Empire

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX made headlines when they acquired the naming rights to Miami's basketball stadium. We talk about how he got there, including everything from his childhood to his experience juggling arbitrage in Japan.–––LUKKAMinimize your crypto taxes and maximize your refund with Lukka Essentials. Dozens of exchange APIs and hundreds of mapped file formats makes it easy to upload your transaction history. With no limits on exchanges or transaction count, file your 2020 taxes for just $19.95 whether you have 10 transactions or 1 million. Go to tax.lukka.tech/empire to sign up and generate 2020 tax forms today.–––EXODUSDownload the app today at exodus.com/empire and iOS users can buy up to $500 in Bitcoin for just $1 for a limited time.–––Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

My guest today is Mike Belshe, Founder and CEO of BitGo. But before that, he used what he learned at Netscape to help Google develop Chrome. Like many of us, Belshe stored his first Bitcoin on an old laptop. But after his investor friends started sending their digital assets his way, that "old laptop" was suddenly worth millions. Here's how his quest to secure those assets eventually became BitGo.–––Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

My guest today is Flori Marquez, Co-Founder of BlockFi.On this episode of Empire, we discuss BlockFi's staggering valuation, what it's like to lead a $3 billion Fintech company, and why crypto is so valuable in countries without fiat stability.–––Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

My guest today is Joe Lubin, Co-Founder of Ethereum and CEO and Founder of ConsenSys.On this episode of Empire, we discuss where Bitcoin falls short, Joe leaving Wall Street for Crypto, founding Ethereum and ConsenSys, why forks can be good for progress, and Joe's real motivators.–––Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!

My guest today is Muneeb Ali, Co-Founder of the Stacks Project (formerly Blockstack) and CEO of Hiro.On this episode of Empire, we talk about Muneeb’s upbringing in Pakistan and the sacrifices his family made to get him his first computer, military dictatorship vs democratic rule, how he lied about a grant to get a job in Sweden and then ran out of money, and why it’s better to build on Bitcoin than create a new chain.–––Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!