Blake Masters on Inflation, CBDCs, and Setting a Pro-Crypto Agenda (EP.292)

We sit down with Blake Masters, COO at Thiel Capital, coauthor of Zero to One, and 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona. 

  • Why Blake is running for Senate in Arizona 
  • Blake’s experience running Thiel Capital and what led him to politics today 
  • Does Congress need more business expertise? 
  • Where Blake falls on the spectrum of being pro vs anti crypto 
  • Where Blake gets his info regarding the crypto industry 
  • USA vs Chinese policy on Bitcoin 
  • Should the US pursue a strategic Bitcoin reserve? 
  • Does cryptocurrency impair the US’ sanctions-making ability? 
  • Will the government maintain its sanctions-making ability in perpetuity? 
  • How crypto and Bitcoin could shore up the U.S. dollar 
  • Can the Fed solve climate or racial equity issues? 
  • Are the MMTers in power? 
  • Is the U.S. facing a genuine risk of default? 
  • Leftist explanations for inflation and why they are unsatisfying
  • Where the Covid-related stimulus payments warranted?
  • Dealing with Big Tech deplatforming and whether Section 230 is sufficient 
  • Can decentralized internet applications compete with Big Tech platforms? 
  • Are legislative solutions sufficient to Big Tech oligarchies? 
  • Blake’s view on stablecoins and how they should be regulated 
  • Should the government be following China’s lead on CBDCs? 

Learn about Blake’s platform

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VÉRITÉ and Vanessa on empowering artists to be CEOs of their own world (EP.295)

Singer and songwriter, VÉRITÉ (Kelsey Byrne), and artist manager, Vanessa Magos have been leading the charge for artists and their teams to learn about and experiment in web3. In our third episode in the web3 music mini-series, they joined us to talk about:

  • Artists as CEOs who bootstrap their business and put themselves in positions of power and ownership
  • Artists being locked into the arbitrary fixed price imposed on music by the industry
  • A future where artists have access to their fans free of paywalls, algorithms, and third parties
  • The role music DAOs can play in restructuring artist teams

You can find VERITE and Vanessa on Twitter @verite and @vanessamagos, respectively.

Check out this episode!

Sohrob Farudi on Fan Controlled Football (EP.294)

Sohrob Farudi, the founder and CEO of Fan Controlled Football joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

  • Sohrob’s entrepreneurial journey and the insights that led to him founding Fan Controlled Football.
  • How FCF works and how fans engage with the league, all the way to calling the plays.
  • How Sohrob came to be interested in cryptocurrency and how NFTs have crossed into FCF.
  • Longer term opportunities for cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities in the context of FCF.
  • The upcoming season and what fans can expect.

To learn more visit FCF.IO and follow the league on Twitter

Sponsor notes

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

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Weekly Roundup 03/11/22 (Biden’s executive order, Korea’s pro-crypto President, Is Bretton Woods over?) (EP.296)

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

  • The fallout from the seizure of the Russian fx reserves
  • Did America default on its obligations?
  • How are Chinese interests served by the US weaponizing the dollar?
  • Can Bitcoin become an inter-state settlement asset and sovereign-scale SoV?
  • Zoltan Pozsar declares an end to Bretton Woods
  • We digest Biden’s executive order
  • The White House calls for 14 studies on crypto and CBDCs
  • A pro-crypto candidate wins the Korean presidential election
  • BNY Mellon gets into MPC crypto custody
  • Stripe now supports crypto payments
  • The Verge profiles Justin Sun
  • Does insider trading apply to commodities?
  • Coinbase blocks 25k Russian users from the platform

Content mentioned: 

Sponsor notes: 

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

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Brandon Arvanaghi and Bryce Crawford (Meow) on Bringing DeFi yields to Institutions (EP.291)

Meow CEO Brandon Arvanaghi and CTO Bryce Crawford join the show to cover crypto yields and how they make them accessible to corporate treasuries. In this episode: 

  • The origins of the name
  • Bryce and Brandon’s backgrounds
  • The purpose of getting access to crypto yields while staying in dollars
  • How Meow manages risks in DeFi protocols
  • Are crypto yields fundamentally mispriced?
  • Where crypto yields ultimately come from?
  • The risk free rate of crypto yields
  • The relationship between fragmented exchange environments and the cost of capital in crypto
  • Why smart contract risk differs between chains and its effect on yields
  • Why yields compressing will be a sign of the institutionalization of crypto
  • The emergence of undercollateralized lending on DeFi, and which protocols the Meow leadership is most excited about
  • Do DeFi yields face the risk from declining subsidies from token issuance
  • Why institutional tooling is still lacking in DeFi
  • The emergence of the crypto scene in Miami
  • Projections for the future of DeFi
  • Visions for the future of Meow

