On The Brink with Castle Island

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

We sit down with Ohio Senate Candidate Josh Mandel to cover his race, platform, and Bitcoin advocacy. Josh's political origins and why he is running for Senate in Ohio Josh's time as Ohio state treasurer and his Ohio state checkbook initiative Why Josh pioneered Ohio's acceptance of Bitcoin for tax payments How Bitcoin values mirror American values Why Bitcoin support ought to stay nonpartisan The state of the Ohio primary and Josh's prospects The political prudence of making Bitcoin such a key cornerstone of Josh's platform Learn more about Josh Mandel's platform at joshmandel.com.

Matt and Nic return for a post-conference episode. This week we cover: The FDIC asks banks to go slow on crypto integrations Blackrock is studying cryptoassets and invests in USDC Blockchain.com partners with the Dallas Cowboys Virginia will allow state chartered banks to custody cryptocurrency Balaji's decentralization inflation index winner is announced Why this current CPI print is misleading Blockstream Block and Tesla are mining Bitcoin with solar Celcius shuts down their retail-facing lending product in the US Is Peter Thiel wrong on Ethereum valuation? Will Elon be able to buy Twitter? Takeaways from Bitcoin 2022 Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

In the second episode in our modular blockchain mini-series, we sat down with John Adler, the inventor of optimistic rollups and co-founder of Fuel and Celestia. Fuel is the fastest execution layer for the modular blockchain stack. The technology enables parallel transaction execution and offers flexible throughput and the highest security required to scale. FuelVM offers developers a superior experience and the ability to go beyond limitations faced by the EVM and other virtual machines. In our conversation, we discuss: The importance of data availability for maintaining censorship resistance Fuel as a modular execution layer with configurable consensus, data availability, and settlement Why Fuel Labs is building the entire blockchain stack to offer the best possible developer and user experience How FuelVM supports parallel transaction execution and other notable improvements over EVM To learn more about some of the concepts we cover, here are a few incremental resources John mentions in the episode. John Adler: Wait, it's all resource pricing? John Adler: Secure Off-chain Data Availability for Rollups John Adler: FuelVM Bootcamp Follow John on twitter and Fuel on Github Intro/outro track: OmgKirby #664 (used with permission)

Socket Supply Co founder and CEO Paolo Fragomeni joins the show to discuss what web3 is and isn't – and what it should be. In this episode: Paolo's start writing modem software and BBS in the pre-modern web days What delineated web 1.0 from web 2.0 The single request that really made web 2.0 possible How today's web is limited by incumbents When did web 3.0 really emerge? What distinguishes it from 2.0? Best definitions of web3? State of the web in terms of centralization and prospects from here How the internet has flip flopped between centralization and decentralization What will push users towards web3? Moxie's comments on web3 and whether they have any merit What Paolo is building at Socket Supply Why p2p is so fundamental How to get started with Socket Supply Read about Socket Supply in Coindesk and on their website. Intro/outro music: Ocarina #986 (used with permission)

Andrew Myers and Brock Petersen of Satoshi Energy join the show to cover how Bitcoin mining monetizes renewables. In this episode we cover: Andrew and Brock's origin story How Satoshi Energy develops sites and infrastructure for miners Is Satoshi Energy explicitly renewable focused? How mining with intermittent renewables can be economical How Bitcoin mining improves the economics of renewables The merits of the behind the meter approach How using Bitcoin as an offtake improves the economics of renewable generation assets The role of demand response as renewables account for more generation Does Bitcoin actually incentivize renewable generation? Is the future of Bitcoin mining vertically integrated? What does the interconnection queue tell us about the future of renewables? Book recommendations 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

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Mora et al rears its head again Chris Larsen and Greenpeace team up to try and eliminate PoW from Bitcoin Who is the protagonist in the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit? Rep. Stephen Lynch introduces the ECASH Act Axie Infinity suffers a $625m hack Is there any debate remaining about the utility of Bitcoin? Circle selects BNY Mellon to custody their own assets Grayscale mulls a lawsuit against the SEC over their continued ETF disapproval Can the government create a truly private CBDC? Rep. Tom Emmer and Sen. Ted Cruz look to ban CBDC creation Is the SEC obliquely regulating AMM LPs out of existence? When will Bitcoin be sovereign scale? Seed stage bets on aspiring members of congress Content mentioned: Martin Wolf in FT, A New World of Currency Disorder Looms Bloomberg, Ukraine's Crypto Banker Describes how the War is Changing His Life Bloomberg, Crypto Miners in Texas Face Approval to Energize Hurdle Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter