,” are now available for listening.
Aaron interviews a very diverse group of people who have insight into what could have happened at QuadrigaCX, from a private detective specializing in fake deaths to Michael Perklin, chief information security officer at ShapeShyft, who knew Gerald Cotten personally. He walks us through what we know and don’t know about QuadrigaCX and its founders, and how the centuries-old history of scams and financial fraud got a new life in crypto.
Enjoy the conversation, as we did, and definitely check out the podcast, an arresting detective story with elements of Crypto 101 course for everyone.
Aaron’s Twitter handle is: @aaronlammer.
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Steven E. Russell, Esq., portfolio manager for Emerald Banking and Finance Fund.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Emerald is an asset manager that previously focused on community banks but, unlike many of its peers, could not stay away from the lucrative business of crypto. Since 2019, Emerald has been investing in companies serving the crypto industry, including Silvergate Bank, Galaxy Digital and Grayscale’s ether and bitcoin trusts. (Grayscale is a CoinDesk sister company.)
This seemingly progressive move got Emerald downgraded by the professional investment analytics source Morningstar from Bronze to Neutral. “Emerald Banking & Finance has moved outside its circle of competence,” Morningstar analyst Eric Schultz wrote, adding that “a big shift into cryptocurrencies in late 2020 and early 2021 calls the discipline of the approach into question.”
Steven E. Russell, however, doesn’t think he moved anywhere beyond his competence: He got into crypto in 2017 by starting with bitcoin, then adding ether and getting into altcoins. “Now I look back and think, well, that was really stupid,” he says of some of his altcoin investments.
However, the experience demonstrated that crypto is the future not only of investments but of financial services as a whole, Russell believes. Now that Emerald is in crypto, more and more clients and even rival funds are approaching Russell asking about that “crypto thing,” what is DOGE, etc.
Russell walks us through his thinking on how the capital markets will have to evolve because of the impact of crypto. “We think [decentralized finance] is really going to change the industry,” Russell said. Listen to Ben, Anna and Danny discuss Emerald’s approach to crypto investments and its vision of asset management of the future.
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With CoinDesk’s Consensus just a week away, we decided that this week’s Money Reimagined episode should focus on the big macro and geopolitical themes that will be its hallmark.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Highlights of that landmark event include Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard’s perspective on the future of money, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio’s thesis on the end of the dollar’s dominance and a discussion/debate on the inflation outlook featuring former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and CoinDesk’s Noelle Acheson. Attendees will be asked to contemplate where the global economy is headed in an age of monetary transformation and what that means for the power structures of the world as we know it.
As a prelude, we invited Bruno Macaes, a Portuguese politician, author and influential thinker on geopolitical trends, and Tomicah Tillemann, the Director of the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative at the New America think tank, to give us their take on these matters.
Some of the scenarios we discussed are challenging. They paint a picture of mass disruption of the global economic order. But both our guests had a somewhat contrarian take to a common view, held by many observers of geopolitical trends, that forces of technological change and economic stress will conspire to bring to an end to the era of U.S. financial, economic and political hegemony.
In different ways, Macaes and Tillemann both argued that the U.S., if it plays its cards right, could turn this current moment of economic uncertainty to its advantage and sustain leadership of the global economy. To do so, they said, it must embrace the principles of open systems and open society that lie at the heart of the crypto ethos – and which, in theory at least, are ingrained in what are widely considered “American values.”
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss the security and running costs of CoinDesk’s Ethereum 2.0 staking operations with special guest, CoinDesk Director of Engineering Spencer Beggs. They also explain the main features of Eth 2.0’s first major backwards-incompatible upgrade, Altair, which is tentatively scheduled for release in July.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
In February, CoinDesk activated an Eth 2.0 validator, nicknamed Zelda, by staking 32 ETH, worth roughly $52,000 at the time, on Ethereum’s parallel proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network.
Since then, Zelda has been participating in network consensus by helping produce and validate blocks. In return, Zelda’s operations have earned CoinDesk a total of 0.62 ETH over the past three months, worth about $2,600 at time of writing.
Unlike other validator set-ups, Beggs explained that CoinDesk’s staking operations don’t require any hardware.
“Our Eth 2.0 validator is set-up in cloud computing so we’re not running our validator locally. We’re running it inside of our multi-tenant environment,” Beggs said. “This produces some challenges regarding the security infrastructure setup because we’re just not able to … unplug it or log into it. We have to account for many users being able to access the same environment that our validator is running.”
On the flip side, one of the main benefits to running Zelda on the cloud is its accessibility to a remote workforce. Due to the restrictions and concerns caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most offices, including CoinDesk’s in New York City, were forced to temporarily close. In lieu of a physical space, Beggs turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a safe alternative to host Zelda.
Beggs is presently looking into the costs associated with running an Eth 2.0 validator on the cloud.
“The server itself, just running it, we know costs about $200 a month thereabouts, but there’s network charges in and out. So that’s what we’re waiting to learn ... because that can be a lot of data or a little data depending on how the network is running. So it’ll be interesting to see how that’s actually playing out,” said Beggs.
Looking ahead to the future of Zelda and all Eth 2.0 validators, Edgington noted that a mandatory software upgrade was in the works by protocol developers.
“It’s time to take off the training wheels,” said Edgington. “We’ve still got some stabilizers on [Eth 2.0] but eventually we’ll be able to put in the full crypto economically correct amounts for these penalties and slashing penalties. So it’s a good sign that we’re moving in the right direction.”
For the entire explanation of what Eth 2.0 validators can expect to change about the network after the Altair upgrade, listen to the full podcast episode with Edgington and Kim.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
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Technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralized finance and artificial intelligence have expanded the professional financial landscape. Advisers serve the financial ecosystem and the world by creating a better understanding of financial concepts, technologies and behaviors. In order to do this, financial advisers must learn more about the digital asset space including not only bitcoin but DeFi, blockchain, stablecoins, crypto investment and much more.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross speaks with Adam Blumberg, Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of Interaxis, a research company that educates financial advisers, investors, businesses and professionals.
Blumberg discusses the importance of education in the digital asset space and how his company, Interaxis, is changing the financial landscape one adviser at a time.
Ross and Blumberg announce that OnRamp Invest is sponsoring the Interaxis Academy’s “Cohort” special crypto investment education program coming May 17 and OnRamp is offering 20 seats to available RIAs.
For more information go to www.onrampinvest.com or on Twitter @onrampinvest.
Interested in being a certified digital asset adviser go directly to www.certifieddigital.org
Adam Blumberg is a CFP and co-founder of Interaxis, a research, technology company. He is the Board chairman and lead curriculum developer.
Tyrone Ross is the CEO of OnRamp Invest, founder of 401STC, a storytelling consultancy; a graduate of Seton Hall University, and rated one of the top 10 advisers of 2019 set to change the industry by Wealthmanagement.com.
A message from Tyrone:
The greatest number of people living in poverty are children, we need to change that. If you can, get involved and give back to NoKidHungry.org. Love and Light. I appreciate you!
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and David Treat, senior managing director at Accenture, the co-founders of the Digital Dollar Project .
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io, and The Sun Exchange.
The Digital Dollar Project recently announced plans for a slew of pilot projects that will show what the tokenized U.S. dollar can and can’t do. It’s not clear yet exactly what those pilots will be.
The global race for leadership in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) started with China charging forward with its digital yuan project and all other nations rushing to catch up. Giancarlo believes the U.S. shouldn’t miss a chance to set the standards for CBDCs globally. But is it enough to issue another CBDC to stop the digital yuan’s expansion?
Another important concern regarding CBDCs is privacy. Giancarlo and Treat believe the U.S. government will ensure the privacy of citizens’ transactions, in keeping with the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. But what if the government is not the best guardian of personal information? We discuss the privacy concerns of CBDCs at length during this episode.
Finally, who needs CBDCs if we already have dollar-pegged stablecoins, some of which are regularly audited and regulated by the U.S.? Giancarlo does not fully trust the stablecoin issuers on the market now: “Who is the holder of a reserve bank account? What if the holder of that account absconds with the money?” he asked.
We discuss central bank digital currencies, and ask if we need this new form of money and how they will compete and integrate with private-sector initiatives, including USD-backed stablecoins.
Find Christopher Giancarlo and David Treat on Twitter: @giancarloMKTS and @DBTreat.
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If you were to describe what crypto represents in its entirety, either to the insiders who are obsessed with it or to the “normies” looking on with wonder from the outside, you might focus on technical issues related to immutability, censorship resistance, smart contracts, decentralized exchanges and so forth. Or you might use the language of finance and “asset classes” to talk about bitcoin as “digital gold” or ether as a commodity token that runs a decentralized network.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
But to capture the full picture, you’d also need to deal with all the strange, sometimes obscure, sometimes crude, occasionally funny memes that constantly course through Twitter and work their way into the crypto lexicon.
That’s important, not only because memes are integral to the crypto experience on their own, but because they are also driving some of the shifting ideas around money and finance generally. This, after all, is the era of SPACs, “stonks” and meme shares that rise because Reddit groups like WallStreetBets manage to bring the power and collective will of the mob to markets.
In many respects, that traditional world of finance is only catching up with crypto. Dogecoin, the ultimate meme token, might be hitting headlines now with its latest spectacular price rally as it is following on the heels of the WallStreetBets GameStop phenomenon. But dogecoin really precedes it, having been around since December 2013. You could argue that dogecoin is the original stonk.
This episode makes the case that if you’re going to try to understand how money is being reimagined in the new era, you need to go beyond the technology and the market dynamics and address the confusing cacophony of memes that drive the narratives around crypto.
To do that we were joined by two people who’ve inserted themselves into this grand, collective storytelling exercise with more influence than almost anyone. We talk to Nathaniel Whittemore, host of CoinDesk’s “Breakdown” podcast, and Coin Center’s Neeraj Agrawal, to discuss the importance of all this to both the outside world and the strange but fascinating subculture that has formed around the crypto community.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss the future of validator rewards post-merge to proof-of-stake (PoS) and the significance of the Steklo test network launch.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Currently, if you’re staking on Ethereum 2.0, Ethereum’s parallel PoS network, your operations are earning you a roughly 8% annual percentage return (APR).
But once Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0 merge, validators stand to earn more than triple this amount.
“It looks like around 25% per annum is the expected initial total annual return for [validators]. So on your 32 ether, you’ll be earning about eight ether per year, on average,” said Edgington.
The reason why is because a merge to Eth 2.0 will mean all transactions and smart-contract operations on Ethereum are processed by validators instead of Ethereum miners. This means validators will begin earning extra rewards from users and decentralized applications (dapps) in the form of transaction fees.
Prominent Ethereum community members such as Ethereum Foundation’s Tim Beiko and Trenton Van Epps have cautioned miners about planning operations beyond the end of 2021.
“To all Ethereum miners: Plan conservatively for an end to mining EOY 2021,” said Van Epps in a tweet.
Testing is ongoing for Ethereum’s merge to PoS. Last Friday, April 30, developers launched the first multi-client test network for this upgrade, dubbed “Steklo.”
Steklo “was only up for a day. That was pre-planned. It wasn’t supposed to be a test network that would be up and running for weeks a time,” said Kim.
For the few hours it was functional, Steklo faced a number of issues and errors.
For the complete commentary on the troubles the network faced and what developers learned from their first major attempt at modelling the merge of Ethereum and Eth 2.0, listen to the full podcast episode with Edgington and Kim.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
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For the first time ever, financial advisers are at a disadvantage. That is because their clients may know more about bitcoin and crypto assets than they do.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
In such a competitive and novel market, financial advisers must stay informed. With the volatility of bitcoin, financial advisers can look at data for answers, and so they should truly appreciate “Riskalyze” technology, which is a financial risk rate platform that every adviser should use to help their clients.
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross speaks with Aaron Klein, the CEO of Riskalyze. Klein, addresses the ‘pressure shift’ against advisors from institutional to client base through crypto currency as an asset class. Riskalyze is a financial risk rate platform that every financial adviser has or should have heard of and would benefit from.
Ross and Klein discuss the future of financial planning and the importance of using such technology to present the pros and cons of crypto investments. Advisers not only need information, but they also need to be their client’s superhero. Financial advisers have the power to make a difference in the future of money and what investments will yield as a result. That is priceless, and financial advisers must employ the newest technology to get the best possible outcomes for their clients.
Aaron Klein is the co-founder and CEO at Riskalyze. He led the company to twice being named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in finance by Fast Company Magazine. Aaron has served as a trustee at Sierra College, and Investment News has honored him as one of the industry’s top 40 Under 40 executives.
Tyrone Ross is the CEO of OnRamp Invest, founder of 401STC, a storytelling consultancy. He is a graduate of Seton Hall University, and was named a Top 10 Adviser of 2019 set to change the industry by Wealthmanagement.com
A message from Tyrone:
The greatest number of people living in poverty are children, we need to change that. If you can, get involved and give back to NoKidHungry.org. Love and Light. I appreciate you!
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This week, “Opinionated” co-hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Nik Bhatia, an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Business Economics at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
His book, "Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies" is freshly in print this year, and Nik has plenty of bold and controversial ideas to share.
Nik recently wrote two thought-provoking op-eds for CoinDesk about the future of bitcoin. One of them, “Why $1 Million Bitcoin Is Coming” is a projection of forces affecting bitcoin’s upcoming growth. In particular, Nik believes MicroStrategy’s and Tesla’s bitcoin purchases resulted in big increases in bitcoin’s price – increases that he sees continuing as new companies and even central banks start buying in.
If we expected more big enterprises to join the party, are we looking at $1 million bitcoin? Or is it too bullish? Nik guided us through his journey of understanding bitcoin and why he thinks it will be a base layer to the future financial system.
Bitcoin’s volatility is not going anywhere in the future, Nik believes. But that shouldn’t stop traditional asset managers from buying it, because they are buying a share in the world’s financial future. And in this future, the national currencies might become central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and bitcoin will be a global standard to weigh against those national
We discuss these and more bold ideas, how people should invest in bitcoin and how the world will treat bitcoin in the years to come. Enjoy the conversation and definitely check out Nik’s pieces, “Why $1 Million Bitcoin Is Coming” and “Asset Managers, Owning Bitcoin Is Now Your Fiduciary Duty.”
Nik Bhatia’s Twitter handle is: @timevalueofbtc.
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In what has become a de facto world tour of crypto hot spots, this week “Money Reimagined” is headed to Nigeria.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
We talked to two Nigerian entrepreneurs – Yele Bademosi, the CEO of payments app Bundle Africa, and Adia Sowho, a venture builder and operator – about the burgeoning crypto innovation ecosystem in their country.
Among this entertaining pair’s many insights was the idea the Nigerian Central Bank’s February order that banks shut down crypto companies’ access ended up being a positive for the industry. It spurred even more innovation in the space, inspiring local developers to dream up interesting new decentralized solutions for getting around the banking sector’s gatekeepers.
The idea dovetails with some we’ve heard from other guests – from Democracy Earth’s Santiago Siri, for example, who spoke of how the startup scene in his native Argentina is shaped and driven by the failure of the existing financial system and the efforts by authorities there to constrain people’s financial freedom.
It shows how the crypto world has fostered a new breed of developer-entrepreneur, one who no longer wants to work to change the existing system but is inspired to build entire new alternatives to it.
We also learned from Bademosi and Sowho that the narratives the crypto community in the industrialized world tend to embrace about the technology’s value in the developing world are often misplaced. It’s convenient for people in the U.S. to talk up the idea that Nigerian activists were using bitcoin during the anti-government protests last year or that it is being used widely as a remittance and payments vehicle. But our guests point out those use cases aren’t as widespread as believed and that, much like in the U.S, most Nigerians are for now buying bitcoin as a store of value.
On the other hand, they tell us Nigeria specifically – and Africa generally – is a hotbed of innovation in DeFi. And why not? The opportunities for experimentation and creativity for decentralized finance are arguably much greater in places where the existing financial system is underdeveloped.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington talk about what caused 70% of validators on Ethereum 2.0 to stop producing blocks on the network and the important takeaways for protocol developers in light of this event. They also discuss the updated roadmap for the Eth 2.0 upgrade as outlined by Vitalik Buterin in a recent presentation.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Last Friday, April 23, founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, gave a presentation at the Scaling Ethereum Summit on the upgrades he expects to come after the network’s transition to a new, environmentally friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol.
“The first set of things here is a lot of security improvements, some economic sustainability improvements and some features,” said Buterin at the event. “The far future is just about really nailing down and improving and having extremely strong guarantees about the security of the system.”
Buterin detailed a number of different upgrades after PoS including sharding, rollups, verifiable delay functions, Ethereum Virtual Machine improvements and more. To Kim, the main takeaway from the presentation was not the individual upgrades and their technicalities, but the sheer breadth of work still to be done on the protocol even after its long-awaited merge with the Eth 2.0 network.
“When are we going to get to the end here? ... There seems to be a lot more that we’re going to have to continue to talk about when it comes to Ethereum finally reaching its production ready, world computer phase,” said Kim.
To this, Edgington noted the vision outlined by Buterin was indeed ambitious and big but that he was in full support of such a roadmap.
“I love this idea that we just keep on growing and evolving. It keeps me engaged. There are lots of very interesting problems to solve,” said Edgington.
Speaking of a problem, the Ethereum 2.0 network had its first major incident on April 24 after 70% of validators on the network were suddenly unable to produce blocks. Developers quickly identified the root cause of the issue was from a bug in the Eth 2.0 software client, Prym.
A patch was rolled out to affected validators the same day. The issue still persisted through till Sunday, however, for certain validators who hadn’t upgraded to the latest version of Prysm.
The important lesson, according to Edgington, is for validators, staking pools and developers to be more proactive about client diversity on Ethereum 2.0.
“Here’s an example where the network would have been much more robust if each of the four clients had 25% of validators each. In that case, you’d only be missing a quarter of the blocks if this had happened and the network would have been more or less fine,” said Edgington. “But when one client dominates and that client has a problem, it’s really serious for the whole network.”
