CoreWeave‘s Brian Venturo (CTO) and Brannin McBee (CSO) return to On The Brink for a discussion of their journey through the merge and beyond. In this episode: 

• Are they relieved that the merge finally happened?
• Will there be some form of non-Bitcoin PoW in the future?
• Could Ethereum conceivably return to PoW?
• The effect of PoS on ETH’s censor resistance
• What quantity of ETH miners shifted to other PoW chains and what portion went elsewhere?
• What is the best use of capital for former ETH miners now?
• Did the merge really reduce global electricity consumption by 0.2%?
• Brannin’s estimate for precise electricity reduction from the merge
• How feasible is it for former ETH miners to get into GPU clouds?
• How Core Weave built their cloud product
• What it takes to be competitive in the high performance computing sector
• Why the generalized providers of cloud can’t just win when it comes to rendering and ML/AI
• Why the HPC market is exploding right now
• How open source communities behind text and image models contributed to the explosion in use cases
• The importance of Stable Diffusion versus Open AI
• The explosive growth of Stable Diffusion and Stability AI
• How the growth in infrastructure contributed to the emergence of these newer image models
• New directions in AI models like video creation
• Will generative AI be attacked by environmentalists?
• Can cloud data centers handle interruptible loads like Bitcoin miners can?
• How industrial compute will play a role in emerging metaverses
• Use cases Brannin and Brian are excited about
• Why hardware is actually a constraint to the number of metaverse users today

Learn more about CoreWeave here.

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of deals and news. In this episode: 

• Full time crypto haters
• What’s the deal with the nocoiner think tank?
• Eric Wall and Udi vs Bitcoiners
• Did Bitcoin put all of its eggs in the LN basket?
• Scaling isn’t LN versus big blocks any more
• Is there just one scaling solution for blockchains?
• What are the prospects for ZK Rollups on Bitcoin?
• Spam attacks on BSV and Zcash
• Bitcoin Miners are going bankrupt
• How did the Ethereum merge affect Bitcoin miners
• What’s the deal with Bitcoin’s hashrate spike?
• Are non-economic Bitcoin miners killing the free market for mining?
• What’s the deal with miner lenders?
• Synthetic Bitcoin stablecoins
• Is Twitter fairly priced at the deal price?
• Matt Levine’s 40k word article on crypto
• Is the pivot finally in?

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter 

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Mike Cahill, Director of the Pyth Data Association joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The origin of Pyth and how the project is addressing the ‘Oracle Problem’.
• How Pyth works and how companies and protocols are using the product today.
• Mike’s views on how equities on chain will evolve, and how Pyth is positioned in this market.
• The recent Mango Markets exploit and the future of on-chain market manipulations in DeFi.
• Pyth’s network of partners and how the network is growing in 2022.

To learn more about Pyth visit Pyth.Network.  

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For another episode of the mining miniseries, Nic sits down with Blake King, power markets engineer at Galaxy Digital, for his second OTB appearance. In this episode: 

• Blake reacts to the White House OSTP report on crypto mining
• Does mining actually reduce the incentive for utilities to build additional transmission?
• How transmission building decisions get made
• How are ERCOT planners taking the price of Bitcoin into account?
• The merits of proactive transmission construction
• Why the existence of strong property rights makes transmission much harder to build
• Can Bitcoin be understood as the electrification of gold?
• Is there really 17-25 GW worth of Bitcoin miners in the process of connecting to the Texas grid?
• How should we think about interconnection and load queues
• Why would ERCOT exaggerate the planned scale of Bitcoin mining in Texas?
• Do miners using renewables “not count” because they displace other consumers of renewable energy?
• Why Blake expects the $/MWh revenue for Bitcoin to continue to trend down over time
• Are Bitcoin miners forcing grids into grid scarcity events?
• Economic curtailment versus formal demand response
• Are Bitcoiners overestimating the importance of demand response for miners?

