On The Brink with Castle Island

Nic and Matt cover an insane week of deals and market turmoil. In this episode:  The Biden admin freezes the Treasury guidance on unhosted wallets Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expresses her concern about cryptocurrency for terrorist financing Bitcoin as a monetary escape valve The real reasons behind Treasury's concern about Bitcoin The prospects for monetary repression in the US Prospects for Chris Brummer as the new head of the CFTC Blackrock warms to Bitcoin Our point by point 'debunking' of the anonymous blog post on Tether Why Tether critiques are so popular Why a Tether implosion would emphasize Bitcoin's value proposition We explain the Bitcoin 'double spend' How Bitcoin settlement is probabilistic Content mentioned in this episode:  Nic in NYMag, What Explains Bitcoin's Resurgence? On The Brink, Interview with Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj The Bit Short: Inside Crypto's Doomsday Machine Kraken, On Tether, Journalists Defy Logic

Iain Murray, VP of Strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss the history of Operation Choke Point, a 2011-2015 program used to exclude legal businesses from banking led by the DoJ and FDIC. In this episode:  How Iain Murray came to be one of the main historians of Operation Choke Point The roots of Choke Point in the crackdown on poker sites in 2011 How Choke Point was started on a whim by two midlevel DoJ lawyers in 2011 How OCP targeted completely legal but politically disfavored industries How mechanically the DoJ was able to get banks to comply with their informal guidance Why the closed nature of banking means that alternatives financial service providers for these industries couldn't be created How bank consolidation meant that OCP was easier to instrumentalize How successful was Choke Point in marginalizing targeted industries? Did OCP have buy-in from the highest levels of the Obama administration? How regulations should have implemented the rules they sought to create with Choke Point – and why they chose not to How OCP was an end-around the administrative procedure act, and why it was done covertly Was there any accountability for the individuals behind OCP? Was anyone fired? Why individuals on any side of the political spectrum should be concerned about OCP Did Choke Point ever really end? The long term enduring effects of OCP How the Wyoming SPDI is a reaction to Choke Point Whether Iain agrees with the OCC's 'Fair Access' rule Content mentioned in this episode:  Iain Murray at CEI, Operation Choke Point: What it is and why it matters OCC, 'Fair Access' rule 

Nic and Matt return for another explosive week. In this episode: The bike saga enters its final chapter Sci Hub tries Handshake Is Choke Point returning? We break down the Bakkt SPAC FinCEN extends the comment period for its notice of proposed rulemaking Gemini announces a credit card with crypto rewards What Gary Gensler as SEC Chairman means for the industry Prospects for a Bitcoin ETF under a Gensler SEC The OCC creates a national crypto bank charter One reason why Miami could make it as a tech hub We discuss the latest NYT article on losing coins Content mentioned in this article Nic Carter in Coindesk, Twitter, Trump, and the 'Private Company' Fallacy FinCEN extends its comment period OCC, OCC Conditionally Approves Conversion of Anchorage Digital Bank Brian Brooks in the FT, Get Ready for Self-Driving Banks  

Matthew Gould, co-founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Matthew’s path into the cryptocurrency industry and the insight behind launching Unstoppable Domains. How Matthew sees the opportunity for blockchain-based domain systems. Tradeoffs between the various layer-one blockchains that are addressing this opportunity. Views on single sign-on and potential future adjacent use-cases. To learn more about Unstoppable Domains visit their website. Sponsor notes: Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today’s complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.

Nic and Matt return for another week of ATHs. In this episode:  Coindesk acquires Tradeblock The OCC says that banks can use public blockchains and stablecoins We digest the OCC letter Potential drawbacks to the new OCC guidance Has Brian Brooks had the most successful regulatory term in recent memory? The Treasury's comment period expires Does the Treasury even have the authority to pass these new rules? Our favorite comment letters in response to the Treasury rules Does JPM's price call make them hypocrites on the topic of Bitcoin? Ripple's series C lead investor is suing Ripple Strike announces Strike Global How crypto-based fiat-to-fiat remittances work Our favorite quarterly investor letters Content mentioned in this episode:  Coin Center, Supplemental Comments to FinCEN Neha Narula and Patrick Murck, Letter to FinCEN Fidelity Digital Assets, Letter to FinCEN Bill Miller, Q4 2020 Market Letter Stone Ridge, 2020 Shareholder Letter Matt Hougan and David Lawant, CFA research brief on Cryptoassets

Travis Schwab, the founder and CEO of Eventus Systems, a company specializing in trade surveillance, joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Travis’ entrepreneurial journey and path to starting Eventus Systems How he came to see cryptoassets as a market opportunity Thoughts on current market structure, the role of exchanges, and the institutional readiness of this market How trade surveillance directly impacts the prospects of a Bitcoin ETF 2021 predictions To learn more about Eventus visit their website. Sponsor notes: Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today’s complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.

