Crypto Critics' Corner

Bennett and Cas talk about Justin Sun (or Sun Yuchen): billionaire, creator of TRON cryptocurrency, citizen to five-ten countries, and egomaniac who has managed to outrun and outpace law enforcement for years. Read the fantastic The Verge article about Justin: https://www.theverge.com/c/22947663/justin-sun-tron-cryptocurrency-poloniex

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey talk about the proliferation of cities associated with blockchains, why the concept in and of itself is silly, and go through some historical and current examples. If you'd like to listen to Bennett and Cas' other podcast, Innovated: Blockchain City, you can listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovated-blockchain-city/id1611390567

Today Bennett and Cas talk about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces (as dictated by Vladimir Putin). We discuss the need for being cautious when donating to newly created charities, to not FOMO into giving, and the deep effects that sanctions against Russia may have within the space. If you'd like to donate to a humanitarian relief effort that will support Ukraine, here are three (feel free to research further and/or donate elsewhere!): Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/ Save the Children: https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=1620&1620.donation=form1 Committee to Protect Journalists: https://cpj.org/ This episode was recorded on Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are lucky enough to be joined by the "Batman of Cryptocurrency" - pseudoanonymous Twitter user ZachXBT (https://www.twitter.com/zachxbt). We ask him what it's like uncovering every fraud and scam in crypto, why he does it, and whether the Cryptocurrency Batcave has a secret "nuke scam project" button. Donate to Zach either at his ETH address: zachxbt.eth Visit his website here: https://investigations.notion.site/ Here's a list of links that were discussed during the episode: https://t.me/s/Crypto_Deleted https://etherscan.io https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en https://www.nansen.ai https://www.breadcrumbs.app https://revert.finance https://t.me/EtherDROPS_bot

Bennett and Cas are joined by Dr. Ángela Vergara - an expert in company towns and co-author of Company Towns in the Americas. We try to address why they tend to fail, how they usually harm employees, and why they've never really gone away. If you want to follow Dr. Vergara on Twitter, you can find her @vergara_angela. The new podcast Bennett and Cas will be hosting is available here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovated-blockchain-city/id1611390567 Dr. Vergara's book is available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Company-Towns-Americas-Working-Class-Transformation/dp/0820333298) You can follow Protos @Protos on Twitter, or visit their website www.Protos.com This episode was recorded on Thursday, February 24th, 2022.

Today Bennett and Cas have the distinct privilege to have on Molly White, the creator and maintainer of www.web3isgoinggreat.com - a beautiful showcase of all the disastrous projects that have plagued the Web3 ecosystem thus far. We ask Molly why so many grifters are interested in blockchains, her goals with her website, and why the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Jamie Dimon are paying her billions to FUD cryptocurrency. Follow all of Molly's projects: www.web3isgoinggreat.com - blog.mollywhite.net - follow her on twitter - @molly0xFFF - @web3isgreat This episode was recorded on Friday, February 25th, 2022.

Bennett and Cas talk about the most recent scam that's been omnipresent on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets: the verification scam. If you've spent any time on Twitter or Instagram, you'll have noticed verified accounts with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers that are spam liking tweets (usually about NFTs). But there's a lot more to the story than a simple compromised account. Let's talk about the thriving ecosystem of compromised verified accounts, engagement farming, and public relations firms that all work together to make our lives worse. This episode was recorded on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022.

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by the portfolio manager and chief strategist for Simplify Asset Management, Michael Green (on Twitter @profplum99). In one of our most wide-ranging discussions, we had the opportunity to pick Mike's brain on what inflation means for the U.S. and the world, how the Fed should respond, the Canadian Trucker Convoy / Protest, and what all of it might mean for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Mike specifically mentions The Trades of March 2020, a book by Alex Gurevich, available here: https://www.amazon.com/Trades-March-2020-against-Uncertainty-ebook/dp/B09NX372KG This episode was recorded on Thursday, February 17th, 2022.

Today Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by Ben McKenzie (star of Gotham, Southland, and The O.C.) and Jacob Silverman (author of Terms of Service and writer for The New Republic and Slate) who discuss the ideas behind their upcoming book about cryptocurrency, their issues with celebrity shilling of speculative assets, and how it really feels like corporate greed is eating our democracy. Here are some of the books and movies mentioned during the interview: Lying for Money by Dan Davies - https://www.amazon.com/Lying-Money-Legendary-Frauds-Workings-ebook/dp/B078WFT5JV The Future of Money by Eswar Prasad - https://www.amazon.com/Future-Money-Revolution-Transforming-Currencies/dp/0674258444 The China Hustle - https://www.amazon.com/China-Hustle-Dan-David/dp/B07BQH2LQG This episode was recorded on Monday, February 14th, 2022

Today Bennett and Cas will be talking about how $3.5 billion dollars (of $4.5 billion) worth of Bitcoin stolen 6 years ago was found and seized by the US Department of Justice. We discuss Ilya Lichtenstein, Heather Reyhan Morgan, what this means for all the Bitfinex tokens, and if it's possible the funds won't be returned to Bitfinex at all. This episode was record on February 12th, 2022.