On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for deals and news of the week. In this episode: Are cubes a suitable holiday gift? Best crypto Xmas gifts Bitcoin purchases we regret The House Financial Services committee holds a hearing Our Congressional hearing MVP Brian Brooks' evolution SBF kicks off shoegate Takeaways from the House hearing EOS holders reject a payment to Block One Block One's weird pivot to Bitcoin Greyscale says 26% of American adults own Bitcoin Governance difficulties in Dfinity Will SWIFT survive American sanctions on Russia Impenetrable Sushiswap drama Those landfill Bitcoins are still lost Content mentioned: Brian Brooks' testimony before the House Financial Services Committee The Economist, The Explosion in Stablecoins Revives a Debate around 'Free Banking' WSJ, Crypto, NFTs and Tungsten Cubes: A Guide to Giving Cash in 2021 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

Matt Cutler, the founder and CEO of Blocknative joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Matt's entrepreneurial history and path to founding Blocknative How he came to see blockchain transaction data as a big opportunity for his company How blockchain mempools work and why they are important The types of customers that are monitoring blockchain network data and how this data is actionable Matt's views on blockchain scalability across L1s and Ethereum L2s What is on the horizon for Blocknative To learn more about Blocknative visit their website. 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.

Matt and Nic return for deals and news. In this episode: Art Basel is now a crypto event Is the crypto industry culturally relevant? Jack Dorsey leaves Twitter Will Twitter become more censored Square renames itself Block Celcius CFO is arrested Fidelity launches a Bitcoin ETF in Canada David Marcus is leaving Facebook Regulatory projections from Cowen BadgerDAO hacked Content mentioned: Cowen's analysis of the regulatory headwinds in crypto Sponsor notes: This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime 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

Galaxy Digital Mining Associate Brandon Bailey and Research Associate Karim Helmy join the show to cover a new accounting methodology for Bitcoin miners. In this episode: Galaxy's new miner margins accounting methodology Brandon and Karim origin stories in mining How the randomness-based miner fingerprinting works How Karim thinks about miner depreciation schedules Why the Bitcoin e-waste paper understates the expected lifetime of Bitcoin ASICs S9s are still a quarter of the Bitcoin network Why Karim and Brandon created the new accounting framework The differences between marginal, direct, and total cost of production for BTC miners Does the sell side capably cover Bitcoin miners? What you would expect to see for marginal and total cost of production for established Bitcoin miners Why miners focus on marginal cost rather than total in their storytelling Major bottlenecks preventing the addition of new hardware Why hashrate may not converge to price in the near term Why the chip shortage advantages incumbents in Bitcoin mining Why Kazakhstan is scaling back their Bitcoin mining Why mining manufacturers do not get priority access to the best foundry capacity Why established miners will be able to mine Bitcoin at favorable rates for the near and medium term Why of the accounting identities Galaxy would prioritize when evaluating public mining companies How Galaxy arrived at a 3 year depreciation period for the average mining unit What advice Brandon and Karim would give you public market analysts evaluating mining companies See the full write up and sample model here. 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 OurCrowd analyzes companies across the global private market, selecting those with the greatest growth potential, then brings them to you. Get started at OurCrowd.com/otb

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Coinbase acquires Breadwallet El Salvador's Bitcoin City Is El Salvador's Bitcoin Bond worth buying? New merch on the website Midwest tungsten releases a new shape Is India banning crypto again? Miners coming back online in China The OCC, FDIC, and Fed will release cryptoasset guidance in 2022 Saule Omarova's nomination to run the OCC has fallen through Jerome Powell will keep helming the Fed Elizabeth Warren blames inflation on Big Poultry ConstitutionDAO crashes and burns Insider trading doesn't just apply to securities Who we are thankful for Merch: onthebrink.shop Sponsor notes: This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime 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

We sit down with James McGinniss, CEO and Cofounder of David Energy to talk about Bitcoin's role in the energy transition and how Bitcoin mining is a useful source of flexible load for increasingly renewable grids. In this episode: The fundamental change happening in the US grid today What distributed energy resources are and why they are important Why DERs are catching on in California Why bitcoin allows load to move to supply Why better metering improves the prospects for demand response How demand response works nationwide Why there's a fundamental tradeoff between uptime and power prices Why Bitcoin is the best demand response resource The prospects for other location agnostic load resources Do better batteries obsolete Bitcoin mining as a grid balancer? How David Energy is working with Bitcoin miners Why Bitcoin miners should trade mining uptime for cheaper power Are grid operators designing programs for bitcoin miners? Why there's a longer tail of energy assets that miners should take advantage of 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.

