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Guests:Bennett Tomlin (@bennetttomlin)Larry Cermak (@lawmaster)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Patrick McKenzie (@patio11, special co-host)Today’s motion is “Tether has always been acting in bad faith.”This topic is very relevant for today’s markets because Tether is simultaneously an incredibly important, if not the most important, source of on-ramp liquidity for crypto, and a controversial, legally-challenged, blackbox operation that make market participants worry about their undesirable dealings and, worse, imminent collapse.We previously had a similar debate on this with Matthew Graham from Sino Global Capital vs Cas Piancey, the independent crypto commentator and Tether skeptic. So definitely check that out.Today’s debaters are Larry from the Crypto publication and Bennett Tomlin, another crypto commentator and Tether skeptic. The episode was also co-hosted by Patrick McKenzie, who also did extensive independent research on Tether.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):Paper claiming unbacked Tether drove BTC price:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195066Papers dispelling the above notion:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3175876https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3508006Patrick McKenzie comprehensive history of Tether: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/10/28/tether-and-bitfinex/Bennett Tomlin blog: https://bennettftomlin.com/The Block publication: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/Amy Caster Tether timeline: https://amycastor.com/2019/01/17/the-curious-case-of-tether-a-complete-timeline-of-events/Guest bios:Bennett Tomlin regularly publishes articles about fraud in the crypto space via his blog. His dayjob is data scientist and fraud investigator in the pharmacy benefits area.Larry Cermak is Director of Research and Analysis at The Block, a crypto research, analysis and news outlet geared toward institutional investors.Patrick McKenzie is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur and commentator. He wrote a thorough recount of the Tether controversy on his personal website. Patrick works for the Internet at Stripe. All comments are his own.

Guests:Jorge Stolfi (@jorgestolfi)Lyn Alden (@LynAldenContact)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Bitcoin is a scam.”At the time of recording and release, Bitcoin reached its all time highs. And it just seems that every few weeks, a traditional financial institution or a well-known investor is announcing their interest in the orange coin.Simultaneously, some skeptics continue to insist that this is all a mirage.There seems no better time to visit this fundamental topic on the boundary of our entire industry.Today’s debaters include a computer science academic and a macro investor. I am especially appreciative for the former to appear on this show and be willing to engage. Outside perspectives can be very sobering at times.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):Paper claiming unbacked Tether drove BTC price:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195066Papers dispelling the above notion:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3175876https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3508006Tracker of institutional interest in Bitcoin: https://bitcointreasuries.org/Preston Byrne on why BTC is not a literal ponzi but is its own category of scam: https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/Lifting BTC 21m cap via soft fork: "extension record" trick ala SegWit: https://np.reddit.com/r/bitcoin_uncensored/comments/43w24e/raising_the_21_million_btc_limit_with_a_soft_fork/Debater bios:Jorge Stolfi is a computer science professor at the State University of Campinas in Brazil. His specialty includes computer vision, image processing, function approximation methods, graph theory, computational geometry and other fields. He is a vocal opponent of Bitcoin. In 2016, he submitted a letter to the SEC outlining what he perceives as similarities between Bitcoin and fraudulent penny stocks or ponzi schemes. Jorge received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford in 1988.Lyn Alden runs an investment research service for both retail and institutional investors at LynAlden.com. Her focus is on fundamental investing with a global macro overlay, with a specialization in currency differentials and equity valuations. She also manages financial operation of an aviation simulation research facility.

