On The Brink with Castle Island

Sohrob Farudi, the founder and CEO of Fan Controlled Football joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Sohrob's entrepreneurial journey and the insights that led to him founding Fan Controlled Football. How FCF works and how fans engage with the league, all the way to calling the plays. How Sohrob came to be interested in cryptocurrency and how NFTs have crossed into FCF. Longer term opportunities for cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities in the context of FCF. The upcoming season and what fans can expect. To learn more visit FCF.IO and follow the league 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 another wild week. In this episode: OTB theme music controversy Is Bitcoin a risk off asset Ukraine raises crypto to fund the war effort Why Ukrainians were better positioned to deal with a banking sector failure The U.S. cuts Russia out of SWIFT (mostly) Can the U.S. pull the SWIFT deplatforming again? Will gold be remonetized? Metamask, Infura, and Opensea are banned in Iran and Venezuela Why the cost of running a full node matters Can NFTs be securities? Is Russia evading sanctions with crypto? Powell's comment on multiple reserve currencies Content mentioned: JP Schnapper-Casteras in the New Atlanticist, Here's why crypto won't save the Kremlin from sanctions Jon Sindreu in the WSJ, If Russian Currency Reserves Aren't Really Money, the World Is in for a Shock Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com

We sit down with Blake Masters, COO at Thiel Capital, coauthor of Zero to One, and 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona. Why Blake is running for Senate in Arizona Blake's experience running Thiel Capital and what led him to politics today Does Congress need more business expertise? Where Blake falls on the spectrum of being pro vs anti crypto Where Blake gets his info regarding the crypto industry USA vs Chinese policy on Bitcoin Should the US pursue a strategic Bitcoin reserve? Does cryptocurrency impair the US' sanctions-making ability? Will the government maintain its sanctions-making ability in perpetuity? How crypto and Bitcoin could shore up the U.S. dollar Can the Fed solve climate or racial equity issues? Are the MMTers in power? Is the U.S. facing a genuine risk of default? Leftist explanations for inflation and why they are unsatisfying Where the Covid-related stimulus payments warranted? Dealing with Big Tech deplatforming and whether Section 230 is sufficient Can decentralized internet applications compete with Big Tech platforms? Are legislative solutions sufficient to Big Tech oligarchies? Blake's view on stablecoins and how they should be regulated Should the government be following China's lead on CBDCs? Learn about Blake's platform.

Meow CEO Brandon Arvanaghi and CTO Bryce Crawford join the show to cover crypto yields and how they make them accessible to corporate treasuries. In this episode: The origins of the name Bryce and Brandon's backgrounds The purpose of getting access to crypto yields while staying in dollars How Meow manages risks in DeFi protocols Are crypto yields fundamentally mispriced? Where crypto yields ultimately come from? The risk free rate of crypto yields The relationship between fragmented exchange environments and the cost of capital in crypto Why smart contract risk differs between chains and its effect on yields Why yields compressing will be a sign of the institutionalization of crypto The emergence of undercollateralized lending on DeFi, and which protocols the Meow leadership is most excited about Do DeFi yields face the risk from declining subsidies from token issuance Why institutional tooling is still lacking in DeFi The emergence of the crypto scene in Miami Projections for the future of DeFi Visions for the future of Meow 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 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