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Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing at Fidelity Digital Assets, talks about how 30 years in traditional finance and an early retirement led her to Coinbase, and, eventually, Fidelity Digital Assets. She discusses the history of Fidelity's involvement in crypto, how they became one of the first to enter the space, and what the future holds. Topics include: what Fidelity Digital Assets is and Christine's role there Christine's background in traditional finance, how she was drawn into the world of cryptocurrencies, eventually working at Coinbase, and how she found her way to Fidelity Digital Assets the role Fidelity sees itself playing in the digital asset space how the client base for digital assets has changed over time how Fidelity approaches the difficulties around explaining what bitcoin and crypto is, and the most common questions they receive how the pandemic has changed the conversation around digital currencies the types of services and products Fidelity is considering for the future the differences Fidelity sees in how international investors are approaching digital currency Fidelity's plans for a Bitcoin index fund and whether they are considering offering futures how financial institutions and institutional investors fit into a world of decentralized finance founded with the ethos of excluding them the regulatory improvements Fidelity is hoping to see what a Bitcoin ETF would mean for Fidelity how Fidelity might use a central bank digital currency in its business Fidelity's thoughts on offering proof of stake services whether a more deflationary Ethereum might attract more institutional investors and whether Fidelity will offer Ethereum in the future   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Christine Sandler: https://twitter.com/shoegalnyc Fidelity Digital Assets: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/overview Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigitalAssets   Christine leaves Coinbase for FDAS: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-poaches-coinbase-institutional-sales-head-christine-sandler   Fidelity Center for Applied Technology: https://fcatalyst.com/overview   Fidelity Digital Assets looking to become prime broker: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/68920/fidelity-digital-assets-eyes-service-for-introducing-crypto-funds-to-big-investors   How the client profile has changed: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/42342/the-client-profile-is-changing-fidelity-digital-assets-exec-says-new-players-are-entering-the-crypto-fold   How to Explain Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains to the Average Person Unchained episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-explain-cryptocurrencies-and-blockchains-to-the-average-person/   Fidelity expands crypto business to Europe: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-to-expand-institutional-crypto-business-to-europe   Fidelity obtains New York Trust Charter: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-gets-a-new-york-trust-charter-to-custody-bitcoin-for-institutions   Bitcoin Index Fund: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/08/26/fidelity-president-files-for-new-bitcoin-fund/?sh=13aa335445c9   Fidelity survey of 800 institutional investors: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/FDAS/institutional-investor-study.pdf   FDAS hiring: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/articles/engineering-hiring-initiative?ccmedia=owned&ccchannel=social&cccampaign=hiring_blog&cctactics=twitter   Kingdom Trust:  https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-digital-assets-to-custody-bitcoin-in-kingdom-trust-retirement-accounts  

Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at Compound Labs, and Kristin Smith, executive director of The Blockchain Association, talk about the storm brewing in the cryptosphere involving self-custody and privacy. In this episode, they cover: the differences between hosted and self-hosted wallets and how transactions between them differ why the ability to transact from self-hosted wallets is so important compliance and regulation in the traditional financial world and how it could affect self-custody the “Swiss rule” and what it could mean for the rest of the world the proposal by FinCEN to lower the threshold for collecting data on transactions from $3,000 to $250 how regulators might achieve their goals without “dragnet” surveillance how the amount of crime and money laundering in the traditional financial system compares to that in the crypto world why OTC brokers are considered the most significant money laundering risk in crypto, and how that risk might be mitigated how different political environments can influence the value of peer to peer transactions whether Americans should be willing to give up some of their financial privacy in favor of security what the recent statement by the DOJ's cryptocurrency enforcement framework labeling anonymous transactions as "high-risk activity indicative of possible criminal conduct" could mean for privacy coins like Monero and Zcash Gary Gensler's appointment as head of Biden's financial policy transition team and whether to view it as a positive or negative for crypto whether they think the incoming Congress will be in favor of more surveillance or more privacy whether there might eventually be regulations for developers who write code for self-hosted wallets how potential rules regarding self-custody could affect non-monetary items like NFTs and the next big developments they are watching out for regarding this issue   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links:  Jake Chervinsky: https://twitter.com/jchervinsky Compound Labs: https://compound.finance   Kristin Smith: https://twitter.com/kmsmithdc The Blockchain Association: https://theblockchainassociation.org/ https://twitter.com/BlockchainAssn   FinCen NPRM: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/27/2020-23756/threshold-for-the-requirement-to-collect-retain-and-transmit-information-on-funds-transfers-and   Coin Center commentary on lowering FinCEN threshold: https://www.coincenter.org/app/uploads/2020/10/Coin-Center-Comment-FinCEN-FRB-250-threshold.pdf    Unchained episode about the FATF travel rule: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/    The choice of Gary Gensler to lead the financial policy transition team:  https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-biden-election-day-2020/card/peMRHGPJasECSPLezSFx   https://www.coindesk.com/biden-confirms-gary-gensler-will-lead-financial-policy-transition-team   Shapeshift delists Zcash: https://www.coindesk.com/shapeshift-delists-privacy-coin-zcash-over-regulatory-concerns Jessie Liu interview on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-dojs-cryptocurrency-enforcement-framework/

