Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Blockchain And Cryptocurrency

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Laura Shin, the host of Unchained and author of The Cryptopians, also joined the conversation. Show topics: how people have responded to The Cryptopians why traditional publishers were reticent to publish the story revealing the alleged DAO attacker’s identity what lessons can be learned from North Korea’s alleged involvement in the Ronin bridge exploit what zero-knowledge proofs work and how a miscalculation in a whitepaper almost caused major issues in the crypto world this week how math proofs and reporting specifications work in the crypto space why security engineers, like samczsun, are so hard to come by how an attacker was able to steal ~$80 million from Beanstalk in a governance attack  @hosseeb vs. @haseeb  the difference between being in crypto and covering it as a journalist – and why Laura sees herself as more a “re

Two policy experts, Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, and Niki Christoff, the founder of Christoff and Co., discuss how the crypto industry has performed in Washington and how it can better educate more regulators and politicians about the technology. Show highlights:  Niki and Chris’ background how Niki and Chris would grade the performance of crypto companies in Washington what parallels Chris can draw between crypto in the 2020s and FAANG in the mid-90s whether having a plethora of crypto policy groups helps or hurts crypto in Washington whether calling politicians and regulators names and making memes of them helps or hurts the crypto industry an effective way crypto companies can prompt lawmakers and regulators to prioritize crypto policy why it can be strategically smarter to try to convince incumbents to adopt pro-crypto policy over supporting challengers why Chris thinks crypto could be a bipartisan topic what Chris and Niki think about the fact that Democratic candidate

Tim Beiko, the Ethereum Foundation coordinator for core developers, discusses his recent estimation that Ethereum’s merge, where the network transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, will be delayed until the second half of 2022. Show topics: what the Ethereum merge is  why an upcoming difficulty bomb could force developers to delay the merge what shadow forks are and how they affect the decision to go forward with the merge how network difficulty is used in Ethereum to keep a balance between the blockchain and miners Tim’s (purposefully vague) timeline for the merge how the merge could increase Ethereum’s throughput by 9% – and thus potentially reduce gas fees slightly how the Ethereum Foundation plans to address gas fees and scaling issues post-merge Announcing The Cryptopians Book Clubs! On April 26th, I will be selling NFT tickets to five 90-minute virtual book clubs in which 22 people can discuss "The Cryptopians" with me and with each other — without worrying about spoilers! Two of th

Stuart Levi, co-head of the Technology Transaction and Intellectual Property Group at Skadden Arps, and Marta Belcher, general counsel and Head of Policy at Protocol Labs, break down the legal issues surrounding NFTs specifically in the context of Yuga Labs’ recent purchase of CryptoPunks and Meebits IP rights. Show highlights: the definitions and differences between copyrights, trademarks, and rights of publicity (name, image, likeness) how NFT projects have evolved in the past 12-18 months and what that means for the rights of NFT holders why NBA Top Shot’s licensing model is the best model for famous brands entering the NFT space how the popularity of PFPs and the open-source ethos of crypto has led to confusion regarding the commercial rights of NFT holders what you are getting when you buy an NFT (hint, it’s not copyright) the misconceptions surrounding Yuga Labs’ acquisition of Crypto Punks and Meebits why Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders most likely cannot use the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand or

Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galois Capital, discusses a crazy week in the world of algorithmic stablecoins that saw USDN de-peg from the dollar and Terra unveil plans to create a new liquidity pool on Curve to strengthen UST. Show highlights: how USDN and Waves works what made USD de-peg why Kevin thinks algorithmic stablecoins fail so often what Kevin thinks about backing UST with BTC how 4pool works in the context of Curve Finance, 3pool, UST, Frax Finance, and Redacted Cartel why Kevin believes Anchor is the reason UST could de-peg what might happen to Terra and the crypto market writ large if UST were to de-peg why lowering yields on Anchor could depress LUNA’s price by 8x how UST and LUNA redemptions work Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021     Coinchange: https://coinchange.io    OnJuno: https://onjuno.com/  Galaxis: https://galaxis.xyz/ Episode Links   Kevin Zhou LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-zhou-82938324/ 