Catch the full breakdown of how developers are responding to Saturday’s incident by listening to the entire podcast episode of Mapping Out Ethereum 2.0 hosted by Edgington and Kim.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
- ‘What Happens After the Merge’ Presentation by Vitalik Buterin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ggwLccuN5s)
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It is imperative financial advisers continue to cultivate their command of knowledge within the cryptocurrency world. Creating an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) community to facilitate the erudite discussions that knowledgeable investors practice daily is important and will only yield success for those they guide.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross chats with one of his own OnRamp Invest family: Catlin Cook who is head of community and a new Research Associate at OnRamp Invest.
Cook and the OnRamp Invest family offer financial advisers guidance to continue to build their RIA community and maintain a current level of education within the cryptocurrency world. In this volatile bitcoin age, it has become crucial for advisers to nurture their expertise in bitcoin investment.
As a financial analyst and seasoned consultant within the cryptocurrency world, Cook has made a name for herself by proactively building a Twitter community with the most successful and dynamic leaders in the industry. She starts by providing essential education and even defining key terms that many newbies to the industry overlook, such as “What is a blockchain?” and “What is an NFT?” Just as within any industry, knowledge and pedagogy as well as building from the basics is imperative to understanding the complexities of cryptocurrency and for successful investing.
Adviser skepticism about cryptocurrency is natural. “I think it is basic human nature to be skeptical about things we don’t understand, to reject new things … and we don’t like change,” says Cook. It is extremely important that financial advisers stay up to date with current information but it is also important to be open to all opinions as there is no “one size fits all.” Advisers must tailor their expertise to help clients best invest for what they need.
Cooks’ strategy is to “keep it simple.'' “There is so much to learn in crypto and a vast amount of information to absorb that much of the content is overlooked,” she says.
Listen. Learn. LEAD.
OnRamp Invest is a crypto-asset iPaaS (integration platform as a service) solution for financial advisors and investment advisory firms.
Tyrone Ross is the CEO of OnRamp Invest, founder of 401STC, a storytelling consultancy; is a graduate of Seton Hall University, and the top ten adviser of 2019 set to change the industry by Wealthmanagement.com
A message from Tyrone:
The greatest number of people living in poverty are children, we need to change that. If you can, get involved and give back to NoKidHungry.org. Love and Light. I appreciate you!
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InterPop is redefining the future of NFTs and fandom. Learn more at interpop.io
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The Sun Exchange is offering CoinDesk Reports listeners a free solar cell with your first purchase and automatically lease them to power businesses in sunny, emerging markets.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, we’re shaking up “Opinionated’s” format and adding two more co-hosts, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson. And we’re joined by another CoinDesker, our managing editor of podcasts, Adam B. Levine.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Last week he wrote a column on the rise of dogecoin, “Dogecoin Is Not the Next Bitcoin – But Here Are the Similarities.” Dogecoin was created in 2013 on litecoin’s infrastructure, and didn’t command much attention until last year.
Adam has been in crypto for ages and has seen the rise and fall of many projects. Is he seriously hopeful for DOGE’s bright future, or just trolling? In any case, on this podcast Adam, Ben, Anna and Danny are doing their best to take DOGE as seriously as they can.
Adam’s point is clear: Crypto is all about consensus, and if a consensus forms around the idea that dogecoin is a good asset/digital money, why can’t it become really big and notable on the global financial scene?
Dogecoin already surpassed bitcoin in investment returns over the last seven years, as Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal ironically (?) noted in his recent newsletter.
People want predictable digital money that other people use as well. Can dogecoin become this one day?
Can DOGE evolve into some kind of reliable money system not pegged to any particular state and government? Or will crypto influencers and companies like Slim Jim just have fun with it for a while and then forget about it for another eternity?
Listen to Ben, Adam, Anna and Danny discuss both fun and serious things about dogecoin, all while having fun staying DOGE-poor.
And check out Adam’s op-ed here: Dogecoin Is Not the Next Bitcoin – But Here Are the Similarities.
Adam B Levine’s Twitter handle is @AdamBLevine.
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With all the gyrations in crypto markets, it is easy to lose sight of why this technology has drawn so many passionate believers. In this week’s episode we go straight to that point by diving into the theme of human rights and the role that bitcoin can play as a medium for saving and spending that is free from the confiscatory powers of government – including those of authoritarian regimes.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io and The Sun Exchange.
Throughout its life, communities of activists all around the world have taken to bitcoin as a tool of empowerment. Sometimes it’s because they live in places where the local currency is constantly being debased by profligate governments. Sometimes it’s because they are at risk of having property seized by the regime. Sometimes it’s because they need a way to fund dissidents’ activities.
To explore all this, we speak to the Human Rights Foundation’s outspoken chief strategy officer, Alex Gladstein, on how he, a career human rights campaigner, found his way into the weird world of bitcoin. We also have the pleasure of talking to an activist in Sudan, a person who goes by Mo and the podcaster pseudonym of @SudanHODL.
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In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss the significance of three events: an Ethereum 2.0 milestone, an Ethereum hard fork upgrade and the public listing of a major cryptocurrency exchange.
This episode is sponsored by hellointerpop.io, The Sun Exchange.
Beginning with Coinbase’s direct listing on Nasdaq, Kim and Edgington consider whether this watershed moment in the cryptocurrency industry is really something to get excited about.
“Bitcoin was created to be this peer-to-peer payments network, where you don’t need any financial middlemen; but here’s Coinbase. Everyone is getting so excited and happy [about] Coinbase even though it’s doing the very thing that Bitcoin was created to deal with and get rid of,” Kim said.
Concerns over centralized actors overshadowing the decentralized purpose of blockchains is also relevant to Ethereum. Ethereum infrastructure provider Infura is an example of a company who has faced criticism in the past for their expanding role as the “gatekeeper” to Ethereum.
“It’s an interesting spectrum and we’ve only just begun on this journey,” said Edgington. “Only a few million people have interacted with the blockchain, any blockchain, so far, and there are a few billion yet to reach. I think we need to make it as easy as possible from them to do so.”
Kim and Edgington also discussed the milestone of the Ethereum proof-of-stake network, also called Ethereum 2.0, reaching its one millionth slot. A slot on Eth 2.0 is space for a block containing transactions and user data to be processed and finalized. Every 12 seconds validators, which are the equivalent of miners, can propose a block into a slot and earn rewards.
“It’s just a number, but it’s a good point to take stock of where we are. [Eth 2.0] has been running for four and a half months now and it’s been totally trouble free. It’s just been incredible,” said Edgington.
Finally, the two dissect the post mortem of Ethereum’s latest backwards-incompatible system-wide upgrade known as the Berlin hard fork. Everything didn’t go as planned and, as Kim notes, it’ll become increasingly important that things do work as Ethereum releases more ambitious upgrades in future.
Check out the full podcast episode hosted by Edington and Kim to get all the latest commentary around Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
InterPop is redefining the future of NFTs and fandom. Learn more at interpop.io
The Sun Exchange is offering CoinDesk Reports listeners a free solar cell with your first purchase and automatically lease them to power businesses in sunny, emerging markets.
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There are no take-backs in the Bitcoin environment; and, with future governmental regulations coming, the question becomes: what is the true value of investing in bitcoin?
In this episode of “On Purpose,” host Tyrone Ross sits down with financial advisors Ronnie Colvin, Manish Khatta and Courtney Ranstrom in this special edition of ‘The Bitcoin Haters’ Ball’. They explain the sage advice that they’ve guided their own clients with right now in regards to the Bitcoin Bull market. They also highlight many of the tremendous risks that purchasing bitcoin or increasing in cryptocurrency is an enormous risk.
Ransom: “I tell my clients to not invest in bitcoin any more than they are willing to lose.”
Colvin, Khatta, and Ranstrom give their 3 key takeaways that aid in minimizing future investment risks:
- There are no consumer protections at all. When using bitcoin as an everyday transaction, be aware that losses are a reality.
- Be as educated as possible when weighing the implications and risks associated with crypto investments.
- As an advisor, be educated and highly mindful of your clients; it is essential to continue to research as bitcoin is ever changing.
Our Haters’ Ball guests:
Ronnie Colvin : IT Financial Planner who assists technical professionals in building a roadmap for their financial future as he helps them to figure out where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there.
Manish Khatta : Is the President & Chief Investment officer of firm Potomac. Manish is a staunch believer that investment risk is something that can be contained and conquered, using quantitative trading systems.
Courtney Ranstrom: Co-Founder & Financial Life Planner at Trailhead Planners. Helps clients discover what wealth means to them.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week’s Money Reimagined episode was recorded at the ideal moment to take stock of the biggest development in the crypto space this year: Coinbase’s public listing on the Nasdaq exchange. The show was recorded on Wednesday, the day of the listing, just after 4 pm, the time at which U.S. stock markets closed.
So, with the help of Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna (who was Michael’s co-author for both The Age of Currency and The Truth Machine) and of CoinDesk Director of Research Noelle Acheson, we broke down the day’s action, the history of what brought us to this point from when Coinbase was first launched in 2012, and what this means for the future: for Coinbase, for the crypto community, for Wall Street, and for Main Street,
In tying itself to the corporate “suits,” is this disruptive firm from the crypto universe going to shake up the Wall Street establishment from within, or will those older institutions constrain it?
What does the sudden scramble up the crypto learning curve look like for all those institutional investors who now feel they need to own – and therefore understand -- this stock and the weird new decentralized financial industry it services?
Who’s the next Coinbase? And what does the inevitable influx of investment in search of that “new new thing” do to the funding of new projects and new ideas among startups that may end up supplanting Coinbase and eventually rendering it obsolete?
We address these and many more in this episode.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington discuss the future of cryptocurrency mining and staking with former CoinDesk Market Reporter Will Foxley.
“I’m pro both proof-of-stake and proof-of-work. I don’t know which one wins out over the years [but] to me it comes down to capital costs,” said Foxley. “Both have capital costs no matter what and both use energy just in different ways.”
To Foxley, the new Editorial Director at Compass Mining, these two seemingly opposing blockchain systems are really two sides of the same coins. Both rely on computers to devote a certain amount of energy towards securing and maintaining a decentralized digital ledger.
While mining does require comparatively more computing power than staking, validators in proof-of-stake networks do still rely on energy expenditure in some form, according to Foxley.
The key question is how we define where energy comes from.
From Edgington’s viewpoint, the matter isn’t quite so ill-defined.
“Proof-of-stake for me wins heavily here,” says Edgington, “because the amount of energy needed to secure the network is something like one ten thousandth of what Ethereum is currently using for proof-of-work mining and that’s not a small difference. That’s a material difference to the heat emissions and CO2 emissions on the planet.”.
The long-run sustainability of either system depends on the types of users that will be most incentivized to participate either as a miner or staker. While miners are becoming increasingly professionalized and centralized, the more lucrative a cryptocurrency becomes, the more people will be incentivized to become validators in a proof-of-stake network and greater numbers of users will engage in staking.
For the full commentary on this topic of mining versus staking, check out this week’s episode of Mapping Out Eth 2.0: Ethereum as it was meant to be. Starting next week, Edgington and Kim will take over as show co-hosts.
To follow Foxley on his new voyage into the industry of cryptocurrency mining, subscribe to his new newsletter, Compass Mining Memo.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- Justin Drake Bankless Podcast Episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqhn1hXvVc)
- Rayonism Hackathon (https://rayonism.io/)
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A few weeks ago, the non-fungible token (NFT) world saw one of the first blockchain art heists, with several users seeing their marketplace accounts taken over and their valuables stolen. In this special episode of “CoinDesk Reports,” Managing Editor Adam B. Levine digs into the thorny issue of not just what can but what should be done in these situations.
This episode is sponsored by Interpop.io
This time we speak with Marguerite deCourcelle, CEO of Blockade Games, the creator of Neon District; and William Quigley, CEO of WAX, a blockchain designed specifically for NFTs. They help us understand the ground truth about blockchain collectibles and how that both helps and hurts when things go wrong.
Later, we hear from Alex Salnikov, a co-founder of Rarible, for a different perspective on where mass adoption is pushing the still-nascent technology. Oh, and there's at least a sort-of happy ending, too, for the victims in our tale.
As always, we'd love to hear what you think. Have something to say? Send us an email at podcasts@coindesk.com.
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InterPop is building the architecture of an entirely new landscape of fandom using technology built on the Tezos blockchain to drive their vision. Visit hellointerpop.io to learn more.
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Photo credit: Bermix Studio/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Without letters of credit, bills of lading, shipping documents and trillions of dollars in global goods trade would grind to a halt. (And you thought our dependency on the Suez Canal was a problem!)
This episode is sponsored by Interpop.io
But the world’s system of trade finance, a highly complex setup involving banks, insurers, shipping companies, data providers and all manner of intermediaries, is far from ideal.
There is massive fraud – check the New York Times’ account of the recent Greensill Capital collapse for – and severe inequity in terms of who gets favorable borrowing terms and who doesn’t. Without access to the trusted data needed to prove their creditworthiness, millions of small-and-medium enterprises are unable to obtain credit to cover the risks associated with exporting their goods. So they either run the risk of non-payment or simply cannot participate in the global economy.
As a measure of that inequity, Sheila noted in her monologue to this week’s Money Reimagined episode – in which we talk to two blockchain pioneers trying to fix the trade finance industries many problems – that there’s currently a $1.5 trillion global trade financing gap. But then in his first comments, Tallyx CEO Aditya Menon offered an alternative analysis of how much of the goods trade goes unfinanced and came up with a $5 trillion number. That’s about half of the global trade in goods.
Can blockchains and tokenization address these inequities?
As you’ll hear from Menon, as well as from Skuchain co-founder Rebecca Liao, the answers lie in figuring out how to incentivize all participants – the exporters, importers, shippers and financiers – to share data in a way that unlocks funding faster.
Skuchain is focused on making the information richer and more reliable along the supply chain. Tallyx is figuring out how to turn the contractual information such as invoices into tokens of value that can be traded in ways that allow smaller suppliers to monetize their legitimate receivables.
The problems they are trying to solve aren’t easy. But that’s what makes their work so compelling.
Blockchain projects like Skuchain and Tallyx offer a healthy reminder that beyond the razzamatazz of crypto markets and celebrity non-fungible tokens, meaningful impact is also possible if you work hard at the core problems faced by real-world entities.
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InterPop is building the architecture of an entirely new landscape of fandom using technology built on the Tezos blockchain to drive their vision. Visit hellointerpop.io to learn more.
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Image Credit: Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images News
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’sWill Foxley and Consensys’ Ben Edgington meet up with Coogan Brennan to discuss solo staking on Ethereum 2.0.
This episode is sponsored by Interpop.io
Coogan Brennan’s passion for training is contagious as he equips new generations of developers with information. Brennan says, “Education has been the North Star for a lot of the work I have done in Ethereum.” He sees the world of crypto as “learner led” and feels that “it’s such a young industry that no-one can claim to be a senior educator or developer.”
Coogan is a prime example of the learner-led culture and he first heard about crypto while running a tailoring business. After years of grappling with the many complexities related to Ethereum, he now works as a trainer at ConsenSys, which is a leading Ethereum development shop.
Join us as we discuss a series of in-depth articles that Coogan wrote about becoming a solo staker on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain.
This journey into staking required a shift of mindset. We are all familiar with images of the Proof-of-Work server farms. It’s easy to imagine that we would need a similar kind of kit to run an Eth2 staking rig.
We also take the chance to discuss the complexities of working at a company like ConsenSys. Brennan explains a bit more about his work when he says, “to be an employee of ConsenSys is to live with great contradictions”. He sees one of ConsenSys’ great survival strategies as “its ability to fund wild dreamers.”
Finally, we inevitably arrive at our favorite topic, Ethereum governance. Coogan describes Ethereum as a “dynamic, moving, evolving beast.” Does this make it ungovernable?
Coogan is “always urging people to go further and further down the wormhole.” Listen to the full podcast to catch his infectious desire for learning.
Coogan’s articles:
- My Journey to Becoming a Validator on Ethereum 2.0: Part 1, Part 2
- How to Monitor Your Eth2 Validator and Analyze Your P&L
- How To Safely Migrate Your Ethereum 2.0 Validator Client
Twitter handles:
- ConsenSys Academy: @ConsenSysAcad
- Coogan: @BEB_AND_SON
- Will: @wsfoxley
- Ben: @benjaminion_xyz
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InterPop is building the architecture of an entirely new landscape of fandom using technology built on the Tezos blockchain to drive their vision. Visit hellointerpop.io to learn more.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Nischal Shetty, the CEO of India’s top crypto exchange WazirX joins hosts Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova on this week’s Borderless to talk crypto bans. Rumor has it India’s government is gearing up for a crypto crackdown; possibly a complete ban. Is that really the case? Nischal helps untangle fact from fiction in one of crypto’s most exciting emerging markets.
The conversation then turns to crypto-environmentalism, first through mining and then via NFTs. Miami’s dream of becoming a hub for “clean energy” crypto mining could run into some pretty “hot” opposition. Meanwhile, another NFT marketplace is bending the knee to environmentalists’ demands, but only slightly.
https://www.coindesk.com/miami-mayor-wants-city-to-become-bitcoin-mining-hub
https://www.coindesk.com/nifty-gateway-pledges-to-go-carbon-negative-amid-criticism-of-nfts
https://www.coindesk.com/cbdcs-will-reduce-demand-for-bitcoin-says-south-korea-central-bank-chief
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Will Foxley, along with Consensys’ Ben Edgington, discuss the importance of naming conventions around the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and the impact of staking on the long-term market value of ETH.
Did you know the first use of the term “Ethereum 2.0” was by founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin back in April 2014 when he first began exploring the benefits of proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain protocols?
At the time, Ethereum 2.0 referenced one thing and one thing only: a version of the Ethereum blockchain protocol secured entirely through proof-of-stake validation, as opposed to proof-of-work mining.
Over the years, Ethereum 2.0 as a term has evolved and grown to encompass other improvements to the network including optimizations for scalability, smart contract functionality and blockchain interoperability.
Given recent discussion over proposals to speed up Ethereum’s transition to PoS, certain developers such as the Ethereum Foundation’s Danny Ryan are pushing back on using the loaded terminology of Eth 2.0.
“It’s not just about naming things. It’s about how the Ethereum roadmap has kind of evolved over the years,” said Edgington, adding: “It’s not just about changing names for the sake of it. It’s about saying, ‘We’re not doing a new chain anymore. This is no longer the plan. We are upgrading the existing chain.’”
As plans for Ethereum’s future change, so, too, will conventional naming for its updated roadmap. Keeping up with constant iteration to Eth 2.0 and what this upgrade will actually entail, however, is a “moving target” that, according to Foxley, many mainstream financial analysts are in the dark and left wondering about.
Some, as I point out, are also worrying about the impacts of an imminent PoS protocol on the long-term value of ether. Given that under PoS it will require less computational energy to create new coins on Ethereum, could the market value of ether be negatively impacted as a result?
Listen to the full podcast to hear from Foxley, Edgington and Kim on what’s at stake for Eth 2.0.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Kim Nilsson, a former user of the oldest (and long defunct) Mt. Gox crypto exchange. Nilsson has investigated the infamous crypto theft and has been watching the effort to repay the exchange’s creditors.
When Mt. Gox stopped functioning and filed for bankruptcy, Nilsson didn’t just sit back and see what happened. He set up his own bitcoin node, coded software and tracked the stolen bitcoin to where it landed. He’s also been an active member of the Mt. Gox creditor community over the years.
Nilsson explains why it takes so long to resolve all the seven-year-old situations, why most of the creditors are still holding on to their claims (instead of selling them) and what’s next for those who have been waiting for repayment since 2014.
We also asked him to chat with us about the most interesting global crypto stories of last week. That was fun!
For example, Canadian exchange Coinsquare was obliged by a federal court in Canada to disclose data on some of its 20,000 users to the national tax agency, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The taxman is knocking on crypto exchanges’ doors, and that, Nilsson believes, is basically the end of privacy in crypto.
The rumor mill is working overtime in India: Will the nation ban all cryptocurrencies? Start blocking IP addresses of crypto exchanges? Maybe, maybe not. India is a big economy with a young and crypto-curious population, so the threat of crypto regulation has resounded.
Meanwhile in Turkey, the national currency, the lira, is tanking, and people are buying bitcoin to protect their savings. There are neither regulations nor a specific tax on crypto in the country, and the interest in bitcoin is surging in the time of fiscal uncertainty.
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- WSJ: The Man Who Solved Bitcoin’s Most Notorious Heist
- CoinDesk: Mt. Gox
- CoinDesk: Mt. Gox Creditors to Vote on Draft Rehabilitation Plan
- CoinDesk: Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Ordered to Hand Thousands of Customers’ Records to Canadian Tax Agency
- CoinDesk: Crypto Is Not Regulated in Turkey, and It’s Thriving
- CoinDesk: India May Block IP Addresses of Crypto Exchanges: Report
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Will Foxley, along with Consensys’ Ben Edgington, discuss the latest proposals fast-tracking Ethereum’s transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol.
The promises of Ethereum 2.0 are changing in important ways.
On Thursday, March 11, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin published a blog post detailing how the network’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus protocol to PoS could be executed far more quickly than developers had originally planned.
“It would leave a lot of loose ends that we’d have to work on and tidy up later, but it’s looking like this [transition] could be months rather than years [away],” said Edgington.
There are several reasons why a move to PoS in the near term, rather than long term, looks attractive in the eyes of Ethereum developers. First, it would mean the resistance from proponents of the Ethereum miner community towards reductions in block reward through Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 and changes to the network’s consensus algorithm would be short-lived. With a PoS upgrade, miners would effectively be forked from the Ethereum protocol entirely and replaced with other network stakeholders known as “validators.”
Second, Edgington noted there’s been “a big backlash” about the environmental impact of Ethereum’s PoW algorithm securing the value of several high-profile non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As the value on Ethereum grows through decentralized applications (dapps) and tokens, there is greater pressure to reduce the energy consumption of the underlying protocol and reduce the network’s environmental footprint through a switch to PoS.
At the same time, there are equally important reasons why a move to PoS in the near term could negatively impact Ethereum.
First, the process for coming to an agreement about the development roadmap and timeline for Eth 2.0 has been restricted to a comparatively small group of developers and researchers. Moving forward with a transition to PoS now would mean all decisions are made with a much larger community of network stakeholders and through a more complicated process of governance. This is likely to slow research and development for other innovative aspects of Eth 2.0 – namely, the scalability promises of this multi-year upgrade.
The second reason for resisting a move to PoS for Ethereum in the near future is that in order to do so, core features and functionalities initially envisioned for the protocol would need to be delayed. For example, sharding, which is the primary scaling solution for Ethereum on a protocol layer, would have to wait in order for an Eth 2.0 transition to happen posthaste.
Are protocol developers giving up too much of the grand vision originally outlined for Eth 2.0 in favor of a quick fix solution to PoS? Listen to the full podcast to hear from Kim, Foxley and Edgington on what’s at stake for Eth 2.0.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (www.eth2.news)
Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, about the blockchain analytics firm’s 2021 “Crypto Crime Report,” how to locate where scammers send their money, and the state of crypto regulation and adoption.
The report, released in February, maps out major crime types associated with cryptocurrencies: crypto scams, ransomware attacks and money laundering, among others. Kim Grauer explains how Chainalysis comes to its conclusions about the geography of crypto transactions, what cyber crimes were on the rise in 2020 and why transaction-tracking software hates mixers.
Also, we discuss Sandali Handagama’s report about a startup that helps savings groups in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, to invest in stablecoins and protect against inflation of their national currencies. In Africa, many people don’t have access to banking services, and instead, they do collective savings. Could crypto make this practice easier?
On the regulatory front: European crypto firm Bitcoin Suisse has failed in its bid to win a banking license. FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, on Wednesday rejected Bitcoin Suisse’s charter application on grounds the company had weak anti-money laundering defenses. Bitcoin Suisse has been working with banks and regulators in Switzerland for years now, but looks like it’s not enough.
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- Chainalysis: The Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report
- CoinDesk: Nigerians Turn to Stablecoins for Protection Against Inflation
- CoinDesk: Stellar Development Foundation Invests $750K in Nigeria Remittance Platform
- CoinDesk: Swiss Crypto Firm Bitcoin Suisse Turned Down on Banking License
- CoinDesk: EU Regulators Warn Again on Crypto Investment Risks
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
An insider's look at how Bitcoin is making renewable energy sustainable featuring industry veterans Meltem Demirors and Harry Sudock.
As big banks, publicly traded corporations and some of the biggest names in finance become increasingly bullish on Bitcoin’s prospects, only a few objections really remain. These days on Wall Street it’s all about responsible investing as seen through the lens of “Environmental, Social and Governance,” (better known as ESG). On this episode of CoinDesk’s “Money Reimagined,” we speak with two of the top minds building out bitcoin mining in the U.S. for an insiders look at the real story on energy, money and sustainability. In this episode we’ll speak with Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, and Harry Sudock, vice president of Strategy at GRIID.
To set the stage, earlier this week on CoinDesk TV, fund manager and “Shark Tank” co-host Kevin O’Leary said Wall Street has to satisfy sustainability reporting requirements before it can buy wholesale into bitcoin. He estimated that only 10% of institutions that wanted to buy had bought in, partly because of climate concerns.
He continued, “All of these new providence concerns, which were not on anybody’s mind when crypto was simply the purvey of the hedge fund or the retail investor. Now it has to have a new standard. Where did it come from? How was it mined? Was it mined sustainably? How do I know I’m not supporting mining in a country where human rights are abused like China? All of these issues are at the fore for institutional clients.”
These are valid questions, but they’re certainly not new, much less unanswered. Demirors described the problem as “two facts and two fallacies,” saying:
“Fact #1 - Bitcoin mining is highly energy intensive. That is a fact. Bitcoin is the only network that I know of that documents its energy use and is extremely transparent about it, which I think makes Bitcoin a very easy target. It’s impossible for you to calculate how much energy the banking industry uses, how much energy the U.S. military uses. Most industries and sectors are very opaque about their energy usage. Bitcoin is not.
Fact #2 - A majority of bitcoin miners are located in China. That is still a fact, we are working on changing that but it is a fact.
From those two facts, some logical fallacies follow:
Fallacy #1 - The logic then goes: Bitcoin miners in China are using dirty, coal-based power. That’s actually false and we have proven that to be false through our bitcoin mining research report. We were the first firm in the industry to do this research. We spoke to all of the miners first-hand and did a bottoms-up calculation where we found that 77% of all bitcoin mining done in China was done with renewable energy that would otherwise not be utilized. So that’s fallacy number one.
Fallacy #2 is that bitcoin mining has an extreme carbon footprint. And that is something that’s also provably false, and I think an area that people who care about the bitcoin network are working to provide more data to make that extremely transparent.
And then, the last logical, sort of “transitive property sum” that comes out of those four statements… Two facts, two idealogical fallacies is that “Bitcoin is bad,” which is a moral judgment.”
Sudock, meanwhile, discussed his experience as a profit-oriented bitcoin miner who was sucked into environmentally responsible mining out of sheer necessity.
“We didn’t enter this industry with an eye towards becoming a renewable operator. We didn’t think that that was sort of our ‘edge,’ but what we quickly found through conversations with everybody from very very large, federal energy producers in the U.S. to very small hydro dams that are run by Mom and Pops who can’t afford upgrades to their turbines, is that everybody is looking for revenue enhancement strategies that will support the growth and resilience of the energy that they’re producing. And the need for those enhancement strategies are particularly acute when you start to look at renewable generation. Those conversations at this point for us are inbound. I spend less time reaching out to energy producers than energy producers spend reaching out to me. And that’s a huge change.”
All of this and more in this week’s episode of CoinDesk’s “Money Reimagined.”
Image credit: Master Wen/Unsplash
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this week’s episode, CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Consensys’ Ben Edgington are joined by “Superphiz,” the pseudonymous moderator and lead organizer of the Reddit ETH Staker Community.
/r/EthStaker is an online community of investors, traders, users and developers dedicated to the education and exploration of topics related to Ethereum’s live transformation into a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol.
Since the launch of Ethereum’s parallel PoS blockchain back on Dec. 1, 2020, Superphiz and his fellow ETH Staker community members have been busy working on a number of projects meant to encourage user participation in the new network.
First and foremost, there is the StakeHouse project aimed at reducing the complexity of staking on Ethereum 2.0. According to Superphiz, the biggest “hurdle” preventing people from becoming validators on Eth 2.0 is the client software installation process.
In order to stake on Eth 2.0 and earn rewards as a validator on the network, users must choose one of four software clients to run on a computer. The StakeHouse team is currently building “a graphical one-click installer” that will remove the minute intricacies of loading a particular Eth 2.0 client onto a user’s device.
“You load up a graphical interface and it says, ‘Which client do you want to install?’ You choose one through four. Press the button and then select the location of your key. Thank you. You’re done. It should be that easy,” said Superphiz.
Second, there is the Ethereum Due Diligence Committee. Members of the ETH Staker community have created a website to evaluate the trustworthiness of several Eth 2.0 staking pools and will soon be publishing formal rating schemes by which to grade each staking service.
In doing so, the motivation is to help train users on recognizing healthy staking pools and hold staking pools accountable to a shared standard of security and usability.
Finally, the ETH Staker community also supports knowledge sharing and increased awareness about the development roadmap of Eth 2.0 through its Eth 2.0 Studymaster Program. Listen to the full podcast to hear from Superphiz on what the program entails and how it is set up.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- /r/EthStaker (https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/)
- ETHStaker YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeHmYPRYZddrM1tfJLfLVDA)
- Ethereum Study Master Program (https://ethereumstudymaster.com/courses/)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A collection of 5,000 .jpg files just sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. Why? Because it’s art, it’s digital and it’s on a blockchain. Hosts Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson dive into the non-fungible token (NFT) phenomenon and its wildest, eye-popping twist yet on “Borderless” this week, discussing what makes NFTs so valuable and whether they’re here to stay – potentially turning the art world on its head. Even hackers are paying attention.
The conversation then turns to Israel, where local media reported the Altschuler Shacham pension fund invested $100 million in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust at $21,000. (Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk parent company DCG). It’s the latest example of traditionally conservative money flowing into the historically volatile crypto. Danny and Anna discuss the trend.
Finally, “Borderless” heads to New Zealand where a startup’s started minting one of the world’s earliest fully compliant stablecoin. With currency digitization sweeping across borders, the hosts consider how the future of money might be shaped by corporations and governments, too.
Articles in the podcast:
https://www.coindesk.com/beeple-nft-christies-auction
https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-pension-giant-put-100m-into-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-report
https://www.coindesk.com/new-zealand-stablecoin-techemynt
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
At the end of a high-energy week in the burgeoning digital art world, “Money Reimagined” brings you the third and (for now) final edition of our NFT series.
In between recording this episode and publishing it two days later, a non-fungible token attached to a piece of digital art sold for a whopping $69.3 million. The sale, orchestrated by Christie’s, turned the digital creator known as Beeple into the third-highest paid living artist. It also represented a high point in the media attention now swirling around this new, crypto-based technology.
So, it’s appropriate we end on a note that grounds things in the reality of the technology and its potential to transform the creator economy generally, rather than being caught up in the celebrity story and media sensations. To do so, we talk with Roham Gharegozlou, the CEO and founder of Dapper Labs, the startup that in many respects is responsible for kicking off the entire NFT phenomenon.
We talk about the early days when Dapper created the ERC-721 standard on Ethereum and launched the popular CryptoKitties program. We talk about why the team made the decision to build its own blockchain, known as Flow, and to migrate the business there away from Ethereum. And we talk about where this rapidly evolving industry, with its competing platforms and wild debates over rights and opportunities, is going.
Join us for the conversation.
Image credit: Benjamin Suter on Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk
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In this special episode of “CoinDesk Reports,” Managing Editor of Podcasts Adam B. Levine took to Clubhouse, the audio-only social media platform, for hot takes and quick reactions from crypto enthusiasts. What he found was, well, a lot of confusion around why an image on the internet that anyone can see for free would be worth more than a 62-bedroom mansion in New Zealand, and frankly, most anything you might want to buy.
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In this week’s episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0,” CoinDesk’s Christine Kim and Will Foxley and Consensys’ Ben Edgington talk about the “sneak” update made to the Ethereum 2.0 protocol that will help enable trustless staking pools to emerge on the network.
All Eth 2.0 validators after staking 32 ETH on the network are required to generate two cryptographic keys. One is used to sign off validator responsibilities such as attesting to blocks. The other, called the “withdrawal key,” is held until a validator exits the network and withdraws his or her staked ether.
Up until mid-February, no user could be certain where funds would be deposited after a validator withdraws their stake. Developers have recently upgraded Eth 2.0 code so that withdrawals of validator funds can be linked to Ethereum accounts and wallets active on the original Ethereum blockchain.
To be clear, the pathway for where validator funds would land has been specified in the Eth 2.0 protocol through this update, but withdrawals and ether transfers are still not enabled on the network. Clarity on where funds will go after validators can move their stake off the network is positive news for Eth 2.0 staking pools.
The first code update of Eth 2.0 enables staking pools to set up trustless smart contracts on Ethereum to divide up earned rewards between participants. This, according to Edgington, is “a big deal” for decentralized staking services such as RocketPool that differentiate themselves from competitors by offering a transparent and distributed way to validate on Eth 2.0.
The mechanism that allows validators funds to be withdrawn to existing Ethereum accounts also signals a change in the Eth 2.0 development timetable.
“[The Eth1 and Eth2] merge has come forward in the timetable. Previously, it was envisaged at being quite distant after we’ve done sharding and after we’ve done some kind of execution environment technology. But now we are bringing the merge forward in the timetable and just putting Eth1 on top of the beacon chain,” said Edgington.
The new plan is to “dock” Eth1 like a plane to Eth2.
Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the docking plan for Ethereum.
Links mentioned in this podcast:
- What’s New In Eth2 (eth2.news)
- Valid Points (https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points)
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In this week’s “Money Reimagined” podcast episode, we take the discussion around central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) down from the high-level geopolitical themes we’ve addressed previously and into what the technology can do for people at the grassroots level.
To do so, Sheila Warren and I talked to Serey Chea, director general at National Bank of Cambodia, and Makoto Takemiya, co-CEO of Tokyo-based blockchain technology provider Soramitsu, about Cambodia’s new “Bakong” central bank digital currency and payments system.
They provide a thought-provoking look at how small economies can use CBDCs to leapfrog their otherwise underdeveloped financial systems into something far more advanced.
With the financial world obsessing about China’s launch of its new digital yuan and the competitive threat that poses to the U.S, which is now accelerating its work on a digital dollar, this is a reminder that there is real potential to do good with this technology in the realm of financial inclusion.
However, there are real challenges – the impact on the banking system, privacy and security, to name a few. We address all of those and explore where this is going in this far-reaching conversation.
Image credit: Paul Szewczyk via Unsplash modified by CoinDesk)
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This week on “Borderless,” Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, about the intersection of bitcoin and activism, how global movements are using blockchain and what governments might try to do to stop it.
As more world governments step up their digital and financial surveillance measures, bitcoin has become a safe haven for pockets of oppressed. For example, in Nigeria female activists now harness bitcoin to get around government-ordered banking blockades. Alex and his partners at Human Rights Foundation use crypto grants and vocal advocacy to spotlight their stories.
At the same time, some governments have begun treating bitcoin as a tool of their own. The hosts discuss with Alex the ramifications of bitcoin weaponization and consider whether the problem is as bad as the United Nations makes it out to be. Does North Korea really fund its nuclear weapons program with stolen crypto? Alex has a lot to say.
Later in the episode, the hosts take on the non-fungible token (NFT) craze that’s taking the digital collectibles world by storm. What makes a LeBron James video worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, anyway?
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
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Dogecoin has come a long way since it launched as an entirely humorous take on cryptocurrency. During a recent meme-filled mania, the dog-themed coin was the 10th largest tokenby market capand Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg became big fans.