In this episode, Dan Tapiero, founder of 10T Holdings and Gold Bullion International, and Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO at ARK Invest, discuss the long election week in the U.S. and how they believe Bitcoin will behave in a post-election world. They also talk about: how a changeover from a Trump to a Biden administration could affect Bitcoin how the prospect of legal challenges from the Trump administration might affect Bitcoin whether they think the presidential election influenced Bitcoin’s precipitous price jump in the first week of November what it takes to change the mind of a Bitcoin skeptic in the investment world whether gold investors are becoming more resistant or more embracing of Bitcoin whether Democratic control of the Senate would affect Bitcoin how they expect the new wave of rising coronavirus cases and lockdowns to affect economies and Bitcoin the new inflation policy introduced by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and how it will affect Bitcoin the recent Bitcoin halving and how they expect Bitcoin to perform over the next year how banking will change over the next few years and how that will affect Bitcoin their thoughts on central bank digital currencies and how an increase in CBDCs might affect Bitcoin what factors they are looking at right now when thinking about what could happen with Bitcoin over the next year   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Cathie Wood: https://twitter.com/cathiedwood Ark Invest: https://ark-invest.com/ Yassine Elmandjra: https://twitter.com/yassineARK   Dan Tapiero: https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP 10T Holdings: https://10tfund.com/ Gold Bullion International: https://bullioninternational.com/   Unchained with Brian Brooks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/acting-comptroller-of-the-currency-brian-brooks-on-crypto-banks/   Jerome Powell speech on targeting inflation of 2%: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/27/powell-announces-new-fed-approach-to-inflation-that-could-keep-rates-lower-for-longer.html   Bitcoin-gold correlation: https://coinmetrics.io/correlation-charts/#assets=btc-gld   Bitcoin-S&P 500 correlation: https://coinmetrics.io/correlation-charts/#assets=btc-s&p   Forbes profile on Cathie Wood: https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/10/05/how-cathie-wood-beat-wall-street-by-betting-tesla-is-worth-more-than-1-trillion/?sh=12d44f813d45   ARK Invest Bitcoin white papers: https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/bitcoin-part-one/ https://ark-invest.com/white-papers/bitcoin-part-two/  

In this seventh installment of the Why Bitcoin Now series, Meltem Demirors, the chief strategy officer at Coinshares, and Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, discuss the state of Bitcoin since June, amidst the presidential election – which takes place on the date of publication of the show -- and a global pandemic. Topics discussed include: the significance of bitcoin staying above $10k for over three months why the pandemic has created the conditions for which Bitcoin was designed how the markets may react to a Trump or Biden win why they believe, no matter which party wins, there will be massive deficits and a money-printing debt spiral why other countries see opportunities to erode the supremacy of the US dollar why Bitcoin has shown that it’s possible to have money without state how the current record unemployment and massive stimulus efforts during the pandemic have impacted Bitcoin the increasing interest in Bitcoin from traditional investors the IMF’s recent call for a “New Bretton Woods moment”  and how it may impact crypto China’s DCEP central bank digital currency and the effects it may have on increasing China’s trade leverage why the pandemic has made clear the importance of bringing more Bitcoin mining onshore whether or not Bitcoin will be able to remedy growing wealth inequality why privacy/encryption will be the main issue Bitcoiners need to watch from the coming administration   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Lyn Alden: https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact Lyn Alden Investment Strategy: lynalden.com Meltem Demirors: https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem Coinshares: https://www.coinshares.com/   Lyn’s post on how the economy and stock market perform under Democratic vs. Republican presidents: https://www.lynalden.com/presidential-elections/   US stimulus spending: https://datalab.usaspending.gov/federal-covid-funding/#section-tracking   IMF New Bretton Woods speech: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/10/15/sp101520-a-new-bretton-woods-moment   Stocks in a bubble: https://www.longtermtrends.net/sp500-price-earnings-shiller-pe-ratio/   Meltem on the financialization of internet infrastructure: https://medium.com/coinshares/the-financialization-of-compute-connectivity-66beaffe7501   BitOoda report on Bitcoin mining: https://bitooda.medium.com/bitcoin-mining-hashrate-and-power-analysis-bitooda-research-ebc25f5650bf   Bloomberg wealth report: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-08/top-50-richest-people-in-the-us-are-worth-as-much-as-poorest-165-million   Cash app’s Bitcoin sales: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/74001/square-q2-bitcoin-cash-app   JPMorgan research note on Bitcoin: https://fortune.com/2020/10/26/jp-morgan-chase-bitcoin-predictions-analyst-jpm-cryptocurrency/ https://twitter.com/DTAPCAP/status/1319703750450302980?s=20 Forbes interview with Daniel Masters of Coinshares: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/10/24/jp-morgan-veteran-daniel-masters-explains-how-blockchain-will-end-commercial-banks/#77ec4f6a6bdd

Brian Brooks got his start in traditional finance before joining Coinbase in 2018 and is currently the acting comptroller of the currency. In this episode, he discusses: how his background in traditional financial services led him to take a position at Coinbase whether the role blockchain and crypto will likely play in the financial future is being recognized at the federal level whether or not banks have always had the authority to custody crypto for their customers how he expects things to unfold in the coming years as banks begin to become more involved in crypto custody his thoughts on Kraken and others launching crypto banks and whether it will lead to the founding of other crypto banks how his office is pushing for a national fintech charter, and how it could affect less crypto-friendly states whether banks that work with crypto companies supporting unhosted wallets are prohibited from holding stablecoin reserves whether or not OCC regulations cover DeFi, and the regulatory challenges that open source protocols present whether he sees a time when governments and regulators participate in the governance of crypto platforms what roles he thinks public and private sectors, as well as commercial banks, should play in the creation of a central bank digital currency what stance the OCC might take around privacy in blockchain transactions how U.S. regulators can offer more clarity to the crypto industry and how he thinks the pandemic, its effect on the economy, and the government’s response through stimulus will affect the crypto industry   Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Brian Brooks: https://twitter.com/BrianBrooksOCC Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: https://www.occ.gov   Letter to authorize banks to provide crypto custody services for customers: https://www.occ.gov/topics/charters-and-licensing/interpretations-and-actions/2020/int1170.pdf   The significance of the letter for banks and crypto companies: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthougan/2020/07/27/the-occs-notice-on-crypto-is-a-really-big-deal/#13aad8806301   The OCC’s statement on federally chartered banks and crypto custody: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2020/nr-occ-2020-98.html   His support for a federal licensing framework for crypto companies: https://www.coindesk.com/us-banking-regulator-suggests-federal-licensing-framework-for-crypto-firms   Questions about the OCC’s stablecoin guidance https://www.coindesk.com/questions-occ-first-guidance-stablecoins   CSBS “One Company, One Exam” policy: https://www.coindesk.com/csbs-firms-explained   Battle with states over federal licensing program: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/currency-comptroller-reshape-banking-406393    FinCEN’s 2019 Regulatory Guidance: https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/new-fincen-guidance-affirms-its-longstanding-regulatory-framework-virtual   Federal Reserve says it is exploring a central bank digital currency: https://www.coindesk.com/fed-reserve-evaluating-digital-dollar-but-benefits-still-unclear-says-chairman    His view that a CBDC should be designed by the private sector:  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/69216/heres-how-brian-brooks-disagrees-with-fed-chair-jerome-powell-on-the-digital-dollar The OCC’s Financial Inclusion Project: https://www.occ.gov/topics/consumers-and-communities/minority-outreach/project-reach.html

Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui, and Jessi Brooks, assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section at the United States Attorney’s Office, have prosecuted several cryptocurrency-related cases, many of them amongst the most well-known. In this episode, they talk about: how they came to be involved in the prosecution of so many cases involving cryptocurrency the nature of civil forfeiture cases the Al-Qassam Brigades case, which led to the largest ever seizure of a terrorist organization’s cryptocurrency accounts, and the terrorist organization’s use of dynamic addresses in an attempt to elude detection by authorities. how Al Qaeda used Telegram to pursue cryptocurrency donations the case involving ISIS and counterfeit PPE for COVID the process of seizing funds from unhosted wallets the North Korean affiliated Lazarus Group, and how they were able to amass $2580 million worth of cryptocurrency the methods hackers will use to cash out stolen crypto funds to fiat how different government agencies in the U.S., as well as in other countries, are coordinated when tackling these cases the Welcome to Video case and how they went about prosecuting a person in a foreign country how they’ve seen the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals evolve over time and whether or not they think decentralized exchanges will make it easier for criminals and hackers to cash out   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Jessi Brooks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-brooks-8289ab32/ Zia’s Faruqui: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zia-faruqui-a73ba11a5/   Three terror-finance cybercrime cases: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns   The Al-Qassam Brigades case: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns   Scam PPE site: https://www.wired.com/story/isis-allegedly-ran-a-covid-19-ppe-scam-site/   Civil forfeiture complaint against North Korea-affiliated hackers, Lazarus Group:  https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/united-states-files-complaint-forfeit-280-cryptocurrency-accounts-tied-hacks-two https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1310411/download https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/lazarus-group-north-korea-doj-complaint-august-2020   Welcome to Video indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-korean-national-and-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child   Dark Scandals: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/03/13/dark-deja-vu-irs-announces-charges-in-takedown-of-multi-million-dollar-child-exploitation-website-funded-by-bitcoin/#4a09b2ac28ae https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1257581/download Jonathan Levin from Chainalysis on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-bitcoin-led-to-the-demise-of-the-largest-child-porn-site/

Hester Peirce, AKA “Crypto Mom,” was just confirmed to a second term as SEC Commissioner of the Securities Exchange Commission in August. In this episode, she talks about: the reasons for her dissent in the Unikrn Settlement and what she believes would have been a proper penalty the current status of her token safe harbor proposal her thoughts on fair launch projects as opposed to traditional VC-backed tokens her view on how the SEC should view airdrops her thoughts on whether existing securities laws could be tweaked as opposed to implementing a safe harbor whether she thinks DeFi governance tokens should be considered securities her thoughts on DeFi playing its own regulatory role her thoughts on the Securities Clarity Act introduced in Congress the chances of a Bitcoin ETF being approved by the SEC in the future the charges against BitMEX and the effect it may have on the industry in general stablecoins, and how they might raise securities issues and whether she thinks that all securities could one day be tokenized Thank you to our sponsor! Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Hester Peirce: https://twitter.com/HesterPeirce SEC: https://www.sec.gov   Her dissent on the Unikrn settelement: https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/peirce-statement-settlement-charging-token-issuer   Unconfirmed interview on her safe harbor proposal: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-on-her-safe-harbor-proposal/ Her token safe harbor proposal: https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/peirce-remarks-blockress-2020-02-06   Unchained interview with Cmr. Peirce: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-come-talk-to-the-sec/   Proposal in The Block on ways to amend existing securities law instead of issuing a token safe harbor: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/57207/case-for-reg-a-response-commissioner-peirce-sec-token   Is UNI a security: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/78231/uniswap-token-security-debate   FCA banning crypto derivatives and ETNs: https://www.coindesk.com/fca-bans-sale-of-cryptoderivatives-to-retail-consumers-in-uk https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79911/uk-regulator-fca-bans-crypto-derivatives-retail-users   Securities Clarity Act: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/78231/uniswap-token-security-debate   Statement on ATS’s: https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mr-noaction/2020/finra-ats-role-in-settlement-of-digital-asset-security-trades-09252020.pdf   SEC chairman Jay Clayton says all stocks could be tokenized: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79783/all-stocks-tokenized-sec-chairman-clayton

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX and Alameda Research,  and Anatoly Yakovenko,  the co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, discuss the Project Serum ecosystem that they are building on the Solana blockchain, and the unique approach to scaling the Solana blockchain is taking. In this episode, they talk about: their backgrounds, and how they became involved in crypto why Solana takes a different approach to scaling and how it is implemented why they think a relatively lower number of nodes is sufficient to protect from attacks or collusion what the vision for Solana is, who they see using it, and how Serum fits into that vision why they think there haven’t been more crypto projects migrating to Solana yet Solana’s proof-of-history algorithm and how it works how Solana plans to attract DeFi developers why Serum was made interoperable with Ethereum the types of traders they are hoping to attract with Serum, and what their experience will be like on the platform why Project Serum is an ecosystem and not just an order book exchange how high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading came to adopt Serum how Serum will manage trading tokens from different chains the purpose of Serum’s two tokens, SRM and MSRM and what’s in store for Project Serum in the future   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.Com: https://www.crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod   Episode links:  Anatoly Yakovenko: https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko Solana: Solana.com Sam Bankman-Fried: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda Project Serum: https://www.projectserum.com Project Serum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectserum   Solana CoinList auction in March: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/59952/blockchain-project-solana-raises-1-76m-from-its-launch-auction-on-coinlist   Solana network stats: https://explorer.solana.com   The Block Research on Solana: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/76615/solana-blockchain-overview   Proof of history:  https://medium.com/solana-labs/proof-of-history-a-clock-for-blockchain-cf47a61a9274   Serum: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72924/ftx-dex-serum-solana-blockchain   Tether: https://medium.com/solana-labs/tether-to-bring-usdt-to-the-solana-network-77864184b20 Jump Capital: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/76826/veteran-market-maker-jump-trading-forays-into-defi-to-provide-liquidity-for-ftxs-solana-based-dex

