Messari's Unqualified Opinions

Nexus Mutual is an insurance protocol for DeFi that covers financial loss resulting from hacks and unintended code usage. Nexus paid out its first claim following one of the bZx hacks early this year. In this conversation, founder Hugh Karp details how he thinks about platform risk, particularly in the context of Ethereum’s migration to ETH 2.0, and sheds light on creating a decentralized alternative within one of the most regulated industries in the world.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Security tokens have at times, been heralded as the next major phase of crypto adoption. Despite the surrounding hype, security tokens don’t have any actual trading volume to speak of. In this conversation, Tokensoft CEO Mason Borda discusses the hurdles that still remain for adoption and outlines the bullish case for security tokens over the next few years. Conservatively, he estimates that we could see $10M in security tokens trading hands each day by year end and that once the industry gets moving, it can scale quickly from there.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Tuur Demeester is one of Bitcoin’s longest standing research analysts who’s been through all three halvings. In this conversation, he recalls how his study of financial history and subsequent worry about our financial system’s inflationary risks led him to a 2010 post from Satoshi laying out bitcoin’s value proposition as digital gold. He describes his first bitcoin bubble from $1 to $30 and the fears that existed during the first two halvings that weren’t present for the third. Tuur also states that while retail is not yet flooding back into Bitcoin, institutions, family offices and billionaires are. According to Tuur, the bottom is in, he doesn’t see BTC going below $6,000 and that $50,000-$100,000 BTC is back in scope. How significant $100,000 bitcoin actually is however, depends on the buying power of the US dollar given recent actions from the Fed.   --- Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

It doesn’t get much more OG than Charlie Shrem. Charlie’s been involved in bitcoin from the days where the community consisted of a couple hundred people on forum.bitcoin.org, created by Satoshi himself. In this conversion, we discuss both bitcoin and Charlie’s evolution throughout the years, from the first halving where many feared the protocol would break down, to Charlie’s imprisonment and eventual release. Early bitcoiners can enjoy the nostalgia of hearing Charlie recall the days where companies like Coinbase, Bittrex and Mt. Gox launched on BitcoinTalk Forum. Anyone newer to the space can listen to get a sense of what the industry was like before the lambos, institutions and multi-billion dollar marketcaps. --- Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Layer 1 is focused on converting “electricity into money” via highly efficient bitcoin mining facilities. Where mining has historically been concentrated in places with cheap and sometimes subsidized energy, Layer 1’s operations are currently focused in America: West Texas to be precise. Also counter to historical trends, Layer 1 is focused on working with regulators and the institutionalization of the mining space. In this conversation, CEO Alex Liegl provides insight into the economics of institutional grade mining, the halving, and details their plan to amass 25% of the BTC hash rate by 2021 with an American base. .   --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Bobby Lee has witnessed the ascent of Bitcoin from a unique perspective relative to many in the west. In 2013, Lee was the CEO of BTCChina and dealt first hand with the CCP as they tried to come to grips with this strange new asset. In this conversation, he recalls bitcoin’s first bubbles, his foray in Bitcoin mining and the time the Chinese Communist Party instructed him to lower the price of bitcoin. He also calls for $100K Bitcoin over the next 6-8 months and demos his company’s new physical bitcoin wallet.  --- Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Fireblocks is one of the hottest infrastructure companies in crypto, facilitating $30B in digital asset transfers to date and recently expanding its presence into Asia. In this conversation, CEO Michael Shaulov details how a $200M heist from the North Korean government led him to crypto, and ultimately founding a company whose technology secures and transfers billions for top exchanges and OTC desks. He describes the growing demand for stablecoins and the massive disruption is represents for the payments industry, while providing color on how the institutional landscape is evolving.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Bison Trails is an infrastructure-as-a-service company that allows anyone to run a node for multiple blockchains. This gives Bison Trails CEO Joe Lallouz the unique vantage point of seeing all of the major projects in the space at a granular level. Bison Trails is one of the founding members of the Libra Association who stuck around when top names were backing out due to regulatory pressure. In this conversation Joe discusses the origins of the company, how they select which chains they support and why they’re excited about participating in the Libra project.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Veteran OTC trader Dan Matuszewski discusses the evolution of crypto OTC markets from Bitcoin's first, second, and third halvings, and how the trading environment has gotten... a bit different from the 2012 event. --- Bitstamp is the original global cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2011, we’ve been a cornerstone of the industry, earning the trust of over four million individuals and top financial institutions looking for a reliable trading venue. Whether you’re trading on our web platform, mobile app or industry-leading APIs, Bitstamp gives you the professional-grade tools you need to execute your strategy. Download the Bitstamp app or visit Bitstamp.net/Pro to learn more and start trading today! If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

This interview with Ontology co-founder Li Jun offers a rare window into Asia’s crypto ecosystem, which remains undercovered and misunderstood in the West. In Li’s own words, Ontology is a decentralized trust collaboration platform. In our words, it’s one of a host of “ETH Killers” competing within a competitive smart contracting platform landscape with a focus on enterprise adoption of DeFi. In this discussion, Li sheds light on China’s crypto ecosystem, the government's blockchain initiatives and what he’s seeing on the ground in Beijing with respect to the coronavirus.  --- Special thanks to our sponsors: Lukka - Crypto taxes made simple. Use the promo code "MESSARITAX" and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io