Guests:Lewis Cohen (@NYcryptolawyer)Gabriel Shapiro (@lex_node)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Legally speaking, tokens are more like commodities than like securities.”Today’s guests are two legal experts in crypto space. One of them will argue that token transactions on the post-ICO, secondary market should for the most part be regulated like commodities and not securities. He will argue that the tokens changing hands in said capital markets do not themselves represent securities, because they don’t capture the same rights as conferred in the primary transaction. He laid out his thoughts in the paper “Ain’t Misbehavin’: An Examination of Broadway Tickets and Blockchain Tokens,” which will be included in the show notes.And of course, the other guest vehemently disagrees on this point.Throughout the debate, we also cover the SEC vs Kik case and Ripple’s security status.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):Lewis Cohen's paper: "Ain’t Misbehavin’: An Examination of Broadway Tickets and Blockchain Tokens": https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3501764SEC vs XRP: https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-untradeable-sec-securitySEC vs Kik: https://www.coindesk.com/kik-sec-rulingLewis Cohen: https://dlxlaw.com/who-we-areGabe Shapiro blog: https://lex-node.medium.com/Debater bios:Lewis is co-founder of the New York based DLX law firm. His main focus is blockchain, tokenization, and other new capital raising techniques and structures. He was previously a partner at two of the Global 25 law firms, and his practices included securitization and other complex structured financings.Gabe is partner of the San Francisco based law firm Belcher, Smolen & Van Loo LLP. He has published several pieces diving deep into US Securities Law, in which he shares his vision and philosophy for how Tokenized Networks should be regulated. His specialty also includes M&A transactions for high tech corporate clients.

Guests:Evan Shapiro (@evanashapiro)Anatoly Yakovenko (@aeyakovenko)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Today’s blockchains can’t increase TPS without taking a hit on decentralization.”This is a follow-up debate, or you can think of it as a re-match. Previously Emre from O(1) Labs also debated Anatoly from Solana on this very topic on the show. So make sure to check that out if you’re interested.Here are some of the topics we covered:* the inherent shortcoming of proof-of-stake in guaranteeing the canonical chain for a new full node* why some chains have been designed to disallow rollback beyond certain point* How Evan thinks faster synching process for new full nodes will allow further decentralization* Why Anatoly thinks trustless synching doesn’t solve the Byzantine Generals ProblemIf you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):Solana: https://solana.com/Coda: https://www.codaprotocol.com/Weak subjectivity explained: https://academy.binance.com/glossary/weak-subjectivityLong range attacks: https://blog.positive.com/rewriting-history-a-brief-introduction-to-long-range-attacks-54e473acdba9Coda article on mental model of Scalability-per-unit-of-Decentralization: https://codaprotocol.com/blog/solving-the-scalability-trilemmaByzantine general's problem: https://medium.com/coinmonks/a-note-from-anthony-if-you-havent-already-please-read-the-article-gaining-clarity-on-key-787989107969Debater bios:Evan is CEO of O(1) labs which operates Mina protocol, previously known as Coda protocol. He used to be an engineer at Mozilla and Personal Robotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.Anatoly is founder and CEO of Solana, a layer-1 public blockchain built for scalability without sacrificing decentralization or security, and in particular, without sharding. He was previously a software engineer at Dropbox, Mesosphere and Qualcomm.

Guests:CasPiancey (@caspiancey)Matthew Graham (@mattysino)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Tether will likely get crushed by authorities in the next two years, thanks to its shady practices and defiance against regulators.”In this debate about the controversial pioneer stablecoin, we talked about pending lawsuits, a lack of regulatory framework for Tether to work with from the outset that cornered them into the way things are for them, how Tether issuance is affecting bitcoin prices, why Tether dominates stablecoin market cap despite its troubles, and more.Today’s debaters include CasPiancey, a long-time and vocal Tether skeptic; and Matthew Graham, the founder of a well-known Asia-based crypto fund.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.I hope you will enjoy listening to this debate. Let’s dive right in!Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):UT Austin paper suggesting correlation between Bitcoin price and Tether issuance: https://archive.is/fMbooPaper #1 showing no correlation between Bitcoin price and Tether issuance: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3508006Paper #2 showing no correlation between Bitcoin price and Tether issuance: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165176518302556New York Attorney General case against Tether: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ny-attorney-general-sues-bitfinex-210643545.htmlTether lawsuit from crypto traders: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-traders-lawsuit-claims-bitfinex-tether-cost-market-over-1-trillionDebater bios:CasPiancey is an independent investigator and reporter of business and financial fraud. He writes regularly about projects, exchanges and scams in crypto.Matthew is CEO of Sino Global Capital. He has seven years of mainland China investment banking experience with a focus on representing international technology companies in China for strategic partnership and investment. Matthew has been involved in blockchain since 2013, first slowly, then all at once. As Managing Partner of Sino Global's Liquid Value blockchain fund Mr. Graham invests in blockchain technology with strategic relevance for China. Significant 2020 investments include primary market deals such as FTX, Serum, Mintbase, Mask Network; and secondary market deals such as Solana and Nexus Mutual.