Andreas M. Antonopoulos, speaker, educator, and the author of Mastering Bitcoin, Mastering Ethereum, and The Internet of Money, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, and Dan Held,  growth lead at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, discuss the core features of Bitcoin's monetary policy, including how it differs from traditional central bank monetary policy, what gives it value and yet how it seems to have derived value from thin air. Plus, we talk about how the coronavirus pandemic will affect Bitcoin. In this episode, we cover: how monetary policy in general is defined the core feature of Bitcoin’s monetary policy, and how it differs from previous forms of money the similarities and differences between Bitcoin and gold why the hard cap on Bitcoin is unique and so important the difficulties in analyzing and classifying Bitcoin whether or not transaction fees alone can sustain the network once all 21 million Bitcoin have been minted if Bitcoin will be able to fulfill its original vision of democratizing finance and serving as an everyday medium of exchange why they think Bitcoin has recently been more correlated with the stock market their thoughts on the stock to flow model and whether it works for Bitcoin how they think the coronavirus, unprecedented quantitative easing, and increasing inflation will impact Bitcoin’s adoption and price how crypto banks that don’t conduct fractional reserve banking or lending might change the economy   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod   Episode links:  Andreas Antonopoulos: https://aantonop.com On Twitter: https://twitter.com/aantonop YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/aantonop/ Dan Held: https://www.danheld.com On Twitter: https://twitter.com/danheld   Dan Held on Bitcoin's monetary policy: https://medium.com/the-bitcoin-times/information-theory-of-money-36247aebdfe1   Dan Held on Bitcoin's security model: https://www.danheld.com/blog/2019/6/16/bitcoins-security-is-fine   Unchained interview with Saifedeam Ammous: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-saifedean-ammous-on-why-bitcoin-is-the-most-advanced-form-of-money/   Mises’ Regression Theorem: https://mises.org/library/bitcoin-regression-theorem-and-emergence-new-medium-exchange   Stock to flow model: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25   https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/bitcoin-stock-to-flow-cross-asset-model-50d260feed12   Why the stock-to-flow model is wrong: https://www.coindesk.com/why-the-stock-to-flow-bitcoin-valuation-model-is-wrong   Federal Reserve announcement about letting inflation run higher than normal to achieve a 2% target rate of inflation: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200827a.htm Kraken launching the first crypto bank: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-first-crypto-bank-what-kraken-financial-will-do-and-how/

Matthew Leising, a reporter at Bloomberg who began covering crypto in 2015, is out with a new book Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All. In this episode, he discusses: the catalyst that led to him writing his new book, which covers the early history of Ethereum and the DAO attack of 2016 why he thought the story of the DAO hack was compelling enough to make a book, and how he went about reporting it the surprising things he learned about Ethereum’s early days and Vitalik the twists and turns during his quest to discover the identity of the DAO attacker why he thinks separate people were responsible for the two biggest DAO attacks his meeting in Tokyo with one of the prime suspects of a copycat DAO attack why he decided to end his story at the Ethereum hard fork and chose not to write about Ethereum Classic  what he feels the long-term significance of the DAO and the hard fork has been for Ethereum why he thinks the lessons of the DAO are not being heeded today what he thinks the next chapter of Ethereum will be and how it will unfold the differences he’s found as a journalist covering crypto as opposed to covering more traditional finance and how the book is about more than just the DAO   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod   Episode links:  Matthew Leising: https://twitter.com/mattleising Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Out+of+the+Ether%3A+The+Amazing+Story+of+Ethereum+and+the+%2455+Million+Heist+that+Almost+Destroyed+It+All-p-9781119602934   Matt's original Bloomberg article on the DAO attack, "The Ether Thief": https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-the-ether-thief/   Excerpt in Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-16/a-trip-down-the-crypto-rabbit-hole-in-search-of-the-dao-hacker   Excerpt in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/55m-hack-ethereum-down Decrypt's interview with Matt about the book: https://decrypt.co/41952/book-sheds-new-light-on-ethereums-55-million-dao-hack