Nic and Matt return for more news and deals of the week. In this episode: ConstitutionDAO Why you can't smelt tungsten Breaking down the Keep Innovation in America Act The SEC denies the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust Crypto.com buys the naming rights to the Lakers arena The US Marshalls are auctioning BTC seized from Bitconnect Is Gerald Cotten deceased? Load ze quantum FUD Is David Chaum right about Bitcoin's quantum FUD? What fraction of Bitcoins are quantum vulnerable? Can stablecoins be rendered run-proof? Sweden and Norway agitate against PoW Why banning Bitcoin mining can be counter productive What does the DAO do if they win the Constitution? Content mentioned in this episode: David Andolfatto, Run Proof Stablecoins Derek Hsue and Larry Sukernik, I Pledge Allegiance Sponsor notes: This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime 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

Nic and Sean sit down with Kevin Anetsberger, General Manager at Midwest Tungsten, to cover their journey as a business and their entry into the crypto industry In this episode: The history of Midwest Tungsten How Midwest got its start making metal steam Industrial applications of tungsten Tungsten's physical properties and how that makes it suitable for industrial applications Military applications of tungsten Where Midwest Tungsten sits in the supply chain How Tungsten is actually refined and formed, given that it's impossible to smelt The upper limits to tungsten formed objects, and where the constraints derive from Why a 14 inch cube is actually the largest size Midwest can actually make How Kevin came to work in the tungsten industry Where is tungsten mined? Have the supply chain disruptions affected Midwest Tungsten How Midwest Tungsten resisted offshoring Why Midwest Tungsten began selling collectibles Who has bought the cubes historically Was this the largest spike in demand for the tungsten cubes ever? How the company came to accept Bitcoin and make the NFT Is Midwest Tungsten holding the Bitcoin they have earned in cube sales? Is tungsten safe to handle? Where Kevin falls on the cube vs sphere debate What is the optimal cube size? Why Midwest chose to sell the cube NFT Other metals that Kevin likes What about Osmium? 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.

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Circle launches an early stage venture fund SEC targets American CryptoFed DAO LLC The SEC references Nic's paper on DeFi risks Should DeFi teams be more aggressive in disclosing admin key risks? What would a DeFi disclosure regime look like? BlockFi files for a spot Bitcoin ETF Bitwise withdraws its futures-based ETF NYC mayor Eric Adams says NYC schools should teach about cryptocurrency Miami will airdrop BTC to residents Inflation prints at 6.2% annualized Why the 'supply chain' explanation for inflation obscures the underlying dynamics Is inflation really a supply chain issue? Real interest rates are as low as they were in the 1970s Why we have entered monetary repression Discord dithers on Web3 BrinkDAO Could tungsten rods in space improve on nuclear weapons? Content mentioned in this episode: SEC, Statement on DeFi Risks, Regulations, and Opportunities Michael Greenwald, The Digital Asset Olympics 21Shares, Q3 Report Nic Carter and Linda Jeng, DeFi Protocol Risks Sponsor notes: This show supported by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides advanced multi-venue trading, custody, and prime services for institutions. For more information see coinbase.com/prime 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

Core Weave cofounder and CSO Brannin McBee joins the show to talk GPU mining and high performance computation. In this episode: Details on the Core Weave's latest fundraise Core Weave's hybrid data center model which combines Ethereum mining and generalized computation Transitioning from just crypto mining to the specialized compute market Why the hyperscale cloud providers aren't always suitable for firms with specialized computation needs The nature and size of Core Weave's GPU and CPU fleet How Core Weave services clients in VFX and rendering, machine learning, and blockchain Why Core Weave was able to build a generalizable computational fleet Why the demand for VFX/rendering-based compute is accelerating How film studios are going from capital intensive on-prem computation to outsourcing it to cloud providers How Core Weave is able to achieve a high utilization rate for their GPUs How Core Weave is working on open sourcing GPT-3 Why you can't access scale compute at conventional providers How Core Weave is managing Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake When Brannin expects the final merge to occur How the market for GPU mining will change over time How NFTs are a new source of demand for large-scale compute Core Weave's attitude to Ethereum development Did Ethereum move away from some of its original principles? How proof of work was a strong distributive force during the early days of Ethereum Are miners less positively inclined towards the network now that their business model has an expiration date? Brannin's attitude towards MEV today Brannin's thoughts on Ethereum's security model as it moves towards PoS Does the abundance of capital make PoS more vulnerable than PoW? Why diseconomies of scale for electricity procurement protected PoW networks Why rendering PoW 'synthetic' in PoS makes it easier to pull off an attack How Core Weave pursues sustainability in their operations 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.