Sponsor notes: 

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

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Weekly Roundup 03/04/22 (Sanctions chaos, Ukraine’s crypto fundraiser, remonetizing gold, web3 geofencing) (EP.293)

Nic and Matt return for another wild week. In this episode: 

  • OTB theme music controversy
  • Is Bitcoin a risk off asset
  • Ukraine raises crypto to fund the war effort
  • Why Ukrainians were better positioned to deal with a banking sector failure
  • The U.S. cuts Russia out of SWIFT (mostly)
  • Can the U.S. pull the SWIFT deplatforming again?
  • Will gold be remonetized?
  • Metamask, Infura, and Opensea are banned in Iran and Venezuela
  • Why the cost of running a full node matters
  • Can NFTs be securities?
  • Is Russia evading sanctions with crypto?
  • Powell’s comment on multiple reserve currencies

Content mentioned: 

Sponsor notes: 

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

 

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 02/24/22 (Russia and SWIFT, DAO hacker identified, Trudeau backs down) (EP.290)

Matt and Nic return for another insane week of news and deals. 

  • Russia invades Ukraine
  • Will Russia get kicked off SWIFT?
  • Are there alternatives to SWIFT?
  • Laura Shin identifies  the alleged DAO hacker
  • Is Bitcoin’s privacy fundamentally broken?
  • Chainalysis demixes Wasabi transactions
  • Was the DAO hacker even guilty of a crime?
  • Should blockchains be private at the base layer?
  • Wyoming introduces a state stablecoin
  • Miami grapples with the fallout of Miamicoin
  • Do turkeys hibernate?

Sponsor notes: 

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Check out this episode!

Bill Spence and Gregory Beard on The Real Story Behind Stronghold (EP.288)

Co-chairman of Stronghold Digital Mining Bill Spence and CEO Gregory Beard join the show. Stronghold is a vertically integrated Bitcoin miner that uses waste coal to power their operations – while also remediating this environmentally damaging product. We dive into this fascinating, and counter-intuitive story. In this episode: 

  • Backgrounds of the co-chairmen and how they found the intersection of Bitcoin mining and coal waste mitigation
  • Bill’s personal commitment to the mitigation of coal waste
  • Why coal waste has been accumulating in PA since the late 1700s
  • The immense scale of the coal waste and how it continue to affect PA, even though mining no longer occurs
  • How unremediated coal waste can be understood as a form of class warfare
  • Why coal waste exists in the first place
  • Why developments in power plant technology meant that coal waste could be safely combusted
  • Why aboveground coal waste oxidizes and releases CO2 anyway – as well as other harmful particulates
  • Why growing grass over the coal waste doesn’t solve the problem
  • Why 2 billion tons of coal waste can’t just be moved into landfills
  • How there are 800 sites in PA and 70 of them are currently on fire
  • Why Stronghold is vertically integrated, and the advantage this grants them in mining Bitcoin
  • How Stronghold sends power to the grid in the case of a shortage
  • Has Stronghold evaluated other high energy intensity loads aside from just Bitcoin
  • Why Bitcoin is a more suitable load for their energy resources than others
  • How Bitcoin allows Stronghold to keep their power available at short notice
  • Stronghold’s reaction to criticism in the press and from Washington
  • Why nothing had been done about the coal waste for 100 years before Stronghold came along Is the future of Bitcoin mining vertical integration?

Sponsor notes: 

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

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Leo Lucisano (Decentral Park Capital) on Regulatory Predictions for 2022 (EP.289)

Leo Lucisano of Decentral Park Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

  • Leo’s regulatory predictions for 2022 and the beliefs that informed his blog post.
  • Views on how DeFi would evolve in the face of a harsher treatment from the SEC.
  • The emerging crypto lobby and how this will shape future elections and also policy.
  • Lending, derivatives and other financial products in a central and decentralized context.
  • How Decentral Park Capital is investing across the landscape.

To learn more about Decentral Park visit their website.

Check out this episode!

Matthew Chaim (Songcamp) on collective creation with music NFTs (EP.286)

In our second episode in the web3 music mini-series, we spoke with Matthew Chaim, musician and founder of Songcamp and other projects at the intersection of music and web3. We cover how Matthew thinks about:

  • Helping artists gain control over their creative output
  • Collective creation and re-imagining the role of fans
  • Optimizing for resonance versus reach with music NFTs
  • Discoverability in music NFTs and ways to democratize curation

And much more. We also recommend reading Matthew’s writing on these topics at chaim.mirror.xyz.