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. Show topics: how social engineering was used in the $600 million+ Ronin bridge hack what bridge infrastructure needs to be built (note: if someone wants to build a cross-chain Etherscan, it sounds like Tarun would fund it) why the Inverse Finance hack impressed Tom how Open Zeppelin found and patched a $15 billion vulnerability for Convex Finance why transitioning to token governance might be an issue for Convex what made USDN de-peg why Tarun think algorithmic stablecoin creators are a little crazy the elegance of the Bitcoin whitepaper what their biggest takeaways from Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter are why Tarun thinks FTX investing in IEX is actually a huge deal   Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital https://twitter.com/hosseeb Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital https://t

Mike Brock, general manager of TBD at Block, discusses how TBD’s yet-to-be-released DEX is structured, explains why he thinks decentralized solutions do not necessarily need blockchains, and tells the humorous story about how Jack Dorsey convinced him to start working on a Bitcoin project. Show highlights: what TBD is and what its relation to Block (formerly Square) is how TBD differs from Spiral, another Block-based Bitcoin firm how tbDEX works and why building on-ramps and off-ramps to crypto is so important who will be supplying the liquidity for tbDEX why Mike is passionate about creating digital identity infrastructure how tbDEX will incorporate digital identity tooling into its protocol what Mike thinks about Vitalik Buterin’s misgivings concerning tbDEX’s design why Mike fell down the rabbit hole (thanks Jack Dorsey) what lessons Mike learned at CashApp that he is using at TBD which stablecoin TBD will be working with why Mike is not a believer in DeFi why tbDEX (or, seemingly, other TBD p

Arjun Bhuptani, founder of Connext and bridging expert, breaks down the Ronin bridge exploit that led to a hacker stealing $600 million+ and discusses different bridge designs that could limit future attacks. Show highlights: how a hacker was able to drain more than $600 million from Ronin bridge the difference between DeFi hacks and the Ronin bridge exploit, which was a social-engineering based attack why multisig bridges are susceptible to social engineering attacks why Arjun believes the Ronin hacker is a sophisticated entity whether Sky Mavis will be able to reimburse users the different attack vectors for cross-chain bridges what Arjun thinks about different bridge designs Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021     Coinchange: https://coinchange.io    OnJuno: https://onjuno.com/    Episode Links Arjun Bhuptani Twitter: https://twitter.com/arjunbhuptani    Ronin Hack Latest update from Ronin https://twitter.com/Ronin_Ne

Do Kwon is the CEO of Terraform Labs and a director at Luna Foundation Guard. On Unchained, he explains why LFG is spearheading a plan to partially back Terra’s $15 billion stablecoin UST with Bitcoin. He also dives into another project idea that would transform developer salaries into financial assets that, as far as I can tell, he has not yet spoken about publicly.   Part 1: Everything you need to know about Terra, UST, and BTC. how Terra works and why Do thinks UST will soon be the third-largest stablecoin why Do and LFG decided to back UST with bitcoin why Do thinks LUNA’s price will continue to appreciate despite UST’s new dependence on bitcoin how UST might perform if the price of a bitcoin were to crash why diversifying UST with different types of collateral could help Terra politically how LFG plans to use bridges, smart contracts, and an AMM reserve pool to secure its bitcoin why Do thinks Terra is now a Layer 2 project for Bitcoin who is deciding to purchase bitcoin and who determines wha

