Lawrence White on Free Banking in the Age of Crypto (EP.60)

Larry White, economics professor at George Mason University and senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, joins the show to discuss free banking, the history of dollarization, and the prospects for a crypto-native banking system.  

In this episode:

– Why CBDCs might not be a good idea
– The legacy of dollarization in Ecuador
– How the Scottish free banking system worked
– What would have to change for free banking to re-emerge today
– The prospects for Bitcoin banks issuing notes – and one problem with the idea
– The prospects for restoring a cash-like standard of privacy and autonomy in a digital context
– The prospects for crypto-dollarization

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 3/27/20 (Gold market, difficulty adjustments, deals and more) (EP.59)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Deals of the Week

– Dislocations in the gold markets

– The effects of the -16% difficulty adjustments in BTC

– Thoughts on the stimulus package

– Quarantine reading suggestions

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Jurrien Timmer (Fidelity) on the global macro landscape (EP.58)

Jurrien Timmer, the Director of Global Macro at Fidelity Investments, joins the podcast. In this episode we discuss: 

– Jurrien’s career trajectory and how he became the Director of Global Macro at Fidelity

– His views on the current crisis in the context of other dislocations he has seen in his 25+ year career

– Perspectives on the unprecedented interventions that we are seeing from the Federal government

– The outlook for Gold, Bitcoin and other store of value assets

– A best and worst case scenario for a recovery. 

Follow Jurrien: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurrien-timmer-fidelity/

https://twitter.com/TimmerFidelity

Check out this episode!

David Vorick (Nebulous) – Building Decentralized Cloud Storage (EP.57)

David Vorick, the founder of Nebulous and the blockchain Sia, joins the show to discuss Sia and its latest layer 2, Skynet. We also cover David’s experience as an ASIC manufacturer, and what he learned about blockchain security models and the merits of ASICs versus GPUs. In this episode:

  • How Sia is different from other decentralized storage platforms
  • Different models for financing protocol development
  • The story behind Nebulous’ settlement with the SEC
  • How Skynet represents the completion of the original vision for Sia
  • David’s experience manufacturing ASICs for Sia and Decred – and his clash with Bitmain
  • David’s proposal to launch new blockchains with ‘protectionist’ mining in place

Check out this episode!

Alejandro Machado (Open Money Initiative) – Contemporary Dollarization in Venezuela (EP.56)

Open Money Initiative founder Alejandro Machado joins the show to explain how Bitcoin is actually used in Venezuela, and how the country is dollarizing in real time.

In this episode:

  • How a power cut has been linked to a recent dollarization movement in Venezuela, and how dollar usage became decriminalized
  • Whether dollarization has improved the prospects of everyday Venezuelans
  • Why Maduro is actually in favor of partial dollarization
  • How bitcoin allows you to import a system of credible property rights
  • Why bitcoin still has a relatively low level of penetration in Venezuela
  • Why stablecoins have not made a dent in Venezuela so far

Check out this episode!

Patrick South (Chamber of Digital Commerce) on Blockchain Policy (EP.55)

Patrick South, VP of Development at the Chamber of Digital Commerce joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

  • The mission of the Chamber of Digital Commerce and the policy initiatives that the organization is advocating for
  • The line of demarcation between security and non-security tokens and a possible path forward for a safe harbor provision
  • The potential impact of the travel rule and FATF guidelines
  • Patrick’s quarantine book and show recommendations

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 3/20/20 (Market Commentary, Deals, Quarantine Tips) (EP.54)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Market Commentary

– Deals of the Week

– Attestiv, Coase and other news

– Quarantine Tips

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Nicos Vekiarides (Attestiv) on Commercial Uses for Blockchain Timestamping (EP.53)

Nicos Vekiarides, the cofounder and CEO of Attestiv joins the show. Attestiv is a company that builds software to prove the authenticity of photos and videos using public blockchains to timestamp these records. In this podcast we discuss: 

– The benefits of public blockchains as public notary systems

– Use cases for deep fake detection in the insurance industry

– Tooling and user experience building on public blockchains

Learn more about Attestiv at www.attestiv.com

Check out this episode!

