Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

What’s the deal with south shore bar pie?

• We review Consensus in Austin
• Nic’s 2022 Coin Center dinner incident
• Nic’s gas siphoning incident
• First Republic appears heading for collapse
• Why was First Republic given time to save itself but not Signature?
• Block partners with Yellowcard for cross-border African payments
• Open Exchange’s purported investors deny investing in the business
• Coinbase is setting up operations in Bermuda
• Coinbase is suing the SEC for clarity
• Hong Kong embraces banking for crypto firms
• NYDFS Superintendent Harris denies that crypto caused the Signature collapse
• The Biden admin is backpedaling on whether crypto contributed to the banking crisis
• House Republicans probe financial regulators for info on de-banking of crypto
• The FBI has searched the home of FTX’s Ryan Salame
• We reminisce on FTX’ Crypto Bahamas conference
• Why is flare gas mining better than the alternative?
• Nic’s music royalties situation
• Nic resolves his differences with the Bitcoin 2023 conference

Content mentioned: 

• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Embracing new opportunities and accessing banking services
• Letter from Reps Hill, Huizenga, and McHenry to key financial regulators
• TVP, The Emerging Bitcoin-Native Venture Capital Landscape

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics presents State of the Network Foundations: Blockchain Addresses: This week's State of the Network kicked off the new Foundations series, which looks to present various technical aspects of blockchain technology in an approachable way. In the first report, Coin Metrics breaks down the concept of an 'address,' the fundamental unit of identity in the world of crypto.

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• We debate some curious new sponsors
• The Miami gas shortage
• Nic’s impressions of NFT NYC
• We review Eric’s Orb
• When do Harberger taxes work?
• CIV is hiring
• The SEC is suing Bittrex and alleges that Algorand and Dash are unregistered securities
• Gensler is skewered by Republican lawmakers in the House Financial Services hearing
• Gensler refuses to answer whether Ethereum is a security
• We review the House hearing on stablecoins
• The McHenry Waters stablecoin bill appears to be dead
• Does FedNow make stablecoins obsolete?
• Should stablecoin issuance be limited to banks?
• A stablecoin catch-22
• Hester Peirce dissents on the proposed SEC exchange rule

Content mentioned:

• CIV is hiring
• Austin Campbell’s 118-BA21-Wstate-CampbellA-20230419.pdf"> written testimony to the House financial services committee
• Hester Peirce, Rendering Innovation Kaput: Statement on Amending the Definition of Exchange
   

Dan Tapiero, the founder of 10T Holdings and 1 Round Table Partners joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The performance of Bitcoin as a macro asset over the past year.
• The current regulatory environment and how the USA is losing its lead versus other countries in the digital asset ecosystem.
• The prospect of U.S. companies going public in non-U.S. jurisdictions.
• How Dan and his team approach growth stage investing.
• The secondary market and how Dan thinks about building ownership via secondary transactions.
• The LP landscape and how allocators are thinking about digital asset ecosystem managers.

To learn more about Dan visit the 1RT website and follow Dan on Twitter

Eric Wall is a cryptocurrency researcher, analyst, critic, and investor. In this episode we sit down to discuss the creation and premise of his new project, the Orb. 

• What is the orb?
• How did the orb come about?
• How to bet on the human capital and reputational growth of individuals
• Why previous social tokens failed
• What does the orb entitle you to?
• Why the orb is not a security
• Harberger taxes and their implementations so far
• How harberger taxes create better allocative efficiency
• Harberger taxes and domain names
• The problem with social tokens as a way to invest in people
• Why an obligation to a single holder is better than one to many holders
• Eric’s feud with the Hex community and how the rb could solve this
• Possible orb failure modes
• Possible AI issues with the orb
• Why orb issuers have an incentive to provide value to holders
• The possible role of orbs in venture capital
• How the orb could disrupt expert networks
• How to parameterize the orb
• The significance of the orb animations

Further reading:

• Orb.land

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Is Ethereum going through a ‘bullish unlock’?
• Did the SEC decicion around staking help decentralize Ethereum?
• What is a commodity?
• We pitch futures for restaurant bookings
• The problem with ‘phygitals’
• What’s going on with DWF labs?
• Twitter users will be able to trade crypto through the app
• Is FedNow a CBDC?
• Does FedNow introduce risks to the banking system?
• A relaunch of FTX gets more likely
• How the DOJ caught the Silk Road hacker
• Could a CBDC emerge which is actually private?
• We roll out the Tap In or Tap Out segment
• Is France going to become a crypto haven?
• The NYT article on Bitcoin mining
• Did the NYT doctor pictures to make Bitcoin miners look more polluting than they are?
• CIV is hiring