Andre Cronje, the developer of yearn.finance, talks about all things DeFi and the past, present, and future of yEarn. In this episode, he discusses:   what Yearn Finance is, and what led him to develop it and eventually open it to the public his history and background, leading up to the development of Yearn the processes and mechanisms involved in yEarn v1 and yEarn v2 why he decided to do a "fair launch" of the YFI token, despite being in debt as a result of building Yearn why he felt that a Decrypt article about him in August was a "horrible hatchet job" why he disagrees with what he sees as the current anti-VC narrative his thoughts on the phenomenal rise in YFI's price and why the price of a YFI token still doesn't matter how and why he decided governance participation would be a requirement for earning tokens in the Balancer/yCurve/YFI pool the governance processes in Yearn and his thoughts on whether or not a Compound-style form of governance would be better how he might mitigate whales dominating the vote what he means by "I test in prod" and how people have misinterpreted his meaning why he briefly walked away from DeFi whether he agrees that YFI could be a new structure to replace existing traditional business structures his response to the allegations by XAR Network whether he would consider moving Yearn to another blockchain his vision for what Yearn can become and how much YFI he currently owns personally   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Gods Unchained: https://playgu.co/unchainedpod   Episode links:  Andre Cronje: https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech Yearn Finance: https://yearn.finance https://docs.yearn.finance   CoinDesk on Yearn: https://www.coindesk.com/what-is-yearn-finance-yfi-defi-ethereum   The Block report on yEarn Finance: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/75189/defis-yield-aggregator-dao-yearn-finance   Post introducing $YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/earning-yfi-y-curve-fi-53b5fd347f0f   Delegated vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-vaults-explained-fa81f1c3fce2 V2: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-finance-v2-af2c6a6a3613   Delphi Digital report on yETH yVault: https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/yeth-now-do-you-understand/   yETH collateralization ratio: https://defiexplore.com/cdp/13972   Tony Sheng newsletter: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/yfi-ponzinomics   Yearn Governance: https://medium.com/iearn/yearn-governance-forum-7b7c9d0300ac   yInsure Finance: https://medium.com/iearn/yinsure-finance-a-new-insurance-primitive-77d5d4217896   Delegated funding DAO vaults: https://medium.com/iearn/delegated-funding-dao-vaults-7ab05a63d7ba    Siege Rhino question about governance: https://twitter.com/SiegeRhino2/status/1303415750238101504?s=20   Andre’s “Building in DeFi Sucks” post: https://medium.com/@andre_54855/building-in-defi-sucks-b8fdfda0ef58?source=---------17------------------ Andre quits in February: https://decrypt.co/21068/founder-of-promising-defi-project-abandons-the-toxic-cryptosphere Andre close to quitting in August: https://decrypt.co/37995/exclusive-yfi-andre-cronje-broke-quitting-defi   What Andre wishes he had known before building Ethereum dapps: https://medium.com/iearn/things-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-ethereum-defi-dapps-cd6bf0f07a16   

Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, goes deep into yield farming, fair launches and how decentralization will upend the traditional notion of the corporation. In this episode, he talks about: when it makes sense for a team to introduce a liquidity mining scheme, and when it doesn't the difference between yield farming and ICOs when it comes to investing his thoughts on YFI, as well as YAM, and the pace at which unaudited DeFi projects are moving forward the three advantages he sees in automated market makers as opposed to centralizedexchanges his thoughts on Uniswap and SushiSwap and why he's not sure Uniswap will make a token his thoughts on fair launches and whether he thinks they will threaten traditional crypto VCs whether the CRV token launch really was instigated by someone unrelated to the team his thoughts on the yEarn yETH vault and what it says about where the DeFi space is going what he sees as the pros and cons of rebasing why he sees projects like YFI as a new kind of corporation whether he thinks Ethereum will scale fast enough to meet the demand already being put on it why he thinks systems like Polkadot are going to expand what is possible in the same way that Ethereum expanded beyond what was possible with Bitcoin whether he thinks the yields from yield farming will pull investors away from staking on Ethereum 2.0 what he thinks DeFi teams should do to improve security Bitcoin on Ethereum and what he believes it could mean for DeFi in the future the chatter around a potential public offering from Coinbase, and what's in store for Polychain in the future   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/   Episode links:  Olaf Carlson-Wee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olafcw/ Polychain Capital: https://polychain.capital   Previous interviews with Olaf on Unchained and Unconfirmed: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-first-employee-of-coinbase-launched-a-hedge-fund/   https://unchainedpodcast.com/to-the-moon-and-back-with-polychains-olaf-carlson-wee/   https://unchainedpodcast.com/special-episode-with-cnbcs-crypto-trader-olaf-carlson-wee-on-why-this-crypto-winter-is-different-from-previous-ones-ep-028/   https://unchainedpodcast.com/all-things-cryptoeconomics-pt-1-with-olaf-carlson-wee-and-ryan-zurrer-of-polychain-capital/   Why trading on automated market makers has risen so quickly: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-decentralized-trading-has-10xed-in-a-few-months/    Launch of yEarn/YFI: https://medium.com/iearn/yfi-df84573db81   Dex volume over time: https://defiprime.com/dex-volume   YAM recap: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/74810/yam-token-market-cap-collapses-by-more-than-90-flaw   YAM team’s plans going forward: YAM Post-Rescue Attempt Update. At approximately 6PM UTC, on Wed August… | by Yam Finance | Aug, 2020 | Medium   SushiSwap vs. Uniswap: https://unchainedpodcast.com/sushiswap-takes-on-uniswap-which-should-win-and-why/   Ian Lee of IDEO CoLab Ventures on fair launches vs. VC coins: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fair-launches-will-disrupt-crypto   And on fast-follower forks: https://synthesis.substack.com/p/fast-follower-forks-in-defi   CRV token launch: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74921/the-story-of-the-botched-crv-launch   yEarn's yETH vault: https://www.coindesk.com/yearn-finance-yeth-vault-defi-triforce   Ethereum's transition to 2.0: https://unchainedpodcast.com/vitalik-buterin-on-ethereums-five-year-anniversary/   Security in DeFi: https://unchainedpodcast.com/defi-security-with-so-many-hacks-will-it-ever-be-safe/ Whether Coinbase will do a token offering when it goes public: https://unchainedpodcast.com/will-coinbase-do-a-token-offering-when-it-goes-public/

