Exploring Risk-Free Rates in Finance and Crypto

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This chapter delves into the concept of risk-free rates in both traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem, discussing benchmarks like the Caesar rate and the significance of achieving returns higher than the risk-free rate. The conversation also covers topics such as nominal versus real returns, inflation impact, and transparency in calculating real returns post EIP 1559.

Chris Perkins has a fascinating background as a marine who was shot at in Iraq, was at Lehman bros when it all came crashing down, was a Citigroup trying to pick up the piece of the financial crisis where he first ran across Gary Gensler, and now he’s in crypto. We talk about all that, but that’s not even the main event.

The Main Event is Ether the asset and a new reference rate he’s building on top of it. This sounds in the weeds but it’s actually actually key to unlocking trillions in new financial products. You might call this new rate the Libor for ETH.

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------ TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 Start 00:11:33 Intro to Chris 00:13:17 From Banks To Crypto 00:16:27 Hostility Towards Crypto 00:19:16 National Security 00:25:23 Takes on Regulation 00:31:12 TradFi Response To Crypto 00:33:58 ETH ETF 00:37:24 Libor for ETH? 00:42:43 Libor Recap 00:45:35 How Was Libor Corrupted? 00:53:21 ETH Reference Rate 01:04:13 Risk Free Rate 01:10:08 Real vs Nominal Returns 01:21:51 DeFi Applications 01:26:01 Market Size 01:33:17 Going Forward

------ RESOURCES

CESR home page: https://www.coindesk.com/indices/ether/cesr CESR methodology document: https://coinfund.io/cesr/ CESR Tearsheet: https://downloads.coindesk.com/cd3/CDI/CESR+Fact+Sheet.pdf

More Reading: https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/26/how-staking-rates-can-drive-the-crypto-economy-forward/ https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/09/27/five-reasons-why-the-world-needs-a-standardized-ethereum-staking-rate/ https://www.risk.net/derivatives/7957405/new-hope-for-crypto-derivatives-as-markets-urged-to-hail-cesr

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