On The Brink with Castle Island

Ben Gagnon, the Chief Mining Officer at Bitfarms, joins the show. In this episode we cover: Bitfarms' journey to the public markets in the US Ben's early efforts in flared gas mining How immersion cooling could provide operational efficiencies Bitfarms' site selection methodology How Bitfarms secures power originally built for now-departed industries How Quebec overbuilt electrical infrastructure The benefit of miners locating themselves in Quebec and scooping up stranded power How Bitfarms took over a shuttered hockey stick factory Why Bitfarms is so keen on stranded hydro How Bitfarms curtails their power usage – and why curtailment makes sense Finding excess power in Argentina and Paraguay Does Bitfarms have a low carbon intensity mandate? Why being pro-renewable is a good business decision Why Bitfarms isn't focusing on Texas right now How Bitcoin is the most efficient way to monetize stranded energy assets Bitfarms' criteria for compelling energy resources The progress of the Bitcoin Mining Council and the bettering of transparency in the mining space Where Ben sees room for improvement in the mining sector The lack of standardization in reporting and valuation around mining firms The flaws in Digiconomist's estimates of Bitcoin's energy consumption Issues with academic claims that Bitcoin miners produce significant quantities of e-waste Why Bitcoin ASICs are more recyclable and have long lifespans The academia and press to policy pipeline Content mentioned: Ben in Bitcoin Magazine: We Need to Talk About the Not Science Behind Digiconomist Ben in Bitcoin Magazine: We Need to Talk About the Climate Problem in Bitcoin Mining 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

Michael Sonnenshein and Craig Salm of Grayscale Investments join the show. In this episode we discuss: Grayscale's filing to convert GBTC to an ETF and their advocacy campaign. The comment process (details at: www.grayscale.com/comment) Reactions to the Biden Executive Order. Grayscale's product lineup and the future of active vs. passive crypto products. The metaverse, NFTs and other areas of interest for crypto asset managers. To learn more about Grayscale visit www.grayscale.com

Matt and Nic return for more deals and news. In this episode: Brink Nation is officially moving to GM.xyz Did blockchains 2.0 make fundamental scaling improvements? Is ESG over? Nic surrenders his eyeball sovereignty to Clear A secret trick to get through the Miami airport Bloomberg analysts think a spot ETF could be approved summer 2023... pending SEC developments Would the SEC have to gain control over crypto exchanges to approve an ETF? Florida will accept corporate taxes in BTC Terra is buying up to $10b in Bitcoin Will seigniorage shares stablecoins ever work? The USD is the unit of account for 99% of all stablecoins Are the Democrats fracturing along crypto lines? Russia mentions accepting Bitcoin for energy payments The NYT repeats the misleading per-transaction energy cost analysis 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

Jon Birnbaum, COO of Domain Money, a new investment platform, joins the show. In this episode, we discuss: History and launch of Domain Money Jon's path into fintech and then the digital asset industry Dimension of access to investing for the retail market Domain's product offering across crypto and equities Developing new metrics to help consumers think through investing Learn about Domain Money here.

Celestia Labs COO, Nick White, joins us on the show to kick off our modular blockchain mini-series. Celestia is the first modular blockchain network, which decouples consensus and data availability from execution and settlement. Celestia implements a novel design to unlock key properties such as scalability, interoperability, and sovereignty while preserving decentralization. We cover: Why scaling and decentralization have historically been at odds How Celestia creates a modular system to reimagine traditional monolithic blockchain architecture Leveraging data availability sampling to unlock scalability How Celestia intends to be the engine that powers sovereign communities Learn more about Celestia here.

Matt and Nic return for more news and deals of the week. In this episode: Too much Tom Brady content? Can Roman Abramovich sell Chelsea? Former skeptics coming around on Bitcoin Arbitraging tungsten cube NFTs? Why isn't physical tungsten rallying? Facebook's Diem is back from the dead Takeaways from Laura Shin's book The Cryptopians Tom Emmer's letter to the SEC Details of Sen. Lummis' bill start to come out The EU almost bans PoW cryptocurrencies Instagram announces plans to add NFTs Ukraine legalizes cryptoassets The story behind Nic's Tucker appearance Bitcoiners growing beards Content mentioned in the episode: Rep. Tom Emmer's letter to the SEC Decrypt, Bill From 'Bitcoin Senator' Lummis Would Alter Capital Gains Landscape for Crypto Coindesk, Ukraine's Zelenskyy Signs Virtual Assets Bill Into Law, Legalizing Crypto 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 Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Brett Harrison, the CEO of FTX.US joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Brett's pre-crypto career and the path to leading FTX.US How FTX is evolving on their derivatives product offering Perspectives on crypto market structure in the US will evolve How equity markets may come to be impacted by innovations in the crypto world How FTX is pursuing NFTs and gaming To learn more visit FTX.us and follow Brett on Twitter

Former FT Alphaville Editor and founder of The Blind Spot, Izabella Kaminska joins the show. In this episode: Izabella's pre-FT career Izabella's Polish ancestry and how that informed her monetary worldview Why Izabella was a skeptic about Bitcoin – and why she revisited her stance Izabella's interest in anacyclosis and cyclicality in political systems Jeremy Bentham and his views on utilitarianism Consequentialism and its influence on contemporary elite ideology What Covid-19 policies revealed about freedoms in the West The flaws inherent in bureaucracy Izabella's changing view on the politicization of finance The failure of AML/KYC rules in the West Reflections on the FT's Wirecard story Izabella's view on stablecoins and why she first compared them to Eurodollars Why stablecoins are mini central banks The paradoxes of Web3 and DeFi and the veil of decentralization Do crypto systems end up inherently recentralizing Why Central Banking is so obscure and difficult to penetrate Bitcoin narratives in the context of Bitcoin's apparent failure to be a real rates hedge Is gold genuinely a good inflation hedge? Are there Bitcoiners Izy pays attention to? Izabella's thoughts on Bitcoin ESG questions Is Bitcoin security worth paying for? Why Izabella is leaving the FT and starting the Blind Spot Learn about The Blind Spot and follow Izabella 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

Nic and Matt return for more deals and news of the week. In this episode: The fallout from the seizure of the Russian fx reserves Did America default on its obligations? How are Chinese interests served by the US weaponizing the dollar? Can Bitcoin become an inter-state settlement asset and sovereign-scale SoV? Zoltan Pozsar declares an end to Bretton Woods We digest Biden's executive order The White House calls for 14 studies on crypto and CBDCs A pro-crypto candidate wins the Korean presidential election BNY Mellon gets into MPC crypto custody Stripe now supports crypto payments The Verge profiles Justin Sun Does insider trading apply to commodities? Coinbase blocks 25k Russian users from the platform Content mentioned: Nic in Coindesk, America's Quiet Default The Verge, The Many Escapes of Justin Sun Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

Singer and songwriter, VÉRITÉ (Kelsey Byrne), and artist manager, Vanessa Magos have been leading the charge for artists and their teams to learn about and experiment in web3. In our third episode in the web3 music mini-series, they joined us to talk about: Artists as CEOs who bootstrap their business and put themselves in positions of power and ownership Artists being locked into the arbitrary fixed price imposed on music by the industry A future where artists have access to their fans free of paywalls, algorithms, and third parties The role music DAOs can play in restructuring artist teams You can find VERITE and Vanessa on Twitter @verite and @vanessamagos, respectively.