But bigger things were to come.
Today, in the latest sign of dogecoin’s ascension, the smiling Shiba Inu appears on the hood of Stefan Parsons’ race car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
You can watch the dogecoin-adorned car at 4:30 p.m. ET on the Fox Sports channel FS1.
How the hell did this all happen?
CoinDesk spoke to an early DOGE evangelist, Pinguino, about the project’s origins, from dogecoin parties in Hollywood to Pinguino’s thoughts on the new wave of dogecoiners and DOGE price appreciation, much of which she attributes to Elon Musk’s support of the meme-coin.
Pinguino even organized a party to watch the original “Dogecar” race in 2014, a car that racer Stefan Parsons’ father happened to own.
Pinguino also discusses the WallStreetBets/SatoshiStreetBets phenomenon, her involvement hosting the Satoshi Square LA networking group in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2017 and beta-testing CryptoKitties NFTs. Tune in for fascinating stories from crypto’s pioneer days and an insider’s view of the dogecoin story.
More about our guest
Artist Pinguino was the publisher of early-bitcoin era Spelunk.in and host of DogeParty West, advocating cryptocurrency use back when few knew what bitcoin was. Working in various forms of internet finance since 1995, Pinguino has lived through the internet’s Wild West and survived to tell the tale. These days, she’s combining her love of comics with crypto and creating non-fungible tokens, including a new set of NFTs in honor of the return of the Dogecar.
Find Pinguino on Twitter: @pinguino
Note: Rob Mitchell thinks he can access dogecoin he acquired many years ago, but isn’t sure.
Image credit: Springrates and Craig Welty
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“There was a period [in early 2016] when all our sales teams … were coming back from client meetings saying that all our clients want to talk about something called blockchain. Can you find out what it is?”
That’s Ben Edgington, the lead product owner of the Ethereum 2.0 client Teku and the new co-host for the CoinDesk podcast series, “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
He fell down the “Ethereum rabbit hole” in 2016 when his colleagues at Hitachi Europe, his employer at the time, recommended he look into the buzz about blockchain technology.
His research compelled him to spend his weekends and evenings learning more about Ethereum. Then, in October 2017, Edgington made his passion his full-time job.
“I joined ConsenSys in October 2017 initially to work on enterprise Ethereum topics but my passion was really on public network stuff. I just love to understand things from the bottom up. I like to understand the nuts and bolts of what makes things work,” said Edgington.
This naturally led him to focus more of his time at ConsenSys on Ethereum 2.0 and developing its base layer technology through Teku. Written in the programming language Java, Teku is branded as the software client for institutions that want to stake their ether on Eth 2.0 and earn validator rewards.
Speaking to the development process for Eth 2.0, Edgington admitted the open-source nature of the technology and protocol results in a “massive coordination problem” for developers. Without a single source of authority guiding research and development, the work to advance Eth 2.0 is often inefficient and difficult.
That said, this entire process has its strengths.
“I would much rather be doing things this way than in a [private] lab,” said Edgington, adding, “It ends up with a much better product at the end of the process.”
To hear more about Edgington’s work on Eth 2.0 and his career in blockchain, listen to the full podcast episode.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Valid Points newsletter - https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/valid-points
What’s New in Eth2 newsletter - https://eth2.news
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This week on Borderless, tech reporter Leigh Cuen speaks with data analyst and entrepreneur Boaz Sobrado about how bitcoin became relevant to him when he had to use it at his e-commerce company.
With the changes in the U.S. presidential administration in 2016 and the strict regulations that followed it became harder to bank in Cuba. Processing payments and conducting proper international transactions were causing his company to bleed money. So Boaz turned to bitcoin to move money in and out of the country safely and provide commerce to Cuban communities.
However, bitcoin adoption in Cuba turned out to be harder than he thought. Due to COVID-19, Cuba is undergoing the worst economic crisis since the 1990s. At that time Cuba’s economic structure was so atrocious that portions of its population suffered from hunger. Boaz says, “We aren’t there yet” that it isn’t as bad as the crisis of the 1990s. However, with Western Union remittance rates going down there is less and less money in the country. This has caused inflation to rise and product delivery to the country of Cuba to become more difficult.
Listen as Sobrado discusses the informal peer-to-peer development of the cryptocurrency markets in Cuba and how the internet penetration in Cuba is accelerating bitcoin adoption.
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
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This week on the Opinionated podcast we’re joined by Brett Scott, the author of “The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money.”
Scott is a former derivatives broker who became a financial market reformer in the wake of the 2007-2008 crisis.
Many such reformers became big fans of Bitcoin. But Scott’s views on cryptocurrency are mixed and nuanced. He appreciates some aspects of the technology, but also criticizes people in the space for over-indulging certain arguments about it.
As he wrote recently in our op-ed pages, Scott believes that Bitcoin advocates often conflate points of attack that don’t belong together, namely that bitcoin can be a new form of money and a tradable asset simultaneously.
Check out that op-ed here:
How to Win a Bitcoin Street Fight (Without Mortal Combat)
And then listen in to my conversation with Scott on the podcast.
He has fascinating insights into the nature and future of money and how we can talk about bitcoin more usefully.
Brett Scott’s Twitter handle is: @Suitpossum.
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This week on Money Reimagined, we bring you part two in our series on non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, the crypto-based digital scarcity solution that’s taking the art and entertainment worlds by storm.
After last week tackling the stage-setting theme of how access to information determines value in the art world and who gets to set it, this week we go to the thin of the wedge and look at real-world use cases where NFTs are poised to blow up that centuries-old power dynamic.
To do that we talk to two trailblazers in the exploding field of Black digital art: South African artist Lethabo Huma and NFT collector Cuy Sheffield, who also happens to be the head of crypto at Visa.
Can this technology break open the 'Old Boys Club' of the art world?
Can contemporary artists use the new contractual terms behind NFTs and the power of social media to more directly reach buyers and build a reputation?
And how might it enable creative collaboration, not only between artists but also between artists and a new breed of algorithmic bots behind a brand new genre known as “generative art?”
We discuss this and more in this week’s episode. At a time when everyone from the NBA to Mark Cuban to Gary Vaynerchuck is diving into NFT mania, you can’t afford to miss this one.
Image Credit: Mariya Tarakhnenko/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with the co-lead developer of Prysmatic Labs, Raul Jordan, the common reasons behind slashing events on Ethereum 2.0 and how they can be prevented.
“Keep it simple.”
Jordan’s best advice to prevent validators who have staked 32 ETH (worth roughly $56,500 at time of writing) from being booted off the Eth 2.0 network for suspicious behaviour was to make operations as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible.
“A lot of people try to get really clever at their staking setup. They’re like I need zero down time. I cannot afford having my software down for a second. … A lot of stakers at home try to go for these really complicated setups and I mean to be honest they’re fairly sophisticated. They know what they’re doing but there’s always room for something to go wrong,” Jordan said.
Validators are the equivalent to miners on Ethereum’s new proof-of-stake blockchain dubbed Eth 2.0. These users earn rewards in the form of interest on their staked ether for running software that verifies and helps produce new blocks.
Over-engineering validator setups can lead to what are called slashing events, according to Jordan, which are penalties exacted by the network to deter users from launching malicious attacks. However, it’s impossible for the software of Eth 2.0 to discern what is a premeditated network attack from an honest mistake by a sophisticated user simply trying to maximize his or her earnings as a validator.
As a result, the best way to ensure a validator on Eth 2.0 isn’t slashed is to accept some downtime on the machine. Downtime means any period of time where validator operations aren’t actively running or connected to the internet and therefore not earning rewards.
“If you’re online for only two-thirds of the year, you’re still profitable as a validator. So why do this? The risk is not worth it,” said Jordan. “If you get slashed you’re going to lose some funds. You’re going to get ejected [from the network] and then your ether is locked in there not earning anything until you can withdraw in the future.”
Mining on Ethereum and other proof-of-work blockchains such as Bitcoin are notorious for being activities where feats of engineering and specialization actually increase the chances of earning rewards. Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are prime examples of technologies built to maximize the profits of Ethereum and Bitcoin miners.
However, the potential for slashing on Ethereum 2.0 is one of the main characteristics of the network that discourages similar types of innovation from profit-motivated validators.
If there’s any upside to slashing, it’s that it has encouraged Eth 2.0 developers like Jordan to work harder at building standards between all Eth 2.0 software clients to make the user experience as smooth and as seamless as possible.
To learn more about these standardization efforts and how they’re helping educate users about running validator operations on Eth 2.0, listen to the full podcast episode with Christine Kim, Will Foxley and Raul Jordan.
For more weekly insights on Eth 2.0 development, consider checking out Foxley and I’s weekly newsletter, Valid Points.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Raul Jordan’s blog post -
https://medium.com/prysmatic-labs/eth2-slashing-prevention-tips-f6faa5025f50
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In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss the coming crypto taxation in Russia and India, North Korean hackers indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the GameStop story rolling into the U.S. Congress.
Russia is on its way to taxing cryptocurrency transactions. A draft bill on crypto taxation is now in Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, and it has just passed its first round of hearings last week. The bill says Russian taxpayers must declare crypto they receive to their wallets if its overall value reaches 600,000 rubles, or a bit more than US$8,000.
India is also moving towards crypto taxation. According to a new draft bill, the government is likely to impose a personal income tax on crypto traders and a goods and services tax on trading platforms. So crypto exchanges will have to pay 18 % from the trading fees they earn.
Around the world, it’s becoming our new reality: you deal with crypto, you tell your government about it. Danny shares personal experiences while Anna shares some fears about the future.
This week, the U.S. Department of Justice went after three North Korean hackers for allegedly stealing over $100 million in cryptocurrency from exchanges, including a handful in the U.S. Prosecutors said North Koreans have become the “world’s leading bank robbers,” using keyboards as weapons instead of guns. As longtime listeners of the pod know, they’re using that crypto to build more sinister weapons: nukes!
They even used an initial coin offering to raise money! (Not financial advice.)
GameStop goes to Congress: the U.S. lawmakers questioned Reddit and Robinhood CEOs, as well as the redditor Roaring Kitty. Hearings like this might become hits on their own, just as the Facebook hearings did a couple years ago. But should we expect any material changes afterwards? One thing is for sure: Traditional capital markets are aping right into the crypto world insanity.
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
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With much of the world focused on bitcoin and ether as prices breach new all-time high after all-time high, the “Money Reimagined” crew embarks on a more nuanced journey, one that eschews world-changing networks for an art-changing renaissance that's been long in the making. We're talking, of course, about the nonfungible token (NFT) movement that has engulfed the world of crypto collectibles. With big brands like Christie’s auction house and the National Basketball Association getting involved and some tokens already selling for six-figure sums, the question isn't if NFTs will force a very old industry to adopt some very new practices, it's when.
On today's episode of CoinDesk's “Money Reimagined,” Michael Casey and Sheila Warren are joined by Nanne Dekking, CEO of Artory and formerly the top salesman at Sotheby's.
Founded in 2016, Artory is creating the first standardized data collection solution by the art world, for the art world. In his former position at Sotheby’s New York, Dekking was vice chairman and the worldwide head of Private Sales. His close relationships with collectors and museums were integral to the continued growth of private sales at Sotheby’s. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Nanne was vice president of Wildenstein & Co. He advised individuals, museums and foundations on the formation and development of their collections. From 1996-2001 Nanne was the founder and principal of Nanne Dekking Fine Arts, an art consultancy firm and gallery in New York.
"Which scholar do I trust? Who in the art market do I trust?" Dekking said. "They don’t want to trust anyone."
In this wide-ranging introduction to NFTs, collectibles and the traditional art market, the discussion ranges from Sheila Warren's Cryptokitty genealogy to the challenges of selling paintings by the old masters in litigious modern markets, plus a whole lot more.
“There are so many charitable things you can do with all this technology but ultimately you want the market to understand the commercial benefits of it. Then it goes fast. The moment you’re in the realm of charity, it’s like ‘this is such a nice idea’ but in a way you’re dead in the water already if the market just thinks this is only nice for a charitable reason," said Nanne Dekking, CEO of Artory and formerly the top salesman at Sotheby's. "As long as the market believes opaqueness will help [its] business model, which it doesn’t any more, it’s a very old-fashioned idea… The moment Art-Net came up, the moment Google existed … it’s all about this crazy idea that you as a human being are so important in the sales process to an artwork. I mean, you’re not."
Image Credit: Anna Hunko/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with David Hoffman, the co-founder of Bankless, the market implications of a dual Ethereum blockchain and what new realities staking presents to the long-term value proposition of ether.
According to Hoffman’s “Ether as a triple-point asset” thesis, Ethereum 2.0 bolsters ether’s value proposition as a capital asset. This is because Eth 2.0 enables staking on the protocol level.
For all ether holders with a minimum balance of 32 ETH, they can earn an annual percentage return for locking in their crypto assets to the network and becoming a validator. This is a use case for ether on top of its existing functionalities as a form of payment for fees and as a store of value in decentralized finance applications.
Eth 2.0 strengthens the diverse ways in which ether can be used. However, it also complicates the monetary policy of the Ethereum protocol. Instead of ether issuance being restricted to one blockchain network, the launch of Eth 2.0 has effectively created two parallel networks both issuing ether and driving up the crypto asset’s total supply.
However, the dual issuance of ether is a temporary state that in the long run will make the Ethereum economy more “sustainable,” according to Hoffman.
“Ethereum has committed to this early research and development phase in the beginnings of its genesis. That’s the whole entire effort behind Eth 2.0 and that’s why the monetary policy of ether is so jagged and unpredictable because the monetary policy of ether is a tool for Ethereum to reach its goals,” said Hoffman.
And what are Ethereum’s goals exactly? Listen to the full episode to find out!
For more weekly insights on Eth 2.0 development, be sure to check out and subscribe to Will Foxley and I’s weekly newsletter, Valid Points.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
EthHub Explainer on Ethereum Monetary Policy -
https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-basics/monetary-policy/
Lyn Alden’s blog post -
https://www.lynalden.com/ethereum-analysis/
Rocket Pool -
https://www.rocketpool.net
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In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss North Korea reportedly stealing your crypto to create nuclear weapons, Tesla rattling markets at an opportune time and Nigeria trying to ban crypto.
Starting Feb. 12, in the Chinese calendar, we are in the year of the ox, or bull; at least for now, things are looking quite bullish for crypto. Usually, Chinese users would massively sell bitcoin ahead of the New Year but the current rally is being mostly driven by institutions, not retail buyers in Asia. So it looks like the “To the Moon” show must go on!
A United Nations expert panel said North Korea used the money it extorted by cyber attacks to fund nuclear weapons development. The panel said that according to its investigations, North Korean regime-linked hackers worked all through 2020 and made the money now funding weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. According to Chainalysis, the hackers used DeFi infrastructure, over-the-counter brokers and mixers to sell their crypto. So will we end up with a bit of North Korean hacker crypto one day?
Tesla hyped the bitcoin market right around the time some bad news came out of China. In February, Tesla’s annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission included the news the company put an aggregate of $1.5 billion into bitcoin. Just before that filing several Chinese government agencies publicly questioned Tesla cars’ quality and safety. Coincidence?
Nigeria is trying to curb crypto adoption, but that is not so easy. In early February, the country’s central bank sent a letter to financial institutions ordering them to shut down all bank accounts associated with cryptocurrency trading platforms. Result: Binance halted deposits in Nigeria. As a result, Nigerians turned to peer-to-peer trading platforms. Is this actually good for crypto adoption? We’ll see.
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- CoinDesk: Why a Chinese New Year Sell-Off May Not Happen This Year
- AP: UN experts: North Korea using cyber attacks to update nukes
- CoinDesk: UN Says North Korea Funded Nuclear Weapons With Crypto Hacks in 2020
- Chainalisys: Lazarus Group Pulled Off 2020’s Biggest Exchange Hack and Appears to be Exploring New Money Laundering Options
- CoinDesk: China Was Questioning Tesla About Quality Problems. Then Bitcoin Happened
- Bloomberg: Tesla Summoned by China Regulators Over Quality, Safety Issues
- CoinDesk: Nigerian Central Bank Says Its Ban on Crypto Accounts Is Nothing New
- CoinDesk: Bitcoin ‘Can’t Be Stopped’: Nigerians Look to P2P Exchanges After Crypto Ban
Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.
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This week’s Money Reimagined dives into the increasingly urgently needed Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. What is it and why does it matter?
We talk with Danny Ryan, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. He has become a key player in the complicated “herding the cats” task of “herding the cats” of getting thousands of different stakeholders in this vibrant decentralized community aligned enough to undertake the massive 2.0 transition with sufficient cohesion.
With Danny’s help we break the whole thing down in a way that’s accessible to people beyond the developer community: Proof-of-stake consensus, sharding, Layer 2, and how decision-making and development happens in this free-wheeling open-source environment.
We put it all in the context of a giant boom for the Ethereum ecosystem, as money pours into red-hot decentralized finance (DeFi), as a mania for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) plays out, and as ether hits new all-time highs as large institutions gain exposure via new CME futures. All this is bringing into stark relief the urgent need to advance the system’s scalability as congestion on the network is driving up transactions costs, or “gas fees” to unsustainable levels.
It’s a timely episode, in other words. Have a listen.
Image Credit: Sander Weeteling/Unsplash
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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan the roll-out of the Ethereum 2.0 development roadmap, starting with the launch of phase 0 and the Beacon Chain.
“Not a surprise but a relief.”
That’s how Ryan characterized how he felt about the successful activation of the Eth 2.0 network in early December.
“We were confident going in but it’s been excellent to see it go so well,” Ryan said. “Compared to some of our testnet launches, they got better and better. But the mainnet launch was more successful than any of those.”
As of Jan. 27, the parallel Ethereum network dubbed “Ethereum 2.0” has accumulated over $3.6 billion in staked ether. There are over 72,000 active participants called “validators” securing network operations, with another 16,000 awaiting activation in a queue for entry into Eth 2.0.