Guests:Alex Gluchowski (@gluk64)John Adler (@jadler0)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)James Prestwich (@_prestwich, special co-host)Today’s motion is “ZK rollup has a better set of security/scalability tradeoff than Optimistic rollup.”Rollups are a class of layer-2 Ethereum scalability solutions. They allow an off-chain aggregation of transactions inside a smart contract. Users can transact inside the contract with security guarantees, and they will settle to the mainchain at some future point.ZK and optimistic rollups are different in the way they ensure the validity of these transactions that are being kept off-chain.The ZK approach uses math. It bundles the transactions, compresses them, and adds a zero-knowledge proof that indicates the validity of the state transitions. When the transaction is sent to the mainchain, the block is verified by the attached zero-knowledge proof.The optimistic approach uses economic incentives. An operator publishes a state root that isn’t constantly checked by the rollup smart contract. Instead, everybody hopes that the state transition is correct. However, other operators or users can challenge the validity of the transactions, revert the incorrect block, and slash malicious operators.We compared the two approaches from the standpoint of security, usability, capital efficiency of exits and more.Today’s debaters are John Adler and Alex Gluchowski. John is the proposer of the original construction of the optimistic rollup, and Alex is implementing a ZK rollup at Matter Labs. Our co-host James Prestwich is a security consultant and auditor for solidity contracts, among many other things.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Coindesk's layman guide for rollups: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-dapps-rollups-heres-whyAlex Gluchowski on the difference between the two rollups: https://medium.com/matter-labs/optimistic-vs-zk-rollup-deep-dive-ea141e71e075John Adler explains optimistic rollup: https://medium.com/@adlerjohn/the-why-s-of-optimistic-rollup-7c6a22cbb61a Lazy Ledger: https://lazyledger.orgFuel Labs: https://fuel.sh/Matter Labs: https://matter-labs.io/Debater bios:Alex Gluchowski is co-founder of Matter Labs, currently working on scaling Ethereum with zkSNARKs. He was previously CTO of PaulCamper, an online platform for sharing campervans and caravans in Europe.John Adler is co-founder of Lazy Ledger and Fuel Labs. He is the original proposer of the optimistic rollup construction. He previously did layer-2 research at ConsenSys. Interestingly, he is a self-proclaimed blockchain skeptic.James Prestwich founded cross-chain solution company Summa, subsequently acquired by the layer-1 blockchain firm Celo. He previously founded Storj, a decentralized cloud storage provider.

