On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for another insane week of news and deals.  Russia invades Ukraine Will Russia get kicked off SWIFT? Are there alternatives to SWIFT? Laura Shin identifies  the alleged DAO hacker Is Bitcoin’s privacy fundamentally broken? Chainalysis demixes Wasabi transactions Was the DAO hacker even guilty of a crime? Should blockchains be private at the base layer? Wyoming introduces a state stablecoin Miami grapples with the fallout of Miamicoin Do turkeys hibernate? Sponsor notes:  Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Leo Lucisano of Decentral Park Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Leo’s regulatory predictions for 2022 and the beliefs that informed his blog post. Views on how DeFi would evolve in the face of a harsher treatment from the SEC. The emerging crypto lobby and how this will shape future elections and also policy. Lending, derivatives and other financial products in a central and decentralized context. How Decentral Park Capital is investing across the landscape. To learn more about Decentral Park visit their website.

Co-chairman of Stronghold Digital Mining Bill Spence and CEO Gregory Beard join the show. Stronghold is a vertically integrated Bitcoin miner that uses waste coal to power their operations – while also remediating this environmentally damaging product. We dive into this fascinating, and counter-intuitive story. In this episode:  Backgrounds of the co-chairmen and how they found the intersection of Bitcoin mining and coal waste mitigation Bill’s personal commitment to the mitigation of coal waste Why coal waste has been accumulating in PA since the late 1700s The immense scale of the coal waste and how it continue to affect PA, even though mining no longer occurs How unremediated coal waste can be understood as a form of class warfare Why coal waste exists in the first place Why developments in power plant technology meant that coal waste could be safely combusted Why aboveground coal waste oxidizes and releases CO2 anyway - as well as other harmful particulates Why growing grass over the coal waste doesn’t solve the problem Why 2 billion tons of coal waste can’t just be moved into landfills How there are 800 sites in PA and 70 of them are currently on fire Why Stronghold is vertically integrated, and the advantage this grants them in mining Bitcoin How Stronghold sends power to the grid in the case of a shortage Has Stronghold evaluated other high energy intensity loads aside from just Bitcoin Why Bitcoin is a more suitable load for their energy resources than others How Bitcoin allows Stronghold to keep their power available at short notice Stronghold’s reaction to criticism in the press and from Washington Why nothing had been done about the coal waste for 100 years before Stronghold came along Is the future of Bitcoin mining vertical integration? Sponsor notes:  Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

Matt and Nic return for a huge week of news and a big CIV announcement. In this episode:  Matt scans the Coinbase QR code ad The post-Superbowl backlash against crypto ads Is there any hope for music NFTs Castle Island announces a third fund Binance buys a stake in Forbes Is Circle a bet on interest rates? Our thoughts on BlockFi’s settlement with the SEC Does the SEC’s BlockFi settlement create a regulatory moat for larger lenders? What happens to DeFi in the wake of the BlockFi settlement? Canada weaponizes all financial services against truckers and donors Miners are once again active in Inner Mongolia – with a catch The etymology of tantalizing Content mentioned in this episode:  Bloomberg, Castle Island announces Third Fund CIV on Medium, Announcing Castle Island Ventures III  Hester Peirce, Statement on Settlement with BlockFi Lending LLC Sponsor notes:  Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com Intro and outro track credit: OmgKirby Genesis #326

In our second episode in the web3 music mini-series, we spoke with Matthew Chaim, musician and founder of Songcamp and other projects at the intersection of music and web3. We cover how Matthew thinks about: Helping artists gain control over their creative output Collective creation and re-imagining the role of fans Optimizing for resonance versus reach with music NFTs Discoverability in music NFTs and ways to democratize curation And much more. We also recommend reading Matthew’s writing on these topics at chaim.mirror.xyz. Intro and outro track: OmgKirby Genesis #326  

Mash founder Jared Nusinoff joins the show to explain how internet monetization is broken and how lightning-based payments fixes it. In this episode:  Jared’s professional history and how he came to work on Bitcoin Going from an adventure guide to bitcoin Jared’s early entrepreneurial work Jared’s early history sharing music prior to torrents Why Jared quite Google to found an adventure guide company How Jared thinks of Bitcoin’s MoE/SoV debate Why internet monetization models are flawed today - and the missing middle How the technology of payments online directly affects the quality of internet experiences How Lightning uniquely solves the monetization of quality content online Jared’s view of Lightning’s maturity and momentum as a payments infrastructure How Lightning provides completely novel business models on the internet How Mash could change the game for internet ‘miniapps’ Get started on Mash here and follow Mash on Twitter.  Sponsor notes:  Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io

Matt and Nic return for another week of deals and news. In this episode:  Kraken brings back PoR Bitfinex hack money launderers are arrested The long history of Bitfinex, hacks, Recovery rights, Tether, and LEO Who is entitled to the recovered BTC from the Bitfinex hack? The NY Fed attacks stablecoins, and private banknote issuance Ottawa truckers are banned from Gofundme Are US Treasuries backing stablecoins stranded liquidity? Why central bankers attack stablecoins to promote CBDCs Content mentioned:  NY Fed, The Future of Payments is not Stablecoins Sponsor notes:  Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

In this episode, Kraken chief product officer Jeremy Welch joins the show to cover Kraken's newly announced Proof of Reserve procedure. In this episode:  Why bring back PoR? What distinguishes today’s proof of reserve from the procedure Kraken undertook back in 2015 Why haven’t exchanges done PoR historically? What Kraken’s PoR actually proves to depositors The role of Armanino in Kraken’s PoR What happens when a depositor verifies their PoR How Kraken protects user privacy in PoR The trustlessness of the PoR procedure What regulators can gain from a PoR How Kraken clients can benefit from PoR How Jeremy expects other exchanges to react Sponsor notes:  Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io See more on Kraken's PoR here

Tom Brady retires to focus on NFTs Was Satoshi interested in altcoins? Our thoughts on startups raising 69.420m The Solana-Ethereum bridge is hacked for over $300m– and then bailed out by Jump Capital Was Vitalik’s warning about cross-chain interoperability prophetic?  Is the cross-chain vision dead? Kraken revives their Proof of Reserve – after 7 years Why do exchanges avoid Proof of Reserves? Bitcoin developers at the MIT DCI are building the Boston Fed’s CBDC pilot program How whaling was the predecessor to venture capital Gamestop launches an NFT marketplace Content mentioned in this episode:  MIT News, MIT experts test technical research for a hypothetical central bank digital currency Bloomberg, Biggest Texas Bitcoin Miner Shuts Down Ahead of Cold Blast Bloomberg Quicktake, This State is Becoming America’s Crypto Capital Kraken, Proof of Reserves Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

In the first episode in our web3 music series, Cherie Hu, founder of Water & Music, sits down with Ria to talk about transitioning Water & Music into a research DAO and Cherie’s thoughts on the growing interest of musicians in crypto. We discuss: How Cherie found a niche covering the intersection of music, technology, and now web3 The decision to formalize the Water & Music community into a research DAO harnessing the wisdom of the crowds The shortcomings of early experiments with music and crypto and how the recent approach differs The salient macro factors contributing to enthusiasm and experimentation with music NFTs, DAOs, and social tokens The pushback against music NFTs by skeptical fans and artists