Andy Beal, head of ecosystem development at Forta and author of the 30,000 Feet newsletter, discusses the dramatic governance proposal on Juno Network, a Cosmos-based project, where Juno holders are voting to confiscate millions of dollars in tokens from a whale who allegedly gamed the Juno airdrop. Show topics: how the Juno airdrop worked  how the whale was able to amass more JUNO tokens than the team wanted why the Juno Network community feels threatened by an entity holding so many JUNO tokens what the whale did to invoke the ire of the Juno Network community the community’s vote on whether to confiscate up to 98.5% of the whale’s tokens what three courses of action the community is considering to confiscate the whale’s JUNO what Andy’s biggest takeaways are from the dramatic governance moment Come to an Event on Laura's Book Tour! https://www.laurashin.com/book/#tour-dates   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021     Coinchange: htt

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this week’s episode, Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, also dropped by. Show topics: why Do decided to make millions of dollars in bets that LUNA will appreciate in value next year what Robert and Do, as crypto/DeFi founders, think about Crypto Twitter how the difficulty of building payment systems led to Do launching Terra Gauntlet’s recent funding round (and what it does) takeaways from Yuga Labs purchasing CryptoPunk and Meebits IP, ApeCoin, Otherside, and more how NFTs could change the game for publishing and content IP industries whether an NFT collection’s cultural relevance is similar to an L1’s TVL Bored Ape Yacht Club as the first NFT franchise why Haseeb is so disappointed with Axie Infinity, VCs, and other P2E games what Facebook’s foray into NFTs might look like Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capit

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder NEAR Protocol, and George Kikvadze, executive vice chairman at BitFury Group, both of whom have called Ukraine “home” at one point in their lives, discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the role crypto is playing in the war, and the various avenues crypto users can donate to. Show topics: George and Illia’s background in crypto George and Ilia’s connection to Ukraine why crypto is so popular in Ukraine what supplies are being purchased with donated crypto how to donate crypto to Ukraine why Patreon blocked donations to Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO George and Illia’s estimation of the amount of crypto donations received by Ukraine what department of Ukraine’s government spearheaded its adoption of crypto what happened with the canceled airdrop  the different organizations accepting crypto donations in Ukraine   Upcoming Book Events   Friday, March 25: I’ll be on the Harvard campus at HBS Aldrich 011 from 4 pm ET - 5 pm ET. This is *not* open to the general public

In his first podcast appearance ever, Punk6529, known for writing massive threads on Crypto Twitter, discusses the cultural and historical significance of Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs purchasing the intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. Topics: how CryptoPunks set the industry standard for PFP projects how Bored Ape Yacht Club distinguished itself from CryptoPunks – and other NFT projects why 6529 is bullish on the utility of intellectual property rights and commercial use being granted to NFT holders by Yuga Labs why 6529 believes Yuga Labs will be good stewards of CryptoPunks how NFTs (and Bitcoin) are leveraging memes and social construction to go mainstream  what 6529 thinks Larva Labs’ legacy will be in the NFT space how royalty revenue streams led to the Yuga Labs purchase of Meebits and CryptoPunk IP why 6529 is unsure about the significance of metaverse real estate what 6529 thinks about ApeCoin Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://c

Jack of all metaverse-trades Chase Chapman discusses her experience working for DAOs, how DAO tooling and governance can improve, and drops a hot take about Discord. Chase brings a unique perspective to Unchained as a co-founder and advisor at Decentology, host of On the Other Side podcast, and active DAO contributor at Orca, Index Coop, and Rabbit Hole. Show topics: how Chase got into crypto new avenues for bringing more women into crypto how DAOs change the nature of work how Chase gets paid – and why her accountants might start ducking her calls why Chase is passionate about DAOs having a core set of values why Chase thinks terms like “permissionless” and “decentralized” should not be used to describe DAOs what DAOs can learn from corporate structures why Chase is coming around to the idea that DAOs might not need a single HR department how DAOs are dealing with inactive whale token holders versus DAO contributors (who own smaller amounts of token) what suggestions Chase has for some of the rece

