On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for more deals and news of the week. In this episode: Matt loses the podcast audio New Turkey drama Rep Emmer introduces a bill banning a retail focused CBDC Nic releases a song with Gramatik The story behind the Scribbler song We investigate Fan Controlled Football Paypal looks to build a stablecoin Several banks issue the USDF stablecoin Crypto-dollarization in Turkey Why dollarization fails Jack Dorsey starts a Bitcoin developer legal defense fund Justin Sun is a Grenadan diplomat Content mentioned Nic's song with Gramatik, Just a Scribbler WSJ, Turks Pile Into Bitcoin and Tether to Escape Plunging Lira Sponsor notes: Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Learn more at fireblocks.com Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

House Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) joins the show to share thoughts on his crypto policy agenda for 2022, as well as his views on inflation, MMT, stablecoins, and CBDCs. In this episode: How Rep. Emmer came to be interested in public blockchains Rep. Emmer's interest in Austrian economics How Rep. Emmer stays up to date with the industry Are MMTers the establishment or an outsider group? Is Washington dominated by covert MMT ideology? Is fiscal conservatism dead in Washington? Why Rep. Emmer voted for the CARES act any regrets he has How the massive injection of cash in the last two years warped our economy Is inflation driven by fiscal spending or corporate greed? Is crypto inherently a partisan issue? Rep Emmer's concerns about a CBDC Why the US should not take cues from China Why CBDCs are not akin to physical cash Why insisting that stablecoins need bank charters is deeply ironic Problems with the Presidential Working Group's guidance on stablecoins Is crypto favorable or hostile to American interests? What are Rep Emmer's colleagues' residual objections to crypto? The purpose of Emmer's Securities Clarity Act Will the midterms alter Congress' approach to the crypto industry? Useful links: Support the Emmer 2022 reelection campaign (crypto donations accepted) Follow Rep. Emmer on Twitter Emmer's cosponsored Securities Clarities Act (press release) The Keep Innovation in America Act (press release) About the Blockchain Caucus 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 more news and deals of the week. In this episode: Everything is selling off Is the US losing its status as global reserve? We announce our policy miniseries Sen. Lummis will reportedly propose a crypto bill Opensea raising $300m at a $13b valuation Illicit activity in 2021 was only 0.15% of total crypto volume The Boston Fed CBDC pilot program rumbles on Kazakhstan turns off the internet, and dims Bitcoin hashrate by 12% NY State reproposes their bill to ban mining in the state The National Credit Union Administration looks to ratify usage of crypto for its members The House Energy and Commerce committee will hold a hearing on PoW A group of environmentalist organizations sends a letter regarding PoW to congress Content mentioned: National Credit Union Administration, Relationships with Third Parties that Provide Services Related to Digital Assets Letter to Congress from environmentalist groups regarding PoW Sponsor notes: Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Luxor COO and CPO Ethan Vera and Guzman Pintos join the show to talk about their relaunched data product, Hashrate Index and other trends in mining. In this episode: The history of the firm Why Luxor created the hashrate index How Luxor gathers data on ASIC pricing and creates their time series charts ASIC pricing dynamics Are sell side analysts correctly pricing ASICs on the balance sheets of public miners? Why different efficiencies of miners have traded differently in the last 2 months How constraints on rack space affect the demand for older ASICs Why so many ASICs can't leave China Is there still residual black market mining in China? Kazakhstan's under-reported mining crackdown Are ASIC development cycles slowing? Are miners still front-running their clients with prop mining? Are Bitcoin miners trying to acquire Bitcoin or do they want to hedge their exposure Are derivatives becoming more popular among miners? The maturation of the Bitcoin mining derivatives market Why prior hashrate derivatives haven't worked Multiple based analysis for public miners Why there is a 'public market arbitrage' for miners Why incentives exist for public miners to be highly acquisitive Do miners care about long term fee budget? 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 the last episode of 2021. In this episode: Someone makes an unauthorized Nic NFT Microstrategy buys more BTC Blake Masters sells a political NFT Why do gamers and artists hate NFTs? We look back at our 2021 crystal ball predictions Best predictions of 2021 Our outlook for crypto policy in 2022 Our favorite OTB episodes of the year We look back at the Token Daily 2019 crystal ball predictions What it's like to be in crypto for an entire decade Midterm implications for the crypto industry Our favorite OTB episodes of 2021 Content mentioned: Tokendaily, 2021 Crystal Ball Sponsor notes: Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting 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