Guests:Haseeb Qureshi (@hosseeb)Meltem Demirors (@melt_dem)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Tarun Chitra (@tarunchitra, special co-host)Today’s motion is “Yield farming is an innovation.”Yield farming, or liquidity mining, refers to a newly popularized practice of DeFi protocols, where the protocols incentivize usage with reward tokens. The trend was kickstarted with Compound offering their native tokens for anyone lending on their platforms. And with the mooning of COMP, many other DeFi projects followed suit with their own liquidity mining schemes. This led to soaring prices, unprecedented volumes, popularization of ERC20 friendly DEXes such as Uniswap, proliferation of nonsensical meme coins, and all the elements of another hype-driven bull run.The question is, is yield farming innovation? That is, is this something fundamentally different from what we’ve seen before? A better understanding of the utility of this mechanism will inform assessment of its sustainability.Today’s two debaters are investors of high profile funds that actively partake in the yield farming ecosystem. And our co-host is a repeat guest with unique perspectives on the topic at hand.Today’s episode is shorter than usual, due to speaker time constraints. And there are a few threads in the conversation that certainly could’ve used a deeper dive. Alas, maybe we will cover those areas in a future episode!If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Yield farming explained: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-yield-farming-comp-token-explainedHaseeb's research pieces at Dragonfly: https://medium.com/dragonfly-researchMeltem: https://www.meltemdemirors.com/Haseeb discusses decentralized trading on Unchained Podcast: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-decentralized-trading-has-10xed-in-a-few-months/Debater bios:Haseeb is a managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, a cryptocurrency venture fund. Before this role, he was a General Partner at another crypto fund named Metastable Capital. He is also a crypto educator and has published a comprehensive blockchain course on nakamoto.com. He previously developed software for Earn.com and Airbnb. Prior to his journey in tech and crypto, he was a Full Tilt Poker sponsored professional poker player, and he conveyed his learnings in the book: The Philosophy of Poker. Haseeb subscribes to the philosophy of Effective Altruism, where one undertakes a high paying career to donate his earned money to charity.Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, a digital asset investment firm. Previously, Meltem helped build and grow Digital Currency Group, also a crypto fund. Prior to crypto, Meltem worked in the Oil & Gas industry in trading, corporate treasury, and M&A roles. She is also a founding member of the World Economic Forum Blockchain Council and testified before the House Financial Services Committee on digital currencies. Meltem teaches at her alma mater MIT as well as Oxford, and is passionate about privacy and civil rights.Tarun Chitra is Founder and CEO of Gauntlet, a simulation platform for crypto networks to help developers understand how decisions about security, governance, and consensus mechanisms are likely to affect network activity and asset value. He previously worked in high frequency trading for Vatic Labs and was a scientific programmer at D.E. Shaw Research.

Guests:Alex Gladstein (@gladstein)Dave Jevans (@davejevans)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Blockchain analysis companies are bad for bitcoin.”Blockchain analysis companies are effectively on-chain detectives. They help exchanges and other financial institutions detect and monitor money-laundering activities and therefore stay in compliance. They also help law enforcement do financial investigations.But their tools may also be useful for repressive regimes in spying on financial behavior of their citizens, in hopes of crushing political dissidents.Today’s debater includes someone from the Human Rights Foundation, who is very passionate about bitcoin’s financial liberating cause, and someone that started one of the largest blockchain analysis companies, who believes their tools help bitcoin and what it stands for.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Human Rights Foundation: https://www.hrf.orgCipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/Quick primer of blockchain analysis companies: https://news.bitcoin.com/a-forensic-analysis-of-blockchain-surveillance-companies/International anti-money-laundering organization FATF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Action_Task_Forcehttps://www.realclearworld.com/2020/07/29/china_is_what_orwell_feared_500463.html

Guests:Emre Tekişalp (@etekis)Anatoly Yakovenko (@aeyakovenko)Hosts:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Uri Klarman (@uriklarman, special co-host)Today’s motion is “Today’s blockchains can’t increase TPS without taking a hit on decentralization.”Today’s guests are from two different public blockchains Coda and Solana. The CEO of Bloxroute came on as special co-host. So Coda came to this topic from the angle that, adding full nodes will further decentralize the network but slow down performance. And Solana started by asserting that only the voting nodes mattered because they alone would provide the censorship resistance, which is the key to decentralization.As usual, the debate then evolved, and covered a lot more ground. We got into things like weak subjectivity and Moore’s Law, and at the end meandered into the topic of nation-state attacks.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Solana: https://solana.com/Coda: https://www.codaprotocol.com/Bloxroute: https://bloxroute.com/Weak subjectivity explained: https://academy.binance.com/glossary/weak-subjectivityCoda article on mental model of Scalability-per-unit-of-Decentralization: https://codaprotocol.com/blog/solving-the-scalability-trilemma

