Nic and Matt are back and recovered from an insane Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. In this episode: 

• Our lost roundup from last week
• Our reflections on Bitcoin 2021
• Nic reacts to his spaces with President Bukele
• El Salvador accepts Bitcoin
• The story behind the 25k attendee Twitter space
• Does the Salvadorian law change the accounting treatment for Bitcoin in the US?
• President Bukele’s geothermal
• Where else is the Bitcoinización likely to happen?
• A new non-aligned movement
• The Bitcoin Bloc
• MSTR’s new bond offering
• Basel changes the rules for bank regulatory capital regarding Bitcoin
• Liz Warren attacks Bitcoin
• The Bitcoin political demographic grows

Content: 

• Recording of Nic’s spaces room with President Bukele (and 25,000 others) 

This episode supported by: 

• Eventus, the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Its award-winning trade surveillance platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. Find them at onthebrink.link/eventus

Check out this episode!

In our second OTB AMA, we field questions from Brink Nation. In this episode: 

• What other countries are good candidates to ratify Bitcoin next?
• What are the prospects for DeFi on Bitcoin?
• Is price to hashrate a viable ratio to use to value bitcoin?
• Will other countries follow El Salvador’s lead in light of the pushback from the IMF?
• Who will win Euro2020?
• Are ransomware attacks good because they will get directors to add Bitcoin to corporate balance sheets “just in case”?
• Will users eventually hold their bitcoin through banks?
• What is missing to make lightning workable?
• Why do people allocate energy cost pro rata across bitcoin transactions?
• Matt’s turkey update
• Stablecoin yields as an attractive product for corporate treasuries?
• Why doesn’t bitcoin just increase the block size?
• Our takes on DAOs
• What govt action could turn bitcoiners into dissidents?
• Our proposed improvements for twitter spaces

Sponsor notes: 

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Chris Blec is a researcher and the founder of DeFi Watch, a project dedicated to identifying points of centralization and risk factors in DeFi, in particular the presence of admin keys. In this episode: 

• How Chris got interested in DeFi 
• How he first noticed the risk of admin key usage 
• The changing nature of admin keys and multisigs 
• Whether project multisigs reduce dependence on trust 
• Why worry about Admin keys in the first place? 
• Have DeFi projects improved their key management and trustlessness over time? 
• Chris’ letter to 0xPolygon
• Chris’ plans with DeFi Watch 
• Should Bitcoiners care about DeFi? About admin key failures? 
• Why transparency is a self-regulatory measure 

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Matteo Leibowitz of Uniswap and Eric Stone of Flipside Crypto join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Uniswap v3 and how it differs from v2 and other AMMs
• Broader implications of Uniswap v3 for DeFi
• Uniswap v3 metrics and how the system is being used today
• Uniswap treasury and grant program
• How Flipside is engaging with Uniswap and other DeFi communities

Follow Teo on Twitter @teo_leibowitz and learn more about Uniswap at Uniswap.org. Follow Eric on Twitter @theericstone and learn more about Flipside Crypto at flipsidecrypto.com.  

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back for another roundup. In this episode: 

• Elon is back
• Our take on the mining council
• Is Twitter Spaces killing Clubhouse?
• Prepare yourself for Kazakh FUD
• Is Chia driving up hard drive prices?
• OneRiver’s green Bitcoin ETF
• The SEC asks for help regulating crypto
• The key catalysts we’re watching in China
• Lael Brainard spreads historical fake news about free banking
• The Fed is concern trolling stablecoins
• Why neo Free Banking can work today

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Hass McCook on OTB
• Fed Governor Lael Brainard’s speech 

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Hass McCook is a civil engineer who has been delivering estimates of Bitcoin’s energy use and CO2 emissions since 2014, as well as alternatives like gold or finance. In this episode: 

• Hass’s background in civil engineering and how it prepared him for the energy debate
• The conflation between energy generation and electricity generation
• Why you can’t just generalize energy consumption to carbon emissions
• Hass breaks down the varying carbon intensities of different sources of generation
• How much energy goes to waste globally
• The difference between CO2 and CO2e / greenhouse gases
• Why today’s US grid has lowered its carbon intensity over the last decade
• Why combusting methane is a net good from an emissions perspective
• Hass’ level of optimism around flared gas mining
• Why the changing rate of ASIC innovation affects bitcoin’s energy consumption
• The opportunity for stranded gas at landfills
• Hass’ estimates of the gold and the financial system’s energy footprints
• How gold mining actually works
• The ecological and human cost of gold mining
• Hass’ thoughts on offsets

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back for another volatile week. In this episode: 

• Nic’s 72h fast
• Nic explains the Moscow time joke on Bloomberg
• Coinbase sells off
• Our explanations for the selloff
• Tax selling or Fed discussion of tapering?
• Taproot edges towards activation
• Eth monetary hardening – improving or impairing its monetary credibility?
• IRS demands cash transaction reports for transactions over $10k
• FinCEN doesn’t inflation-index their reporting thresholds
• OCC reviews Brian Brooks’ rules
• Will the new OCC be hostile to Bitcoin?
• Tom Emmer asks accounting regulators to revisit their accounting treatment of digital assets
• Elon suggests miners disclose their energy mix
• Should miners buy carbon offsets? 