The absence of unexpected bugs, hacks and attacks has certainly been the source of much celebration for Ethereum developers. Ben Edgington, product owner for Eth 2.0 software client Teku, wrote in a weekly newsletter on Dec. 12, “It’s been a wonderfully dull [11] days since genesis: [A]pparently it all just works.”
It’s not all perfect, however.
Ryan explained that there are a few fixes, tweaks and improvements he’d like to see made on Eth 2.0 over the next few months. First and foremost is “an iterative upgrade in the middle of this year which would clean up a couple of things in state management, more technical-side things and also add a nice feature which enables light clients as a first class citizen for the Beacon Chain.” (More information on Eth 2.0’s first planned upgrade here.)
Ryan mentioned he is optimistic the distribution of software clients being used by validators to connect to the network would diversify.
“It looks like 50% of nodes on the network are Prysm,” Ryan said. Nodes are computers that store and share blockchain data. “It’s not quite where we want it to be. I’ll say time and time again there are four fantastic clients out there. I don’t run Prysm in my own setup and I’m stable and happy.”
Find out more about what other developments and milestones Ryan expects the Eth 2.0 network to accomplish this year by listening to the full podcast episode.
For weekly analysis and commentary about Ethereum 2.0, be sure to sign up for CoinDesk’s Valid Points newsletter.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Danny Ryan’s blog post -
https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/01/20/the-state-of-eth2-january-2021/
Etherscan’s breakdown of Eth 2.0 deposits -
https://bi.etherscan.io/public/dashboards/KH9jbP687szqlAnHiNEfNictrwNhvdOEQl0PwB6m?org_slug=default
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Tanzeel Akhtar and Danny Nelson discuss possible crypto restrictions in India, fresh darknet market research from Chainalysis and the newest chapter in Virgil Griffith’s North Korea saga.
Will India ban crypto? The move by the government, rumoured for months, may be not as bad as expected. For now, it’s only about illegal activities involving crypto and using it to pay for things, as Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur told the nation last week.
India had cracked down on cryptocurrencies: In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India barred India’s banks from serving crypto exchanges and related businesses. The ban was successfully challenged in India’s Supreme Court and lifted last March. Whether you can really ban crypto in any form is another question, though.
As for illegal use cases, Chainalysis new report on darknet markets and crypto says Russia, the U.S., Ukraine and China are the countries that pump the most money into the illegal goods marketplaces. Per the previous Chainalysis’ report on global crypto adoption, Ukraine and Russia also lead the global retail adoption of crypto.
Does it mean most of the crypto adoption in these countries are “dark”? One thing is clear: Both these countries are user bases of Hydra, the world’s most successful drug marketplaces, pocketing about 75% of the entire darknet markets’ revenue, Chainalysis said.
In the meantime, the court case of Ethereum dev Virgil Griffith is moving along – and it doesn’t look good. During the latest hearing, on Jan. 27, the judge rejected Griffith’s motion to dismiss charges he violated U.S. sanctions law in North Korea. Griffith’s lawyers’ argument that his speaking at a conference in North Korea is not equal to providing “services” to the sanctioned country apparently did not convince Judge Kevin Castel. Free speech or helping bad guys do bad things? A jury will decide in Griffith’s case.
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- CoinDesk: Why India’s Proposed Crypto Ban Has Investors Nervous, May Feed Anti-Bitcoin Narrative
- CoinDesk: India Minister Suggests Modi Government Not Planning Outright Crypto Ban
- CoinDesk: Russia and US Dominate Global Dark Market Traffic: Report
- Chainalysis: Geographic Distinctions in Darknet Market Activity: U.S. and Western Europe Have the Most Vendors, Eastern Europe and China Lead in Money Laundering
- CoinDesk: Ukraine Leads Global Crypto Adoption, Chainalysis Says in New Report
- CoinDesk: Judge Denies Virgil Griffith’s Motion to Dismiss Charges
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Preston Byrne is a partner in Anderson Kill's Technology, Media and Distributed Systems Group, and a CoinDesk columnist.
He joins CoinDesk Features Editor Ben Schiller to discuss his recent op-ed about GameStop, Robinhood and the rise of online mobs.
See the article here:
‘The Squeezening’: How the GameStop Backlash Will Curtail Freedom
Schiller spoke to Byrne about:
- The rise of online mobs from GameStop to Capitol Hill and how the internet is impacting real life in an increasingly tangible way
- What policymakers can do to prevent mobs doing damage to decent companies
- Why it’s likely the WallStreetBets Reddit contained some pump-and-dumpers
- How the regulatory reaction to the WallStreetBets could impact cryptocurrencies
- How the backlash from “elites” impacted by GameStop could harm free speech
- Why Preston Byrne supports marmots (which are like squirrels or groundhogs)
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In the aftermath of WallStreetBets, Demetri Kofinas joins the hosts of Money Reimagined as they dissect the events that led to this moment and what it means for our future.
There’s a reason the Gamestop/WallStreetBets drama of the past two weeks got so much attention. It’s because it speaks forcefully to the inequities and systemic problems in both our financial markets and the internet economy and how they’ve shaped our politics and social tensions.
So, in true Money Reimagined form, we wanted to have a super high-level discussion about what all this means for the future of money and society. And for that we called on someone who is a master at drawing big-picture narratives around such issues: Demetri Kofinas, the host of the popular Hidden Forces podcast.
Demetri Kofinas is an insatiably curious media entrepreneur and financial expert. His mission is to make the connections that help you see the bigger picture, empowering you to make smarter investing decisions.
He also hosts the Hidden Forces podcast, where he gives his listeners an edge by using his critical thinking approach to challenge the consensus narratives structuring our world .
You can follow him on Twitter at @kofinas, check out his podcast at hiddenforces.io, and sign-up for more in depth content and analysis at Patreon.com/hiddenforces.
Find Michael Casey on Twitter or Clubhouse (@mikejcasey)
Find Sheila Warren on Twitter or Clubhouse (@sheilaw)
Image Credit:Luke Stackpoole/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with CoinDesk Director of Engineering Spencer Beggs how the idea of staking on Ethereum 2.0 came about and the early decisions that had to be made to get the project started.
“I feel I have become paranoid doing this project.”
At the start of the new year, CoinDesk Director of Engineering Spencer Beggs began working on setting up an Ethereum 2.0 validator node. The process, he explained, was particularly interesting from “the security perspective.”
“You really do think about security. Where are you storing your keys and your mnemonics? … You start thinking in a really paranoid manner,” said Beggs.
Ethereum 2.0 is a new parallel Ethereum blockchain that launched in December. Designed to ultimately replace Ethereum’s base layer technology and radically improve network scalability, the only actors on Eth 2.0 able to engage meaningfully with the new blockchain are so-called validators.
As unveiled in November, CoinDesk has embarked on a project to run validator operations in-house and glean direct, real-time data about Eth 2.0. The goal is to deepen CoinDesk’s editorial coverage of the network at its most untested and potentially vulnerable phases of development.
At the same time, this project has also offered important lessons about the trade-offs and decisions the users who are considering joining the Eth 2.0 network will make.
Outside of learning about security, CoinDesk tech reporter Will Foxley recounts wrestling with the decision of whether to use a staking-as-a-service provider or run a validator node independently during the early weeks of the Valid Points project.
“We started looking around at staking-as-a-service providers, and there are a lot out there. There’s gotta be over 15 at this point, not including [cryptocurrency] exchanges that operate staking services like Coinbase or Kraken. We were looking at who can do this for us quickly so we can get up and start running … and who can provide data for us,” said Foxley.
For the full breakdown of how CoinDesk is going about staking on Ethereum 2.0, the important decisions that were made along the way and the lessons learned, listen to the inaugural episode of “Mapping Out Eth 2.0.”
Foxley and Kim also have a weekly newsletter tied to the Valid Points project where they dive deeper into Ethereum 2.0-related topics and the health of CoinDesk’s validator node. To get these updates straight to your inbox, sign-up for free here.
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In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Tanzeel Akhtar and Danny Nelson discuss what the GameStop stock market chaos can teach crypto, why the Bank of International Settlements is pitching central bank digital currencies (CBDC) instead of crypto, and the privacy concerns around China’s digital yuan.
The big story for the week involves the Reddit-based trading community called WallStreetBets that has been causing equities to behave like cryptocurrencies – very volatile. WallStreetBets have wreaked chaos in traditional markets after pumping GameStop stock up by nearly 900% in five days to around $380. Hedge fund Melvin Capital Management suffered heavy losses by betting against video game retailer GameStop.
Does crypto fix this?
The digital yuan was front-and-center in yesterday’s CBDC survey by the BIS, better known as the bank for central banks. Researchers there said 20% of the global population will likely be using general purpose digital fiat in the next three years. What they didn’t say was the identity of the country with 18% of the global population…. China!
In the meantime, security researchers started paying attention to potential risks of the digital yuan for the users outside of China. The Center for New American Security issued a report on how the Chinese Communist Party might get access to the financial data of people worldwide including, potentially, Americans who will be using the Chinese system in the future.
Would you use something like that, and do you care about privacy of your transactions?
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- CoinDesk: GameStop Investing Craze ‘Proof of Concept’ for Bitcoin Success, Says Scaramucci
- CoinDesk: GameStop-Style Revolts Spread, Drawing Attention of White House, Nasdaq; TD Ameritrade Restricts Trading
- Reddit: An Open Letter to Melvin Capital, CNBC, Boomers, and WSB
- CoinDesk: BIS Chief Blasts Bitcoin’s Viability, Prompting Blowback From Advocates
- BIS Plans Platform for Testing Central Bank Digital Currencies in Cross-Border Payments https://www.coindesk.com/bis-plans-platform-for-testing-central-bank-digital-currencies-in-cross-border-payments
- CoinDesk: Geopolitics at Stake in US Response to China’s Digital Yuan: Report
- Center for New American Security: China’s Digital Currency. Adding Financial Data to Digital Authoritarianism
- CoinDesk: WEF Davos: Bank of England Governor Insists Digital Payments (but Not Crypto) Are Sticking Around
- CoinDesk: WEF Davos: Silver Lake Co-Founder Tells Davos Cash Is Used Far More in Crime Than Bitcoin
- Colombia, Estonia Upload the Bitcoin White Paper to Their Governmental Websites https://www.coindesk.com/colombia-estonia-bitcoin-whitepaper
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For this episode, we travel, metaphorically, to a town in the Swiss Alps that’s for the first time in 50 years experiencing some peace and quiet in January.
This week was the World Economic Forum’s “Davos Agenda,” a conference filled with the usual roster of high-powered speakers but conducted entirely virtually, over Zoom, instead of in Davos. So, as Sheila took time out from helping run that agenda, we invited her colleague Adrian Monck, a long-time WEF managing director, to reflect on the forum’s past and future and how something as anti-establishment as cryptocurrency and blockchain is being integrated into its work.
It might come as a shock to the rebellious strain that’s prominent in the crypto community, but its world and that of the WEF have some important similarities. Both must grapple with the core problem of governance in a decentralized environment, with the difficulty of solving problems that serve the interests of the whole when there’s no single party in charge. Both of them grapple with the problem of consensus.
As Adrian explains, the WEF tries to resolve this by using its unparalleled convening power. It brings together disparate decision-makers from governments, businesses and civil society so they can find common ground on how to address the world’s many urgent needs.
At times, that convening exercise has involved inviting radical newcomers, such as the internet tech community, into the tent. In this wide-ranging discussion, which partly delves into Sheila’s groundbreaking work introducing blockchain ideas to the WEF, we dive into the current challenge for this evolving process: how to bring the crypto disruptors inside.
Image credit: Jack Ward/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Tanzeel Akhtar and Nik De discuss what to expect from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration regarding crypto, how QuadrigaCX users are doing and trying to predict the future for Ripple.
President Joe Biden has named Gary Gensler as his pick for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Janet Yellen as the future head of the U.S. Treasury. Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is known for his series of lectures at MIT about blockchain tech. Yellen said recently she believes crypto is funding illicit activities, sending the bitcoin price down. What’s next? Nik De provides a short guide to what to watch.
Ernst and Young (EY), the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX, is still trying to figure out how to value the firm’s cryptocurrency assets before disbursement to creditors. Timing is crucial here: The amount of money creditors will get depends on the day of evaluation chosen because the price of bitcoin changed a lot between February and April 2019, when QuadrigaCX’s court story was developing.
Last but not least, Ripple has been grappling with a bunch of troubles since the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company in December. The commission believes Ripple has been selling unregistered securities, namely the XRP tokens. The court case is still in progress, but soon after the lawsuit was filed, a number of exchanges and brokers suspended XRP trading including Coinbase, Kraken, OKCoin, Bitstamp, eToro, Crypto.com, Genesis and others. Now, a new SEC head is expected. Good news for Ripple? Probably not too much.
Stories mentioned in this episode:
- Gary Gensler Named as Joe Biden’s SEC Chair Pick (TA)
https://www.coindesk.com/gary-gensler-confirmed-as-joe-bidens-sec-chair-pick
- Janet Yellen Says Cryptocurrencies Are a ‘Concern’ in Terrorist Financing https://www.coindesk.com/janet-yellen-says-cryptocurrencies-are-a-concern-in-terrorist-financing
- Criminal Activity in Crypto Transactions Fell Sharply in 2020, Says Chainalysis
https://www.coindesk.com/criminal-activity-in-crypto-transactions-fell-sharply-in-2020-says-chainalysis
- Trustee of Collapsed Exchange Moves to Resolve Crypto vs. Fiat Creditor Claims Tussle https://www.coindesk.com/trustee-of-collapsed-exchange-to-ask-court-to-resolve-crypto-vs-fiat-creditor-claims-tussle
- Kraken to Halt XRP Trading for US Residents https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-to-halt-xrp-trading-for-u-s-residents
- Japan’s FSA Says XRP Not a Security: Report https://www.coindesk.com/japans-fsa-says-xrp-not-a-security-report
- Asia’s Retail FOMO Could Be Behind XRP’s Rally Despite SEC’s Lawsuit https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-asia-retail-fomo-rally
- Ripple CEO Walks Back Threat to Leave US https://www.coindesk.com/ripple-leaving-usa
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As the Biden Administration gets underway, what can we expect for cryptocurrency technologies alongside an ascendent bitcoin?
One day into the new President’s tenure we’ve brought in Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association and Amy Davine Kim, Chief Policy Officer at the Chamber of Digital Commerce. In this episode we'll take a look into the regulatory future as we explore the relationships, lobbying and policymaking efforts within Washington.
Album Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk
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In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Tanzeel Akhtar discuss why one of Justin Sun’s companies is linked to extremism, the insurrection of the Capitol on a blockchain, Iran taking the mining industry under control and also if Europe can regulate bitcoin.
Rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, livestreamed the action in DLive; a video streaming platform owned by BitTorrent, which, in turn, is owned by the Tron founder Justin Sun. They also received donations through the blockchain-based service. Crypto, extremism, deplatforming and the history of Justin Suns' ventures all are wrapped up in this story, which is too big to ignore.
The government of Iran wants to control crypto mining and has clamped down on miners again. In January, the country shut down 1,620 illegal cryptocurrency mining farms. The mining operations were disconnected from the national power grid and miners will face prosecution. Iran has been cash-strapped by the international sanctions for years, and bitcoin looks like another way to get the government the money it needs. But will it work? And will the rest of the world allow it?
In Europe, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is eager to go after “funny business” in the cryptocurrency markets. Lagarde believes the world needs to adopt comprehensive regulation to stop criminals, such as money launderers, from turning to bitcoin for help. She has called bitcoin a "highly speculative" asset. This is not the first time Lagarde has cautioned that cryptocurrencies should be taken seriously and called for global cooperation among worldwide regulators. Whether or not Lagarde is being taken seriously is yet to be seen.
CoinDesk reporters Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Tanzeel Akhtar mentioned these stories in today’s episode:
- CoinDesk: Tron-Owned Video Platform Dlive Criticized for Hosting Extremists, US Capitol Rioters
- The Verge: Hype Man of The Century
- CoinDesk: BitGo Launches Wrapped Bitcoin, Ether on Tron Blockchain
- Iranian Authorities Close 1,620 Illegal Cryptocurrency Mining Farms: Report
- Motherboard: The Era of Government-Friendly Bitcoin Miners Is Here
- The University of Cambridge: Bitcoin Mining Map
- ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says ‘Speculative’ Bitcoin Needs Global Regulation
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What impact will crypto have on the nature of organizations? Will experiments in crypto’s governance lab lead to lasting trends in how companies are orchestrated?
This week on the “Opinionated” podcast we discussed this big topic with Jeff Dorman, the chief investment officer at Arca, a crypto hedge fund.
Dorman, a CoinDesk columnist, argues that “community tokens” (like LINK or SUSHI) will inevitably outpace “VC tokens” (like COMP, ATOM) because of the preferable incentives at play.
And he believes the trend of community ownership in crypto will meld with the wider shift towards companies doing right by a range of stakeholders as well as just their shareholders.
Dorman contrasts a decentralized finance (DeFi) project like Uniswap with Airbnb and DoorDash, which are now heading for initial public offerings. The former rewards liquidity providers (and soon token holders) who share in the system’s success. The latter companies were built on the work of homeowners and delivery guys, but all the gains from a public listing will go to stock holders.
“With digital assets, you’re starting to democratize access to these companies and you’re starting to spread out income inequality,” he says.
Incentives are key to make more democratic governance work. “Nobody cares about governance until it affects their bottom line. Twitter isn’t going to change its governance for the sake of ideology. If there’s governance for the sake of cash flows, that is another story.”
A sharp thinker with two decades of investing experience, Dorman had plenty of insights in our conversation covering bitcoin, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and Twitter in the wake of the Capitol attack this week.
Check out the episode now and read Dorman’s CoinDesk columns here.
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On this episode of Money Reimagined the discussion comes home for an insiders look at how new, disruptive technology and government interact. For this discussion, hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum are joined by Marvin Ammori, best known for his work on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues. Rounding out the panel is Christopher Giancarlo, former CFTC chairman and founding principal of the Digital Dollar Foundation.