Intro and outro track: OmgKirby Genesis #326

 

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Weekly Roundup 02/18/22 (Canadian Truckers, BlockFi settles with SEC, CIV III) (EP.287)

Matt and Nic return for a huge week of news and a big CIV announcement. In this episode: 

  • Matt scans the Coinbase QR code ad
  • The post-Superbowl backlash against crypto ads
  • Is there any hope for music NFTs
  • Castle Island announces a third fund
  • Binance buys a stake in Forbes
  • Is Circle a bet on interest rates?
  • Our thoughts on BlockFi’s settlement with the SEC
  • Does the SEC’s BlockFi settlement create a regulatory moat for larger lenders?
  • What happens to DeFi in the wake of the BlockFi settlement?
  • Canada weaponizes all financial services against truckers and donors
  • Miners are once again active in Inner Mongolia – with a catch
  • The etymology of tantalizing

Content mentioned in this episode: 

Sponsor notes: 

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com
Intro and outro track credit: OmgKirby Genesis #326

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Jared Nusinoff (Mash) on Remonetizing the Internet with Lightning (EP.285)

Mash founder Jared Nusinoff joins the show to explain how internet monetization is broken and how lightning-based payments fixes it. In this episode: 

  • Jared’s professional history and how he came to work on Bitcoin
  • Going from an adventure guide to bitcoin
  • Jared’s early entrepreneurial work
  • Jared’s early history sharing music prior to torrents
  • Why Jared quite Google to found an adventure guide company
  • How Jared thinks of Bitcoin’s MoE/SoV debate
  • Why internet monetization models are flawed today – and the missing middle
  • How the technology of payments online directly affects the quality of internet experiences
  • How Lightning uniquely solves the monetization of quality content online
  • Jared’s view of Lightning’s maturity and momentum as a payments infrastructure
  • How Lightning provides completely novel business models on the internet
  • How Mash could change the game for internet ‘miniapps’

Get started on Mash here and follow Mash on Twitter

Sponsor notes: 

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 01/28/22 (Putin warms to Bitcoin mining, Wonderland’s Quadriga connection, Libra/Diem shutters) (EP.279)

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

  • Fidelity’s Wise Origin spot Bitcoin ETF is denied
  • Putin walks back the central bank ban on mining
  • NY isn’t processing BitLicense applications
  • Facebook is selling their IP being Diem/Libra to Silvergate
  • Ripple buys out their Series C Investors
  • Google’s cloud division makes a blockchain push
  • A DeFi protocol founder is revealed to be a former Quadriga executive
  • Are anonymous developers the future?
  • Ark comes out with their Big Ideas for 2022

Content mentioned: 

Sponsor notes:

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 02/11/22 (Bitfinex hacked coins recovered, NY Fed attacks Stablecoins, Gofundme bans truckers) (EP.284)

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

  • Kraken brings back PoR
  • Bitfinex hack money launderers are arrested
  • The long history of Bitfinex, hacks, Recovery rights, Tether, and LEO
  • Who is entitled to the recovered BTC from the Bitfinex hack?
  • The NY Fed attacks stablecoins, and private banknote issuance
  • Ottawa truckers are banned from Gofundme
  • Are US Treasuries backing stablecoins stranded liquidity?
  • Why central bankers attack stablecoins to promote CBDCs

Content mentioned: 

Sponsor notes: 

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Check out this episode!

Jeremy Welch (Kraken) on Contemporary Proofs of Reserve (EP.283)

In this episode, Kraken chief product officer Jeremy Welch joins the show to cover Kraken’s newly announced Proof of Reserve procedure. In this episode: 

  • Why bring back PoR?
  • What distinguishes today’s proof of reserve from the procedure Kraken undertook back in 2015
  • Why haven’t exchanges done PoR historically?
  • What Kraken’s PoR actually proves to depositors
  • The role of Armanino in Kraken’s PoR
  • What happens when a depositor verifies their PoR
  • How Kraken protects user privacy in PoR
  • The trustlessness of the PoR procedure
  • What regulators can gain from a PoR
  • How Kraken clients can benefit from PoR
  • How Jeremy expects other exchanges to react

Sponsor notes: 

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

See more on Kraken’s PoR here

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 02/04/22 (Wormhole hack, PoR is back, Boston Fed pilots a CBDC, TX miners shut down) (EP.282)

  • Tom Brady retires to focus on NFTs
  • Was Satoshi interested in altcoins?
  • Our thoughts on startups raising 69.420m
  • The Solana-Ethereum bridge is hacked for over $300m– and then bailed out by Jump Capital
  • Was Vitalik’s warning about cross-chain interoperability prophetic? 
  • Is the cross-chain vision dead?
  • Kraken revives their Proof of Reserve – after 7 years
  • Why do exchanges avoid Proof of Reserves?
  • Bitcoin developers at the MIT DCI are building the Boston Fed’s CBDC pilot program
  • How whaling was the predecessor to venture capital
  • Gamestop launches an NFT marketplace

Content mentioned in this episode: 

Sponsor notes:

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com
 

Check out this episode!