Guests:Georgios Konstantopoulos (@gakonst)Anatoly Yakovenko (@aeyakovenko)Hosts:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Tarun Chitra (@tarunchitra, special co-host)Today’s motion is “Scalability is impossible without sharding and layer-2 solutions.”Today’s discussion is highly technical in nature and I’m glad to have Tarun as my co-pilot. Between the two debaters, one is building a public chain that insists on achieving scaling without sharding, and the other is an independent consultant with extensive experience with various chains, including many layer-2 solutions.My co-host Tarun’s summary at the end was quite apt - it’s easy to pull a carriage with one horse, but can you pull a carriage with 1024 chickens? The debate seems to partially come down to how powerful the machines can get to sustain the ever-growing network activities without resorting to quote unquote, fancy techniques like sharding and layer-2 solutions.If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Solana: https://solana.com/Georgios: https://www.gakonst.com/The Gauntlet: https://gauntlet.network/

Guests:Mike Kelly (@mikekelly85)Hasu (@hasufl)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Nation-state attack on the bitcoin network is an unresolved ticking time bomb.”In this thorough and fascinating debate, we covered these topics:The motivations of nationstate attacksThe mechanisms of nationstate attacksThe aftermath of nationstate attacksThe preventive mechanism of nationstate attacksThe idea for this debate was born out of a twitter discussion, where someone posted a video of Andreas Antonopoulos dismissing the threat on bitcoin from nationstates.Now, while you’re here, be sure to also check out our previous episodes too. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space. And it was great to have a few no-coiners on. I always appreciate their agreeing to do the show, and adding perspectives to what sometimes seem like an echo chamber.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:32 states have introduced legislation accepting or promoting the use of Bitcoin and blockchain distributed ledger technology https://www.businessinsider.com/blockchain-cryptocurrency-regulations-us-globalState-by-state regulations on Bitcoin and blockchain https://www.carltonfields.com/insights/publications/2018/state-regulations-on-virtual-currency-and-blockchain-technologies

Guests:Jonathan "JP" Padilla (@JPadillaCA)Nick White (@nickwh8te)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “I largely approve the US government’s fiscal and monetary response to the ongoing economic crisis.” We recently had another debate on a similar topic, between Qiao Wang and Jimmy Song. While Qiao argued for the pro-establishment view, he still saw lots of issues with the government’s intervention in the markets. In the debate, Qiao was playing the role of a devil’s advocate, to help the crypto community understand the pro-intervention perspective. In today’s debate, however, the pro-intervention guest (Jonathan "JP" Padilla) is a Kenseyan, has worked for the Whitehouse, and is very supportive of the government actions during the ongoing crisis. The anti-intervention guest (Nick White) today is also not a hard-core libertarian like Jimmy from the previous debate. So today’s debate is more consensus-building than that previous debate.Be sure to also check out our previous episodes too. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.If you like the show, please give us five stars on iTunes or wherever you listen to this.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Components of CPI: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_10Banks fined $243 billion since the Great Recession: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-have-been-fined-a-staggering-243-billion-since-the-financial-crisis-2018-02-20The federal government made $15Bn profit from TARP: https://money.cnn.com/2014/12/19/news/companies/government-bailouts-end/Niall Ferguson, "The Ascent of Money": https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177Airlines receiving government assistance in return for equity warrants: https://www.barrons.com/articles/airlines-stocks-government-bailout-grants-loans-cares-act-covid-19-passenger-traffic-51586967006