Gabe Frank and Robert Masiello, the founders of Arcade, a financial services platform for NFTs join the show. In this episode we discuss: Gabe and Robert's origin stories in the crypto industry and the path that led them to founded Arcade The similarities in the market structures for bitcoin in the early years and NFTs today The role of MPC custody in the crypto markets How they think about the various L1 chains that will host NFTs The OTC trading landscape for NFTs Peer to peer vs. peer to pool NFT lending models How the lending market will evolve with great data / pricing functionality The product roadmap for Arcade over the next year To learn more about Arcade visit their website. 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 This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

Matt and Nic return for a festive Christmas eve roundup. In this episode: Reevaluating our intro song Jack Dorsey's web3 beef What's on our Christmas list Is PoW inherently high-fee? We steelman the Jack Dorsey and the pro web3 arguments Is there a paradox in web3? We advance a model of tapered token issuance for web3 The downsides of token issuance to early adopters Is Liz Warren right about corporate greed causing inflation? Radioshake releases a defi token Is Bitcoin ownership too concentrated? Bitcoin is dispersing while equities are concentrating Will there be a revolt among the staffers at the SEC? Content mentioned: Nic Carter and Lucas Nuzzi in Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin's Proof of Work is Well Worth its Fees Paul Vigna in WSJ, Bitcoin's 'One Percent' Controls Lion's Share of the Cryptocurrency's Wealth Sponsor notes: Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting 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

Anders Larson, head of strategic finance at U.S. Bitcoin Corp, joins us to talk about how miners make decisions and allocate capital. In this episode: The Wharton class of 2018 Are Bitcoin miners clogging up the chip supply chain? Why Bitcoin miners are 'tier 2' customers at foundries The scale of US BTC operations in terms of hashrate Why US BTC has been so quiet historically How US BTC targets renewable energy Which renewables are easiest to find Is there any truth to the story of Bitcoin improving the economics of renewables? Why ASIC depreciation is slowing, and how that affects the viability of different energy sources The relationship between Bitcoin's carbon intensity and ASIC depreciation period Can ASICs last for 5 years? How does US BTC think about uptime on their units? Why lower uptime means that you have cheaper power due to demand response How US BTC thinks about hashrate growth and why they are more conservative than their competitors Why Chinese hashrate is not completely eliminated The state of affairs in Kazakhstan How Anders thinks about political risk in mining How policy logic informs selective mining bans and mining subsidies How Anders sees miners vertically integrating with energy firms How Anders thinks about proposed state bitcoin mining bans in places like NY Why mining bans in the West are often counterproductive The relationship between energy consumption and civilizational progress How Anders thinks about the energy cost debate Whether the CBECI hashrate distribution estimates are reliable Why the US having a large share of hashrate isn't something to be concerned about How mining could become a states rights issue Does US BTC project fee growth in their models? 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 This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: A glitch in the CoinMarketCap data feed causes disturbances in the crypto industry AscendEX is hacked last week to the tune of $77 million Coinbase urges the SEC to approve NYSE Arca's application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund Bitwise launches a blue-chip NFT fund A bipartisan group of Senators write a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen regarding the crypto provisions in the infra bill The Myanmar government in exile official adopts Tether, while the Junta government de-dollarizes Matt takes the giving pledge The Open Markets Institute spreads a lot of FUD Can the boys lift a 230 pound tungsten cube? Sponsor notes: This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up. Corporations and institutions can allocate cash into Circle Yield to gain crypto lending exposure and earn superior returns compared to traditional markets. It's secured, overcollateralized and built on the leading dollar digital currency. Visit circle.com/yield to book a meeting

Alex Wilson, co-founder and CEO of The Giving Block joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Alex's path in the blockchain space, from consulting to founding The Giving Block The landscape of charitable giving, and how the company is assisting charitable organizations The pain points that charities face when accepting donations Perspectives from the donor's perspective and why donating cryptocurrency is so compelling How the company came to launch its campaigns To learn more about The Giving Block visit their website or follow the company on Twitter. Sponsor notes: This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up. 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