Nic and Matt return for the last episode of 2021. In this episode: 

• Someone makes an unauthorized Nic NFT
• Microstrategy buys more BTC
• Blake Masters sells a political NFT
• Why do gamers and artists hate NFTs?
• We look back at our 2021 crystal ball predictions
• Best predictions of 2021
• Our outlook for crypto policy in 2022
• Our favorite OTB episodes of the year
• We look back at the Token Daily 2019 crystal ball predictions
• What it’s like to be in crypto for an entire decade
• Midterm implications for the crypto industry
• Our favorite OTB episodes of 2021

Content mentioned:

• Tokendaily, 2021 Crystal Ball 

Sponsor notes: 

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting
• 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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Gabe Frank and Robert Masiello, the founders of Arcade, a financial services platform for NFTs join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Gabe and Robert’s origin stories in the crypto industry and the path that led them to founded Arcade
• The similarities in the market structures for bitcoin in the early years and NFTs today
• The role of MPC custody in the crypto markets
• How they think about the various L1 chains that will host NFTs
• The OTC trading landscape for NFTs
• Peer to peer vs. peer to pool NFT lending models
• How the lending market will evolve with great data / pricing functionality
• The product roadmap for Arcade over the next year

To learn more about Arcade visit their website.

Sponsor notes:

• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto
• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

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Matt and Nic return for a festive Christmas eve roundup. In this episode: 

• Reevaluating our intro song
• Jack Dorsey’s web3 beef
• What’s on our Christmas list
• Is PoW inherently high-fee?
• We steelman the Jack Dorsey and the pro web3 arguments
• Is there a paradox in web3?
• We advance a model of tapered token issuance for web3
• The downsides of token issuance to early adopters
• Is Liz Warren right about corporate greed causing inflation?
• Radioshake releases a defi token
• Is Bitcoin ownership too concentrated?
• Bitcoin is dispersing while equities are concentrating
• Will there be a revolt among the staffers at the SEC?

Content mentioned: 

• Nic Carter and Lucas Nuzzi in Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin’s Proof of Work is Well Worth its Fees
• Paul Vigna in WSJ, Bitcoin’s ‘One Percent’ Controls Lion’s Share of the Cryptocurrency’s Wealth

Sponsor notes: 

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Anders Larson, head of strategic finance at U.S. Bitcoin Corp, joins us to talk about how miners make decisions and allocate capital. In this episode: 

• The Wharton class of 2018
• Are Bitcoin miners clogging up the chip supply chain?
• Why Bitcoin miners are ‘tier 2’ customers at foundries
• The scale of US BTC operations in terms of hashrate
• Why US BTC has been so quiet historically
• How US BTC targets renewable energy
• Which renewables are easiest to find
• Is there any truth to the story of Bitcoin improving the economics of renewables?
• Why ASIC depreciation is slowing, and how that affects the viability of different energy sources
• The relationship between Bitcoin’s carbon intensity and ASIC depreciation period
• Can ASICs last for 5 years?
• How does US BTC think about uptime on their units?
• Why lower uptime means that you have cheaper power due to demand response
• How US BTC thinks about hashrate growth and why they are more conservative than their competitors
• Why Chinese hashrate is not completely eliminated
• The state of affairs in Kazakhstan
• How Anders thinks about political risk in mining
• How policy logic informs selective mining bans and mining subsidies
• How Anders sees miners vertically integrating with energy firms
• How Anders thinks about proposed state bitcoin mining bans in places like NY
• Why mining bans in the West are often counterproductive
• The relationship between energy consumption and civilizational progress
• How Anders thinks about the energy cost debate
• Whether the CBECI hashrate distribution estimates are reliable
• Why the US having a large share of hashrate isn’t something to be concerned about
• How mining could become a states rights issue
• Does US BTC project fee growth in their models?

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
• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

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

• A glitch in the CoinMarketCap data feed causes disturbances in the crypto industry 
• AscendEX is  hacked last week to the tune of $77 million
• Coinbase urges the SEC to approve NYSE Arca’s application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund 
• Bitwise launches a blue-chip NFT fund
• A bipartisan group of Senators write a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen regarding the crypto provisions in the infra bill
• The Myanmar government in exile official adopts Tether, while the Junta government de-dollarizes 
• Matt takes the giving pledge
• The Open Markets Institute spreads a lot of FUD
• Can the boys lift a 230 pound tungsten cube? 