Guests:Qiao Wang (@qwqiao)Jimmy Song (@jimmysong)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)We all know the dominant crypto-native perspective on corporate/Wall Street bailouts — as generally anti-intervention, both fiscally and monetarily. But it’s important to hear the other side, if only to kick the tires of your own beliefs. After all, many smart people embrace a statist, big government view, in how to run an economy.In this debate, we covered many topics, including the following:A way to think about corporate bailouts as claims on a social insurance policy, with an analogy in social security and MedicareHow the monetary policies are worsening the wealth gap by giving a disproportionate advantage to the rich not enjoyed by the poor Whether FDR’s intervention policies were instrumental in lifting the nation out of the Great Depression, or this was just revisionist economic history, with these policies accomplishing the opposite or having tepid effects at bestOur two knowledgeable guests are both in the crypto circle, but come from very different backgrounds. One used to be a Wall Street trader and is a finance buff. The other is a bitcoin maximalist and an unapologetic libertarian. Be sure to also check out our previous episodes too. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space. And it was great to have a few no-coiners on. I always appreciate their agreeing to do the show, and adding perspectives to what sometimes seem like an echo chamber.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Change in unemployment and GDP during the Great Depression: https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506The Forgotten Depression (1921) by James Grant: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis/2017/02/23/james-grant-explains-how-a-crash-in-1921-cured-itself-with-the-help-of-good-policy/#3feb9a1dbd86Qiao's Messari articles (paywall): https://messari.io/article/how-will-the-recession-impact-crypto-theses-questions-and-lessonsJimmy Song's Programming Bitcoin book: https://programmingbitcoin.com/America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard: https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Great-Depression-Murray-Rothbard/dp/1607960656

Guests:Uri Klarman (@uriklarman)Mrinal Manohar (casperlabs.io)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)The guests we have today have close ties to Ethereum. One is actively working on a solution to scale the 1.0 version. The other was an early investor in Ethereum.In this episode, I learned about:An interesting layer-0 approach to improve the performance of Ethereum 1.0 as well as any layer-1 protocol;Disadvantages in layer-2 solutions with similar value proposition in scaling;Main benefits of upgrading from Ethereum 1.0 to Ethereum 2.0, besides the change from POW to POS;And other non-scaling goodies such as perspectives on M&A of public blockchains in a crowded space.Be sure to also check out our previous episodes too, on Bitcoin’s store of value status, tokenization and smart contracts, DeFi, bitcoin halvening, China’s future in blockchain, POW vs POS, oligopoly vs multiplicity of public blockchains, and permissioned vs permissionless blockchain for enterprise usage.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Bloxroute: https://bloxroute.com/CasperLabs: https://casperlabs.io/MakerDAO Black Thursday event (collateral liquidation at zero dollars): https://medium.com/@whiterabbit_hq/black-thursday-for-makerdao-8-32-million-was-liquidated-for-0-dai-36b83cac56b6CryptoKitties clogging up Ethereum: https://www.coindesk.com/loveable-digital-kittens-clogging-ethereums-blockchain

Guests:John Wolpert (@jwolpert)Richard Brown (@gendal)Host:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s session is about enterprise blockchain and features a co-founder of Baseline protocol and CTO of R3. The former is building an enterprise solution on a public blockchain, whereas the latter is doing so on a private blockchain. So you will learn about the two approaches as the two guests compare notes on their respective products. And today’s format is more of a discussion rather than a debate. It is an update to a debate that took place between them a year ago.To derive the most value from today’s discussion, some familiarity with the state of enterprise blockchains is necessary. If you’re new to enterprise blockchain, it’s probably best to check out that previous debate first. It was hosted on another podcast called Insureblocks. Just google “insureblocks enterprise blockchain debate” and you will find that episode. The relevant link will also be in the show notes.Note that this episode's format will be a little bit different than usual. This will be a follow-up conversation to the previous debate, even though you will still hear plenty of disagreement from our guests.Also, be sure to check out our previous episodes too, on Bitcoin’s store of value status, tokenization and smart contracts, DeFi, bitcoin halvening, China’s future in blockchain, POW vs POS, and oligopoly vs multiplicity of public blockchains.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:R3/Corda: https://www.r3.com/corda-platform/EY launches Baseline protocol: https://www.ey.com/en_gl/news/2020/03/ey-launches-baseline-protocol-an-open-source-initiative-for-the-public-etherum-blockchainPrevious debate between John and Richard: https://insureblocks.com/ep-53-debate-public-vs-private-blockchains-for-enterprises-with-r3-and-consensys/

