On The Brink with Castle Island

BlockFi Chief Risk Officer Rene Van Kesteren joins the show to explain how crypto lender and brokerage BlockFi engages in risk management. In this episode: Rene's career trajectory and the path that led him to joining BlockFi The mechanics of how BlockFi offers interest bearing accounts The borrowing and lending market structure How BlockFi thinks about counterparty risk The reason why rates on U.S. Dollars are higher for stablecoins vs. dollars in a bank account How margin calls work Differences and similarities in market structure in 'traditional' vs. cryptoasset markets The biggest misconceptions about BlockFi and crypto lending in general To learn more about risk management at Blockfi visit: https://blockfi.com/how-blockfi-handles-risk-and-security To learn more about BlockFi's products visit: www.blockfi.com

Repeat guest Zach Kelman joins the show to break down the contemporary effects of Operation Choke Point from his perspective as a lawyer having worked in compliance and regulatory for large financial institutions. In this episode: The (pre)history of Choke Point – and how it wasn't a bolt from the blue How Choke Point was mechanically enforced against the banks Why industry-wide politicization of financial services is a poor policy to pursue How Choke Point lasted far beyond its original mandate Have banks been permanently politicized as a result of OCP? How Choke Point's effects are being felt in the crypto industry What to expect on an ongoing basis Prior episodes in the Choke Point 2.0 series Iain Murray (Competitive Enterprise Institute) on the history of Operation Choke Point Amber Scott (Outlier Canada) on crypto-bank relationships in Canada

Nic and Matt return for one of the most explosive weeks in the history of the podcast. In this episode: How Nic ended up at war with the Dogecoin fans CIV closes a $50m fund Tom Brady wins the Super Bowl Should responsible CFOs own Bitcoin on their corporate balance sheets? Bitcoin on the balance sheet as a signaling mechanism BNY Mellon announces support for Bitcoin The St Louis Fed is writing articles about DeFi Nic orangepills Central Bankers Our guesses for the first central banks to adopt Bitcoin Nigeria contemplates a Bitcoin ban Mastercard is supporting cryptocurrency on their networks – what does this mean? The Bitcoin energy debate Can you compare Bitcoin to Visa? Are Christmas lights wasteful Content mentioned in this episode: Nic in Coindesk, What Bloomberg Gets Wrong About Bitcoin's Climate Footprint St Louis Fed, DeFi coverage Nic on Bloomberg, Bitcoin's Impact on the Environment

Edan Yago, product lead at Sovryn, talks us through the prospects for DeFi on Bitcoin. In this episode: Edan Yago's origin story How Edan became disenchanted with the Bitcoin community's ambition Did Bitcoiners compromise on an original vision of adopting successful alternative technologies? Is Bitcoin sufficiently expressive to be a functional base layer for smart contracting? Was the original vision of sidechains abandoned? The state of the art in trustless sidechains Is the perfect the enemy of the good with Bitcoin? Is Lightning "worse is better"? Is Bitcoin hamstrung by the pursuit of perfection? Why compromising on trust assurances has been a boon for Ethereum Why native smart contracting on Bitcoin is superior to using wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum Do rollups break composability for DeFi? Is DeFi subsidized by token issuance and liquidity mining? What can Bitcoiners learn from Ethereum? Thoughts on other Bitcoin L2s like Blockstack Update on Rootstock/RSK and why Sovryn is building on it What Sovryn is and what you can do with it Does Sovryn require any changes to Bitcoin itself?

Galen Wolfe-Pauly, cofounder of Tlon, discusses the purpose of Urbit and its resistance to deplatforming. They explore the politicization of internet infrastructure, the limitations of centralized networks, and the concept of users owning their content. They also dive into the evolution of the internet, the challenges of internet platforms, and how to get involved with Urbit.

Nic and Matt return for another jam packed week. In this episode: Our reflections on Saylor day Is Ross Stephens the 2021 Bitcoin MVP? NYDIG bursts onto the scene Visa's overlooked crypto API pilot for banks Is hashrate moving to the US? Nic's ongoing spat with the Wall Street Journal Bitcoiin 2gen gets taken down by the SEC Soulja Boy's ENS name gets lost in Coinbase's vaullts IBM finally abandons 'enterprise blockchain' How will public markets treat Coinbase equity? India contemplates a crypto ban Content mentioned in this episode: Bitcoin Masterclass with Michael Saylor and Ross Stevens Stone Ridge, 2020 Shareholder Letter Visa's API pilot for banks Nic's response to the WSJ piece NYT, As Bitcoin's Price Surges, Affluent Investors Start to Take a Look Balaji Srinivasan, Why India Should Buy Bitcoin

Amanda Fabiano, the Head of Mining at Galaxy Digital joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Amanda's path to finding her passion in the mining sector Her role in leading Fidelity's mining initiatives Her views on the Bitcoin mining value chain and the categories that are most compelling Thoughts on the future of off-grid mining in the USA To learn more follow Amanda on Twitter or visit www.galaxydigital.io

Boaz Sobrado, data analyst and the founder of whynotcuba.com joins the show to talk about trends in Cuban Bitcoin adoption. In this episode: How Boaz came to start an ecommerce company in Cuba and how Bitcoin became relevant to him The structure of Bitcoin trading markets in Cuba How Bitcoin currently trades in Cuba Drivers of Bitcoin adoption in Cuba Why Cuba until recently hasn't been known as an important jurisdiction for Bitcoin Why Cuba doesn't show up in the typical proxies for bitcoin usage Why internet penetration in Cuba is accelerating Bitcoin adoption How Bitcoin is incorporated into the remittance flow in Cuba How the Cuban regime thinks about and talks about Bitcoin The history of Cuba's three simultaneous sovereign currencies How the sovereign currency transitions are a means for the government to acquire hard currency at the expense of savers The key factors supporting a wave of Bitcoin adoption in Cuba today How Bitcoin markets permit the pricing of the black market peso rate Content mentioned in this episode: Boaz Sobrado, A Day Using Money in Cuba Boaz Sobrado in Decrypt, Why Cuba is Primed for Bitcoin Adoption

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Our view on the Robinhood/Gamestop affair Why 'rebuilding the financial system from scratch' is a good idea, actually Could the brokerages deplatform Bitcoin financial products too? Will FTX be the last Gamestop market standing? Nic's reflections on the Mike Green / Grant Williams debate We correct the record on certain claims made in the debate We settle the question of inflation in the 40s We declare a truce between bitcoiners and goldbugs Another ETF filing Ray Dalio starts to come around on Bitcoin Content mentioned: The Grant Williams Podcast, Both Sides of the Coin: A Civilized Bitcoin Debate OTB Episode, What Keeps Stablecoins Stable OTB Episode, The Market Effects of Stablecoin Issuance Ray Dalio, What I Think of Bitcoin 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.

Economics professor at Charles University Ladislav Krištoufek joins us for a discussion centered on his new paper, On the Role of Stablecoins in Cryptoasset Pricing Dynamics. In this episode: How Ladislav began covering crypto markets in 2013 Ladislav's research agenda as it pertains to the crypto markets Why the quality of so much Bitcoin academia is dubious The academic-practitioner gap and how to close it How Ladislav came to write his newest paper Methodological details How to interpret the findings in the paper Whether issuance of stablecoins affects the price of bitcoin Ladislav's critiques of the Griffin and Shams paper Key takeaways from Ladislav's paper Ladislav's ultimate explanation for stablecoin issuance Other papers Ladislav recommends on stablecoins Also mentioned: 'What Keeps Stablecoins Stable?', OTB discussion with Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj Is Bitcoin Really Untethered? by Griffin and Shams