On The Brink with Castle Island

Jon Kol and Asa Oines, cofounders of Abacus join the show to talk about the state of the art in cross chain interoperability. In this episode:  Career trajectories and why Jon and Asa decided to start Abacus  The three eras of interoperability  Asset interoperability vs app based interoperability  Why asset interoperability might just be a transitional phase  Why asset interoperability is more about the creation of derivatives than true portability  Application parallelization or duplication versus native cross chain applications  Why duplicating applications across chain is inefficient  The advantages of building natively cross chain for developers How blockchains can be made to communicate with each other Key assumptions you need to rely on to trust that Abacus will work  How Abacus is distinguished from other interoperability protocols  Why speed matters in cross chain  How Abacus differs from Layer0 and Axelar  Which blockchains Abacus is linking together  Learn more about Abacus 

Matt and Nic cover news and deals of the week. In this episode:  The CIV hat snafu Was synthetic USD on Bitmex the first stablecoin?  Remembering Mastercoin and seigniorage shares stablecoins  Does the Fed have a shadow third mandate?  We break down the Luna situation and why it was destined to fail  Why the subsidized yields on Anchor were the biggest mistake  Likely fallout from the Luna collapse  The Terra blockchain is halted  Do we actually need algorithmic stablecoins?  SBF acquires a stake in Robinhood  Is the Twitter sale to Elon under threat?  Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Mark Lamb, co-founder and CEO of CoinFLEX joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Mark’s entrepreneurial path in the cryptocurrency industry and the insight behind starting CoinFLEX The history and market landscape for crypto derivatives platforms The state of the stablecoin market and how flexUSD is positioning for USA launch The regulatory environment and how this is impacting trading venues and stablecoin issuers. To learn more visit coinflex.com and follow Mark on Twitter

Nic and Matt return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Matt's takeaways from the Medici conference  The rapid growth of ZKPs We review Brink Nation posts on GM We look back at the history of the FUD dice  Are tungsten dice possible?  Big thunderstorm in Miami  Is the crypto industry sitting out the recession?  We consider the merits of virtual real estate  Does proximity matter in the metaverse?  Metaverse land rights and NIMBYism  The Bitcoin Mining Council letter to the EPA and what motivated it Ohio's primary yields an entirely pro-crypto field  CBOE acquires ErisX Goldman takes out a Bitcoin-collateralized USD loan Jane Street dives into DeFi  The SEC doubles the size of its cyber unit  CA issues an EO on the crypto industry The Dept. of Labor criticizes Fidelity for their Bitcoin 401k product The IMF criticizes the Central African Republic's adoption of Bitcoin  The divergence between public and private valuations in crypto and equities, and why they can't always be arbitraged away Content mentioned:  Prominent Bitcoiners' letter to the EPA to respond to Rep. Huffman's letter  Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter  

TeraWulf cofounder and CEO Paul Prager joins us to talk about his experience building a vertically-integrated, zero carbon Bitcoin miner. In this installment of the mining miniseries we cover:  Paul’s career trajectory from coal trading to energy infrastructure to Bitcoin Beowulf’s deal with Marathon and their entry into Bitcoin How TeraWulf distinguishes itself from other Bitcoin miners Why TeraWulf has an explicit ESG focus Zero carbon and how that differs from ‘carbon neutral’ The importance of being vertically integrated How Paul thinks about the halvings and how that affects their business TeraWulf’s facility in upstate NY Paul’s views on NY State’s approach to Bitcoin mining How the Bitcoin mining industry struggles with proactive messaging TeraWulf’s 300 MW nuclear-powered facility in Pennsylvania Why Bitcoin is synergistic with nuclear power The prospects for nuclear bitcoin mining TeraWulf’s zero-carbon approach and how that manages risk TeraWulf’s plans for growing their hashrate under management The characteristics that TeraWulf looks for in new sites Will Bitcoin miners develop better transparency around emissions data? Why mining is so useful for decarbonization through curtailment programs The convergence between the energy sector and Bitcoin mining Why vertical integration and zero carbon will prevail in Bitcoin mining long term Trends in consolidation Paul expects Why vertical integration allows you to manage your risk better than a hosting model What public market analysts should be doing when they evaluate miners Follow Paul on Twitter and learn more about TeraWulf. 

Matt and Nic are back with news and deals of the week, joined by Dave Gray, Head of Workplace Retirement Offerings and Platforms at Fidelity Investments, who joins us to talk about Fidelity's new Bitcoin 401(k) product. In this episode:  Are airdrops taxable? CheckTemplateVerify drama in Bitcoin Central African Republic apparently adopts Bitcoin as legal tender NY State Assembly passes a bill banning Bitcoin mining with fossil fuels Fidelity adds Bitcoin to 401ks Will deep deplatforming on the internet influence Twitter? Can you actually open source the Twitter algorithm? Is the Twitter purchase an indirect way for Musk to liquidate his Tesla position? Learn more about Fidelity's 401(k) plans here Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Longtime Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton re-joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Bruce’s career and the events that led him to discovering Bitcoin Bitcoin’s social layer and how Bruce has managed to stay close to the project through so many chapters of the journey His view on the tokenization of securities and why he is so optimistic on this technology Why Bruce decided to run for Senate and what issues he is fighting for Views on big tech, the future of the U.S. dollar and more His outlook for Bitcoin friendly regulation See Bruce's prior episode here. To learn more about Bruce visit brucefenton.com and visit Bruce on Twitter @BruceFenton

Pat Larsen, founder and CEO of crypto tax prep company ZenLedger, joins the show for a timely discussion on how investors should be thinking about taxes this tax season. In this episode:  The outlook for crypto taxes in 2022 Tax accounting for specific transactions Clarifications and improvements to tax regulation ZenLedger provides a platform that makes it easy for users to aggregate transactions across centralized and decentralized venues and measure their crypto tax impact. The team published a helpful guide on nft related taxes.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  The OTB music debate rages on Nic survives Covid Should we bring back dueling? Ancient altcoin dramas Coinbase launches NFTs Elon has financing to buy Twitter Product suggestions for Twitter The US sanctions Russian miners BitRiver Is Russia remonetizing gold? Australia gets a spot BTC ETF North Korean hackers are active in crypto Sponsor notes:  Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Adam Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Braintrust, a web3 talent network joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Marketplace business models and how web3 models will improve on web2 dynamics How Adam came to the insight to launch Braintrust and how the platform works The regulatory environment in the United States and how Adam sees web3 evolving over time Other marketplace categories where Adam sees opportunities for community owned networks Adam’s view on the venture landscape and how that has evolved over time. To learn more about Braintrust visit usebraintrust.com and follow Adam on Twitter @AdamJacksonSF