Guests:Illia Polosukhin (@ilblackdragon) - debating FOR the motionZaki Manian (@zmanian) - debating AGAINST the motionHost:Richard Yan (@gentso09)In a world where decentralized applications proliferate, will these applications be built on top of a few or many public blockchains? Exploration of this topic would help us understand the merits of the coexistence of many protocols. On the extreme, each dapp can have its own chain, so that the developers/community for each app can have maximal control over the full stack of their product.The guests we have for this episode have essentially voted on their position with their feet. The oligopoly advocate is cofounder of a layer-1 protocol, and the multiplicity supporter is a major contributor to one of the earliest, if not the earliest, blockchains designed with interoperability in mind.Be sure to also check out our previous episodes too, on Bitcoin’s store of value status, tokenization and smart contracts, DeFi, bitcoin halvening, China’s future in blockchain, and POW vs POS.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Inter-Blockchain Communication: https://cosmos.network/ibc/Near protocol: https://nearprotocol.com/

Guests:Kevin Sekniqi (@kevinsekniqi) - debating FOR the motionTarun Chitra (@tarunchitra) - debating AGAINST the motionHost:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “POS will overtake POW.” This is an important topic for a few reasons. First, from an investor’s perspective, this is another angle of evaluating BTC vs its challengers, which by and large are POS, or moving to POS. Second, this provides guidance to architects of new protocols in making design decisions.If we were to measure the dominance of POW via market cap, of the top 20 coins on CMC, coins with a POW mechanism (with no serious plans to migrate to something else), take up 74% of the share of market cap.The two guests we have for this episode are: a builder of a highly anticipated POS-based protocol; and a creator of an extremely interesting business that simulates protocol behavior, to help protocol designers make more sound decisions.I want to note that, about 70 minutes into the debate, the discussion shifted to a general conversation about money characteristics of bitcoin, and this goes on for about 25 minutes. This was not directly relevant to the motion, but I kept it in nonetheless, for the insights it shed.Make sure to check out our previous episodes too, on Bitcoin’s store of value status, tokenization and smart contracts, DeFi, bitcoin halvening, and China’s future in blockchain.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Paul Sztorc article "Nothing is Cheaper than Proof of Work": http://www.truthcoin.info/blog/pow-cheapest/Hash rate derivatives: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-derivatives/with-hashes-and-hedges-power-hungry-crypto-miners-court-investors-idUSKBN1YE0KADigital currency as a Veblen good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Guests:Matthew Graham (@mattysino) - debating FOR the motionAvichal Garg (@avichal) - debating AGAINST the motionHost:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “China will lead the world in blockchain innovation.” With a huge market, vast amount of capital, loose regulations (in a de facto sense anyway), deep bench of talent and prowess for imitation, China is a powerful incubator of tech and product, both in blockchain and other tech industries. China is the place for concentration of mining power, top exchanges and now potentially a pioneer for national digital currency. Global crypto investors may be interested in knowing, will true innovation come out of China? And for western entrepreneurs and operators, what can they learn from their Chinese friends? Today’s debate will help address these questions.The guests we have for this episode are founders of two crypto funds: One is a US transplant into Beijing who now considers it home. While the other has been a Silicon Valley lifer since college.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Baidu's Xuperchain: https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615022/baidus-xuperchain-launch-is-just-the-beginning-of-chinas-blockchain-rush/China's 9-9-6 engineer hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_systemMulticoin's Mable Jiang breaks down President Xi's speech about blockchain development: https://medium.com/@mablejiang/xi-jinpings-speech-at-the-18th-collective-study-of-the-chinese-political-bureau-of-the-central-1219730677b2China's Belt and Road Initiative: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiativeMore than 30,000 companies are registered as blockchain businesses in China https://news.bitcoin.com/33000-companies-in-china-claim-to-use-blockchain-technology/

