On The Brink with Castle Island

Coin Metrics network data product lead Lucas Nuzzi joins the show to help explain how to audit the supply of Ethereum – and other, even more challenging blockchains. Also covered in this episode:  Does the Winklevoss gold asteroid mining talking point have any merit? Are the Winklevii being ironic or sincere The Boston Fed is hiring crypto engineers Why DeFi tokens remind us of PoW launches from 2014 Why we need a new taxonomy for autonomous fair launched DeFi tokens Why DeFi might not herald a resurgence of the ICO phenomenon Microstrategy surprises to the upside Facebook focuses on payments ETH supplygate explained

James Lovejoy, recent MEng MIT grad and former graduate researcher at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, joins the show to talk about his masters thesis and associated project focusing on detecting double-spends in proof of work cryptocurrencies. Previously, little data was collected in a systematic way to detect double-spends and reorganizations across many cryptocurrencies. James' project sheds light on previously unknown security properties of PoW. In this episode:  How James came to work on Vertcoin Why James thinks ASIC resistance is valuable James' blockchain monitoring project and why it matters Why reorgs are challenging to detect Why investigating the economic damage of reorgs is difficult How James noticed a 51% attack in progress on Vertcoin and intervened to save Bittrex money – and how this can be replicated Why understanding Nicehash is critical to detecting and dealing with 51% attacks James' critiques of dominant theoretical models of PoW security How James found reorgs and counterattacks happening on BTG in real time Why exchange processes like KYC might actually help protect blockchains from reorgs How permissionless trading and leverage makes certain blockchains more vulnerable to attacks Rules of thumb for confirmation requirements for exchanges The issue with calling coins "Nicehash-able" – and why it's likely a lowball How exchanges can proactively mitigate the risk of 51% attacks and what they should be targeting How BTG developers finally defeated deep reorgs Whether James is confident in the long-term prospects of PoW Whether James still believes in GPU mining Content referenced in this episode James Lovejoy, An Empirical Analysis of Chain Reorganizations and Double-Spend Attacks on Proof-of-Work Cryptocurrencies Raphael Auer, Beyond the doomsday economics of “proof-of work” in cryptocurrencies Eric Budish, The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and the Blockchain Hasu, Prestwich, and Curtis, A model for Bitcoin's security and the declining block subsidy Carlsten, Kalodner, Narayanan, Weinberg, On the Instability of Bitcoin Without the Block Reward Moroz, Aronoff, Narula, Parkes, Double-Spend Counterattacks: Threat of Retaliation in Proof-of-Work Systems Judmayer et al, Pay-To-Win: Cheap, Crowdfundable, Cross-chain Incentive Manipulation Attacks on Cryptocurrencies Liao and Katz, Incentivizing Blockchain Forks via Whale Transactions James Lovejoy and David Vorick, ASICs and cryptocurrencies: benefits and drawbacks  [debate] Nic Carter, It's the settlement assurances, stupid [blog] Elaine Ou, Cryptocurrency Deals can Always be Erased, for a Price [article]

Nic and Matt cover deals and the news of the week. In this episode: Are we in a bull run or is fiat devaluating? Africa volumes growing on Paxful BCH contemplating redirecting block rewards to fund developers Electric Capital raises 110m Casa adds a direct buy bitcoin feature Dapper labs raises $12m with participation from multiple NBA players Matt's scoop about the Microstrategy Bitcoin position Grayscale files a form 10 for their Ethereum Investment Trust Whether Bitcoiners should try to appeal to goldbugs Why the world needs Bitcoin hardware that demonstrates UTXOs held Is DGC the biggest company in the crypto industry? Square's monster Q2 for Bitcoin Goldman has a new digital assets lead ETC keeps getting 51% attacked

Ray Youssef, founder and CEO of Paxful, joins the show to talk his journey with Paxful and his mission to bring Bitcoin to Africa. Paxful is a wholly bootstrapped startup that has recently taken the crown as the largest Bitcoin p2p marketplace in the world with $2.1B in annualized volume. Ray is from Egypt and has always sought to bring Bitcoin to Africa. Today, Africa is the 2nd most active region by volume on the platform (behind North America). In this episode: Why Bitcoin p2p is so popular in Africa Why interstate settlements in Africa are so challenging today Ray's predictions about p2p volume versus centralized volume Why p2p exchange data is more reliable than centralized exchange volume How Ray went from being homeless to founding the largest p2p Bitcoin exchange Why KYC in emerging markets is so challenging How Ray went through 11 failed startups before starting Paxful The downside of taking venture financing and why Paxful is better off without it Why western startups fail when they try and get involved in African markets Why African users are under-served by KYC providers like Jumio or Onfido Why Paxful has KYC How the Paxful remittance flow works with gift cards Whether Paxful users are retail or wholesalers Why Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana are popular on Paxful Why Ray focused on Africa for Paxful How Ray found his way to New Orleans after Katrina The genesis of Ray's humanitarian project to build schools in Africa Paxful is hiring! 