Content mentioned in this episode:

• Bitcoin Mining and the Grid, Part I and Part II
• Part I of Blake King on the show: OTB 330
• White House OSTP report on Bitcoin Mining

Intro and outro: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of deals and news. In this episode: 

• What is XEN and why is it driving up ETH fees?
• Bittrex settles with OFAC
• SEC is investigating Yuga labs
• Mango and Binance Smart Chain are hacked
• The FASB settles on fair value accounting for cryptoassets
• Warren writes a letter to Texas about mining
• Coin Center is suing OFAC

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter 

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Rob Behnke, co-founder and CEO of Halborn joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Rob’s career journey in the cryptocurrency industry and the insights that led him to founding Halborn.
• The 2017 ICO era and the security issues that plagued many projects.
• How Halborn approaches engagements with DeFi ecosystem participants.
• How centralized financial services companies are engaging with DeFi and how these firms think about cybersecurity.
• How Rob and his co-founder Steven Walbroehl approached their Series A fundraising process.
• Halborn’s new suite of software products.

To learn more about Halborn visit halborn.com and follow Rob on Twitter

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Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode:

• What caused the Pound Sterling to sell off?
• Deglobalization picks up
• Stirrings of a sovereign debt crisis emerge
• Explaining Deribit’s insider-led down round
• Can the market recover before Do Kwon, Machinsky, and 3AC are dealt with?
• Celcius’ Machinsky steps down
• Brett Harrison leaves FTX US
• 7 states issue C&Ds against Nexo
• The CFTC goes after Ooki DAO and DAO members
• The CFTC serves Ooki through a chatbox and a forum post
• How voting in a DAO can cause you to incur personal liability
• Why putting a DAO in a ‘legal wrapper’ might make sense
• The Fed will not pursue a digital dollar (for now)
• The ‘convenience yield’ of holding a CFTC
• OTB Bingo
• Would it be good for Bitcoin to be flippened?

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter 

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Kim Kardashian settles with the SEC
• Gensler’s promotional campaign ruffles feathers at the SEC
• Was the SEC indirectly throwing shade at Jake Paul with their video?
• Is Gensler cracking down on crypto as part of a bid for Treasury secretary?
• Can the industry outlast the SEC?
• CBOE signs on to Pyth
• Hamilton Lane is tokenizing three funds
• GoldenTree invests in Sushi
• Should DAOs pursue an LLC wrapper?
• Maker is buying Treasuries and IG debt
• Should stablecoins pass along interest from treasuries to tokenholders?
• Celsius executives cashed out prior to bankruptcy
• Starry Night NFTs are on the move
• Ark Invest partners to put their active strategies on the Eaglebrook platform

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter 

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Vivek Raman, Head of Proof of Stake at BitOoda joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Vivek’s career journey from traditional financial services to the world of public blockchains.
• Views on the impact of Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake, including his perspective on the new financial products on the horizon.
• The path of CeFi as it relates to DeFi and where Vivek sees overlap.
• How BitOoda is working with bitcoin miners to manage risk.
• The smart contract platform category and how Vivek stays current on the latest developments in the industry.

To learn more about BitOoda visit their website. Follow Vivek on Twitter.

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Alexandra DaCosta (CEO) and David Yi (Chief Commercial Officer) join the show to talk about Aspen Creek Digital Corp.’s fundraise and their model for additive renewable mining. In this episode:

• What was it like raising for a mining firm in this environment
• David and Alexandra’s backgrounds and how the came to cofound ACDC
• Why ACDC is pursuing a ‘power first’ model and what that means
• ACDC’s wind, solar, and battery approach to energy
• Why ACDC focuses on additional, new renewable generation
• How mining behind the meter with renewable sources actually works
• Why intermittency of wind and solar is not a dealbreaker for Bitcoin miners
• The merits of going behind the meter for a Bitcoin miner
• The importance of the Inflation Reduction Act for renewables
• Industries are becoming more location agnostic overall
• Are Bitcoin miners doing a sufficiently good job of disclosures around their energy mix?
• What is the feasibility of batteries at grid scale?
• Are Bitcoin miners interfering with the market signal indicating where transmission should be built?
• How Aspen Creek pairs demand response with renewable incentivization
• How Aspen Creek affects power prices paid by households

Read more:

• Aspen Creek’s fundraise announcement  
• ACDigitalCorp website

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344

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Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Sergey’s path to founding Axelar
• His views on blockchain interoperability and the design decisions of Axelar
• The different approaches to interoperability that are being attempted in the industry
• Views on DeFi composability and the role of privacy on public blockchains
• The L1/L2 landscape and how Axelar is positioned

To learn more about Axelar visit axelar.network/

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In this episode, Christine Kim from Galaxy Research joins us to discuss the Ethereum Merge and prospects for future protocol development: 

• Reactions to the merge and network changes that flew under the radar
• Finding a focus area in core protocol development on Ethereum
• EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) on the near-term horizon
• Threats to decentralization and censorship resistance and potential solutions

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344

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Nic and Matt sit down for a special live recording of OTB in front of an audience at the Boston Blockchain Week. In this episode: 

• Ian Balina is dinged by the SEC for Sparkster
• The SEC’s weird argument for standing over all of Ethereum
• Is XRP a prediction market on Ripple’s case against the SEC
• Wintermute is hacked for $160m via a bad vanity generator
• Several Senators file an amicus brief to support Custodia’s lawsuit against the Fed
• What the Congressional crypto agenda should look like
• Europe finalizes their MiCA regulation
• Europe discourages Dollar stablecoin usage in the EU
• Exchanges and token issuers in the EU will have to make disclosures
• Jesse Powell steps down from Kraken
• NASDAQ is launching a crypto custody business
• Helium strikes a deal with T Mobile
• Audience Q&A

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter 

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Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• The Merge takes place without incident
• Will the Merge silence Ethereum critics on the left?
• Will the ESG narrative around crypto get louder?
• FTX takes a stake in Skybridge
• Castle Island is not an island
• If you make an NFT of a diamond and destroy the diamond, do you still have a diamond?
• CME launches Ether options
• Starbucks launches an NFT loyalty platform
• Tungsten cubes are selling off
• South Korea issues an arrest warrant for Do Kwon
• The thin line between visionary and scammer
• What Terra teaches us about why disclosures matter in capital markets
• Huobi delists privacy coins
• Can you take delivery of Tornado Cash-dusted Ether?
• Coinbase launches their Crypto Action Network
• Matt and Nic evaluate the ratings members of Congress are getting from Coinbase
• Chainalysis releases their 2022 global crypto adoption index
• Hodlnaut’s CSW case begins
• The NSA Bitcoin lab leak hypothesis
• OTB goes live!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Jake Chervinsky’s thread on Tornado Cash
• Chainalysis 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Report

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter and read their Mapping out the Merge report

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• Steven’s academic background, and his work at Princeton University. 
• BlockSci, an early blockchain forensics/search product that Steven co-founded. 
• The evolution of MPC custody and the exciting developments in that category. 
• The Flash Boys 2.0 paper and the current state of MEV. 
• Steven’s views on the evolution of L1 smart contract platforms and how L2 scaling is shaping up. 
• The design choices and considerations that went into the choice of optimistic vs. zero-knowledge rollups on Arbitrum. 
• The future of ZK systems on blockchains. 

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Bankless’ David Hoffman joins Matt and Nic for a special episode to cover Ethereum’s highly-anticipated Merge. In this episode: 

• How David came to Ethereum and the Bankless origin story
• The story behind the Bankless DAO
• Whether David would ever consider focusing on other blockchains
• What could cause David to abandon Ethereum
• The Coinbase OFAC filtering debate
• Why proposer-builder separation might make validator-driven censorship harder
• Filtering transactions at the pool layer versus undertaking a ‘Treasury Activated Soft Fork’
• Under what conditions would social slashing of major validators make sense?
• How embedded is the social slashing consensus into Ethereum’s social fabric?
• The significance of the new supply dynamics stemming from the Merge
• Is the unlock something to worry about?
• Is there a ‘crowding out’ effect from staked Ether becoming a risk free rate?
• Does MEV pose a concentration risk post Merge?
• Are MEV-driven yields for stakers perverse?
• Is MEV an inescapable feature of richly stateful blockchains
• Why the notion of Certified-Toxic-MEV-free blocks might emerge
• How is Ethereum’s roadmap determined?
• What’s the deal with the Surge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge?
• What are the strongest narratives coming out of the Merge?
• Probabilities of the Merge success
• Why the Merge may not be fully priced in

Follow David on Twitter and learn more about Bankless.