Guests:Jason Williams (@JWilliamsFstmed) - debating FOR the motionChristian Keroles (@ck_SNARKs) - debating AGAINST the motionHost:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion is “Bitcoin halvening is priced in.” Halvening, or halving, refers to the regularly scheduled reduction in the supply of new bitcoins to reward miners. This happens roughly every four years, and the supply is reduced by 50% each time. Halvening is built into the protocol and not a contentious topic. What is contentious, is whether the market for bitcoin has incorporated the effects of this upcoming activity. The guests we have for this episode are two bitcoiners. One works in bitcoin investment, and the other in bitcoin education and marketing. Turns out there are more areas where the two debaters agree, than disagree. And our listeners can trace the convergence in their arguments. For better or worse, I get involved in the discussion a bit more than usual in this episode. As a sample of topics, we discussed miner response to the halvening, the stock-to-flow model, institutional interests in BTC, and many more.If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM @blockdebate.Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Continued demand increase due to institutional, price-inelastic allocation to BTC asset class (Kyle Samani from Multicoin Capital): https://twitter.com/KyleSamani/status/1213548776700416000Pomp (Morgan Creek) citing market run-up as evidence of halvening not priced in: https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/1229250083968946176Kelvin Koh (Spartan Capital) citing BTC's difficulty to value as evidence against EMH https://twitter.com/SpartanBlack_1/status/1198071110798983169Charts from Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.io/Nic Carter of Castle Island Capital wrote about EMH: https://medium.com/@nic__carter/an-introduction-to-the-efficient-market-hypothesis-for-bitcoiners-ed7e90be7c0dBTC Stock-to-flow model by PlanB: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25Plan B juxtaposing STF vs EMH: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/efficient-market-hypothesis-and-bitcoin-stock-to-flow-model-db17f40e6107

Guests:Udi Wertheimer (@UdiWertheimer) - debating FOR the motionHaseeb Qureshi (@Hosseeb) - debating AGAINST the motionHost:Richard Yan (@gentso09)Today’s motion concerns DeFi, or decentralized finance. The vision of decentralized finance is financial markets such as borrowing/lending and trading without intermediaries. The hope is this will improve efficiency, transparency and cost-effectiveness. MakerDAO, Compound, Uniswap are examples of DeFi apps w/ the most traction today.Our two guests, Udi Wertheimer and Haseeb Qureshi are active members of the crypto community, to say the least. In fact, many consider them to be OG’s in the space.No summary does justice to the rich exchange of the debate; Nevertheless here is a teaser:Udi sees DeFi as purporting but failing to provide true self-custody and censorship-resistance. He also sees DeFi's composability as a non-innovative feature already found in non-DeFi products. And regulations will come for DeFi if and when it gets sufficient traction.Haseeb believes that DeFi provides much stronger form of permissionless-ness than centralized counterparts (e.g., Bitfinex), and DeFi entrepreneurs can build on top of each other's work with tools and freedom unavailable in centralized finance. He also thinks some of the DeFi systems (e.g., MakerDAO) are regulation-robust for reasons like strong team decentralization and core clientele being outside of potentially hostile jurisdictions (e.g., U.S.).If you are interested in debating or want to nominate someone to debate, DM me at @blockdebate.Note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.Source of select items discussed in the debate:Binance Singapore blocking withdrawal to Wasabi wallet: https://www.coindesk.com/binance-blockade-of-wasabi-wallet-could-point-to-a-crypto-crack-upMakerDAO: https://hackernoon.com/whats-makerdao-and-what-s-going-on-with-it-explained-with-pictures-f7ebf774e9c2Dragonfly Capital Research: https://medium.com/dragonfly-researchUdi's Pro-Ethereum Alerts Telegram Group: https://t.me/ProEthereumAlerts