Douglas Jackson – Lessons from E-Gold (EP.52)

Douglas Jackson, the founder of E-gold, arguably the first widely-used electronic medium of exchange, appears on the show. In this episode we discuss: 

– Douglas’ motivations for starting E-gold
– His disagreements with his cypherpunk contemporaries
– Why private monetary issuers might be more responsible than public ones
– The challenge of creating an open payments system which is also compliant
– His critiques of stablecoins and native-unit cryptocurrencies

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 3/13/20 (Markets in Turmoil, Deals and more) (EP.51)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Market Turmoil

– Market Infrastructure

– Deals

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Jeremy Allaire (Circle) on Dollarization through Stablecoins (EP.50)

Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder and CEO of Circle joins the show. In this episode we discuss: 

– Jeremy’s entrepreneurial journey and the original vision for Circle

– The geopolitical impact of US Dollars on public blockchains

– The goals of USDC

– Circle Platform Services, a new product launching today

– The regulatory environment globally for cryptoassets

and much more

Check out this episode!

Matthew Le Merle (Blockchain Coinvestors) on investment opportunities in the blockchain industry (EP.49)

Matthew Le Merle, the co-founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era, Keiretsu Capital and Blockchain Coinvestors joins the podcast. In this episode we discuss: 

– Matthew’s career arc and how he came to understand the potential impact of blockchain technology

– Building Blockchain Coinvestors, and the investment strategy of investing in blockchain venture capital funds

– Predictions and analysis on institutional custody, stablecoins, Bitcoin adoption in emerging markets and more

Learn more about Matthew and Blockchain Coinvestors at: 

https://www.blockchaincoinvestors.com/

 

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 3/6/20 (Zabo, India and South Korea positive developments) (EP.48)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Deals of the week

– India’s Supreme Court Ruling

– South Korea regulation

– OFAC issues

– Treasury meeting with industry leaders

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Joseph Jacks (OSS Capital) on the monetization of open source (EP.47)

Joseph Jacks of OSS Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss: 

– What constitutes commercial open source, and how this differs from regular open source projects
– the history of the open source software movement
– why programmers contribute unpaid to open source projects
– whether tokens are required to monetize open source

OSS Capital: https://oss.capital/
The COSS Index: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17nKMpi_Dh5slCqzLSFBoWMxNvWiwt2R-t4e_l7LPLhU/edit#gid=0
Joseph’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/asynchio

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 2/28/20 (Steven Seagal’s Bitcoin2Gen, Ripple pays Moneygram, Deals and more) (EP.46)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Deals of the week

– SEC denies another Bitcoin ETF

– SEC whacks Steven Seagal

– Ripple Moneygram payments

– Central Bank Digital Currency

– Binance jurisdiction shopping

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Sunayna Tuteja (TD Ameritrade) on crafting an institutional digital asset strategy (EP.45)

Sunayna Tuteja, the Head of Digital Assets and DLT at TD Ameritrade, appears on the show. On this episode we discuss:

– What guides TD’s decision making in this asset class
– How they think about blockchain/DLT versus Bitcoin
– Crypto ideology versus crypto agnosticism
– Her career trajectory to date
– Lessons from being a pilot

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 2/21/20 (Enigma SEC action, Fcoin, Tim Draper buy 2.5% of Aragon and more) (EP.44)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– Deals of the week

– Enigma settles with the SEC

– Fcoin lost user funds

– Tim Draper bought 2.5% of Aragon

– DeFi infrastructure

– Neel Kashkari’s thoughts on crypto

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Balaji Srinivasan on building digital commonwealths (EP.43)

Balaji Srinivasan is an angel investor and entrepreneur. He was formerly the CTO of Coinbase, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and the co-founder of Earn.com, Counsyl, Teleport and Coin Center. In this episode we discuss:  

– the 100x’ crypto has delivered over traditional finance
– how Balaji’s views of what Bitcoin is good for have changed over time
– the ‘sovereign collective’ versus the sovereign individual
– whether Twitter is a functioning digital commonwealth and the prospects for Bluesky
– why handles on social media might more closely resemble property than a platform
– what Balaji is trying to achieve with nakamoto.com

Check out this episode!

Weekly News Roundup 2/14/20 (BlockFi raise, JPM spinout, Iota is the gift that keeps on giving, and more ) (EP.42)

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week’s topics include: 

– BlockFi raise

– Other deals

– JPM spinout?

– USDC

and much more news of the week

Check out this episode!

Jake Chervinsky (Compound) on straddling crypto-anarchy and regulation (EP.41)

Jake Chervinsky the General Counsel of Compound joins the podcast. In this episode we discuss: 

– The history of securities markets in the US
– The Howey test in plain language
– Whether commodities can transmute to securities, and vice versa
– Why markets function best with regulation
– The purpose of open finance
– Being a bitcoiner at an ethereum-focused company 

Check out this episode!