The Moral Complexities of Crypto Decision-Making

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra were joined by Laura Shin, CEO of the show, to chop it up about the collapse of FTX. 

Show topics:

• Haseeb's explanation of the blowup of FTX
• whether FTX was a Ponzi scheme
• Sam Bankman-Fried's strategy to become a billionaire
• the weird sale of Serum, a project backed by SBF
• the lack of proper accounting practices in FTX and Alameda
• whether FTX did not have a proper and large enough security team 
• the likelihood that FTX’s volume numbers are fake 
• why Haseeb thinks this is one of the biggest catastrophes in venture history
• the role of media in building SBF's character and the revindication of journalism
• whether venture capital firms run propaganda for their portfolio companies
• whether VC culture enabled this collapse to happen
• the story of how Sam convinced Tom Brady to invest in FTX
• the debate about effective altruism and whether SBF's EA caused his mistakes
• whether FTX's failure will set the crypto industry back

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guests

• Laura Shin, author, host of Unchained

Episode Links

Previous coverage of Unchained:

• The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
• The Chopping Block: SBF on a Crazy Week of Bitfinex, Wormhole and ENS Drama
• Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
• Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC

FTX Collapse:

• FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
• NYT’s “How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Collapsed”
• Sam Bankman-Fried built a "backdoor" to his FTX exchange to change financial records and move funds without alerting others.
• $600 million hack
• Unchained coverage:
• Could FTX’s Bankruptcy Trigger a Domino Effect?
• FTX May File for Bankruptcy After Binance Walks Off the Deal
• FTX Needs $8B to Meet Investor Withdrawals: Report
• Tron Founder Justin Sun Says He Is Working With FTX on a Solution
• US DOJ Joins SEC and CFTC Probe of FTX
• FTX-Issued Wrapped Solana Tokens Could Add to DeFi Contagion: wBTC Creator
• Sequoia Capital Writes Off $214M FTX Investment to Zero
• Binance Set to Buy FTX Amid Liquidity Crisis
• SBF’s Net Worth Plummets 94% In One Day: Report
• Binance Might Have Triggered a Liquidity Crisis as FTX’s Main Wallet Lost 290K ETH in Two Days
• Alameda’s Balance Sheet Sparks Controversy

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