Alexandra DaCosta and David Yi (Aspen Creek) on a New Model for Renewable Mining (EP.356)

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:

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

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Sergey Gorbunov (Axelar) on Blockchain Interoperability (EP.354)

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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Christine Kim (Galaxy Research) on the merge and what comes next (EP.353)

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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OTB Live! Weekly Roundup 09/23/22 (EU’s MiCA regulation finalized, XRP lawsuit, SEC dings Balina, Audience Q&A) (EP.352)

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:

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Weekly Roundup 09/16/22 (Merge makes it, Chainalysis crypto adoption report, Starbucks NFTs, Coinbase grades Congress) (EP.350)

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:

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

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Steven Goldfeder (Offchain Labs) on Building Arbitrum (EP.351)

Steven Goldfeder is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Offchain Labs, the team building Arbitrum. In this episode we discuss: 
  • 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. 
 
To learn more about Arbitrum and follow Steven visit www.offchainlabs.com

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David Hoffman (Bankless) on Everything About the Merge (EP.349)

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 (Ansible Labs) on Building the Offramp for Web3 (EP.348)

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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Weekly Roundup 09/09/22 (Stablecoin wars, White House energy report, Gensler attacks) (EP.347)

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? 

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Weekly Roundup 09/02/22 feat. Kyle Waters (Merge priced in, Roche and Ava Labs, Will Dai float freely?) (EP.345)

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?

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Bennett Collen and Stephanie Howard (Endstate) on building a web3-native fashion brand (EP.346)

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: 

Drops and more at endstate.io

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

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Obi Nwosu (Fedi) on Second-Party Custody with Fedimint (EP.344)

Obi Nwosu, CEO and Founder of Fedi joins the show to cover a new model for shared Bitcoin custody in Fedimint. In this episode: 

  • Obi’s experience with Coinfloor and how that informed his views on custody
  • Why third party custody with Proof of Reserves isn’t sufficient
  • Why ‘credible centralized’ custody shouldn’t be the default
  • Why state level attacks on custodians are ramping up
  • Obi’s early prediction that Nigeria would be the heartland of Bitcoin adoption
  • Why messaging apps are actually the most popular p2p exchanges worldwide
  • The history and origins of Chaumian Mints
  • How the enabling pieces of Fedimint all came together over time
  • The relationship between federated custody and microfinance
  • How Fedimint is analogous to Free Banking
  • Does Fedimint satisfy Hal Finney’s vision for Bitcoin banks?
  • How Fedimint compares to first party custody
  • How Obi expects regulators to react to Fedimint

Learn more about Fedi and Fedimint.

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Weekly Roundup 08/05/22 (BlackRock jumps in, CFTC oversight bill, ETH PoW forks?) (EP.338)

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

  • Is there any hope for ETH PoW forks?
  • Is Ethereum unforkeable?
  • More 3AC shenanigans of the week
  • The 3AC Toyota Century situation
  • The 3AC boys have some unexpected supporters 
  • A bipartisan bill proposes giving the CFTC oversight over the spot market
  • What’s up with the croissant diet
  • NYDFS fines Robinhood Crypto
  • Michael Saylor steps down from this CEO role at Microstrategy
  • The SEC charges 11 individuals involved in the Forsage ponzi
  • The other Nick Carter is in trouble for endorsing Safemoon
  • Another cross chain bridge is hacked
  • What happened with this Solana wallet hack?
  • Matt loses the tip of his finger
  • Coinbase partners up with Blackrock

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Weekly Roundup 08/26/22 (Emmer’s OFAC letter, Stables resist TC blacklists, Gensler’s OpEd) (EP.343)

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

  • Matt’s prior radio career
  • The boys consider reinvesting in the podcast
  • How to avoid audience capture
  • We puzzle over metaverse advertising
  • How do you value metaverse real estate?
  • Rep. Tom Emmer writes a letter to OFAC questioning their sanctioning of Tornado Cash
  • Tether and BUSD (Paxos) don’t blacklist Tornado Cash addresses
  • The FDIC reprimands crypto companies
  • Web3 hoodies
  • Best podcast listening speeds
  • Are security tokens and real world assets back?
  • No new 3ac shenanigans
  • Tadge Dryja leaves MIT DCI for David Marcus’ Lightspark
  • New findings on OFAC censoring Bitcoin Mining pools
  • Tether has a new auditor
  • Can a firm with outstanding tokens be acquired or go public?
  • Gensler’s weird op-ed

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Brooke Pollack (Hutt Capital) on the Blockchain Fund of Funds Landscape (EP.342)

Brooke Pollack, the founder of Hutt Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss: 
  • Brooke‘s career journey and path to founding Hutt Capital
  • The events that led him to seeing that crypto/blockchain was going to be an industry with dedicated venture managers
  • The institutional limited partner landscape
  • The narratives that have captured the most institutional mindshare
  • Views on the optimal fund structure for crypto/blockchain managers
  • The DeFi landscape
  • Views on NFTs as a foundational building block for future businesses. 
 