"My background is really 20 years of working on the internet. And I remember in the early days of the internet." said Marvin Ammori, "you know, one kind of piece of deja vu is what jumped out to everyone. The internet began with all the bad stuff. Congress couldn't believe there was porn on the internet. We had to protect the children from the number one thing that people noticed on the internet.
And in fact, the first major case about the internet, had the Supreme Court upheld Congress's action, pretty much every website would have needed to get your credit card number and verify you're 18 to go on. The internet would have been for adults only."
Marvin continued, "The entire trajectory of the internet would have been different, but luckily the Supreme Court pushed back on congressional action under the First Amendment. But the first impulse of congress 20 years ago with the internet was 'let's cripple this thing.' [...] We've seen all the tremendous benefits. [T]hings we could have never imagined back then. Now when it comes to cryptocurrency we see something similar."
"The first wave of the Internet was an internet of information. And interestingly, it emerged into a federal regulatory structure that was really a pretty light zone because of our First Amendment protections of freedom of speech," said former CFTC chair Christopher Giancarlo. "So the internet, actually, in the first case, it didn't face a lot of opposition, I think, Marvin is absolutely right. There was certainly calls in Congress for banning because of pornography, but at the end of the day, the Democrat White House of President Clinton, the Republican Congress under Newt Gingrich came up with the 'first do no harm approach.'
And the internet flourished and a lot of lessons learned were 'don't ask permission, seek forgiveness', 'keep going until you break something.' And the first internet wave, the wave of information flourished pretty successfully.
We're now in a new construct, where in fact what we're talking about, as an internet of 'things of value', whoa... Well, it's a very different construct. We have at least three federal bank regulators regulating holdings of people's things of value, market regulators in Washington. And then in every state level.
And so this new wave of the internet is not running into a regulatory light zone. It's actually running into a regulatory heavy 'no go zone.' And we've seen the clash. I mean, just look at the ICO challenge a few years ago. That was a statement by one regulator that they were not conceding ground in this new internet of value. [... It's] a product of our past and our approaches and our constitutional liberties, but also these new technologies, new waves, the internet bring new challenges to old constructs that we haven't often been successful in working through."
On Dec. 18, the U.S. Treasury published a proposal to expand the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s requirements for identity monitoring and reporting by crypto exchanges. Under these proposed new rules, that powerful agency, known as FinCEN, would require exchanges to collect names and home addresses from the owners of private, self-custodied digital wallets that receive more than $3,000 in cryptocurrencies daily and to file special currency transaction reports about any wallet that receives more than $10,000 a day.
The announcement prompted an outpouring of criticism from the crypto community and among digital rights activists. Many saw it as an attack on privacy. As of this recording, more than 7,500 comments have been posted to FinCEN’s site. That constitutes more than two thirds of all public comments received by the agency for various rules and proposals dating back to 2008.
Then, on Monday last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which sets and coordinates federal banking rules, offered a rule change that was much more favorably received among the crypto community.
The OCC said banks could now use stablecoins to conduct payments and other activities, including stablecoin tokens issued on public blockchains such as Ethereum. It prompted some breathless commentary on how integrating the old world of banking with the new world of decentralized finance paves the way to a new global financial system of programmable money.
To many this seemed like a weird good cop/bad cop routine out of Washington. Is the Administration pro- or anti-crypto?
But to Michael Casey, there’s much more coordination here than meets the eye.
There’s a common theme with respect to how both rules fit into geopolitical tensions that digital currency technology is stirring up. We’ll go into that in this week’s episode, which is why one of our guests today is Christopher Giancarlo, the former Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission who is now senior counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher and, among other roles, founding principal of the Digital Dollar Foundation. As someone who knows the ropes in Washington and is thinking hard about how the U.S. should prepare for a world of digital currencies, his insights will be invaluable.
The other question this throws up is: how do we forge a more constructive relationship between the crypto community and policymakers, not just in the U.S. but in the global setting in which this technology exists?
For that we’ve brought in Marvin Ammori, the chief legal officer for the decentralized exchange protocol, Uniswap. Not only does that role give Marvin a solid foot in the crypto community’s regulatory concerns, but we think his past influential work for the internet tech industry developing a common framework for net neutrality laws comes with real lessons on how to do these things right. And as an influential activist for digital civil rights, the questions here of privacy and digital autonomy are right in his wheelhouse.
Image credit: Nathan Anderson/Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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Join Michael Casey and Sheila Warren as they speak with Matthew Davie the Chief Strategy Officer of Kiva and Alpen Sheth Senior Technologist of Blockchain at Mercy Corps. It's Finally 2021, the year we all were promised. Even though the calendar has turned, the world is still on a wild ride. So today we go back to the fundamentals.
They call it the charitable-industrial complex: a system where money for development, for humanitarian needs, and for improving the lives of billions is controlled through a top-down process, run by U.S. charities and shaped by U.S. tax rules and regulations.
The first Money Reimagined podcast episode of 2021 dives into the problems this creates. Can we get away from this top-down, centralized system to build a bottom-up model that empowers the people charities are trying to help? And will the decentralizing power of crypto and blockchain technology play a meaningful role?
In this episode we dig into the "why" of this empowering new technology. What's the point? And more importantly, who is it for?
“Reimagining money isn’t about money at all but more about the complexity of the systems surrounding it. [...]The exciting part about Crypto is that it has the potential to be a partial fix for the problems of exclusion plaguing our financial system” said Sheila Warren.
According to Matthew Davie, “There is a gap between the informal sector and the formal sector, and you can’t build a bridge without figuring out how to solve that problem. So, we came at this from the system side saying we need verifiable identity and how do we do that?”
“What we find is that the unbanked are just too broad of a category to comprehend so it has to be broken down. There [are] substantial gender inequalit[ies]. Whether its device ownership, around participation in the economy, around disasters... People are just stuck underneath layers and layers of intermediaries to just do basic activities” said Alpen Sheth
About our guests:
Matthew Davie @KIVA focuses on long term strategic initiatives to help drive systemic financial inclusion for the world’s most venerable populations. He oversees corporate strategy, emerging technology development, and policy and regulatory engagements.
Alpen Sheth, PhD, is Senior Technologist, Blockchain, at Mercy Corps. a blockchain advisor for companies in the insurance, identity, and energy sectors. Previously, he co-founded the Economic Space Agency, a blockchain R&D startup, and later became the Head of Product at etherisc.com, an insurtech company, creating smart-contract based applications in several different countries
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Join Michael Casey and Sheila Warren as they speak with tech ethnographer Tricia Wang and metaMe CEO Dele Atanda, as they dig into social media privacy and the value of personal data.
For the first time since the “Internet 2.0” era began at the turn of the millennium, the dominant social media, search and e-commerce platforms are facing existential challenges. The disruption could come from legal efforts as anti-monopoly lawsuits evolve in both the U.S. and Europe. Or it could come via some nascent alternatives to the platforms’ centralized model, including from blockchain-inspired startups.
Wang, who joined us on this week’s episode of the “Money Reimagined” podcast, says these responses won’t lead to a meaningful alternative until we gain a better appreciation of the role data plays in our internet interactions. Data, she says, “is not just information. Data is relationships.”
The algorithms of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others place the greatest value not in static, simple information points like your name, address and income, but data that reveals your relationships with other people. That matters, Wang says, because the story of those connections is equally important to humans because it is our connections to others that describe who we are.
The imbalance is not just that ad dollars flow to Facebook and Google rather than to the users who generate the content and build the audiences the platforms and their advertisers monetize. It’s that, as detailed in Shoshana Zuboff’s “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”, we are trapped in an ever-tightening feedback loop in which these companies use our data to modify our behavior. There’s a scary Matrix-like aspect to all this.
It’s why the other guest on this week’s podcast, metaMe CEO Dele Atanda, views his company’s work building a more decentralized, blockchain-powered data marketplace as an exercise in protecting people’s human rights. Creating that marketplace and figuring out a meaningful expression of the value of people’s data is how we will ultimately restore agency over our digital lives, he says.
“We need to create a unit of account that we can measure – not just on the basis of size [as bytes] but on the basis of sensitivity, identifiability. These issues are central to how this information can be used to help or harm us,” he said.
Also important, Atanda says, is the governance structure of the database storing the information, which speaks to the role to be played by blockchain. The more “permissionless” and decentralized the architecture behind the data marketplace, the more confident individuals can be that the rights to their data are protected.
All of this seems pertinent in a week in which society was once again found vulnerable to data failures at centralized systems.
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This week on the Opinionated podcast, we’re joined by PwC’s Henri Arslanian, the consultancy’s very smart global crypto hand.
Arslanian wrote a 2021 look-ahead op-ed for CoinDesk giving 10 Predictions for 2021: China, Bitcoin, Taxes, Stablecoins and More
He thinks next year will see a number of big trends in crypto come to fruition.
“2020 has been a terrible year for pretty much the entire world but when we look at it from a fintech and crypto perspective, it has been a game-changing year,” Arslanian tells me.
“COVID-19 really acted as a catalyst.”
Take bank notes. We’ve been using them less for years but the pandemic has really stopped us using them. At the same time, people are hoarding bank notes (because it’s a crisis), leading central banks to think more seriously about issuing their own digital currencies.
Next year, Arslanian expects to see the first retail digital currencies. All eyes will be on China’s advanced project.
Arslanian also discusses bitcoin, derivatives and taxes. He expects lots of M&A activity as crypto unicorns become “crypto octopuses.”
Listen in for one of the smartest consultants in the crypto space.
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Raoul Pal, CEO of RealVision and influential global macro investor, found himself in the middle of this fight recently after he tweeted to bitcoiners that KYC is in their interest because it will bring institutional money into the asset and boost its value. As someone with an account bearing the name SexyWebCamPro100x noted in one of more than 700 replies to that remark, the tweet begged for a meme of someone kicking a hornet’s nest.
Pal is an influential thinker about Bitcoin’s place in the future financial system. So we invited him onto this week’s Money Reimagined podcast to discuss his brawl with Crypto Twitter. For balance, we also invited CoinDesk columnist Jill Carlson, who, among other roles, is a founder of the Open Money Initiative, which focuses on boosting financial access and economic freedom for underserved communities.
Pal offered a nuanced explanation of his position. He said while his point was partly about allowing both bitcoin HODLers and institutions to “get rich,” it was also that for the Bitcoin system to be a transformative force it needs the “network effect” of more money coming into the space, which in turn requires institution-friendly regulation.
“For people to realize their ambitions that it’s a stateless money … for it to be adopted by people who live within the confines of a sovereign state, unfortunately it will have to be regulated and there’s almost nothing we can do about it,” Pal said.
Some might see a contradiction: for Bitcoin to realize its power as a “stateless” network, the state must exercise more control over it. But Pal’s point is about sequencing. He says we need to first go through a process of official accommodation within the existing system to advance Bitcoin’s journey along “Metcalfe’s Law.” Once it becomes a ubiquitous network, then it is in a position to properly challenge that system.
Indeed, as Carlson pointed out, the positive thing, for those who believe in Bitcoin’s disruptive potential, is that “you’re not going to implement KYC and AML at the protocol level.” Since “there is nothing inherent to Bitcoin that can be regulated, enforced or controlled in that way,“ it can at that level always resist official coercion.
But she also worried that the ever-growing encroachment of compliance requirements on applications built on top of that protocol impedes access to it among marginalized and financially excluded people.
Carlson cited how LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer exchange network that was once a “gateway to economic freedom” in places that impose capital controls and other forms of monetary repression, has “increasingly come under scrutiny and has to institute more and more KYC and AML standards and protocols. She added, “That’s problematic where we are talking about people who don’t have any identity or are unbanked and are refugees and so forth.”
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Dominatrix Mistress Harley sees bitcoin as a crucial part of her business. The tech-savvy sex worker talks with CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen about bitcoin, sex and the kinky community.
Mistress Harley, a “techdomme” who specializes in digital BDSM, said “if you think about power exchange, there’s almost nothing in our society more powerful than money.”
Harley is among the growing cohort of online sex workers that offer financial domination (findom) experiences. Findom has also become a popular category on video streaming platforms that accept bitcoin, like Chaturbate and Fancentro. Fancentro marketing representative Mark Asquith said findom “broke out into the mainstream in 2020.” Fancentro alone now has hundreds of influencers offering more than 1,500 porn clips in this niche.
“COVID gave findom its 50 Shades moment. It’s not just about exchanging money for content anymore, it’s about providing income to the influencer,” Asquith said. “In the next year or so, we’re going to see a dissolution of the findom binary, an understanding that there’s an entire spectrum of fandoms that involve elements of sexual thrill for financial support.”
Likewise, Pornhub VP Corey Price said in 2020 the platform has roughly seen 12,000 searches for “findom” per month. There are many ways for findom aficionados to practice their art. Sometimes they sign automatic payment contracts, without exchanging porn at all, because part of the humiliation is paying the dominatrix to ignore the submissive. In other circumstances, the submissive completes complex tasks, like mining bitcoin, to earn money for the dominatrix. For yet another example, some submissives give the dominant control over digital wallets or bank accounts.
Such is the case with developer Niki Flux, a coder by day and dominatrix by night. She once drained a client’s bank account, using teamviewer, locking him out of the account as part of the roleplay.
“The idea was he was powerless to do anything about it,” Flux said. “It was an amazing session. I was tripping on endorphins for three days after, as was he.”
Flux said “real findom” is rare, that most of the hype on Twitter is just for show. In reality, few can afford real findom experiences, since some submissives don’t get their money or data back. The risk is real.
“The threat of blackmail and exposure can be a very powerful thing and it’s not something you’d engage in casually with some rando,” Flux said.
Thanks to COVID-19, dominatrixes are experimenting with new punishments and tasks.
“I can get right into their crypto wallet and send myself as much currency as I want,” Harley said. “I have a lot of subs in places where porn is illegal, places like Kuwait and Qatar and Saudi Arabia. And the easiest way for them to pay is using a cryptocurrency”
Bitcoin is proving to be an unparalleled boon for findom kinksters.
Kinky bitcoiners
Asquith said there were “thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin payments” facilitated through Fancentro so far in 2020, a platform with more than 5,000 active monthly users.
Since many platforms are not as open to kink content as Fancentro, sex workers like Flux and Harley are ramping up their experiments with bitcoin.
“You so much as mention smothering, choking, pissing...and you’re en route to a stern warning from your [payments] provider,” Flux said. “As censorship and surveillance get ever more invasive, we need to have platforms and tools ready and working before it [deplatforming] kicks in.”
As such, Flux offers developer services to other sex workers looking to add bitcoin payment options to their sites. A few of Flux’s clients pay her directly with wallets. However, she said bitcoin’s technical skill requirements are “way higher than most of my clients could operate.” Many such submissives prefer the speed of a website plug-in.
“By definition, my audience has a tendency toward one-handed navigation,” she added. “To stop and wait 20 minutes for [bitcoin] confirmations doesn’t fit well with that.”
Longtime findom expert Mz.Kim said “bitcoin has the potential to be a useful and much needed tool for findom.” But, like most performers interviewed about this topic, she added the biggest limitation isn’t utility, it’s clients.
“The barrier to using bitcoin has not been easy enough to cross for clients. Unless crypto becomes more widely used as a currency, people won't take the time to start an account,” Mz.Kim said.
As for Harley, she said cryptocurrency is her favorite type of findom tool to work with because she can transfer money (almost) anonymously and instantly. She added findom is very different than actually ripping someone off because there is consent involved. There is often a type of “buy out” condition, where the submissive can pay an agreed amount to stop the findom relationship. Plus, dominatrixes must clarify limits with their submissives.
“We engage in a conversation asking their limits, what’s too far?” Harley said, describing consent in findom. “Sometimes people tell me their limits are bankruptcy, that’s a very reasonable limit. But some people do not have that limit, so swirl that around in your head for a minute.”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Join Michael Casey & Sheila Warren as they speak with Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO of AZA Finance and Sebastian Serrano, CEO of Ripio for a discussion on the past, present and future of bitcoin and stablecoins in Africa and South America.
Bitcoin, Stablecoins and International Adoption
This week’s accompanying Money Reimagined podcast episode looks at the adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in emerging markets, which over the past year has seen real signs of life. Is this finally the moment to realize one of the great hopes of this technology: to enable financial empowerment in developing countries where traditional finance is constrained?
To explore that question, my co-host Sheila Warren and I are joined by Elizabeth Rossiello, the founder and CEO of AZA, which has for seven years been developing digital payment solutions in African markets, and Sebastian Serrano, the founder and CEO of Ripio, which has been doing similar work in Latin America for more or less the same amount of time.
Photo by Captureson Photography on Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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In the lore of digital disruption, Eastman Kodak Co.'s downfall is particularly momentous.
Kodak was once one of the world's most powerful companies. But it failed to act on digital cameras and online photo sharing, despite seeing the trends years before. (Kodak engineer Steve Sasson created the first digital camera in 1975.)
It's an apt story to remember now as the digital money revolution rolls ahead at a time of momentous political transition.
On this episode of CoinDesk's Money Reimagined, join Jen Zhu Scott, Executive Chairman of The Commons Project, Tanvi Ratna, CEO of Policy 4.0, along with hosts Michael J. Casey and Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum for this deep-dive into the potential of, and thought behind China's forthcoming DCEP, better known as the digital yuan.
With DCEP, China’s supply chains will become hyper-efficient, giving it a big advantage over other countries’ production sectors. And as those models extend into China’s international One Belt One Road initiative, foreign dependency on its production processes could grow, giving Beijing geopolitical clout.
Out of this, China will forge financial autonomy. Its digital currency will eventually be interoperable with other tokens and blockchains, allowing its businesses and their foreign trading partners to move money across borders without using dollars as an intermediary. They’ll bypass New York, in other words.
Solution: Open Money
This won’t happen overnight. But the effect on confidence in the U.S. could arise within the next four years.
How should Washington react? Christopher Giancarlo, former CFTC chairman and the founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, is pushing for a digital dollar that would integrate constitutionally enshrined privacy protections, making it more appealing than the digital yuan, which many fear will become a Beijing surveillance tool.
But will people truly trust the U.S. not to monitor digital dollar transactions? After all, as Jennifer Zhu Scott, chair of the Commons Project, noted in this week’s Money Reimagined podcast, global finance is already subject to a comprehensive U.S.-led system of surveillance.
So, while we’re right to worry about a Chinese “panopticon” ingesting people’s identifying information, that’s not the data threat the U.S. can or should compete with. In the same podcast episode, Policy 4.0 CEO Tanvi Ratna said the bigger issue is how troves of DCEP-generated anonymized data will enable Chinese businesses to extract huge efficiencies and unlock innovation across decentralized economic systems.
There may be a way for the U.S. to compete here. But it will require a radical, disruptive solution. This is an episode you won't want to miss.
Original Album Art Image by Kido Dong / Unsplash modified by CoinDesk
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With PayPal recently announcing crypto services for millions of customers, it seems the crypto industry has passed another acceptance milestone.
But, with that acceptance comes greater responsibility, says Ajit Tripathi, a long-time consultant working at the top of the industry.
Going forward, crypto can expect greater regulatory scrutiny and higher compliance costs. Times ten, says Tripathi.
On the Opinionated podcast this week, Tripathi discusses his recent op-ed “Bitcoin Is Good for PayPal, but Is PayPal Good for Bitcoin?” where he compares the costs of setting up a neobank in the U.K. (like Monzo) with creating a DeFi protocol this summer.
At the moment, the former comes with millions in compliance costs and the latter comes with none, and customers are not protected, he says.
As mainstream players, like PayPal, enter the market, Tripathi argues it’s inevitable that regulators will intervene. After the last financial crisis and following the ICO run-up, they feel obliged to take notice.
Listen in as Tripathi describes the regulatory challenges facing the industry as it becomes more popular.
Find Ajit online: twitter.com/chainyoda
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In our weekly Money Reimagined podcast, Sheila Warren and I talked to two outside-the-box thinkers on their ideas for improving governance.
Quadratic Voting and Open Auctions
One of our guests was Glen Weyl, the political economist and Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, who co-authored the book “Radical Markets” with University of Chicago Law School professor Eric Posner. We chose to focus on just two of the many ideas that that book puts forward.
One is quadratic voting, which allows people not only to vote for or against a particular issue but to express how strongly they hold that view by buying extra votes – up to a certain limit of assigned credits. The cost in credits of each additional vote increases by a quadratic formula. It’s designed to help small groups of voters who care deeply about particular issues while still constraining them from overly skewing results.
Weyl has also worked on a variation of the concept with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin called quadratic funding, which in theory could diminish the influence of wealthy “whales” in voting systems that are based on financial holdings or contributions.
The second big idea we explored is that of perpetual open auctions. Here, every bit of property, including what we might otherwise think of as public property, is owned by private entities with the proviso that it is always up for auction and that the majority of the value created from it is shared equally among citizens as a social dividend.
Weyl and Posner argue that such an arrangement would incentivize owners to manage the property well, and that the wider distribution of wealth creation would give a greater number of people the wherewithal to start businesses. It would also be easier to develop land for infrastructure, such as high-speed rail lines, because the developer could easily acquire it.
Both of these ideas are rooted more in legal and process innovation than in software and distributed computing per se. But they intersect nicely with concepts associated with the crypto and blockchain space.
One is the potential for self-sovereign identity models to prevent people from gaming quadratic voting. Another is the potential enhancements that smart contracts, non-fungible token-based property, and decentralized finance (DeFi) concepts such as automated market-making might bring to open auctions. Also, quadratic funding might fix free-rider problems in blockchain projects, Buterin believes.
Smart taxation
Our other guest was Jeff Saviano, the global lead of tax innovation at EY. He is a member of the Prosperity Collaborative, within which organizations such as the World Bank, MIT Media Lab’s Connection Sciences lab and the New America Foundation are working with governments to improve transparency and efficiency in the collection and distribution of taxes.
Saviano talks of how blockchain-based tracing systems might not only give taxpayers a transparent view of how their taxes are being spent but also incorporate programmability.
For example, the actual, uniquely identified dollars that you contribute could be channeled directly and transparently into identifiable services that immediately benefit you and your community. Or, governments could use smart contracts to put hard constraints on those dollars, so only certain categories of expenditure, and not others, are enabled.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, Michael J. Casey and Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum are joined by the newly reelected Premier of Bermuda, David Burt, who is spearheading projects to use the island as a testing ground for stablecoins and to launch a communally owned national digital bank.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on the Opinionated podcast, we welcome two Londoners: Lex Sokolin and Frances Coppola.
Lex Sokolin is the global fintech co-head at ConsenSys, the Ethereum development studio, as well as a CoinDesk columnist.
Lex discusses his recent piece How DeFi Can Avoid the Irrelevance of P2P Lending and Crowdfunding, where he compares DeFi to once-hot financial ideas, like equity crowdfunding.
He explores how DeFi can avoid the fate of those trends. DeFi has global scale, he says, a thoroughly open source nature that spurs innovation, and it offers built-in tokenized incentives for participation, among other advantages.
“DeFi is displaying the evidence of traction with something between 500,000 and 1 million people using DeFi protocols,” Sokolin says. “There’s a magic in DeFi that wasn’t in P2P lending and crowdfunding.”
Frances Coppola is a veteran writer on banking, finance and economics and the author of “The Case for People’s Quantitative Easing.”
She discusses her recent opinion piece about the state of the banking system called “Banks Are Toast but Crypto Has Lost Its Soul.”
“The nature of the business is changing so fundamentally that what we think of as big banks and what they do will be very different in the future,” she tells us.
But while some see stablecoins as a helpful way to move currencies around the world, Coppola believes that the industry has sold out its values by adopting fiat-backed coins like tether.
“This game has been played from time immemorial. [It’s] creating fake things to represent real things. I think the fact that you put it on a blockchain makes any difference really,” she says.
Tune in to hear two bold thinkers with big ideas about the future of finance.
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This system is broken. It has become a leviathan – too big, too comprehensive. Giant fines have skewed the risk-versus-payoffs for banks, which impose compliance on everyone regardless of size. (This is despite AML guidelines typically allowing ID exemptions for transfers of up to $1000, and in the U.S. up to $3,000.)
It’s time to scale down, not up.
“There is a principle in design that in order to optimize the system, to maintain the most positive outcome, we have to sub-optimize the sub-systems,” crypto compliance expert Juan Llanos said during this week’s episode of the Money Reimagined podcast. “That means we may have to learn to live with a little money laundering. We might have to live with the risk that someone in Somalia might be a criminal trying to get through the cracks.”
A more open mind from regulators toward cryptographic technologies that help regulators manage system-wide risks without imposing strict identity requirements on everyone would also be welcome. Research by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab into how to identify system risks within otherwise anonymous bitcoin transaction flows offers one potential way forward.
The test is whether policymakers can respond to the human cost of the existing approach.
“Is this the system that really promotes prosperity in our world?” C-Labs General Counsel Brynly Llyr asked during the same podcast episode. “I mean, yes, money laundering is very serious, tax evasion is very serious, but when we look at the remittance markets and the folks who are relying on … transfers of $50 and $100 ... is this really what we want our system to be cracking down on? Is this the best use of our resources?”
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
From the CoinDesk Global Macro news desk, this is Borderless – a twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting Bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. On this episode, Nik, Anna, Daniel and CoinDesk tech reporter Colin Harper discuss Nigerian protestors using bitcoin, the digital yuan reaching retail users in China, the IMF talking about crypto, and more.
In Nigeria, people are protesting police brutality and demanding the abolition of SARS, or the Special Anti-Robbery Squad police unit, an infamous special forces team known for abusing and harassing citizens.
CoinDesk reporter Colin Harper joins the conversation to talk about how The Feminist Coalition, a movement advocating for women’s rights in Nigeria, has been using bitcoin to fundraise and help people hurt by the police during the protests. After the movement’s bank account was frozen, it switched to bitcoin donations, using bitcoin as a censorship-resistant tool, just as activists in another part of the world – Belarus – are doing.
On the central bank digital currency front, China is charging forward with its digital yuan project: last week, about two million people got free digital yuans in a lottery in Shenzhen. People could spend the giveaway tokens in over 3,000 local stores, as Reuters reported. The consumers haven’t been impressed so far, but maybe that’s only a beginning,
Unlike in China, central bankers in the West are not that sure about CBDCs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a report discussing the benefits of issuing digital tokens by central banks. Maybe the most interesting part, the International Monetary Fund talks about the Big Tech stablecoin projects and what’s at stake there.
Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson, Anna Baydakova and Colin Harper discuss these issues and more on today’s episode of Borderless.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The market for privacy coins is so hot in 2020 that it seems regulators fear it’s reaching its boiling point. Some are even looking to take action to tamp it down and are including privacy blockchain technology as part of their guidance on larger encryption-related issues.
Despite this potential regulatory overhang, Cypherpunk Capital, a firm publicly traded under the symbol “HODL” on the Canadian public markets, maintains that privacy is undervalued. Moe Adham, the firm’s chief investment officer, talked to CoinDesk on The Thesis about his fund’s privacy focus.
Adham’s investment thesis on increasing private transactions on blockchain networks comes from his search for cryptocurrency use cases. That’s especially important to him because he is also co-founder and CEO of YCombinator-backed bitcoin ATM provider Bitaccess.
Payments have not worked for crypto, in part, because it hasn’t delivered cost savings to users compared to credit cards, Adham pointed out. “We’ve really failed on the payments side,” he said. “So then, if you think that we’ve failed on payments, what is the value proposition of crypto?”
Two other justifications for crypto, scarcity and censorship resistance, are often touted by advocates.
According to Adham, scarcity alone might not be a compelling enough concept.
“I think that from our perspective, when you look at scarcity a lot of assets are scarce,” Adham said. “Apple has a stock that’s a scarce asset. But the value is from the underlying company, not just the scarcity.”
“I’m not necessarily convinced that scarcity alone is a long-term value proposition,” he added.
On the other hand, Adham calls censorship resistance and the ability for users to conduct transactions privately as perhaps cryptocurrency’s greatest innovation.
“The real fundamental change for crypto is the decentralized nature of it leads to censorship resistance,” he said. This led directly to Cypherpunk Holdings’ thesis that privacy is undervalued and has been mispriced by the market.
That may seem like a dangerous proposition in a market that is now being scrutinized by regulators, including a recent U.S. Department of Justice crypto enforcement framework warning market stakeholders. However, Adham points to a Europol report that showed in 2019 only 1.1% of total transactions were related to criminal activity.
It’s a delicate balance as there are a lot of unknowns in how regulators will enact privacy policies. Nevertheless, privacy is a bet where Cypherpunk Capital is clearly putting its chips – and Adham makes a convincing argument.
Listen in to this episode of Thesis to hear more about privacy, mixers and more with CoinDesk host Daniel Cawrey and guest Moe Adham from Cypherpunk Capital!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On Friday morning as the OKEx withdrawal-freeze story twisted and turned, CoinDesk's editors had an off-the-cuff discussion about the fundamental realities and unique challenges of security for even the largest exchanges.
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Coinbase’s recent decision to take no position on political and social issues has divided the cryptocurrency industry.
Some see it as a wise move in a no-win hyper-sensitive political environment.
Others say CEO Brian Armstrong is tone-deaf to cultural forces sweeping the United States and the world.
This week, the debate got material within Coinbase itself, with about 5% of employees choosing to quit and take a severance package, rather than work for a company with a crypto-only mission statement.
This week on Opinionated – our new podcast featuring CoinDesk’s best columnists and contributors – we are joined by Jill Carlson and Emily Parker to discuss the Coinbase controversy and its meaning for the industry and Silicon Valley.
Carlson is an investor with Slow Ventures and co-founder of the Open Money Initiative.
She writes this week that Armstrong, far from creating an environment in which people can work free of distractions, is creating an environment where difficult issues remain unaddressed and people feel not-heard.
Carlson sees Coinbase’s stance cutting off useful debate. “The backlash against cancel culture is not manifesting as advocacy for dialogue, free speech, nuance and tolerance. Rather, the backlash is only driving discourse deeper underground, breeding an even more intense culture of fear and further entrenching intolerance,” she writes.
Parker is CoinDesk’s Global Macro Editor. Her op-ed “Coinbase’s ‘Mission’ Violates the Spirit of Bitcoin” points to what she calls the hypocrisy of Armstrong going apolitical while espousing the values of Bitcoin (including economic freedom and censorship resistance).
“Armstrong would like to have it both ways. He wants to be apolitical about the disruptions that make him uncomfortable, but political about Bitcoin’s mission to disrupt the world,” she writes.
Join us for a lively discussion with two bold and original thinkers.
Opinions featured in this week’s podcast:
Emily Parker – Coinbase’s ‘Mission’ Violates the Spirit of Bitcoin
Jill Carlson – Reading Between the Lines of Brian Armstrong’s Mission Memo
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The virtual event invest: ethereum economy takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 14. CoinDesk’s Christine Kim spoke to colleagues Michael J. Casey and Aaron Stanley about the most compelling and under-discussed topics about Ethereum 2.0 headlining next week’s conference.
From the dynamics of staking to the architecture of sharding, there haven’t been many topics Ethereum 2.0 core developers have shied away from discussing over the past five weeks on “Developer Perspectives: Ethereum 2.0.”
See also: 3 Things You Should Know Before Staking on Ethereum 2.0
Each discussion, however, has sparked new questions about the ramifications of Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake on the crypto markets and the broader blockchain industry.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions about how the markets are going to behave,” said Casey, CoinDesk’s chief content officer. “Do we end up with a split, [with] two versions of ethereum or at least two tokens that trade differently in the marketplace?”
Casey added that financial engineers in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space will likely seek to unlock the liquidity of staked ETH on Ethereum 2.0 before token transfers are officially enabled on the network. What new DeFi products are created, their attributes and, most important, their impact on the value of ETH remain to be determined.
Along with lingering questions over how the markets will react to the launch of Ethereum 2.0, there’s also uncertainty over how the launch will affect the competitive landscape for dapp users and dapp developers in the crypto industry.
“What does the multi-chain future look like?” asked Stanley, CoinDesk’s managing director of events content. “If Eth 2.0 succeeds, … what does that mean for all these other [smart contract] chains out there? Are they going to go away or just cease to exist? I don’t think that’s the case.”
With the recent popularity around yield farming and liquidity mining on Ethereum, Stanley also questioned what the real incentives are for users holding large amounts of ETH, upwards of $11,000 worth, to stake on Ethereum 2.0 when they could earn “100x returns farming ‘hotdog coin’ or whatever the meme coin of the day is.”
See also: Yearn, YAM and the Rise of Crypto’s ‘Weird DeFi’ Moment
These questions are pertinent to the discussions happening next Wednesday at invest: ethereum economy. Keynote speakers headlining the virtual conference are founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath P. Tarbert. To register for the event, click here.
CoinDesk Research has recently published an updated report about the launch of Ethereum 2.0, as well as recent developments on the existing Ethereum blockchain. Download it for free on the CoinDesk Research Hub.
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This week, Michael Casey and Sheila Warren talk to Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf about self-sovereign identity, the topic of this week's column. A developer whose three-decade career has seen him deeply involved in efforts to foster a more open internet, Brian grasps, like few others, the nuances of how human beings should live within a rapidly changing digital economy.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
From the CoinDesk Global Macro news desk, this is Borderless – a twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting Bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. It’s created by reporters Nikhilesh De, Anna Baydakova and Daniel Nelson.
Last week, two federal U.S.agencies brought charges against BitMEX, one of the world’s largest crypto derivatives trading platforms, alleging the company violated multiple laws by allowing U.S. customers to trade its options contracts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, a prosecutor, claimed the exchange and its owners, CEO Arthur Hayes, CTO Samuel Reed, Ben Delo and Gregory Dwyer violated the Bank Secrecy Act by not conducting any know-your-customer procedures, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged that BitMEX allowed U.S. customers to trade on its platform, despite the fact that the startup hadn’t registered as an exchange with the company. The charges are both criminal and civil, and the SDNY announced that while it had arrested one of Hayes’ colleagues, Hayes himself remains at large.
Across the pond, the European Union is preparing to set the fate of its much-hyped “digital euro.” In its latest report, released last week, the bloc’s central bank reiterated the importance of preparing a EU CBDC future but once again refused to commit to it. That decision is expected in the middle of next year. But central bankers are nonetheless thinking through what a “digital euro” might look like right now. For example, one “requirement” is that any “digital euro” should have “cash-like features.” That means broad accessibility, offline capabilities, widespread acceptance, all the cash-like features we don’t even think about. ECB officials even set “strong european branding” as a requirement.
Belarus has been protesting against its president Alexander Lukashenko since August. And since then, the government has been trying to limit access to the information: in addition to multiple internet outages, local media and political movement websites have been blocked. News publications are looking to new, decentralized tools to fight back.
A San Francisco-based startup called Clostra is offering a peer-to-peer file-sharing service called NewNode. Users can connect devices using the internet, Bluetooth or WiFi hot-spots, sharing information similarly to how torrent clients operate (indeed, Clostra was founded by former BitTorrent director of engineering Stanislav Shalunov).
Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson and Anna Baydakova discuss these issues and more on today’s episode of Borderless.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
With final preparations for the launch of Ethereum 2.0 soon to be underway, CoinDesk's Christine Kim spoke to Cayman Nava, technical lead at ChainSafe Systems and Alexey Akhunov, an independent researcher and software developer about the kinks in ETH's evolution that still need to be worked out.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Nexo.io and Elliptic.co.
The Ethereum blockchain processes about three to four times as many transactions as Bitcoin. It’s still not enough, however, to meet rising user demand for the cryptocurrency and prevent network congestion.
See also: DeFi Frenzy Drives Ethereum Transaction Fees to All-Time Highs
One of the most highly anticipated fixes to Ethereum’s transaction bottleneck and its lack of scalability is an ambitious software upgrade called Ethereum 2.0. According to Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, Ethereum 2.0 will boost network speeds from around 15 transactions per second (TPS) to 100,000 TPS.