Sponsor notes:

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

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Galaxy Digital Mining Associate Brandon Bailey and Research Associate Karim Helmy join the show to cover a new accounting methodology for Bitcoin miners. In this episode: 

• Galaxy’s new miner margins accounting methodology
• Brandon and Karim origin stories in mining
• How the randomness-based miner fingerprinting works
• How Karim thinks about miner depreciation schedules
• Why the Bitcoin e-waste paper understates the expected lifetime of Bitcoin ASICs
• S9s are still a quarter of the Bitcoin network
• Why Karim and Brandon created the new accounting framework
• The differences between marginal, direct, and total cost of production for BTC miners
• Does the sell side capably cover Bitcoin miners?
• What you would expect to see for marginal and total cost of production for established Bitcoin miners
• Why miners focus on marginal cost rather than total in their storytelling
• Major bottlenecks preventing the addition of new hardware
• Why hashrate may not converge to price in the near term
• Why the chip shortage advantages incumbents in Bitcoin mining
• Why Kazakhstan is scaling back their Bitcoin mining
• Why mining manufacturers do not get priority access to the best foundry capacity
• Why established miners will be able to mine Bitcoin at favorable rates for the near and medium term
• Why of the accounting identities Galaxy would prioritize when evaluating public mining companies
• How Galaxy arrived at a 3 year depreciation period for the average mining unit
• What advice Brandon and Karim would give you public market analysts evaluating mining companies

See the full write up and sample model here. 

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto
• OurCrowd analyzes companies across the global private market, selecting those with the greatest growth potential, then brings them to you. Get started at OurCrowd.com/otb

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Alex Wilson, co-founder and CEO of The Giving Block joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Alex’s path in the blockchain space, from consulting to founding The Giving Block
• The landscape of charitable giving, and how the company is assisting charitable organizations
• The pain points that charities face when accepting donations
• Perspectives from the donor’s perspective and why donating cryptocurrency is so compelling
• How the company came to launch its campaigns

To learn more about The Giving Block visit their website or follow the company on Twitter.

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto

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

• Are cubes a suitable holiday gift?
• Best crypto Xmas gifts
• Bitcoin purchases we regret
• The House Financial Services committee holds a hearing
• Our Congressional hearing MVP
• Brian Brooks’ evolution
• SBF kicks off shoegate
• Takeaways from the House hearing
• EOS holders reject a payment to Block One
• Block One’s weird pivot to Bitcoin
• Greyscale says 26% of American adults own Bitcoin
• Governance difficulties in Dfinity
• Will SWIFT survive American sanctions on Russia
• Impenetrable Sushiswap drama
• Those landfill Bitcoins are still lost

Content mentioned: 

• Brian Brooks’ testimony before the House Financial Services Committee
• The Economist, The Explosion in Stablecoins Revives a Debate around ‘Free Banking’
• WSJ, Crypto, NFTs and Tungsten Cubes: A Guide to Giving Cash in 2021

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

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Matt Cutler, the founder and CEO of Blocknative joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Matt’s entrepreneurial history and path to founding Blocknative
• How he came to see blockchain transaction data as a big opportunity for his company
• How blockchain mempools work and why they are important
• The types of customers that are monitoring blockchain network data and how this data is actionable
• Matt’s views on blockchain scalability across L1s and Ethereum L2s
• What is on the horizon for Blocknative

To learn more about Blocknative visit their website.

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.

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

• Art Basel is now a crypto event
• Is the crypto industry culturally relevant?
• Jack Dorsey leaves Twitter
• Will Twitter become more censored
• Square renames itself Block
• Celcius CFO is arrested
• Fidelity launches a Bitcoin ETF in Canada
• David Marcus is leaving Facebook
• Regulatory projections from Cowen
• BadgerDAO hacked

Content mentioned: 

• Cowen’s analysis of the regulatory headwinds in crypto

Sponsor notes: 

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Check out this episode!

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

• Coinbase acquires Breadwallet
• El Salvador’s Bitcoin City
• Is El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bond worth buying?
• New merch on the website
• Midwest tungsten releases a new shape
• Is India banning crypto again?
• Miners coming back online in China
• The OCC, FDIC, and Fed will release cryptoasset guidance in 2022
• Saule Omarova’s nomination to run the OCC has fallen through
• Jerome Powell will keep helming the Fed
• Elizabeth Warren blames inflation on Big Poultry
• ConstitutionDAO crashes and burns
• Insider trading doesn’t just apply to securities
• Who we are thankful for

Merch: onthebrink.shop

Sponsor notes: 

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Check out this episode!

We sit down with James McGinniss, CEO and Cofounder of David Energy to talk about Bitcoin’s role in the energy transition and how Bitcoin mining is a useful source of flexible load for increasingly renewable grids. In this episode: 

• The fundamental change happening in the US grid today
• What distributed energy resources are and why they are important
• Why DERs are catching on in California
• Why bitcoin allows load to move to supply
• Why better metering improves the prospects for demand response
• How demand response works nationwide
• Why there’s a fundamental tradeoff between uptime and power prices
• Why Bitcoin is the best demand response resource
• The prospects for other location agnostic load resources
• Do better batteries obsolete Bitcoin mining as a grid balancer?
• How David Energy is working with Bitcoin miners
• Why Bitcoin miners should trade mining uptime for cheaper power
• Are grid operators designing programs for bitcoin miners?
• Why there’s a longer tail of energy assets that miners should take advantage of

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.

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

• ConstitutionDAO
• Why you can’t smelt tungsten
• Breaking down the Keep Innovation in America Act
• The SEC denies the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust
• Crypto.com buys the naming rights to the Lakers arena
• The US Marshalls are auctioning BTC seized from Bitconnect
• Is Gerald Cotten deceased?
• Load ze quantum FUD
• Is David Chaum right about Bitcoin’s quantum FUD?
• What fraction of Bitcoins are quantum vulnerable?
• Can stablecoins be rendered run-proof?
• Sweden and Norway agitate against PoW
• Why banning Bitcoin mining can be counter productive
• What does the DAO do if they win the Constitution?

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• David Andolfatto, Run Proof Stablecoins
• Derek Hsue and Larry Sukernik, I Pledge Allegiance

Sponsor notes: 

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Check out this episode!

Nic and Sean sit down with Kevin Anetsberger, General Manager at Midwest Tungsten, to cover their journey as a business and their entry into the crypto industry In this episode: 

• The history of Midwest Tungsten
• How Midwest got its start making metal steam
• Industrial applications of tungsten
• Tungsten’s physical properties and how that makes it suitable for industrial applications
• Military applications of tungsten
• Where Midwest Tungsten sits in the supply chain
• How Tungsten is actually refined and formed, given that it’s impossible to smelt
• The upper limits to tungsten formed objects, and where the constraints derive from
• Why a 14 inch cube is actually the largest size Midwest can actually make
• How Kevin came to work in the tungsten industry
• Where is tungsten mined?
• Have the supply chain disruptions affected Midwest Tungsten
• How Midwest Tungsten resisted offshoring
• Why Midwest Tungsten began selling collectibles
• Who has bought the cubes historically
• Was this the largest spike in demand for the tungsten cubes ever?
• How the company came to accept Bitcoin and make the NFT
• Is Midwest Tungsten holding the Bitcoin they have earned in cube sales?
• Is tungsten safe to handle?
• Where Kevin falls on the cube vs sphere debate
• What is the optimal cube size?
• Why Midwest chose to sell the cube NFT
• Other metals that Kevin likes
• What about Osmium?

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.

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

• Circle launches an early stage venture fund
• SEC targets American CryptoFed DAO LLC
• The SEC references Nic’s paper on DeFi risks
• Should DeFi teams be more aggressive in disclosing admin key risks?
• What would a DeFi disclosure regime look like?
• BlockFi files for a spot Bitcoin ETF
• Bitwise withdraws its futures-based ETF
• NYC mayor Eric Adams says NYC schools should teach about cryptocurrency
• Miami will airdrop BTC to residents
• Inflation prints at 6.2% annualized
• Why the ‘supply chain’ explanation for inflation obscures the underlying dynamics
• Is inflation really a supply chain issue?
• Real interest rates are as low as they were in the 1970s
• Why we have entered monetary repression
• Discord dithers on Web3
• BrinkDAO
• Could tungsten rods in space improve on nuclear weapons?