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344 

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Dan Mottice, CEO and Co-Founder of Ansible Labs, joins the show to talk about a new payment gateway for web3.

• Dan’s personal background and how he ended up in financial services
• The Visa Network, Visa Direct Payouts and Visa Crypto
• Ansible Labs’ raise and what’s ahead
• Off-ramps and why they matter
• North stars in fintech
• The consumer experience in a b2b sales cycle
• Navigating turbulent markets and how to build to win

Learn more about Ansible here. 

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Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: 

• Nic’s shoe problem
• Web3 merch for OTB?
• The White House releases a report on crypto asset energy usage
• Why the US should encourage mining within its borders 
• Coinbase is funding a lawsuit against OFAC 
• Binance is converting USDC into BUSD on their platform 
• Poolin is having liquidity problems
• Russia considers crypto for cross border payments 
• The US Government recovers $30m from the Axie hack
• Gensler keeps firing barbs
• Nic doesn’t buy the supply shock thesis around the Merge
• Will ETH have another high fee era? 
• What could an ETH carry trade look like? 

Content mentioned: 

• The White House, Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States
• Gary Gensler speech at the SEC, Kennedy and Crypto

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter and read their Mapping out the Merge report

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• What happens to the GPUs post merge?
• Will the gamers finally get cheap GPUs back?
• Is the merge like superbowl sunday or Y2K?
• Does the success of the merge undo a long-term Bitcoin talking point?
• Are NFTs going to cc0 screwing over their users?
• DC sues Michael Saylor and Microstrategy for allegedly skipping taxes in DC
• The SEC questions whether the certain assets in Grayscale trusts are securities
• What’s going on with the Roche Freedman/ Ava Labs/ Cryptoleaks situation?
• Is Roche just David Boies 2.0?
• The Biden executive order reports are due next week
• Rune of Maker muses about turning Dai into a free floating unit of account
• Will Maker be able to survive real world assets as collateral?
• Did Moonbirds rugpull their buyers with IP issues?
• Kyle Waters from Coin Metrics joins to talk about the Merge
• Is the distribution of stakers on Ethereum something to be worried about?
• What’s going to happen to ETH issuance post merge?
• How to forecast post-merge staking returns
• Is the merge priced in?
• Did Ethereum install a pro-cyclical monetary policy?

Content mentioned: 

• Coin Metrics, Mapping out the Merge

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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Ria and Nic from Castle Island sit down with Stephanie Howard and Bennett Collen, cofounders of Endstate, a web3 footwear and fashion brand. We cover the merits of the redeem-and-retain NFT model and the vision for Endstate.

• Bennett’s prior crypto startup and how he decided to unite his passion for sneakers with web3
• How Bennett and Stephanie met and cofounded Endstate
• Stephanie’s career in sneaker design to date 
• Why creators and athletes are jumping at the opportunity to issue merchandise-linked NFTs
• Why Bennett and Stephanie chose to launch a web3 native brand
• How redeem-and-retain NFTs allow manufacturers to reduce inventory risk
• Why fashion is getting more targeted and niche
• Why Endstate is able to release new iterations of their sneakers so quickly
• Endstate’s rationale for manufacturing in the US
• Endstate drops to date
• Endstate’s new drop with Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith
• How web3 brands should think about which metaverse to build for
• Endstate’s thinking around Solana vs Ethereum and the impact of gas fees
• How to link physical products with NFTs – from NFCs to QRs to visual scans
• What should we call physical NFTs?
• Aside from shoes, what merch is amenable to the Endstate model?
• What product sectors will be NFTed?
• How developed are authenticated third party marketplaces for physically linked NFTs?
• Physical-linked NFTs as a trojan horse to onboard mass markets into web3
• The future state of Endstate
• Other web3 drops Bennett and Stephanie enjoyed
• The future of entangled NFTs 

Read more: 

• Nic Carter on Medium: Redeem and Retain NFTs are the future of Luxury Goods
• Vogue Business: How the crypto bear market is resetting fashion’s Web3 strategy

Drops and more at endstate.io

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344 

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