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

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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!

• Personal backgrounds and crossing the threshold from energy to Bitcoin
• Origins of Lancium
• Features of Texas grid
• Why Texas is so suitable for renewables
• How Texas is the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of renewable generation
• Why renewables grew so fast in Texas
• Two reasons why prices reach negative prices
• Three models for mining
  • Grid connected with new gen miners
  • Renewable colocation with new gen miners
  • Off grid renewable colocation with old gen miners
• How different ASIC vintages affect the power price you can tolerate for the units and what interruptibility they can deal with
• ERCOT’s surplus renewable power
• How the Texas grid is splitting in half
• How Bitcoin is a ‘premium customer’ for energy assets
• Why miners depreciate their miners over 4-5 years, and not 1-2 years as Digiconomist claims
• Are energy producers aware of the importance of Bitcoin mining as an alternative energy buyer?
• Introduction to Demand Response
• What a Controllable Load Resource is and how Bitcoin miners uniquely satisfy the requirements
• History of Controllable Load in ERCOT
• Why controllable load is so useful to grid operators
• Why Bitcoin miners can be flexible load, and why other industrial consumers of energy cannot
• Why the economics of operating an interruptible load as a miner make sense
• Are other grid operators looking to build programs for BTC miners?
• Do Bitcoin miners decarbonize the Texas grid in the final analysis?
• Will Bitcoin mining improve the reliability of the grid?

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.

Check out this episode!

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

• CBOE acquires ErisX
• FTX raises a monster round
• Worldcoin launches with their eyeball scanner
• The Proshares futures-based ETF goes live and sets a record
• Why are futures-based ETFs expensive?
• the Proshares ETF starts to max out its futures exposure
• What will be the fate of GBTC?
• Grayscale announces a $1b buyback of GBTC
• Hester Peirce delivers another great talk
• Tether settles with the CFTC
• The academia-press complex
• Diem launches a Novi stablecoin based on USDP
• Why stablecoins are a frontier in the battle over financial privacy
• Facebook leans hard into the metaverse
• Tungsten takes over
• Square makes ASICs
• Why you shouldn’t eat your tungsten cube
• Will CMS intern be able to lift the 7 inch cube?

Content mentioned in this episode

• Bloomberg, First Bitcoin ETF Is Already in Danger of Breaching a Limit on Futures Contracts
• Hester Peirce speech at the Texas Blockchain Summit, Lawless in Austin

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 Matt are back for our 250th episode! We discuss: 

• ETF chatter heats up
• Where the Tungsten memes come from
• Why tungsten is good
• Coinbase launches an NFT platform
• Ribbon airdrop controversy
• How DeFi airdrops are like the McDonalds monopoly game
• Does the token industry need a disclosure framework?
• Miami plans to pay employees in Bitcoin
• Stripe is getting back into crypto
• Jamie Dimon wants to know how it ends at 21 million
• China’s hashrate goes to virtually 0
• The USA is the center of hash
• We retire an old FUD

Content mentioned: 

• Jump Capital, Stablecoins: The Impending Rise of a Multi-Trillion Dollar Market

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

Check out this episode!

Check out this episode!

Mark Coe, the founder and CIO of Intrinsic Edge Capital Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Mark’s professional career and path to founding Intrinsic
• How he came to see blockchain/crypto as an investable category
• His personal journey on understanding the various blockchain thesis areas
• How he thinks about the taxonomy of publicly traded companies in the blockchain space
• How Intrinsic thinks about their research and investment process for long/short equity investing
• The comparisons of blockchain technology to the early days of the internet

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.

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Esteban Castaño, the cofounder and CEO of TRM Labs, joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The founding story of TRM Labs and the methodical approach the team took to finding product market fit
• Esteban’s perspectives on the NFT landscape and the growth potential in this category
• How regulators and public sector clients are approaching blockchain forensics
• How TRM is engaging with crypto native businesses and traditional financial services firms
• Perspectives on building a remote first organization while maintaining a strong culture

To learn more about TRM Labs visit www.trmlabs.com

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.

Check out this episode!

Nic and Matt are back for more deals and news. In this episode:

• Our podcast SNAFU
• Can you wear a suit with sneakers
• How to offset your Bitcoin emissions (without buying offsets)
• Soc Gen asks Maker for a loan
• Bloomberg’s Tether bombshell
• Are stablecoins like money market funds?

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
• This show also 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. In this episode: 

• Is fasting lindy?
• Ripple’s 250m NFT fund
• Kraken reaches a $1.25m settlement with the CFTC
• Could Ripple win their case against the SEC?
• Wyoming gives a tax break to flare gas miners
• Coinbase adds direct deposits to their platform
• Should stablecoins be issued by banks?
• China is tapped out of their Bitcoin FUD
• Compound suffers an exploit
• Bitcoin miners look at nuclear

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

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Christian Dittmeier, cofounder and CEO of Evaluate Market joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• How Christian and his cofounders Alex and Cody came to find themselves spending their free time analyzing NFTs
• The insight that led them to start Evaluate Market, a platform for discovering, search for, and evaluating NFTs
• Christian’s perspective on the emerging taxonomy of NFTs and how Evaluate prioritizes the assets that it lists
• The projects and categories of NFTs that Christian is most excited about

To learn more about Evaluate visit evaluate.market

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

• Latest on the infrastructure bill
• The latest on the platinum coin
• Zany things that financial regulators said this week
• Gensler continues to misrepresent the free banking era
• How bad was the wildcat banking era really?
• Why are financial regulators so interested in free banking?
• The SEC and CFTC are nearing the end of their fiscal year
• The prospects for ‘pipe to crypto’
• Why miners are participating in ‘demand response’ programs
• Matt’s 20-year-old cereal
• Twitter adds lightning tips and NFT authentication
• Binance is under CFTC investigation
• Biden’s new OCC nominee is anti-bank, anti-crypto
• FASB takes comment on GAAP treatment of digital assets

Content mentioned: 

• George Selgin on antebellum Free Banking

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
• 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.

Check out this episode!

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return to recap a tumultuous week. In this episode: 

• Matt’s ongoing war against the turkeys
• Fidelity thinks the SEC should approve a spot ETF
• The Futures based Bitcoin ETFs are nearing approval
• The SEC stonewalling an ETF is a political choice
• The OpenSea insider scandal
• Elizabeth Warren’s critiques of the industry get more and more specific and niche
• Do we event want to know which tokens are securities according to the SEC?
• Ripple is asking the SEC to compare them to Ethereum
• Solana goes down for 17h
• Our interaction with a blockchain fraudster
• The NYT doesn’t understand cryptography
• Are Bitcoiners cosplayers?
• The Epic games v Apple case has implications for the crypto industry

Content mentioned: 

• Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF presentation to the SEC on Sep. 8

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

Check out this episode!