Michael Graham and Pat McEvoy of Canaccord Genuity join the podcast to discuss how their firm has approached the blockchain/cryptoasset sector. In this episode we discuss: Michael’s perspective on blockchain/cryptoassets from his role as Head of Equity Research at the firm. We discuss how blockchain technology could alter the landscape of the dominant internet companies of our era Pat’s perspective on the maturation of cryptoassets and the increased participation of institutional participants in the trading of these assets Where Pat and Michael see the biggest opportunities and how Canaccord is positioning their blockchain strategy To learn more about Canaccord visit their website.

Matt and Nic review the stories of the week, featuring John Collins, partner and cofounder of FS Vector, to cover the OCC letter and its implications. Covered in this episode: Our Plustoken conspiracy Nic's bird situation USDC raises $25m from DCG Avanti's dollar-coin Avit Why Pats players keep declaring their intention to sit out the season Bitcoin Suisse raises $48.6m Polkadot raises $43m What tokensales and desert real estate have in common FTX is building a DEX on Solana Paradigm sponsors a Bitcoin developer Why Bitcoin's patronage system is a competitive advantage relative to other blockchains Our predictions on whether this rally will last The circular logic inherent in valuations of certain DeFi tokens Why distinguishing pseudo equity from cryptocurrency is so important  

Jesse Walden, founder of Variant joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Jesse’s journey in the crypto industry, from founding Mediachain, to being an investor at A16Z, to founding Variant The crypto ownership economy and how Jesse sees the evolution of consumer software Crypto projects through the lens of contract theory   Learn more and follow Jesse at www.variant.fund and follow him on Twitter @Jessewldn

Matt and Nic review the stories of the week. Covered in this episode: Why holding Bitcoin in banks isn't necessarily contrary to the nature of Bitcoin VALR, a South African exchange, raises $3.45m from 100x Group and others The OCC's bombshell letter saying that banks can custody cryptocurrency What this means for established crypto custodians Follow-up questions we have for the OCC Hester Pierce expresses her disappointment with the outcome of the Telegram case Standard Chartered working on cryptoasset custody Paypal partnering with Paxos Coinbase blacklists the Twitter hacker addresses Our explanation of what's going on with Ampleforth The potential pro-Bitcoin regulatory troika in the US

Sam Wyner and Sal Ternullo, cryptoasset services co-leads at KPMG, join the show to talk about KPMG's newly-released analytics capabilities dubbed Chain Fusion. Chain Fusion is a patent pending suite of advanced analytics capabilities built on leading cryptoasset data and infrastructure products, to streamline the ability for financial services companies, FinTechs, and organizations across industries to deliver institutional quality cryptoasset capabilities and services. In this episode: KPMG's historical engagement with the crypto industry How audit/consulting firms are engaging with crypto financial institutions  The choice to have a crypto specific team at KPMG (rather than simply focusing on blockchain) The reason why formal financial statement audits for crypto companies are not occuring in the US today Why an asset taxonomy from regulators matters to auditors What Chain Fusion is and what it's designed to solve The intersection of Chain Fusion and Proofs of Reserves for exchanges Why audit standards still don't take into account the notion of cryptographic signatures to prove ownership of an asset Why the FATF travel rule is so difficult to implement Check out the press release for Chain Fusion which provides a high-level overview of the accelerator suite and contact information to get in touch with Sam and Sal. Learn more about KPMG's Blockchain initiatives to explore recent thought leadership including Cracking Crypto Custody which describes four pillars for winning institutional crypto custody models.

Nate Maddrey, senior research analyst at Coin Metrics, joins the show to discuss a recent report published by CM in collaboration with Bitstamp, The Rise of Stablecoins. We talk through the report and analyse some of the charts in depth. In this episode:  Why the auditability of public blockchains is so useful for evaluating stablecoins Why fiat backed stablecoins have different price dynamics from 'native crypto collateral' backed ones How the arbitrage growth cycle works for fiat-backed stablecoins What the distribution of ownership and addresses for USDT tells us Liquidity for USDT versus USDC and BUSD Distinguishing stablecoins based on median transfer value Stablecoins as wholesale rather than retail value transfer networks What velocity of stablecoins relative to bitcoin and ether tells us