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Nic’s appearance on Bloomberg
• NyMag, Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Can Make the World Greener

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Alex Thorn, the head of research at Galaxy Digital joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Alex’s career path and the insights that led him to diving into the crypto space
• Perspectives on Dogecoin and whether this is an enduring phenomenon
• Considerations for Doge market infrastructure and the status of the network from a technical standpoint
• The state of the crypto venture market and how Alex sees this evolving

To learn more about Galaxy Digital visit their website. Follow Alex on Twitter @Intangiblecoins

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Katie Chase, the Chief Operating Officer of Coin Metrics joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Katie’s time leading blockchain initiatives at Fidelity and how the firm approached early R&D efforts
• Her point of view on the historical barriers to institutional adoption of cryptoassets and how that is changing
• How Coin Metrics is addressing the data needs of large financial institutions
• Why risk management is an overlooked area and how CM’s Farum product addresses the needs of exchanges and brokerages

To learn more about Coin Metrics visit coinmetrics.io

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Nic and Matt are back for an insane week. In this episode: 

• Tom Brady is a Bitcoiner
• Elon betrays us
• Do virgin coins exist?
• Binance under investigation by the DOJ
• Bitwise launches the BITQ ETF
• Palantir thinks about buying Bitcoin
• Diem partners with Silvergate
• We break down Tether’s questionable reserves
• 46 million Americans own BTC
• Elon’s bad tweet
• New FUD dice just dropped
• The changing Bitcoin energy mix landscape

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Nic Carter in Coindesk, The Virgin Bitcoin Fallacy
• Nic on Bloomberg/What’d You Miss

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

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

• The Chamber of Digital Commerce publishes a Proof of Reserve whitepaper
• Why Proof of Reserves matter
• Popular critiques of PoR
• Coin Metrics raises a Series B from Goldman Sachs
• Galaxy acquires BitGo
• How do you pronounce 3LAU?
• NYDIG brings Bitcoin to banks through FIS global
• NYDIG continues their ascent
• Paypal considers a stablecoin
• DCG commits to another GBTC repurchase
• NY state explores a Bitcoin mining moratorium
• Why a ban in NY would be counterproductive
• Could Ripple actually win their case against the SEC?
• New FUD dice are in

Content mentioned in the episode: 

• The Chamber’s PoR whitepaper
• Nic in the Harvard Business Review, How Much Energy does Bitcoin Actually Consume?

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Noah Buxton and Jeremy Nau from accounting firm Armanino LLP join the show once again to discuss the launch of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s new whitepaper on Proof of Reserves, which they contributed to. In this episode: 

• What was the purpose of the paper by the Chamber? What problems does it solve?
• History of PoR and Armanino
• When did Armanino first get into it? why?
• What’s involved in a PoR? Why include an audit firm?
• Why exchanges are so reluctant to do PoR
• How trustless and fraud-proof is the process? what are the pitfalls?
• What are the prospects for protecting privacy in PoR?
• Other related engagements that Armanino is undertakin
• How do you expect the industry to respond to it?
• Different procedures that PoR refers to
• The semantic drift of PoR
• Armanino’s PoR Taxonomy
• Why accounting firms have an important role in PoR

Check out this episode!

Nicholas Gregory, CEO of CommerceBlock, joins the show to talk about their new statechain implementation, Mercury. In this episode: 

• Origins of CommerceBlock
• Nicholas’ prior career in martial arts
• Nicholas’ underground MMA club in NY
• Did Roger Ver take the most expensive BJJ lesson ever?
• The purpose of CommerceBlock’s Mainstay system
• The difference between OpenTimestamps and Mainstay
• How sidechains evolved from the original vision and where they are today
• What can Bitcoin learn from Ethereum?
• Nic’s rundown of privacy-enhancing technologies
• Centralized mixers versus coinjoin versus statechains for privacy
• How statechains allows you to send a UTXO without an on-chain transaction
• Trust drawbacks and caveats in using statechains
• CommerceBlock’s Mercury statechain implementation
• Statechains as virtual opendimes
• Synergies between statechains and Lightning
• Nicholas’ thoughts on Bitcoin scalability
• Statechain timelines

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return for deals of the week, joined for the first time by new member of CIV Ria Bhutoria. In this episode: 