Sponsor notes: 

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter: this week, Ethereum's Shanghai redemption

Dennison Bertram, the co-founder and CEO of Tally, returns to the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Dennison’s career in the crypto industry from exchange founder to founding Tally.
• How to frame DAOs from a total addressable market perspective.
• What types of companies and industry categories would be better served as DAOs.
• Best practices in managing DAOs.
• The regulatory landscape for DAOs and how state LLC regulations could factor into future legislation.
• How Tally works with leading DAOs.

To learn more about Tally visit their website and follow Dennison on Twitter.

See also: 

• On The Brink, podcast.com/tally/">Dennison Bertram and Raf Solari on Reforming DeFi Governance (March 2021)

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• What are the prospects for dealing with OCP 2.0?
• Creditors are considering relaunching FTX int’l
• The boundary between being a visionary and a scammer
• Nic’s feud against NPR
• What’s the deal with the bug eating meme?
• Are lobsters bugs?
• What happened to the tungsten cube NFTs?
• Singapore banks might be warming up to crypto
• Hong Kong is red hot as a crypto zone
• A new paper alleges the Fed has overstepped its discretionary authority
• The Case for Banning Crypto
• The US treasury report on DeFi protocols
• Apple embeds the Bitcoin whitepaper on all laptops
• Nic’s UFC picks and Matt’s golf picks

Content mentioned in the episode:

• Julie Hill, From Cannabis to Crypto: Federal Reserve Discretion in Payments
• Politico, U.S. Diplomat to Washington: You’re Becoming Obsolete in One Big Area of Tech Policy
• US Treasury, Risk-Full-Review.pdf"> Illicit Finance Risk Assessment of Decentralized Finance
• Kathleen Breitman in Fortune, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and why L2 solutions are such a mess

Lorien Gabel and Benjamin Thalman of Figment join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The founding story of Figment and the focus of the firm.
• The evolution of proof of stake blockchains and how Figment helps their customers with staking.
• Ethereum, the Shanghai upgrade and the likely impacts of withdrawal functionality on the network.
• Views on the current regulatory environment and how that impacts proof of stake participants.

To learn more about Figment visit their website and follow Lorien and Benjamin on Twitter.

In this episode I sit down with David Thompson, managing partner at Cooper & Kirk. We cover the emergence of Operation Choke Point 2.0 and what recourse can be sought by the industry. In this episode: 

• Cooper & Kirk's track record and reputation
• The story of Choke Point 1.0 and how Cooper & Kirk helped end it
• How was OCP 1.0 resolved? 
• Why Cooper & Kirk wrote their recent white paper on OCP 2.0
• Differences between Choke Point 1.0 and 2.0 
• Inconsistencies in FDIC Chair Gruenberg's Congressional testimony
• Why David thinks that a complaint on due process grounds might be the best option for affected firms 
• Relevant constitutional protections 
• How OCP 2.0 might resolve
• The fate of the SPDIs
• Possible violations of the Administrative Procedures Act by the Fed
• How SCOTUS might rule on this issue 

Further reading: 

• Cooper & Kirk: Choke-Point-2.0.pdf"> Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Federal Bank Regulators Come For Crypto

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. 

• Cooper and Kirk’s white paper on Operation Choke Point 2.0
• How bank regulators put crypto-facing banks in a catch-22
• SBF charged with bribing a Chinese official
• Is Sam funding his legal defense with funds purloined from FTX users?
• The CFTC charges Binance with operating an unlicensed derivatives exchange
• Binance execs haz no confidence in their geofencing
• How did the CFTC get their hands on CZ’s Signal history
• The SEC shuts down Beaxy
• Microstrategy buys another $150m worth of Bitcoin
• NASDAQ is aiming to launch their crypto custody platform in June
• What’s the deal with McHenry’s stablecoin bill?
• House Democrats would make issuing a stablecoin effectively illegal
• Elizabeth Warren is “building an anti-crypto army”
• Are DAOs unincorporated associations or general partnerships?
• Is the SPDI dead in the water?
• Did the FDIC Chair perjure himself in front of Congress this week?
• What’s the deal with the SigNet sale?
• Is dedollarization happening?

Content mentioned:

• Cooper & Kirk Choke-Point-2.0.pdf"> whitepaper on Operation Choke Point 2.0