Matt and Nic return for the first roundup of 2021. In this episode:  Why some funds might be buying Bitcoin at year end Are Ripple fans buying Bitcoin? Are fair launches obsolete? Vaneck files for a new Bitcoin ETF CME futures are officially the most liquid futures market BitGo pays a fine to OFAC Exchanges start delisting XRP Will exchanges face repercussions for listing securities? Why being a security dooms the cross-border settlement use case for XRP Which Bitcoin skeptic we'd like to flip the most

Brian Venturo is the CTO of CoreWeave, the largest North American GPU miner, which also doubles as a cloud infrastructure firm for general computation. In this episode:  How Brian went from hobbyist Ethereum mining to wielding a fleet of 50,000 GPUs How Core Weave was able to cheaply acquire GPUs from insolvent mining farms The implications of the Ethereum DAG file growing beyond 4 GB and its effect on miners The effect of the looming PoS transition on miner decision-making Why Core Weave specifically limited their GPU fleet to NVIDIAs with more memory Brian's stance on Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake Are miners pro-cyclical or counter-cyclical? Does Core Weave hold inventory in the coins they mine or do they divest them immediately? Brian's options based model for pricing hardware The mini gold rush happening in publicly traded mining firms Brian's opinion on hashrate swaps or derivatives How Core Weave is transitioning from purely mining based to public cloud services The feasibility of GPU miners moving into cloud computing Core Weave's plans to train an open source version of GPT-3 Brian's view of the role of miners in the Ethereum ecosystem The motivations behind monetary-related EIPs in Ethereum Brian's analysis of incentives to make Ethereum deflationary Why Proof of Work is an underrated distribution method Brian's position on increasing the gas limit Why tinkering with the fee market is counterproductive in terms of transactional efficiency The relationship between blockspace and fee revenue for miners Brian's thoughts on EIP 1559 and whether it increases Ethereum's security Brian's view on the pace of ethereum development Why Proof of Work launches are preferable to liquidity mining launches The current state of the ASIC v GPU debate Brian's retrospective on the Grin launch Why Core Weave is not interested in miner-extractable value (MEV) Sponsor notes:  Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today’s complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.

Craig Warmke is an assistant professor of philosophy at Northern Illinois University. He has written several papers on the subject of Bitcoin, both pertaining to the question of what Bitcoin actually is. We cover Craig's papers (linked below) and explore the role for philosophers in Bitcoin. How Craig realized there was an opportunity for philosophy in Bitcoin Other philosophers writing about Bitcoin Why philosophers don't take Bitcoin seriously The Bitcoin-related questions where philosophers can weigh in The risk of epistemic trespassing Why Satoshi may have been wrong when they defined an electronic coin as a 'chain of digital signatures' How Satoshi made a critical engineering decision which differentiated Bitcoin from prior e-cash systems Why units of Bitcoin cannot be tracked over time through the ledger – and why this matters Why Bitcoin tracks quantities of a substance, rather than discrete, individual units of Bitcoin Craig's stylized model of Bitcoin Why Craig describes Bitcoin as 'fictional substance in an ongoing and massively coauthored book' Why Bitcoin being 'fictional' does not delegitimize it at all How Craig's model extends to stablecoins Why Bitcoin's liability-freeness is so important, and distinguishes it from other monetary assets The practical significance of determining what Bitcoin is How Craig's analysis helps demystify chain splits How ETH 2.0 sheds light on the debate over Bitcoin's identity The greatest threat to Bitcoin Is Bitcoin the protocol a democratic phenomenon? Are there knowable facts about what the nature of Bitcoin is? Referenced in this episode: Craig Warmke, What is Bitcoin, forthcoming in Inquiry Craig Warmke, Electronic Coins George Selgin, Synthetic Commodity Money Martin Glazier, In Blockchain We Trust?

Nic and Matt return for a special Christmas episode of OTB. In this episode:  Jay Clayton steps down and Elad Roisman takes over as interim SEC Chair We analyse the Treasury's proposed rule on VASPs and crypto transactions Why the FinCEN rule imposes greater demands on crypto transactions than cash as far as surveillance is concerned Are the proposed workarounds between VASPs and defi asset pools viable? Our book recommendation on the politicization of the Treasury Our analysis of the SEC complaint against Ripple How bad is the SEC complaint for Ripple? Some of the most damning quotes from the SEC complaint The significance of the SEC extending the statute of limitations with Ripple Our theory for why the SEC waited so long to sue Ripple Implications for exchanges facilitating the trading of XRP A development on 15c3-3 We revisit our predictions for 2020 and issue new predictions for 2021 Content mentioned in this episode:  The Treasury's proposed rule on crypto wallets The Presidential Working Group's statement on stablecoins The SEC complaint against Ripple Labs The Tokendaily 2021 Crystal Ball Sponsor notes:  Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today’s complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.