• An update on Matt’s Turkey problem
• Will Matt create OTB Turkey Jerky?
• Will Matt tase the Turkeys?
• Is monetizing stranded natural gas good for the environment?
• Elon ‘proves Bitcoin’s liquidity’
• Elon admits to having a personal Bitcoin position
• Nexon announces a $100m Bitcoin buy
• Is US Bank getting into Bitcoin custody?
• German regulators warn about Binance’s equity tokens
• Do NFTs make sense for collectible card trading game studios?
• Genesis originates $20b worth of new loans

Content mentioned in this episode

• Square and Ark Invest, Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future [pdf]
• Fidelity and BBH, Applying Subcustody to Digital Assets

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Andrew Steinwold, the founder of Sfermion, an investment fund focused on investing in themes surrounding the metaverse joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Andrew’s journey in the cryptoasset industry and how we came to see the Metaverse as an investable theme
• How NFTs are a critical infrastructure component for the metaverse
• Views on the evolution of digital property rights
• How Andrew views investing in cryptocurrencies vs. NFTs vs. equity
• The companies that are best positioned to build the infrastructure for the metaverse

To learn more about Andrew follow him on Twitter @AndrewSteinwold and subscribe to his newsletter, Zima Red.  

Today’s episode is brought to you by:

Aave: Aave is a decentralised, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Copper: Copper is the global provider of blockchain infrastructure solutions for institutional investors who are actively trading digital assets. Head over to www.copper.co/clear-loop to learn more.

Check out this episode!

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

• Nic’s feud with the NYT
• How Lysenkoism fits in
• Issues with the contemporary press
• Coinbase does the biggest direct listing of all time
• Is COIN a trojan horse for Bitcoin?
• Coinbase mafia?
• The best thing about Coinbase being public
• Gary Gensler finally confirmed as SEC chairman
• Our thoughts on Hester Pierce’s token safe harbor 2.0
• How do you do disclosures in token land?
• The former CIA director points out that Bitcoin has less illicit usage then believed

Content mentioned: 

• SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce’s Safe Harbor 2.0
• Nic Carter, On Bitcoin, the Gray Lady Embraces Climate Lysenkoism

This episode is brought to you by Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin.

Check out this episode!

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

• 43% capital gains taxes?
• Are decentralized storage networks reaching fruition
• Binance US hires ex-Comptroller Brian Brooks
• Matt’s Turkey problem
• A Turkish exchange apparently exit scams
• Scott Minerd has a new target for Bitcoin
• Bernstein isn’t worried about Bitcoin’s energy consumption
• Ark Invest thinks Bitcoin is an incentive for renewables
• How much did Bitcoin hashrate really collapse?
• What did we learn from the Xinjiang shutdown?
• Why hashrate is hard to estimate
• Xinjiang is more renewable than you think

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Alliance Bernstein, Is Bitcoin ESG Friendly for Equity Investors?
• Square and Ark Invest, Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future [pdf]

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Dmitry Tokarev, the cofounder and CEO of Copper joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Dmitry’s path to crypto and the pain points that led him to starting Copper
• How Dmitry sees the competitive landscape and how legacy financial firms are reacting
• How MPC enables Copper to quickly add support for new blockchain platforms
• Views on what it’s like to hire in a rapidly growing startup
• Outlook for settlement and custody services in the years to come

To learn more about Copper and Clearloop visit: www.copper.co

Check out this episode!

The Block’s Director of Research Larry Cermak and Research Analyst Mike Rogers join the show to talk through their latest report on stablecoins. In this episode: 

• Why the Block chose to focus on stablecoins for this report
• Larry and Mike’s opinion on why stablecoins are so disproportionately dollar-based
• China’s influence in the Tether market
• The history of Tether and why it attained so much traction initially
• How you can determine the location of stablecoin users
• The Tetherification for offshore exchanges – and how it displaced Bitcoin as the reserve asset
• The influence of USDC in DeFi and whether it represents a systemic risk to the sector
• Dai’s transition to non-native collateral types
• Mike and Larry’s view of algorithmic stablecoins
• Why stablecoins are so divisive between economists and crypto entrepreneurs
• Why Tether’s dominance is declining
• Where the NYAG settlement leaves Tether now
• What Larry makes of USDT on TRON stealing some market share from Ethereum
• Why investors are settling deals in stablecoin terms
• The prospects for Libra/Diem
• Mike and Larry’s expectations for the next decade in stablecoins

Related content: 

• The Block’s report on Stablecoins 
• The OTB Crypto-dollarization series

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

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

• Nic ‘debates’ Steve Hanke
• Update on the FUD Dice
• Nic attempts to send a wire to Poland
• NYDIG raises more capital and adds more insurance companies to their roster
• Coinbase Q1 earnings are out
• Grayscale wants to roll GBTC into an ETF
• Tom Brady is launching an NFT platform
• Peter Thiel’s comments on Bitcoin
• The DC/EP may come with expiration dates

Content mentioned in the episode:

• Nic vs Steve Hanke debate

This episode is brought to you by Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin.

Check out this episode!