On The Brink with Castle Island

Hunter Horsley, the co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Bitwise’s recent $70M Series B fundraise and how he approached building a roster of unique investors Views on what is driving interest in cryptoasset products Decentralized Finance and how Bitwise is approaching constructing products to enable exposure to this part of the market NFTs and how Hunter contextualizes this segment of the market To learn more about Bitwise visit www.bitwiseinvestments.com. Follow Hunter on Twitter @HHorsley 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.

Nic and Matt return for deals and news of the week. In this episode:  What's the biggest story with Bukele that isn't being covered? Is Bukele motivated by a sanctions threat from the US? Will Salvadorians use the Lightning Network? How Bitcoin elevates heads of state in the popular consciousness Nic's paper on DeFi protocol risks The SEC's year-ahead agenda has no mention of Bitcoin The NY anti-mining bill fails The World Bank joins the IMF in spurning El Salvador Is the Salvadorian law a 'forced tender law'? Content mentioned:  Max Raskin in the WSJ: A Global First: Bitcoin as National Currency 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

In our second OTB AMA, we field questions from Brink Nation. In this episode:  What other countries are good candidates to ratify Bitcoin next? What are the prospects for DeFi on Bitcoin? Is price to hashrate a viable ratio to use to value bitcoin? Will other countries follow El Salvador's lead in light of the pushback from the IMF? Who will win Euro2020? Are ransomware attacks good because they will get directors to add Bitcoin to corporate balance sheets "just in case"? Will users eventually hold their bitcoin through banks? What is missing to make lightning workable? Why do people allocate energy cost pro rata across bitcoin transactions? Matt's turkey update Stablecoin yields as an attractive product for corporate treasuries? Why doesn't bitcoin just increase the block size? Our takes on DAOs What govt action could turn bitcoiners into dissidents? Our proposed improvements for twitter spaces 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.

Nic and Matt are back and recovered from an insane Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. In this episode:  Our lost roundup from last week Our reflections on Bitcoin 2021 Nic reacts to his spaces with President Bukele El Salvador accepts Bitcoin The story behind the 25k attendee Twitter space Does the Salvadorian law change the accounting treatment for Bitcoin in the US? President Bukele's geothermal Where else is the Bitcoinización likely to happen? A new non-aligned movement The Bitcoin Bloc MSTR's new bond offering Basel changes the rules for bank regulatory capital regarding Bitcoin Liz Warren attacks Bitcoin The Bitcoin political demographic grows Content:  Recording of Nic's spaces room with President Bukele (and 25,000 others)  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

Chris Blec is a researcher and the founder of DeFi Watch, a project dedicated to identifying points of centralization and risk factors in DeFi, in particular the presence of admin keys. In this episode:  How Chris got interested in DeFi  How he first noticed the risk of admin key usage  The changing nature of admin keys and multisigs  Whether project multisigs reduce dependence on trust  Why worry about Admin keys in the first place?  Have DeFi projects improved their key management and trustlessness over time?  Chris' letter to 0xPolygon Chris' plans with DeFi Watch  Should Bitcoiners care about DeFi? About admin key failures?  Why transparency is a self-regulatory measure    Sponsor notes: Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ 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.

Jeff Kirt and Ted Rogers, CEO and board director of Greenidge Generation LLC respectively, join the show to discuss the Greenidge plant and Bitcoin mining operation in upstate New York. In this episode:  The origins of Greenidge Why Ted Rogers chose to join the Greenidge board How Atlas/Greenidge converted their NY plant from coal to natural gas Ted's retrospective on the Segwit 2x drama in the context of the Crypto Mining Council How US-based mining has a lower carbon intensity than global miners at large Why Greenidge decided to offset their CO2 emissions and how they went about procuring them How natural gas has a much lower carbon intensity than coal Why banning Bitcoin in NY would actually raise the carbon intensity of Bitcoin How the energy debate ultimately comes down to the societal merit of Bitcoin How Greenidge sent 60% of their 2020 generated energy to the grid How Bitcoin mining has allowed Greenidge to run continuously and better contribute to grid stability Demystifying concerns about the trout habitat Has Greenidge fielded inquiries from mining firms looking to leave China?

Matteo Leibowitz of Uniswap and Eric Stone of Flipside Crypto join the show. In this episode we discuss: Uniswap v3 and how it differs from v2 and other AMMs Broader implications of Uniswap v3 for DeFi Uniswap v3 metrics and how the system is being used today Uniswap treasury and grant program How Flipside is engaging with Uniswap and other DeFi communities Follow Teo on Twitter @teo_leibowitz and learn more about Uniswap at Uniswap.org. Follow Eric on Twitter @theericstone and learn more about Flipside Crypto at flipsidecrypto.com.   Sponsor notes: Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ 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 roundup. In this episode:  Elon is back Our take on the mining council Is Twitter Spaces killing Clubhouse? Prepare yourself for Kazakh FUD Is Chia driving up hard drive prices? OneRiver's green Bitcoin ETF The SEC asks for help regulating crypto The key catalysts we're watching in China Lael Brainard spreads historical fake news about free banking The Fed is concern trolling stablecoins Why neo Free Banking can work today Content mentioned in this episode:  Hass McCook on OTB Fed Governor Lael Brainard's speech  This episode supported by:  Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Hass McCook is a civil engineer who has been delivering estimates of Bitcoin's energy use and CO2 emissions since 2014, as well as alternatives like gold or finance. In this episode:  Hass's background in civil engineering and how it prepared him for the energy debate The conflation between energy generation and electricity generation Why you can't just generalize energy consumption to carbon emissions Hass breaks down the varying carbon intensities of different sources of generation How much energy goes to waste globally The difference between CO2 and CO2e / greenhouse gases Why today's US grid has lowered its carbon intensity over the last decade Why combusting methane is a net good from an emissions perspective Hass' level of optimism around flared gas mining Why the changing rate of ASIC innovation affects bitcoin's energy consumption The opportunity for stranded gas at landfills Hass' estimates of the gold and the financial system's energy footprints How gold mining actually works The ecological and human cost of gold mining Hass' thoughts on offsets Sponsor notes: Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ 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 volatile week. In this episode:  Nic's 72h fast Nic explains the Moscow time joke on Bloomberg Coinbase sells off Our explanations for the selloff Tax selling or Fed discussion of tapering? Taproot edges towards activation Eth monetary hardening - improving or impairing its monetary credibility? IRS demands cash transaction reports for transactions over $10k FinCEN doesn't inflation-index their reporting thresholds OCC reviews Brian Brooks' rules Will the new OCC be hostile to Bitcoin? Tom Emmer asks accounting regulators to revisit their accounting treatment of digital assets Elon suggests miners disclose their energy mix Should miners buy carbon offsets?  Content mentioned in this episode:  Nic's appearance on Bloomberg NyMag, Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Can Make the World Greener This episode supported by:  Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions