Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Blockchain And Cryptocurrency

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the group sits down to discuss why U.S. crypto conferences are quieter than they have been in the past, which DeFi metrics are still useful for measuring a changing market, and advice for NFT founders on how to continue to innovate. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  Why Tarun says that the U.S. is “dead as a doorknob” for crypto for crypto conferences Main takeaways from recent crypto conferences such as Token2049 in Singapore and Permissionless in Austin How the metrics in DeFi keep changing, and which ones still have merit What are “chart crimes” and the gang's advice for entrepreneurs pitching to VCs Why Haseeb doesn't think that token economics are as useful as everyone thi

The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is set to begin on October 3. The 31-year-old is accused of committing wire fraud and conspiracy to commit other types of fraud, in relation to the dramatic collapse of his crypto empire last year, which led to billions in losses. Nik De, CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, discusses the importance of jury selection, the potential testimony of key witnesses, and how many years Bankman-Fried may face if he is found guilty. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: Why SBF's lawyers keep requesting the FTX founder be released  Why the jury selection is so important and how long it could take Why the DOJ opposed the proposed questions for the jury  Why the Judge agreed with the DOJ in blocking some of the witnesses proposed by the def

Bitcoin Ordinals have exploded in popularity since their launch by developer Casey Rodarmor in January, changing the NFT game with millions of inscriptions to date. But what comes next for Bitcoin-based digital artifacts? Danny Yang and Bill Tai, cofounders of Metagood and creators of NFT collection OnChainMonkey, discuss why they will move OnChainMonkey from Ethereum to Bitcoin, Rodarmor’s proposal to change the Ordinals inscription numbering system, and why they believe more creators should consider moving to Bitcoin. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: How the idea for Metagood came up What is give-to-earn and how it is used to reward OnChainMonkey holders The differences between Ethereum versus Bitcoin when it comes to digital assets The creative potential of Bitcoin Ordinals  Why OnChainMonkey will move from Ethereum to Bitcoin Thoughts on C

As lawsuits continue to pile up in the FTX saga, FTX chief John Ray III is focused on clawing back funds from former affiliates to pay back creditors. But how might that play out in court? Founder of 117 Partners Thomas Braziel, who specializes in the trading of bankruptcy claims, explains the different paths Ray may choose to go down and the potential outcomes of these cases. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: The chances of FTX winning in court against Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents The case against Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman  Whether civil cases could turn into criminal ones Whether bankruptcy proceedings and the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried are a coordinated effort  What retail clawbacks are and the likelihood that FTX will pursue them Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Arbitrum Foundation Thales DAO Toku Guest Thomas

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders chop it up about the latest news. This week, Haseeb Qureshi and Tom Schmidt speak to Will Warren, cofounder of 0x Labs, to discuss why the CFTC issued them a Wells Notice, how they responded to regulatory scrutiny, and how other countries may offer a blueprint for crypto regulation. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  why the CFTC issued a Wells Notice to 0x how a decentralized application addresses the issue of geolocalization of users how the team at 0x worked together with the CFTC to avoid violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) again what are the implications of the settlement and who's liable for offering services  why it's so hard for crypto projects to follow the rules without clear regulatory guidance why Haseeb says that the SEC wants this industry to “not exist” how la

Zeke Faux, author of 'Number Go Up,' shares his findings after making a deep dive into the world of crypto. From skepticism to a full-blown investigation, Faux recounts his journey that led him to the heart of crypto, meeting some of the most eccentric characters in the industry. As a Bloomberg investigative reporter, Faux brings a critical eye to the crypto sphere, unearthing the bizarre, the risky, and the downright astonishing facets of what the crypto community calls a financial revolution. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: what the book 'Number Go Up' is about Zeke's background as an investigative reporter for Bloomberg whether Zeke is skeptical about crypto  why Zeke thought it was a big deal to investigate Tether, the issuer of USDT whether he had a conclusion on the fact that he couldn't find anything big about Tether why Zeke says that

In the wake of FTX’s collapse, Binance – already the biggest exchange in the world by a large margin – has continued to grow. But a series of challenges, including billions of dollars worth of customer outflows, the winding down of its stablecoin BUSD and the SEC and CFTC lawsuits related to its U.S. operations have challenged its market dominance. Steven Ehrlich, director of research at Forbes Crypto, joins the show to discuss how Binance has been dealing with a deluge of bad news and how it plans to forge a path forward.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how the collapse of FTX impacted Binance and its market dominance how Binance has been losing market share over the past few months why Steven believes that Binance.US is in a "very tenuous situation" whether Binance is feeling stronger now that the SEC experienced a partial loss in the Ripple

It’s been a busy year for USDC issuer Circle, with several new product launches and partnerships, a crypto banking crisis to contend with, the entry of PayPal into the stablecoin business, and plenty of new global regulatory developments, including a bill in the U.S. now making its way through Congress. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire joins Unchained for an in-depth discussion on the reasons behind Coinbase’s investment in Circle, how Circle has emerged stronger from the banking crisis, what he thinks of PYUSD, what he likes and doesn’t like about the current U.S. stablecoin bill, and his thoughts on what the final bill will look like.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why Circle and Coinbase created the Center Consortium and why Coinbase acquired a stake in Circle whether Circle is aiming to be acquired or become a public company, and why

Earlier this week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and four co-authors published a paper describing a smart contract protocol called privacy pools that would enable crypto users to associate their funds with those being used for legitimate purposes versus those being used in criminal activity such as hacks or money laundering. The protocol addresses one of the main shortcomings of coin mixer Tornado Cash, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.  Chainalysis chief scientist Jacob Illum, one of those co-authors, discusses the impetus for the paper, the technology behind privacy pools and how they would work in practice, who would provide some of the necessary organization to operate the pools, and some of the early criticisms of the paper. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: what the current state of crypto privacy is and what the motivati

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the group sits down with Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire to discuss how the USDC stablecoin issuer responded to the banking crisis that started at the end of 2022, what PayPal’s new stablecoin offering means for Circle and the rest of the industry, and whether central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) represent real competition for stablecoins.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  how the collapse of FTX and other companies led to a de-banking crisis for the industry what the Circle Reserve Fund is how the banking crisis in early 2023 caused a "flight from safety" how regulatory clarity has improved in the aftermath of the banking crisis why Jeremy actually hopes PayPal's recently launched PYUSD is s

Friend.tech, a decentralized social media platform in which you can buy and sell “keys” in your friends on X (formerly known as Twitter) whose value can go up and down, has become a viral sensation, racking up as many as 100,000 users since launching on August 10. Should keys be considered securities and thus regulated by the SEC? How should gains and losses be taxed? And how private should users assume their communications and transactions on the platform are? Securities and banking law professor at George Mason Law School JW Verret, and tax partner and co-head of the Digital Assets and Blockchain Practice at Fried Frank Jason Schwartz, share their thoughts.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how Friend.tech works and how the price of keys is determined how Friend.tech is different from many other past attempts at creating a decentralized social m

This week’s emphatic ruling in favor of Grayscale in its suit against the SEC to convert its massive bitcoin trust into an ETF generated plenty of hopium among the bitcoin faithful that a spot bitcoin ETF will get approved soon and open a flood of investment in bitcoin. What are the odds of that truly happening now, though, and if it did, how much additional money could wind up being invested in bitcoin as a result? Also, which companies’ applications would get approved first and how would the various products compete with one other? Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas separates the hype from the reality in answering these questions and more. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why Bloomberg increased the likelihood of a Bitcoin ETF being approved this year from 50% to 75% how the ruling exceeded the expectations of the legal analysts at Blo

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra, chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang goes in depth with Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal to discuss Grayscale’s win in its court case against the SEC, Coinbase’s ongoing dust-up with the SEC, the onerous new crypto reporting regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury, and the unsettling legal arguments behind the government crackdown on Tornado Cash.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  why Paul considers the court ruling in favor of Grayscale in its case against the SEC “nothing short of monumental” how much it actually matters if a spot Bitcoin ETF gets approved what options the SEC has now to pursue its position why BlackRock may have applied for its spot Bitcoin ETF when it did how the SEC 'changed its tune' an

Oracles are all about bringing important data (mostly asset prices) onto the blockchain. As such, they’re a key part of decentralized finance. But oracle provider Pyth sees room for improvement as it relates to being more real-time than crypto incumbents like Chainlink. Mike Cahill, the CEO of a brand new Pyth-linked firm called Douro Labs, joins the show to explain the opportunity he sees in building better oracles. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how Pyth Network works and what the upcoming Perseus upgrade consists of Mike’s background in traditional finance why oracles are necessary in crypto and what the challenges are for oracle providers whether it’s hard for traditional institutions to participate in crypto protocols what the four types of oracle solutions are and how they differ how Pyth determines which data providers are allowed in t

On Wednesday, the U.S. Government indicted Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov for three counts of conspiracy involving a staggeringly large number: $1 billion in criminal proceeds. The U.S. Department of Justice attached North Korean hackers to a large portion of this sum, alleging that Tornado’s privacy tech enabled nefarious deeds. Amanda Tuminelli, chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, joins the show to assess whether the U.S. Government got it right or is merely misguided in its understanding of how blockchain technology works. Should Tornado Cash devs be held to account for the criminal use of their software? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why the U.S. Government says the cofounders of Tornado Cash facilitated money laundering what the difference is between the concealment of potential proceeds of a crime versus

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak talks about the ambitious goals of Base, the new Optimism–based blockchain from the publicly traded crypto giant. With the viral success of Base-based Friend.Tech, Jesse discusses the Base team’s ambitious goals to onboard “a million builders, a billion users.” Is this the long-heralded path to scaling Ethereum? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  why Jesse says it’s still “day one” for Base the reason behind Base’s “one million developers, one billion users” slogan what the advantages of Base are compared to other layer 2 blockchains how Base accounts for the fact that it doesn’t have a token to incentivize developer activity how MEV bots represent a big pa

The height of the last bull run was when MakerDAO cofounder Rune Christensen felt most disillusioned by DeFi and DAOs. “I didn’t even see how Maker was going to survive,” Christensen tells Laura Shin in the latest episode of Unchained. Now Christensen is leading an effort to help DAOs escape their trough of disillusionment. He says the ambitious “Endgame Plan” for MakerDAO seeks to overcome “the central issue of voter apathy.” Will it work or are DAOs doomed to fail? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: the disillusionment that comes with the growth of DAOs and the need for a new approach Rune’s insights into the challenges that most DAOs face how Maker plans to implement alignment engineering through tools, gamification, and incentives what each phase of Maker’s “Endgame Plan” seeks to accomplish the strategy behind Maker’s rebranding, including th

Lawyer Brian Klein joins the show to explain why Sam Bankman-Fried being locked up makes it “much tougher” for his legal team. This week, the judge presiding over the case said SBF went too far in attempting to intimidate key witnesses – chief among them former Alameda Research co-CEO (and ex-flame) Caroline Ellison. Will a jail cell change SBF’s defiant tune ahead of a hotly anticipated October trial date? Klein weighs in. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why the detention of SBF changes the dynamics of the trial preparation why Brian believes that the appeal to the detention won’t prevail whether these new conditions will lead to a request for a delay of the trial whether the fact that SBF is now in jail will make him more interested in a plea deal                 why both the prosecution and the defense have filed motions to limit allowable e

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy joins the show to discuss market making when the crypto markets are quiet. Plus, an analysis of Base’s prospects following a surge of early interest. Also: Do you think bank fraud is going to run rampant in the AI era? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  how prop shops like Wintermute view the current state of the crypto market how an organization like WIntermute interacts with DeFi platforms Tarun and Evgeny attempt to squash some past beef why Evgeny believes that some exchanges are “zombies” whether this is a good time to build an exchange and how Evgeny would do it  how Base accomplished a big surge in its TVL and daily volumes whether it’s possible for Coin

Educator Anita Posch has spent months on the ground in Africa onboarding new users into the world of Bitcoin. In the West, bitcoin may seem extraneous; but in her telling, bitcoin in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other African countries is essential. “Bitcoin can be one of the solutions for people who are disempowered, who are outlawed, the misfits,” says Posch. “Bitcoin is for them because no one can take it away from you.” Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: what Anita does for Bitcoin education and why she was inspired to do this how people in developing countries are constantly getting scammed how the Central Bank of Zimbabwe acts as an intermediary in business operations whether people in these countries use BTC or stablecoins for their day to day expenses what the differences are between the several Bitcoin communities around the world how in Zimba