Chris Harland-Dunaway, a freelance reporter for The Verge, talks about his most recent investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun, which details a long string of questionable decisions and actions by Sun. Show topics: why Justin Sun fled China after the Tron ICO why Chris’s 15 sources were granted anonymity for this story why Chris believes that Tron’s market-making team was performing insider trading how Justin Sun has tried to evade US securities law what “Operation Couch Cushions” was and how it led to 300 BTC being sent to Poloniex where Justin Sun is looking for citizenship what Chris knows about a grand jury investigation into Justin Sun what Justin Sun had to say about Chris’ allegations Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021    Coinchange: https://coinchange.io   Episode links:    Christopher Harland-Dunaway: https://twitter.com/ChrisHDeee  Justin Sun: https://twitter.com/justinsuntron    Chris’ articles on Justin in

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While researching for The Cryptopians, I discovered that Andrey Ternovskiy, the founder of internet sensation Chatroulette, was heavily involved in The DAO back in 2016. In this episode, we skirt around revealing major spoilers from The Cryptopians and discuss Andrey’s experience founding Chatroulette, how he fell down the crypto rabbit hole, whether hacking smart contracts is ethical, and more. Show topics: Andrey’s background  how Andrey’s struggles with PayPal at Chatroulette led him to quickly understand the need for crypto  what Andrey’s involvement at Chatroulette is the different ways Andrey thinks crypto can disrupt middlemen why Andrey became infatuated with the narrative behind the “crypto” movement why Andrey became a fan of Ethereum why Andrey decided to tell me about his previously undisclosed involvement in The DAO and early Ethereum whether hacking smart contracts is ethical (or legal) what Andrey thinks about how Ukraine has used crypto in its fight against Russia’s invasion why And

Tomicah Tillemann, the global chief policy officer of Katie Haun's new firm, analyzes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and explains how crypto is being used in an unprecedented manner to render aid to civilians, move money across the world, and potentially document war crimes. Show highlights: Tomicah’s background, which includes stints working for the State Department and a16z  recap of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine what Tomicah thinks of the decision to boot certain Russian banks from SWIFT why Tomicah believes that it would be very difficult for Russia to use crypto at a large scale to evade sanctions why ruble/BTC volume is spiking how Ukraine’s usage of web3 tools could change humanitarian aid forever what lessons to take away from Ukraine’s almost-airdrop the four real-world crypto use cases governments should take notice of Upcoming Book Events For folks in the Bay Area: On Tuesday March 8, I’ll be doing a reading and signing at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, moderated by The Information’s K

During my research for The Cryptopians, I found information that I believe identifies the perpetrator behind The DAO hack on Ethereum. Three founding members of The DAO and Slock.it (Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, Griff Green) discuss how and why they created The DAO, how they helped save the funds being siphoned off by black hat hackers, their personal feelings about The DAO, along with their reaction to the news about who I believe was The DAO attacker. Show topics:   Part 1: Background on The DAO Christoph, Lefteris, and Griff’s background and how they came to Slock.it what Slock.it was and why the Slock.it team decided to create The DAO what The DAO has to do with venture capital funding why the Slock.it team did not cap The DAO sale what made The DAO such a popular investment vehicle why The DAO developers were scared at the amount of money they raised   Part 2:  what Christoph, Lefteris, and Griff’s initial reaction to The DAO was saving funds from The DAO via a hard fork versu

In a fun change of pace, Steven Ehrlich, editor of Forbes Cryptoasset and Blockchain Advisor, joins Unchained to interview me about my book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze, which came out this week. We discuss… where the inspiration for “The Cryptopians” title came from why I wanted to write a book about Ethereum how Vitalik’s role changed over the course of Ethereum’s founding who the main characters in The Cryptopians are the biggest challenges Ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation faced in its early days Ethereum’s “red wedding” day what issues with crowdfunding and US securities laws were faced by early Ethereum founders how The DAO hack, along with the Shanghai attacks and Parity drama, shaped Ethereum what I discovered about Ming Chan’s time as the Ethereum Foundation director my biggest takeaways from researching ICOs why I think DAOs could be the next big thing whether or not I have an idea for a new book…   Thank you to our