How? The solution is sharding. Cayman Nava, technical lead at ChainSafe Systems, explains sharding as “a natural way to break things up.”
“If you’re wanting to process a lot of data but you don’t want any one party to be overloaded with that data, you can naturally think of breaking up your problem into smaller pieces,” said Nava. These “smaller pieces” Nava is referring to are called shards. In Ethereum 2.0, 64 shards will be created to break up the transaction load of Ethereum.
See also: Ethereum 2.0: How It Works and Why It Matters
While sharding sounds effective in theory, there are other Ethereum developers who are skeptical about the benefits of this technique in practice.
“If I were to design scaling [for Ethereum], first I would squeeze as much as possible out of Ethereum 1, which I think hasn’t been done yet, and then after that I would actually introduce sharding logically in order to see whether users would actually be able to use [sharding] effectively,” said Alexey Akhunov, an independent researcher and software developer for Ethereum that has been contributing code to the network’s development since 2016.
Sharding logically refers to breaking up data within the same blockchain as opposed to sharding physically, which necessitates the creation of multiple mini-blockchains. As mentioned, Ethereum 2.0 will spawn a physically sharded system of 64 linked databases. Optimizing the communication between shards in this environment, Akhunov goes on to explain, may pose an even greater challenge to network scalability than a transaction bottleneck.
Nava agrees there are kinks and holes in the design of Ethereum 2.0 and its sharded system that need to be worked out. But in Nava’s view, these problems that call for further detailing and research can be delayed in the short term while developers work toward an upgrade launch.
“I think we can delay these harder problems like how sharding should work or what it should look like. That can be pushed off a little bit so we can think about it and get it right. In the near term, we can get a lot of the benefits from the [Ethereum 2.0] work that we’ve been doing,” said Nava.
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CoinFund’s Jake Brukhman Talks Active Investing in the DeFi and NFT Space
Many investors, particularly in the venture capital space, like to take a hands-off approach to investments. Not Jake Brukhman at CoinFund, whose firm actively participates in various cryptocurrency networks in which his firm has decided to deploy capital.
Some of this comes from the need to understand these networks. CoinFund, launched in 2015, was one of the first cryptocurrency investment firms to get involved with decentralized finance and the yield farming craze. The firm allocates about 20% of its capital to active DeFi investing. “The beauty of these open protocols is that they make it fairly easy to iterate on the technology and really move fast with the speed of software towards efficiency,” said Brukhman. “The problem of investing in DeFi for crypto investors is largely a portfolio construction problem.”
The sheer choice of DeFi projects for investment makes the space challenging, with a plethora of options in the automated market making (AMM) and decentralized exchange (DEX) space, says Brukhman. “As investors, how do we think about what to invest in? Do we invest in all the possible iterations of AMMs and DEXs that come along? Do we invest in the most innovative one? Do we invest in the first one?”
AMMs specifically have key importance in DeFi, Brukhamn told CoinDesk, bringing institutional-level liquidity that has enabled the market to grow in 2020. “AMMs enable liquidity like we’ve never really had before,” he said. “Retail users can get the same benefits as a professional hedge fund market maker.”
And while DeFi is a hot subject in 2020, Brukhman’s fascination with scarce items on the blockchain in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, might be a peek into future developments within the blockchain ecosystem.
Brukhman believes all digital content will end up on a blockchain somewhere. “Non-fungibles are not just about cat pictures, they are not just about art or collectibles,” Brukhman said. “It’s also about domain names, about selling insurance policies and maybe in the future about selling royalty-bearing assets.”
All of this and much more on the first edition of The Thesis podcast!
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Nic Carter discusses the $20 billion stablecoin phenomenon and its implications for the global financial system.
Welcome to Opinionated, a new podcast featuring CoinDesk's leading columnists and contributors. I'm your host, Ben Schiller, CoinDesk's opinion editor.
On this week's show, we're joined by Nic Carter, cofounder of Coin Metrics and partner at Castle Island Ventures.
Nic discusses this year's $20 billion surge in USD-backed stablecoins (what he calls "crypto-dollars") and the potentially enormous implications of an offshore dollarization system based on blockchain.
Fiat-backed stablecoins are "not what Satoshi intended," Carter says, but their "preposterous" growth this year is the "the most important phenomenon in the industry."
"It not only tells us about he maturation of the crypto financial infrastructure. It also tells us a lot about current geopolitics, too," he says.
Nic has written two op-eds for CoinDesk about crypto-dollars:
"Policymakers Shouldn't Fear Digital Money: So Far It's Maintaining the Dollar's Status" (from February)
and
"The Crypto-Dollar Surge and the American Opportunity" (this month).
U.S. policymakers fear losing power as dollar-flows increasingly shift to stablecoins.
Central bankers may have less ability to set interest rates. And the corresponding banking infrastructure, based largely in New York, will process fewer transactions as people move into assets like tether and USDC instead.
Nonetheless, Carter says the U.S. should embrace this new form of money technology.
One, it's mostly, for now, a U.S. industry, and overwhelming pegged to dollars. More dollars in circulation, while not necessarily good for American workers, is good for the dollar's reserve currency status.
Two, blockchains are inherently neutral – "equal opportunity databases" that don't exclude people and represent financial freedom. That ought to accord with American values.
And third, if the U.S. doesn't sanction stablecoin transactions, some other country or company will, inviting in the threat of surveillance and a loss of power anyway.
"The U.S. should consider embracing a neutral alternative to the highly politicized New York corresponding banking system before it's too late and whole tranches of its allies defect to a Chinese or a Russian system," Carter says.
Nic had a lot more to say about stablecoins, the future of money and great power rivalry. Check it out here, and please subscribe to CoinDesk's new podcast feed.
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With the final preparations for the launch of Ethereum 2.0 soon to be underway, CoinDesk's Christine Kim spoke with Developers Raul Jordan and Eduardo Antuña Díez about what's left to do.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Nexo.io.
Lead developer at Prysmatic Labs Raul Jordan, who has been building Ethereum 2.0 software for over two years, explained his team would be wrapping up all feature development by October 15.
“At that time, it’s all hands on deck to just have good documentation, good user experience, fix-up security holes [and] basically prepare for launch. That’s where we are today if all remains on track,” said Jordan.
The final features currently in development by Prysmatic Labs and other software development teams include making sure different code implementations of Ethereum 2.0, also called “clients”, are interoperable and can be used interchangeably by a user without running the risk of losing validator rewards.
See also: A Day in the Life of an Ethereum 2.0 Validator
It’s not only client developers who are beginning final preparations for this network upgrade. Ethereum startups building hardware and tooling for users to participate in the Ethereum 2.0 launch are also working on adding last-minute features to their products.
Eduardo Antuña Díez, project lead at DAppNode, said, “The most important thing that we realized after the first [Ethereum 2.0] testnet is that people need to know the status of their validators. Having a good monitoring system to be able to know when your validator is down … we are working in that direction.”
Before Ethereum 2.0 goes live, Jordan and Díez both noted that a new contract will be created on the current Ethereum blockchain to receive deposits of 32 ETH. Only once this contract accumulates a minimum of 524,288 ETH, which is worth roughly $181 million at time of writing, will the new Ethereum blockchain officially kick-start at midnight UTC the following day.
See also: Ethereum 2.0: How It Works and Why It Matters
About the security of the deposit contract, Jordan said, “There’s no way to retrieve [funds]. … It’s considered a burn in the short term. It’s not like there’s any sort of admin key or any sort of way to take those funds out. There’s no way somebody can take all the ETH that is locked in there.”
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Money is changing, but where do we go from here? Through high profile interviews and thoughtful analysis, join CoinDesk's Michael Casey and Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum as they explore the connections between finance, human culture and our increasingly digital lives.
In this inaugural episode media studies professor Lana Swartz and multimedia artist Nicky Enright join the discussion.
Sushi, Hotdogs, Yams, Shrimp.
The whimsical, food-obsessed names of DeFi protocols are antithetical to the stodgy imagery of the mainstream financial system they seek to disrupt. Banks’ memes, by contrast, skew toward strength and durability. (Think of the rampart lions and Roman columns at the entrances of bank branches in old parts of London, New York or Paris.)
DeFi’s critics say the silly names betray the fact it’s merely a fad and a game – or worse, a scam. It’s all imaginary, they say. It’s not real.
The problem with that perspective is that all aspects of money, including the financial systems built on top of it, are imaginary.
And, in case you’re wondering, that’s a feature, not a bug.
Israeli historian Yuval Harari calls money “the most successful story ever told,” even more important to the evolution of society than religion, corporations and a host of other human-imagined institutions. Like those concepts, money’s power hinges on the collective adoption of a common belief system. It takes a set of mutually understood rules and gives them symbolic representation in a token we call a currency. In exchanging that token, we reach agreements that reflect those rules and so enable commerce, collaboration, value creation and, ultimately, civilization.
Storytelling and cultural creation have always been integral to how society fosters this belief system, how we’ve forged communities around currencies. It’s why representations of money and the conversations around it are rich with iconography, foundational myths and stirring language.
This process of collective imagination has become firmly tied to another powerful imaginary concept: the nation-state. This combination has been so effective that it has survived the introduction of new technologies and tokens over time. We’ve gone from shells to coins to banknotes to checks to credit cards to Venmo, and each time we’ve just accepted that a new transfer vehicle can convey the same rules and values we’ve always attached to our national currencies.
This is a useful lens to apply to the many new ideas for money bubbling up in the crypto world. Whether it’s bitcoin’s bid to become a digital gold-like currency or the fight between Uniswap and SushiSwap to dominate liquidity in DeFi’s lending markets, the semiotic process for creating memes and stories is vital to the establishment of a new system.
National elites used such methods to get us to collectively imagine a bank-centric system of fiat currencies. Those of us who want to change that need to do something similar. We need to reimagine money.
Imagined Communities
If you have a $100 bill in your wallet, take a good look at it.
On one side, there’s Ben Franklin’s balding head and torso, behind which are a quill, an inkwell with the Liberty Bell superimposed onto it, and an extract from the Declaration of Independence. There are also the seals of the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, the signatures of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer, a serial number and other identifying numerals.
On the other, we see Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where Franklin and other Founding Fathers signed the declaration, along with the words “In God We Trust.” On both sides, the number 100 appears numerous times in and around a highly ornate border.
Combined with cotton threads and watermarks, the baroque design helps make the note difficult to counterfeit. But more importantly, the imagery appeals directly to patriotism. It’s all associated with the nation-state to which the dollar, we are encouraged to believe, is indelibly linked.
Now think about the actual value of the note, by which I mean the physical piece of paper. You could use it as a bookmark, maybe, make a paper plane out of it, or write a very small amount of information in very small print on it. But none of those uses add up to $100 in utility.
A banknote’s value comes almost entirely from our shared imagination, a commonality of beliefs fed by centuries of cultural production that forges a type of community. It’s only because the payer and the payee share those beliefs that this piece of paper can function as an instrument for clearing that community’s debts.
Each tribe of cryptocurrency advocates is endeavoring to create the same sense of community and belief around its preferred token. How they attain that is a cultural challenge.
What’s Real?
In November 2014, I created a video for The Wall Street Journal with Nicky Enright, a multimedia artist. We filmed him walking the streets of the Diamond District in New York’s Midtown as he wore an A-frame sandwich board and held a wad of “Globos,” his personal currency, in hand. The beautifully ornate notes were on sale for a $1, he told passersby, in a special two-for-one deal.
The interactions with people were fascinating. One of the most common questions was, “Is it real?” Enright’s answer was always something like, “Of course it’s real. You can see and hold it, right?” As a guest on this week’s inaugural Money Reimagined podcast, Enright reflected on those exchanges, noting that “people will question the Globo in a way that they rarely, if ever, question their own currency” and yet the very same questions about what is “real” could be applied to the purely symbolic value of the dollar.
The pertinent question for cryptocurrency advocates is: How do the purveyors and believers in a particular currency similarly get enough people to believe in it, to view it as “real?” And that’s again where the cultural conversation comes in.
It’s why Bitcoin’s culture is filled with ideas, phrases and iconography that help build community. Think of the word “HODL,” or the concept that Bitcoin is “The Honey Badger of Money,” or the almost religious devotion to the mysterious founding father, Satoshi. (By the way, it’s irrelevant that these ideas, like DeFi’s, seem frivolous to traditionalists. They are appropriately in line with the meme culture of the digital age, and consistent with the liberal conventions that internet culture unleashed, as names like Yahoo! and Google became corporate mainstays.)
Community = Governance
University of Virginia media studies professor Lana Swartz, author of the newly published New Money: How Payment Became Social Media, has some thoughts on all this. As the second guest on this week’s podcast, she reflected on the very early research that she and two colleagues did into Bitcoin’s culture in 2013. At that time, she said, “there was a real fixation on the idea that Bitcoin would be free from human institutions, free from human foibles and free from the need for human governance… But then all these early Bitcoin people ever really did was to talk and create community, and create ways to govern themselves, and create ways to think about this project.”
It’s a great insight. Money is inseparable from community, and community is about values, the expression of which involves governance. (Not government per se, but governance.)
This brings us full circle to DeFi, where tribes conduct meme warfare on Twitter and elsewhere to promote their tokens. Each of those tokens is tied to a protocol, which offers a different form of governance.
The difference with traditional money is that the enforcement of each token’s particular governance model comes via a decentralized network rather than the centralized institutions of a nation-state.
That shift is what makes it so promising. But it’s also why the cultural creation process is so challenging, as it must compete with the giant mindshare that traditional finance occupies. It’s why the meme-ing must continue.
The End of Wall Street As We Know It?
Hats off to Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal for coming up with a killer graph. Sadly, I’m using that descriptive literally. The chart, which appeared Tuesday in Bloomberg’s daily “Five Things to Start your Day” newsletter, maps the reservations at New York restaurants recorded by the website OpenTable and subway turnstile receipts from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, against the price of shares in SL Green, a real-estate investment trust focused on Manhattan office space. COVID-19 has done a number on all three.
Source: Bloomberg
I include this here, because when thinking about the future of Manhattan real estate, it’s hard not to think about the future of Wall Street. Banks, brokerages and other financial institutions are giant contributors to the city’s commercial rents, occupying large open-plan trading areas on multiple floors of some of NYC’s prime real estate. But in the COVID-19 era, banks have learned that, with the help of new low-latency connectivity packages, their traders can work pretty well from home, offering the prospect that the firms can save millions in rents if they pare back their footprint in the city.
An exodus from New York by bankers, traders and brokers would mark an end to an era. Hollywood’s movies about testosterone-fueled trading floors will become period pieces. The bigger question is what it means for the idea of Wall Street as a New York institution and, by extension, for the city’s outsized role in the regulation of the global financial system.
There are plenty of reasons for banks to maintain a legal residence in New York. Most important, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has a unique role within the Fed’s monetary system, as it conducts the open-market operations by which the central bank implements monetary policy. To act as a counterparty with FRBNY in those trades and gain access to that vital flow of monetary liquidity, banks need, at the very least, a capital markets subsidiary domiciled in New York. Their presence for that purpose in turn gives local regulators such as the New York Department of Financial Services a critical role in world finance.
But it’s not hard to imagine that a physical downgrading of banks’ physical presence in New York could, over time, degrade the city’s dominance. Will the rest of the U.S. continue to grant NYC its gatekeeping role?. And as central banks, potentially armed with digital currencies, move to expand the range of counterparties they deal with to include non-banks such as large companies and municipalities, New York’s centrality in the process could be further diminished. It’s yet another way in which the seismic events of 2020 could prove are setting it up as a turning point year for the world of finance.
Further reading:
Here in Venezuela, Doctors Struggle to Access Aid From Crypto Platform By José Rafael Peña Gholam
Digital Euro Would Provide Alternative to Cryptos, ECB President Lagarde Says By Dan Palmer
Iran Is Ripe for Bitcoin Adoption, Even as Government Clamps Down on Mining By Sandali Handagama
The Currency Cold War: Four Scenarios by Jeff Wilser
Ocean Protocol and Balancer Want to Do for Data What Uniswap Did for Coins by Ian Allison
How Small Business Can Achieve 'Economies of Scale' by 2030 by Paul Brody
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From the CoinDesk Global Macro newsdesk, this is Borderless - A twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. It's created by reporters Nikhilesh De, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson
On today’s show: the FinCEN files, AirTM isn’t working in Venezuela the way people hoped and stablecoin regulations are reappearing in the U.S. and Europe.
CoinDesk's inaugural episode of Borderless discusses the FinCEN Files, which showed that not only is a global superpower keeping tabs on thousands of financial transactions, but it doesn't appear to actually be tamping downon the alleged crimes it purportedly wants to halt using this data. What's more, many of these transaction records aren't suspicious. Should the government hold on to this personal and financial data for 20 years?
Stablecoin regulations are resurging in both Europe and the U.S., with government officials in both regions publishing new guidance discussing how stablecoins might be regulated and how issuers can interact with banks. The EU wants stablecoin issuers to abide by strict "e-money" rules, according to draft legislation leaked last week. Meanwhile, a federal banking regulator in the U.S. says nationally regulated banks can offer stablecoin issuers financial services.
This applies specifically to hosted wallets, meaning wallets that are controlled by a trusted (regulated) third party. Wallets where users directly control the keys do not fall into the guidance. For its part, the Securities and Exchange Commission warns that some of these digital assets may or may not look like securities, and recommends that issuers contact it prior to launching a new token.
Another stablecoin story down in Venezuela has us rethinking whether the country’s purported crypto economy is really as robust as the headlines make you think. CoinDesk contributor Jose Rafael Pena Gholam writes that opposition leader Juan Guaido’s attempted airdrop of $19 million in stablecoins to Venezuela's “health heroes” has fallen flat.
The money came from funds seized by U.S authorities. Guaido was hoping to use it to back pay thousands of health workers with a $100 bonus for three months of work, but the drop has been hampered by the Maduro regime and tech hiccups.Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson and Anna Baydakova discuss these issues and more.
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In this inaugural episode, CoinDesk Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine previews upcoming shows from the editorial team at CoinDesk.com.
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