To learn more about Hutt Capital visit www.huttcapital.com and follow Brooke on Twitter 

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Weekly Roundup 08/19/22 (Treasury Activated Soft Fork, Coinbase vs Vitalik, do BTC miners censor?) (EP.341)

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

  • NYMag writes a long piece on 3AC
  • Is OTB a ‘crypto fanboy podcast’?
  • Are we up against the nation state ‘final boss’?
  • 3AC boat name reveal
  • The Toyota Century rumors are true
  • Revelations about 3ACs FX days
  • Did 3AC actually owe the Mafia money?
  • The 3AC Deribit deal
  • A new 3AC supporter dials in to the show
  • Machinsky was trading Celsius customer deposits
  • The Galaxy BitGo acquisition falls through
  • Dragonchain settles with the SEC
  • Hodlnaut files for creditor protection
  • Genesis reorganization
  • Tornado cash developer arrested in Amsterdam
  • Are Bitcoin miners filtering transactions for OFAC?
  • Will Coinbase censor Ethereum at the protocol level?
  • Vitalik suggests slashing Ethereum if they comply with OFAC at the protocol level
  • Would Coinbase ever abandon their staking business?
  • The effect of MEV on the centralization of PoS vs PoW
  • End of the merge rally?

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Uddhav Marwaha (Friktion Labs) on Building Durable Portfolios through DeFi (EP.340)

In this episode, Uddhav Marwaha, co-founder and CEO of Friktion Labs, joins us to discuss Friktion‘s approach to a full stack portfolio management platform in defi. We cover a plethora of topics, including:

  • The opacity surrounding defi yields and distinguishing fleeting opportunities from sustainable sources of income
  • Using options overwriting and basis strategies to generate more durable returns and provide portfolio protection across market conditions
  • In-housing core tooling such as Friktion‘s RFQ system (Channel RFQ) and an exotic options DEX (Entropy) to unlock time and cost efficiencies
 
Friktion‘s emphasis on demystifying complex products and deconstructing sources of risk and yield in crypto differentiate it from the pack. To complement the data and analytics within the application, the team frequently publishes research breaking down complex topics.
 

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 08/12/22 (Tornado Cash OFAC’d, Dai reconsiders USDC, Merge scheduled) (EP.339)

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

  • Underwhelming Taproot adoption
  • Tornado Cash gets sanctioned by OFAC
  • Is Tornado a better mixer than coinjoin
  • Why the Tornado Cash sanctioning is the first of its kind
  • How much of the liquidity in Tornado Cash was illicit?
  • Are we at a turning point in financial privacy?
  • Why was Tornado Cash specifically targeted and not other mixers
  • Account-based versus UTXO systems and their effect on your ability to segregate funds
  • Can you really sanction a blockchain or smart contract?
  • The crypto wars of the 90s continue
  • Is Ethereum the biggest crypto platform for privacy today?
  • Is Dai at risk from USDC?
  • The Merge finally gets a launch date
  • BlackRock launches a Bitcoin spot trust

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Weekly Roundup 07/29/22 (Physical NFTs, SEC investigates Coinbase, Stablecoin Legislation) (EP.337)

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

  • Damien Hirst’s physical NFT project 
  • Why you need a bridge between the physical and the digital world for certain NFTs 
  • Why physical NFTs provide advantages to collectors and brands
  • Libra/Diem spawns Aptos and Sui
  • Coinbase is under SEC investigation 
  • Pat Toomey criticizes the SEC
  • What is in the bipartisan stablecoin bill? 
  • Squabbles over Voyager’s Chapter 11 plan 
  • The UK inches towards recognizing cryptocurrency as property
  • More 3AC shenanigans 
  • How 3AC was and wasn’t like LTCM 
  • 3AC liquidators will try to force cooperation 
  • Tether reduces their commercial paper holdings 
  • Matt starts a Tether conspiracy 
  • Harmony mulls a post-hack bailout

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Itai Turbahn and Yoni Goldberg (Dynamic) on wallet-based logins (EP.336)

Itai Turbahn and Yoni Goldberg, the founders of Dynamic join the show. In this episode we discuss:

  • Itai and Yoni’s professional journey to starting Dynamic
  • How Dynamic is addressing wallet based authentication
  • Views on how standards will evolve in the blockchain ID category
  • The evolution of decentralized identifiers
  • The types of businesses that are early adopters for wallet-based logins

To learn more about Dynamic visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

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