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• SEC, Statement on DeFi Risks, Regulations, and Opportunities
• Michael Greenwald, The Digital Asset Olympics
• 21Shares, Q3 Report 
• Nic Carter and Linda Jeng, DeFi Protocol Risks

Sponsor notes:

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

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Core Weave cofounder and CSO Brannin McBee joins the show to talk GPU mining and high performance computation. In this episode: 

• Details on the Core Weave’s latest fundraise
• Core Weave’s hybrid data center model which combines Ethereum mining and generalized computation
• Transitioning from just crypto mining to the specialized compute market
• Why the hyperscale cloud providers aren’t always suitable for firms with specialized computation needs
• The nature and size of Core Weave’s GPU and CPU fleet
• How Core Weave services clients in VFX and rendering, machine learning, and blockchain
• Why Core Weave was able to build a generalizable computational fleet
• Why the demand for VFX/rendering-based compute is accelerating
• How film studios are going from capital intensive on-prem computation to outsourcing it to cloud providers
• How Core Weave is able to achieve a high utilization rate for their GPUs
• How Core Weave is working on open sourcing GPT-3
• Why you can’t access scale compute at conventional providers
• How Core Weave is managing Ethereum’s transition to Proof of Stake
• When Brannin expects the final merge to occur
• How the market for GPU mining will change over time
• How NFTs are a new source of demand for large-scale compute
• Core Weave’s attitude to Ethereum development
• Did Ethereum move away from some of its original principles?
• How proof of work was a strong distributive force during the early days of Ethereum
• Are miners less positively inclined towards the network now that their business model has an expiration date?
• Brannin’s attitude towards MEV today
• Brannin’s thoughts on Ethereum’s security model as it moves towards PoS
• Does the abundance of capital make PoS more vulnerable than PoW?
• Why diseconomies of scale for electricity procurement protected PoW networks
• Why rendering PoW ‘synthetic’ in PoS makes it easier to pull off an attack
• How Core Weave pursues sustainability in their operations

Sponsor notes: 

• This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.

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Tom Chippas, the CEO of ErisX and Chris Isaacson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Cboe Global Markets join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• CBOE’s acquisition of ErisX
• Details of the acquisition and the rationale for the deal
• CBOE’s current and future plans in the digital assets industry
• The market structure implications for the broader digital assets ecosystem and why this combination provides for a catalyst for broader institutional adoption
• Views on the regulatory landscape and how CBOE and ErisX are approaching the market
• Future products that may be on the horizon
• Broader views on the spot market, and discussion of Matt Trudeau’s, “The Next Leg of The Crypto Trade“
• The landscape for exchange traded digital asset products

Check out this episode!

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

• The President’s Working Group report on Stablecoins comes out
• Should stablecoins really require a bank charter?
• Would a red wave in the midterms be good for the crypto industry
• Two congressmen ask the SEC to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF
• The TungstenDAO buys the Midwest Tungsten 14 inch cube
• Where was the Neeraj kitchen photo taken
• Tarantino is auctioning off uncut scenes from Pulp Fiction as NFTs
• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will take his salary in Bitcoin
• Tungsten’s industrial uses
• Should you count native tokens as an asset on your balance sheet?

Sponsor notes:

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Check out this episode!

Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos. the founder of Metrika joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Nikos’ journey to the blockchain industry and how we came to see the opportunity to found Metrika
• How Metrika thinks about monitoring public blockchains for reliability and downtime
• Perspectives on the common reasons that blockchains go down
• Nikos’s perspective on the use cases that are driving blockchain adoption
• How Metrika prioritizes the blockchain networks that it covers

To learn more about Metrika visit their website.  

Sponsor content: 

• This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.
• This show is supported by OurCrowd. Join the fastest growing venture capital investment community at OurCrowd.com/OTB

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

• The SEC wants to regulate stablecoins
• El Salvador buys 420 BTC
• River launches a mining product
• Direxion wants to launch a short BTC ETF
• The FATF guidance isn’t as bad as we thought it might be
• Facebook is now Meta
• Is ‘the metaverse’ going to stick around?
• We unretire China FUD

Content mentioned: 

• The NFT Tax Guide
• Coin Center, The long-awaited FATF crypto guidance is not as bad as it could have been, but still flawed
• Nic in Bitcoin Magazine with Shaun Connell, Miners Are the Optimal Buyers

Sponsor notes

• This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime

• Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It’s secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Check out this episode!