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, and Dan Robinson, research partner at Paradigm, discuss the explosion in decentralized exchange activity on automated market makers from $1 billion earlier this year to more than $10 billion in August.  Why trading in automated market makers has 8xed in a few months how automated market makers work, and how specific dexes can specialize for the assets being traded on them why traders would prefer to trade on a dex vs. a centralized exchange how incentivized pools have drawn traders and liquidity  why trading on a dex seems can be more appealing than on a centralized exchange why trading on dexes now mirrors trading on Binance in 2017 how "DeFi is the hottest coolest place where people are making a lot of money" the difference between the metrics of liquidity, trading volume and total value locked for a dex why AMMs are capital inefficient what it means that fees paid on Uniswap are about half of those paid on Bitcoin  what the purpose of liquidity mining is why Haseeb doesn't think that dexes have network effects and that once professional market makers come in the space, Uniswap will lose market share whether users will use DeFi directly through the dexes or through another interface why Dan thinks that DeFi is now comparable to financial investment in the 1970s  whether or not yield aggregators like yEarn make it harder for AMMs to compete what happened with the CRV token launch initial dex offerings or initial DeFi offerings, like the UMA token launch whether, because of the high fees on Ethereum and the how long its transition to Ethereum 2.0 will take, DeFi activity could move to another blockchain such as Solana where DeFi will go over the next few years   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links:  Haseeb Qureshi: https://twitter.com/hosseeb Dan Robinson: https://twitter.com/danrobinson   Haseeb’s post on the rise of AMMs: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/what-explains-the-rise-of-amms-7d008af1c399   Haseeb's post on how Uniswap could be un-bundled: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/unbundling-uniswap-the-future-of-on-chain-market-making-1c7d6948d570   Dex volume: https://defiprime.com/dex-volume   Trading volume on centralized exchanges: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74539/july-by-the-numbers-a-look-at-crypto-exchange-volumes-open-interest-and-miner-revenue   Incentivized pools: https://pools.fyi/#/?tag=incentivized   Top dexes by trading volume: https://www.coingecko.com/en/dex   Ethereum transaction fees: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/ethereum-transactionfees.html    Uniswap website visits 15x in July: https://messari.io/article/uniswap-total-website-visits-grew-15x-in-july   Website traffic to DeFi platforms explodes in July: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/74231/defi-platforms-web-traffic-july   Fees paid to various crypto projects: https://cryptofees.info   Curve reaches $1 billion in TVL: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/75014/curve-becomes-third-defi-protocol-to-hit-1-billion-in-total-value-locked   The Block on dex aggregators: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/69468/dex-aggregators-user-experience   Delphi Digital on aggregators and why dexes will be like airlines: https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/dex-wars-and-aggregation-theory/ https://www.delphidigital.io/reports/are-amms-the-airlines-of-crypto/ https://twitter.com/ZeMariaMacedo/status/1298589417855168518?s=20   Mooniswap: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/74454/1inch-launches-automated-market-maker-mooniswap   Yield aggregators: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/75189/defis-yield-aggregator-dao-yearn-finance   How DeFi is affecting OTC desks: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/75870/defi-otc-desks-lunch   Serum on Solana: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72924/ftx-dex-serum-solana-blockchain   CRV launch: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/74921/the-story-of-the-botched-crv-launch   UMA token launch: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/63611/uma-token-sale-retrospective   Serum on Solana: https://medium.com/solana-labs/ftx-chooses-solana-for-serum-a-high-speed-non-custodial-decentralized-derivatives-exchange-c346a27c1f2b   https://www.coindesk.com/uniswap-ftx-perpetual-futures  

Saifedean Ammous is an economist and the author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, which has been translated into 20 languages. In this episode, he discusses: the basic tenets of Austrian economics and why it is the only school where Bitcoin is possible historical examples of currencies and how they lost their monetary value the stock-to-flow model and how Bitcoin fits into that model the three functions, or descriptive properties, of money and why Bitcoin fulfills these functions the concept of sound money the idea of time preference in economics and why he believes it is so important the distinction between debt and money, and why they are not the same the significance of difficulty adjustment and why he believes it is the crowning achievement of Bitcoin why he views Bitcoin as the best store of value humanity has ever invented the metrics he watches when assessing Bitcoin what he thinks is in store for Bitcoin in the future, and whether he still thinks central banks will buy Bitcoin as a reserve currency his thoughts on Ethereum and other digital currencies and his predictions for Bitcoin in the next year   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/   Episode links:  Saifedean Ammous: https://twitter.com/saifedean Saifedean’s website: https://saifedean.com   The Bitcoin Standard: https://saifedean.com/book/   Invest Like the Best episode with Saifedean: http://investorfieldguide.com/ammous/   What Bitcoin Did episode with Saifedean: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/saifedean-ammous-on-understanding-bitcoin-economics   Plan B’s stock-to-flow model applied to Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25 https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/bitcoin-stock-to-flow-cross-asset-model-50d260feed12 Essay on why the stock-to-flow model is wrong: https://www.coindesk.com/why-the-stock-to-flow-bitcoin-valuation-model-is-wrong

David Chaum, the inventor of eCash and CEO of xx network, and Adam Back, the inventor of Hashcash and the cofounder and CEO of Blockstream, discuss their involvement in digital currency well before Bitcoin existed. In this episode, they discuss: how they each became enamored with the idea of digital currency years before such an idea was widely discussed the crypto wars of the 1990s and the U.S. government’s attempts to control access to advanced cryptography Digicash, the creation of eCash, and the difficulties of implementing the system with the technology available at the time the innovation of blind signatures used in eCash what caused the demise of Digicash, and David's role in that the development of Hashcash and the problems Adam was trying to solve by creating it their initial reactions to learning about Bitcoin for the first time how they think Bitcoin might improve in the future the stock-to-flow Model, and where they believe the Bitcoin price might go next why the Hashcash proof-of-work mechanism became so widely used    Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/   Episode links:  Adam Back: https://twitter.com/adam3us Blockstream: https://blockstream.com  Adam's website: http://www.cypherspace.org   David Chaum: https://twitter.com/chaumdotcom Elixxir: https://elixxir.io  XX Network: https://xx.network   Previous Unchained episode on the history of digital currency: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-the-history-of-digital-currency/   Wired article on “e-money”: https://www.wired.com/1994/12/emoney/     Translated Dutch article on why DigiCash failed:  https://cryptome.org/jya/digicrash.htm   Aaron Van Wirdum's Bitcoin Magazine series on the history of digital currency:  https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-3-bitcoins-pre-history-and-the-cypherpunks-with-aaron-van-wirdum    David Chaum's e-Cash: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-how-david-chaums-ecash-spawned-cypherpunk-dream Hashcash: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-hashcash-or-how-adam-back-designed-bitcoins-motor-block