Cherie Hu (Water & Music) on the evolving role of web3 in music (EP.281)

In the first episode in our web3 music series, Cherie Hu, founder of Water & Music, sits down with Ria to talk about transitioning Water & Music into a research DAO and Cherie’s thoughts on the growing interest of musicians in crypto. We discuss:
  • How Cherie found a niche covering the intersection of music, technology, and now web3
  • The decision to formalize the Water & Music community into a research DAO harnessing the wisdom of the crowds
  • The shortcomings of early experiments with music and crypto and how the recent approach differs
  • The salient macro factors contributing to enthusiasm and experimentation with music NFTs, DAOs, and social tokens
  • The pushback against music NFTs by skeptical fans and artists

Check out this episode!

Paul Sztorc (Drivechain) on Bitcoin Security Budget and the Importance Merge Mining (EP.280)

Veteran Bitcoin commentator and inventor of Drivechains Paul Sztorc joins the show to talk Bitcoin’s sustainability and the role of merged mined side chains. In this episode: 

  • Why Paul is the ‘Steely Dan’ of Bitcoin
  • Revisiting ‘Measuring decentralization’
  • Revisiting Paul’s argument on Proof of Stake being veiled PoW
  • Why you should roll your own statistics
  • Concentration of power in miners and mining pools
  • Is PoW worthless if it isn’t challenged?
  • How Bitcoin energy FUD is based on neo-malthusianism
  • The Julian Simon / Paul Ehrlich wager
  • Why none of our resources are finite
  • How climate change diplomacy is neo-colonial
  • Why and when innovation happens
  • Why Paul is a critic of Bitcoin development culture
  • Paul’s critique of Stock to Flow
  • Why Bitcoin culture is static
  • Why Bitcoin needs more satire
  • Bitcoin fees are 80-100x less than those of Ethereum
  • Why BTC fees are not sustainably high
  • Why Bitcoin fees and security budget need to grow over time
  • Can you just wait for more confirmations if security spend declines
  • Are fees destined to be effectively 0 through the creation of more blockspace?
  • The history of Drivechains /BIP300
  • Does merge mining make it more expensive to run a node? 
  • Do we know how to upgrade Bitcoin Core today?
  • The relevance of sidechains and merge mining to Bitcoin today
  • Was Satoshi into altcoins?
  • Would more sidechain development have inhibited the growth of Ethereum?
  • Does BIP300 solve the problem of the Bitcoin security budget?
  • Why you can’t reduce blockspace to increase security budget? 
  • Update on Drivechains

Content mentioned in this episode: 

Sponsor notes:

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

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Will Peck (WisdomTree) on Crypto Asset Management (EP.280)

Will Peck, the head of digital asset at WisdomTree joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

  • Will’s path to WisdomTree and how the firm began researching digital assets
  • How WisdomTree is approaching exchange traded products in the public blockchain ecosystem
  • Views on the Bitcoin futures ETF products vs. the proposed spot products
  • Views on the various Bitcoin ETF proposals and the prospects of an SEC approval in 2022
  • Views on tokenization of investment products
  • How ‘legacy’ asset management firms will face increased competition from digital asset early adopters

To learn more about WisdomTree visit their website.

Sponsor notes:

  • Compass Mining is the world’s first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

Check out this episode!

Weekly Roundup 01/21/22 (Congressional PoW hearing, Walmart’s Metaverse, Twitter NFTs) (EP.279)

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

  • We cover the witness selection for the House energy hearing on Bitcoin mining
  • The SEC goes to war with its employee union
  • The SEC rejects the Skybridge Bitcoin ETF proposal
  • GBTC is trading at a 30% discount
  • Walmart is building its own metaverse
  • Twitter rolls out NFT avis
  • Crypto dot com’s ad copy
  • We correct the record on Ari Juels’ Congresional testimony on PoW

Content mentioned in this episode: 

Sponsor notes:

  • Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Check out this episode!