On The Brink with Castle Island

George Selgin, director of the Center of Monetary Alternatives at the Cato Institute joins the show to discuss Bitcoin, Free Banking, and stablecoins. In this episode:  Why George refers to Bitcoin as a synthetic commodity money Why George was excited by the possibility for synthetic commodity money What conditions would have to hold for Bitcoin to be considered money Why money is a spectrum rather than binary Are stablecoins prone to bank runs? Is Tether's melange of underlying collateral sufficient? How should stablecoins be regulated? Why are regulators looking into stablecoins today? Comparing stablecoins to Money Market Mutual Funds Why money market funds broke the buck in 08 Are stablecoins as systemic as money market funds? George's objections to Gorton and Zhang's paper on free banking and stablecoins George's definition of free banking Was the 1830s-60s period in the U.S. a period of genuine free banking? The actual causes of bank failures in the pre-Civil War period Why 'unit banking' was so fragile What lessons can be taken from Canada's experience with free banking in that era Why the history of Free Banking is a red herring in the stablecoin debate George's recommendations for a primer on free banking George's reflections on Hal Finney's reference to his work Why bank failures are often the consequence of regulation Content mentioned in this episode:  Selgin, Synthetic Commodity Money  The Alt-M Blog Selgin, Money Free and Unfree White, Free Banking in Britain Selgin, The Theory of Free Banking Dowd, The Experience of Free Banking Gorton and Zhang, Taming Wildcat Stablecoins Sponsor notes:  This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Warren's shadowy super coders Was Digicash the first stablecoin? Is TVL overrated? Castle Island adds a new partner An anti crypto rider inserted into the Congress infrastructure bill Does taxation pay for government spending? Goldman applies for a 'DeFi ETF' Exxon looking at flare gas? China's crackdown on big tech Sponsor notes:  This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit  withum.com/crypto. Eventus, the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Its award-winning trade surveillance platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. Find them at onthebrink.link/eventus

We welcome Michel Rauchs, research affiliate and longtime contributor to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance which just released an update its Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index featuring new mining location data. Covered in this episode:  Why Michel returned to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance The evolution of the CCAF's miner benchmarking efforts The original motivation for the Bitcoin Energy Index The relationship between the CCAF and Cambridge University How to estimate energy consumption from hashrate figures The meaning of the confidence interval in the electricity consumption figures How CCAF amassed the CBECI mining map Is the pool sample for the mining map representative? Methodological drawbacks with miner location assessment Why the CCAF is still reluctant to determine a carbon emissions figure for Bitcoin New evidence regarding the seasonal hashrate migration Is the Chinese crackdown going to lower the carbon intensity of the Bitcoin network? Is country-level granularity sufficient to determine the energy mix of mining? How the CCAF devised comparisons between the Bitcoin network and other consumers of energy Does Bitcoin get held to a different standard than other industries? Michel's experience talking to the press about Bitcoin energy consumption Has the narrative changed in the press at all? Michel's level of optimism regarding the decarbonization of Bitcoin mining This episode supported by:  Eventus, the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Its award-winning trade surveillance platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. Find them at onthebrink.link/eventus

Nic and Matt are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  We debate the merits of the Merritt parkway We reflect on the B Word conference SpaceX owns Bitcoin We cover the Elonfolio Gensler covers tokens giving synthetic exposure to underlying securities Are stablecoins appropriately regulated? Can stablecoins learn from the free banking era in the 1830s? Is there a future for Ripple or Stellar as a bridge currency? What's next for US CBDCs? Content mentioned:  Gary Gensler's speech  Gerald Dwyer in AIER, What do Wildcat Banks tell us about Stablecoins?  Sponsor notes: This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. Wherever your company is at, from pre-seed to IPO, we have tailored solutions just for you. To learn what our advisory, tax and audit services can do for you, visit withum.com/crypto.

Nic and Matt are back for a sideways week. In this episode:  BlockFi's credit card comes out How mesopotamian clay tablets are blockchains Cambridge releases new data regarding bitcoin mining distribution Shapeshift decentralizes itself Can corporations successfully decentralize? Elizabeth Warren writes a letter to the SEC Larry Fink sees little demand for crypto Sponsor notes: This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. Wherever your company is at, from pre-seed to IPO, we have tailored solutions just for you. To learn what our advisory, tax and audit services can do for you, visit withum.com/crypto.

Nic and Matt are back. In this episode:  Circle's SPAC filing Circle's evolution over the year The business model behind stablecoins Circle's risk factor slides The SEC is targeting centralized exchanges for trading unregistered securities Senator Pat Toomey buys BTC and ETH Matt tries out the Blockfi credit card GBTC unlocks wrapping up this summer Why are congresspeople allowed to trade financial assets? Warren grumbles about crypto markets once again Bullish exchange is SPACing Fed vice chair Randal Quarles has some good takes on stablecoins and CBCS Content mentioned in this episode:  Randal Quarles' speech  Circle's announcement on becoming a public company

Anton Katz and Ethan Feldman, the cofounders of Talos join the show. In this episode we discuss: Anton and Ethan’s path from roles at AQR and Broadway Technologies and into the world of cryptoassets The problem they are seeking to solve for market participants How the exchange and OTC liquidity landscape is evolving How custodians and exchanges have evolved their offerings The challenges of capital efficiency in the cryptoasset markets What it was like to fundraise in a bear market What is ahead for Talos To learn more about Talos visit www.talos.com Sponsor notes: This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. Wherever your company is at, from pre-seed to IPO, we have tailored solutions just for you. To learn what our advisory, tax and audit services can do for you, visit withum.com/crypto.

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  A new twist in the turkey tale Why airdrops historically haven't work Sam Altman's eyeball-based cryptocurrency Brady partners up with FTX The FCA tangles with Binance Nic's paper on DeFi risks NYDIG deepens their bank partnerships Mexico's bitcoin rebuke Coinbase's aggressive new strategy The Bitcoin Mining Council shares Q2 data This episode supported by:  Eventus, the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Its award-winning trade surveillance platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. Find them at onthebrink.link/eventus

Kinjal Shah of Blockchain Capital and Manasi Vora of Skynet Labs join us to discuss their recently launched investment DAO, KomorebiCollective. We discuss: 1) The motivation behind Komorebi and its mission to fund female and non-binary founders 2) The decision to structure the collective as a DAO 3) The cost, transparency, and speed benefits DAOs provide 4) What use cases DAOs are serving well today and could serve as they mature To learn more about Komorebi, you can visit their website and apply for funding. Sponsor notes:  Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.  

Matt and Nic are back for another rocky week in the markets. In this episode:  Our thoughts on the Chinese mining situation Is Sichuan being spared the crackdown? Why Bitcoin's hashrate may not recover for a while Why China is cracking down on mining now How China's ultra-high voltage transmission is affecting mining policy How is miner selling influencing price? Our remaining China grey swans Our theories on the relationship between price and hashrate The SEC settles another ICO from 2017 Our analysis of the NYDIG/ core banking provider integrations Why social graph portability is so important Taleb writes a bad bitcoin paper Bitcoin still has a GBTC overhang Content mentioned in the episode:  Nic in Coindesk, Go West, Bitcoin! Unpacking the Great Hashrate Migration NYDIG/FIS press release Rebuttals to Taleb's paper on Bitcoin This episode supported by:  Eventus, the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Its award-winning trade surveillance platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. Find them at onthebrink.link/eventus