Aaron van Wirdum is the technical editor at Bitcoin Magazine. Finn Brunton is the author of “Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency.” In this episode, they tackle the history of digital currency. Topics include: the motivations behind the earliest attempts to create digital currencies, and who was behind those attempts the Extropian philosophy and how digital currency was born out of it how the cypherpunks came together and eventually began implementing tools that would lead to the creation of digital currencies the problems faced during the development of digital money, from double-spending to privacy, centralization, and spam the development of a public key protocol and why it was so significant the characteristics of earlier forms of digital currency like e-cash, hashcash, b-money, and bit gold, as well as their differences the original purpose of proof-of-work and how it was developed Hal Finney’s essential contributions to the creation of earlier digital currencies, and later, Bitcoin previous implementations of blockchain and how Bitcoin came to reinvent and utilize it which previous digital currencies come closest to Bitcoin and who they think Satoshi Nakamoto is …    Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com   Episode links:  Aaron Van Wirdum: https://twitter.com/AaronvanW Finn Brunton: http://finnb.net   Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179490/digital-cash   Aaron's Bitcoin magazine series on the early days of digital currency: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-how-david-chaums-ecash-spawned-cypherpunk-dream https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-hashcash-or-how-adam-back-designed-bitcoins-motor-block https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-if-bitcoin-had-first-draft-wei-dais-b-money-was-it https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/genesis-files-bit-gold-szabo-was-inches-away-inventing-bitcoin   Aaron on What Bitcoin Did discussing the stories: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/the-beginners-guide-to-bitcoin-part-3-bitcoins-pre-history-and-the-cypherpunks-with-aaron-van-wirdum  Breaker Mag Interview with Finn Brunton about his book: https://breakermag.com/new-book-reveals-cryptos-radical-origins/

Dave Jevans, CEO of CipherTrace, and Siân Jones, Senior Partner at XReg Consulting, give the lowdown on the Financial Action Task Force’s travel rule and how it applies to businesses in the crypto space. They discuss: their background and journey into crypto what the travel rule is the consequences for countries that are not compliant whether the regulation will apply to staking providers in the future the type of companies and transactions that will be covered under the travel rule the type of information that has to be provided  how banks comply with the travel rule and whether crypto companies can use the same system the different open standards available for sharing information how the information will get shared between entities who use different travel rule solution providers the “sunrise problem” in which different companies implement their compliance systems at different times the security of user data being shared between different entities how it applies to central bank digital currencies and centralized stablecoins how the rule would affect privacy coins the inherent contradiction between the cypherpunk philosophy and regulatory compliance unintended consequences of the travel rule how the travel rule may play out in the coming years A glossary of terms discussed in the episode:  FATF: Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization that develops policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing VASP: virtual asset service providers, who are custodial entities that run fiat-to-crypto or crypto-to-crypto exchanges, or run businesses related to transfer and safekeeping of virtual assets and financial services. FinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the United States federal bureau that analyzes information about financial transactions in order to fight money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes FCA: Financial Conduct Authority, the financial regulatory body of the UK   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com  Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Dave Jevans: https://twitter.com/davejevans CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/ Sian Jones: https://twitter.com/COINSULT XReg Consulting: https://www.xreg.consulting/ Financial Action Task Force (FATF): https://www.fatf-gafi.org/   The Osaka conference where crypto got serious about FATF’s travel rule: https://www.coindesk.com/inside-the-osaka-conference-where-crypto-got-serious-about-fatfs-travel-rule   Will Osaka be crypto’s Bretton Woods moment? https://forkast.news/will-osaka-be-cryptos-bretton-woods-moment/   InterVASP Messaging Standard: https://intervasp.org OpenVASP: https://openvasp.org OpenVASP white paper: https://openvasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/OpenVasp_Whitepaper.pdf?cache=1   FATF report on “so-called stablecoins”: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/recommendations/Virtual-Assets-FATF-Report-G20-So-Called-Stablecoins.pdf   OKEx’s Korea arm delisted privacy coins: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/39724/okex-korea-delisting-all-privacy-coins-including-monero-zcash-and-dash-as-these-violate-fatfs-travel-rule   Some of the potential FATF compliance solutions:  Travel Rule Information Sharing Alliance (TRISA): https://trisa.io/ Coinbase’s messaging board solution: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/72293/coinbase-exchanges-fatf-travel-rule-solution CoolBitX: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/56853/coolbitx-raises-16-75m-series-b-to-help-crypto-exchanges-comply-with-fatfs-travel-rule Notabene: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-identity-startup-notabene-launches-trust-framework-for-fatf-travel-rule ING: https://www.coindesk.com/in-banking-first-ing-develops-fatf-friendly-protocol-for-tracking-crypto-transfers https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/fatf-12-month-virtual-asset-review-2020 Recent travel rule meeting: https://www.coindesk.com/fatf-meets-wednesday-to-discuss-travel-rule-for-digital-assets Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 75: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0075.mediawiki  

