Weekly News Roundup 07/24/20 (the bombshell OCC letter, the custodian gold rush, Ampleforth mania) (EP.105)
Matt and Nic review the stories of the week. Covered in this episode: Why holding Bitcoin in banks isn’t necessarily contrary to the nature of Bitcoin VALR, a South African exchange, raises $3.45m from 100x Group and others The OCC’s bombshell letter saying that banks can custody cryptocurrency What this means for established crypto custodians […]
Weekly News Roundup 07/31/20 Feat. John Collins of FS Vector (The OCC letter, Plustoken apprehended, Bitcoin’s patronage system) (EP.107)
Matt and Nic review the stories of the week, featuring John Collins, partner and cofounder of FS Vector, to cover the OCC letter and its implications. Covered in this episode: Our Plustoken conspiracy Nic’s bird situation USDC raises $25m from DCG Avanti’s dollar-coin Avit Why Pats players keep declaring their intention to sit out the […]
How Canaccord Genuity is approaching the cryptoasset market (EP.108)
Michael Graham and Pat McEvoy of Canaccord Genuity join the podcast to discuss how their firm has approached the blockchain/cryptoasset sector. In this episode we discuss: Michael’s perspective on blockchain/cryptoassets from his role as Head of Equity Research at the firm. We discuss how blockchain technology could alter the landscape of the dominant internet companies […]
Jesse Walden (Variant) on the Crypto Ownership Economy (EP.106)
Jesse Walden, founder of Variant joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Jesse’s journey in the crypto industry, from founding Mediachain, to being an investor at A16Z, to founding Variant The crypto ownership economy and how Jesse sees the evolution of consumer software Crypto projects through the lens of contract theory Learn more […]
Ray Youssef (Paxful) on building the world’s largest Bitcoin p2p market (EP.109)
Ray Youssef, founder and CEO of Paxful, joins the show to talk his journey with Paxful and his mission to bring Bitcoin to Africa. Paxful is a wholly bootstrapped startup that has recently taken the crown as the largest Bitcoin p2p marketplace in the world with $2.1B in annualized volume. Ray is from Egypt and […]
Weekly News Roundup 08/07/20 (Microstrategy’s Bitcoin position, Square’s big Q2, ETC reorgs) (EP.110)
Nic and Matt cover deals and the news of the week. In this episode: Are we in a bull run or is fiat devaluating? Africa volumes growing on Paxful BCH contemplating redirecting block rewards to fund developers Electric Capital raises 110m Casa adds a direct buy bitcoin feature Dapper labs raises $12m with participation from […]
James Lovejoy on detecting and mitigating double-spends (EP.111)
James Lovejoy, recent MEng MIT grad and former graduate researcher at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, joins the show to talk about his masters thesis and associated project focusing on detecting double-spends in proof of work cryptocurrencies. Previously, little data was collected in a systematic way to detect double-spends and reorganizations across many cryptocurrencies. James’ […]
Weekly News Roundup feat. Lucas Nuzzi 08/14/20 (Asteroid gold mining, Microstrategy, Ethereum’s “supplygate”) (EP.112)
Coin Metrics network data product lead Lucas Nuzzi joins the show to help explain how to audit the supply of Ethereum – and other, even more challenging blockchains. Also covered in this episode: Does the Winklevoss gold asteroid mining talking point have any merit? Are the Winklevii being ironic or sincere The Boston Fed is […]
Kyle Powers (LibertyPay) on building remittances on Bitcoin (EP.113)
Kyle Powers is the cofounder and CEO of LibertyPay, a Boston business that powers remittances to Brazil and Mexico – settling on Bitcoin, rather than traditional financial rails. LibertyPay has settled nine figures worth of value in its history – and most users never know their transactions are settling via Bitcoin. In this episode: How […]
Weekly News Roundup 08/21/20 (Another Bitcoiner in the Senate, Kraken pursues the Wyoming SPDI, autoponzis) (EP.115)
Nic and Matt cover deals and the news of the week. In this episode: Hawaii announces the Digital Currency Innovation Lab Wyoming’s Senate nominee Cynthia Lummis is a Bitcoiner Why Bitcoin values are American values How Bitcoin is mutualistic with the US dollar Evidence that Tether is used for capital outflows from China Kraken creates […]