The Breakdown

Weekly countdown of the 5 most important essays and threads from the week before on Long Reads Sunday. This week featuring Lightning Network vs the encroaching surveillance state; a US Congressman's response to Circle leaving the US; a hot take on the Trump Administration's interest in backdoor encryption and more.  Video produced by BlockTV Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The US Attorney General has reignited a debate about encryption backdoors for law enforcement. Libra has a long way to go, with a recent poll finding it significantly less trustworthy to Americans than Bitcoin. And finally, a regulatory roundup including a new New York State crypto taskforce and upcoming hearings in the Senate.  Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Justin Sun canceled his lunch with Warren Buffett this week, claiming kidney stones. Reports today, however, suggested that he was compelled not to leave China by border authorities due to investigations. But then he showed up in SF? So basically, wth. Also an interesting conversation about developer funding and block rewards comes to Ethereum, while members of the Indian crypto community react to aggressive new political recommendations.  Watch original: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nlw

From 5 to 1, counting down the most important threads, essays and content from last week. Featuring the key setup questions for the Libra hearings; a case study of Cuba on whether a project like Libra could make a difference to the "unbanked"; the uncoupling of Libra and Bitcoin; the respond of China; and a Congressman calls Bitcoin an "unstoppable force."  Produced in partnership with BlockTV https://twitter.com/BLOCKTVnews Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The CFTC's investigation of BitMEX is the latest in string of screws tightening on global exchanges touching US customers. In an interesting twist, a lawsuit leads to a Chinese court determining that Bitcoin is a protected legal property. Ycash has friendly forked from Zcash, but is a friendly fork even possible?  Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Libra was a hotbutton issue at the G7 meetings - maybe the one thing they agreed on. Meanwhile, the project made news in China as Facebook's David Marcus revealed explicitly that it saw Alipay and Wechat as competitors. Meanwhile, the crypto community spilled ink discussing hedge fund titan Ray Dalio's latest missive on the coming financial paradigm shift.  Watch the live version at: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

On Day 2 of Libra hearings, Facebook's David Marcus testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee. And boy oh boy, it could not have been more different than yesterday. Today was massively more substantive, thoughtful, and holy crap was there a lot of comparison between Bitcoin and Libra...with Bitcoin coming out on top again and again. This day will go down as one of the most significant in Bitcoin's history.  Watch the video version at https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Libra's David Marcus testified before a relatively hostile Senate Banking Committee today. In today's 3@3, we go over: 1) Facebook's trust problem; 2) the most important topics and themes of the questioning; 3) what it all means for Bitcoin.  Watch the livestreamed version on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/nlw Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/nlwcrypto Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Every Sunday, I put together a list of the top tweets, threads and essays shaping the crypto conversation. On Monday, I countdown my five favorites with BlockTV. Monday's Crypto Daily 3@3 is the audio recording version.  For those who want to watch, check out the replay at: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto https://blocktv.com/   Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nlw Follow BlockTV: https://twitter.com/BLOCKTVnews

A very Trump-y special edition! On this episode, we look at 1) what happened with Trump’s Bitcoin/Libra tweet; 2) the crypto community’s response; 3) the surprisingly with it mainstream media response; and 4) what it means going forward and why we need to build our own public story so that a technology with massive potential to enshrine freedom and individual sovereignty doesn’t become defamed and criminalized.    Note for listeners; the second half or so of this clip is discussion from Twitch live chat. This usually doesn’t happen but with such big news there was quite a bit of excitement to discuss. Let me know if you like this or if I should cut it off for the future.    For those who want to watch, check out the replay at: https://www.twitch.tv/nlwcrypto https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto   Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nlw