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, shares his thoughts on the five-year anniversary of Ethereum, challenges with ETH 2.0 and criticisms about DeFi. We discuss: his thoughts and feelings ahead of Ethereum’s five-year anniversary how to address the high gas fees on the Ethereum network whether the complexity of Ethereum 2.0 creates a risk for the security of the network whether staking will lead to a higher focus on ETH price and issues such as monetary policy  how he looks at the ETH price with its significance for security in Ethereum 2.0 how proof of stake systems can be more democratic whether staking lends itself to the kind of securitization that looks similar to mortgage-backed securities his concerns about DeFi the most optimal way for DeFi projects to distribute their tokens his thoughts about Bitcoin on Ethereum inherent risks to Ethereum users connected to China’s Blockchain Service Network (BSN) his views on DCEP, other CBDCs and Libra the indictment of Ethereum Foundation staff member Virgil Griffith for allegedly helping North Korea to circumvent sanctions how he plans to make the Ethereum Foundation more transparent whether lack of diversity would impact the success of Ethereum in the long term where he would like to see Ethereum in the next five years Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com  Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Vitalik Buterin: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin Ethereum: https://ethereum.org/en/ Vitalik’s blog: https://vitalik.ca   Median gas price: https://blockchair.com/ethereum/charts/median-gas-price Average gas price: https://blockchair.com/ethereum/charts/average-gas-price   Solutions to gas price problem: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-developers-consider-new-fee-model-as-gas-costs-climb   Reddit AMA with the Ethereum 2.0 Research team, including Vitalik: https://old.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/ho2zpt/ama_we_are_the_efs_eth_20_research_team_pt_4_10/   Paper on how DeFi lending could undermine security in a POS system: https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.00919   Vitalik tweet on yield farming: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1278337657194655744   Abra settlement with SEC and CFTC: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-cftc-hit-crypto-app-abra-with-300k-in-penalties-over-illegal-swaps   Maya Zehavi’s comments on what this could mean for DeFi: https://twitter.com/mayazi/status/1282696180741414918   China’s BSN using public chains, including Ethereum: https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-blockchain-infrastructure-to-extend-global-reach-with-six-public-chains   Unchained interview about DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/   Charges against Virgil Griffith: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-arrest-united-states-citizen-assisting-north-korea   More on Virgil Griffith case: https://www.coindesk.com/usa-v-virgil-griffith-what-we-know-and-dont-in-the-bombshell-crypto-sanctions-case   Unchained interview with human rights activist Yeonmi Park on what life is like in North Korea: https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/   Unchained interview on why North Korea is interested in cryptocurrency: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-north-korea-is-interested-in-cryptocurrency/   Case against Steven Nerayoff: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-arrested-extortion-startup-cryptocurrency-company

Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant and author of a new book on Ethereum, "The Infinite Machine," speaks about how currency controls in Argentina got her interested in crypto and explains why she chose to tell the Ethereum story. She discusses: how she started covering the crypto space what it was like living through currency controls in Argentina why she started focusing on Ethereum instead of Bitcoin what’s in her new book, The Infinite Machine the most pivotal moments in Ethereum’s history possible risks to Ethereum 2.0 because of delays whether competing protocols could take market share away from Ethereum the most surprising aspect of the Ethereum story starting her own DeFi-focused media platform, The Defiant why she launched ‘CAMI’ tokens and how they are used the significance of ERC-20 tokens having a higher market cap than ETH her predictions about trends and promising projects in the DeFi space   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com  Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Camila Russo: https://twitter.com/CamiRusso The Infinite Machine: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-infinite-machine-camila-russo The Defiant: https://thedefiant.substack.com/   Excerpt from The Infinite Machine on CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/sale-of-the-century-the-inside-story-of-ethereums-2014-premine   Decrypt review: https://decrypt.co/35466/the-incredible-story-of-ethereum-the-infinite-machine   Camila on what Ethereum has accomplished in five years: https://www.coindesk.com/five-years-on-ethereum-really-is-the-minecraft-of-crypto-finance   Hidden Forces podcast with Camila:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rise-ethereum-future-defi-transformation-crypto-media/id1205359334?i=1000484635053   Camila in the Keen On podcast: https://lithub.com/camila-russo-on-ethereum-and-the-future-of-the-internet/ Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 may not go live until 2021: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/71155/eth-2-phase-0-ama-2021

Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the author of numerous books including The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and most recently, the Square and the Tower: Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook, and Michael Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk and coauthor of two books on crypto, The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine, discuss the history of money and the macro environment for Bitcoin. We cover: how they became involved in crypto historically, what has made things money, or how people have decided that something is money the difficulty of managing fiat currency modern monetary theory and the role of the state in the financial system Satoshi’s message in BTC’s genesis block and what that indicates about Satoshi's intentions with Bitcoin  whether a more transparent, blockchain-based financial system could eventually lead to a new financial order how Bitcoin behaves like an option on digital gold, and when it will behave like digital gold whether Bitcoin is simply a reversion to previous forms of money that weren’t controlled by the state how crypto/blockchain and fintech innovation from startups and the Chinese government will affect the USD how a hypothetical war between the US and China would affect the dollar's dominance how China's DCEP could disintermediate banks  how Bitcoin fits into all of the different macro conditions facing the global economy whether Libra is going to be the initial gateway getting people into our digital currency world how well the recovery from coronavirus will go, and how it will affect the development of the crypto space in the near-term   Thank you to our sponsors!   Crypto.com: https://crypto.com   Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:    Niall Ferguson: http://www.niallferguson.com   The Ascent of Money: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302900/the-ascent-of-money-by-niall-ferguson/   Michael Casey: https://www.michaeljcasey.com   Money Reimagined: https://www.coindesk.com/tag/money-reimagined The Age of Cryptocurrency: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250081551   The first episode in the Why Bitcoin Now series: Mike Novogratz and Raoul Pal on 'the Single Greatest Brand' ofo the Last 10 Years:  https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-mike-novogratz-and-raoul-pal-on-the-single-greatest-brand-of-the-last-10-years/   How Niall got into Bitcoin: http://www.niallferguson.com/journalism/finance-economics/bitcoin-may-go-pop-but-its-revolution-will-go-on   Niall and Michael at Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/disruption-money-and-a-world-of-change-feat-niall-ferguson   Unchained interview with Chamath Palihapitiya, who believes Bitcoin is a hedge on everything blowing up: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chamath-palihapitiya-why-bitcoin-will-be-the-category-winner/   Carlota Perez at CoinDesk's Consensus: https://www.coindesk.com/video/carlota-perez-on-blockchains-and-technological-revolutions   Unchained interview about the DCEP: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-china-aims-to-replace-cash-with-the-digital-yuan/   Unchained interview with Christopher Giancarlo about a digital dollar: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-why-the-us-needs-to-have-a-digital-dollar/   Unconfirmed episode with Michael about Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-it-would-be-good-if-libra-rivaled-the-us-dollar/ Unchained episode with a co-creator of Libra: https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-libra-co-creator-on-how-facebook-will-make-money-from-calibra/