Unconfirmed: Insights And Analysis From The Top Minds In Crypto

Freelance reporter and audio producer Chris Harland-Dunaway speaks about his long investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun after his acquisition of BitTorrent. In this episode, Harland-Dunaway describes: how after his acquisition of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent Justin Sun straddled the China-West divide  Sun's background, his early success and how he got into cryptocurrency how he treated the US-based employees differently from those based in China how Sun made a threat to kill an employee's family over an anonymous employee question about what would happen is TRX went to $0 an incident in which Sun hit an employee how Sun handled ethical issues that cropped up around scammers on the app store on Tron, with piracy on BitTorrent product BT Movie and with dark web-style content on BT Live why he believes Sun's biggest liability is his lack of empathy as both a manager and entrepreneur   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com   Episode links:  Christopher H

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, discusses a controversial blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about how the company intends to take an apolitical stance, the pushback it received afterward, and the company's offer of generous exit packages for employees who disagree: why CEO Brian Armstrong wrote the blog post stating it would be taking an apolitical stance during these socially and politically tumultuous times why the company then offered a generous exit package to employees who disagreed with it which social and political issues caused the divisions at Coinbase how a question about Black Lives Matter at a a company all-hands back in June began the series of events that resulted in this blog post why employees walked out earlier this summer why Armstrong did tweet about the Black Lives Matter movement how the stance Armstrong took in the blog post is not a surprise to those who know his personality  why the reactions to the blog post were so wide-ranging how this affects Coinba

Jake Brukhman, cofounder and CEO of CoinFund, explains why people are excited about non-fungible tokens, how they can be used, and what new behaviors and businesses they might enable. He discusses: what a NFT or non-fungible token is how they can be "liquid intellectual property" what kinds of digital assets can be turned into NFTs what new types of behaviors and new products and services can be created based off NFTs why consumers would prefer to use an NFT photo or song vs. one from Shutterstock or Spotify why someone would want to buy an NFT when it's so easy to make digital copies of things like art or ebooks or mp3s how disputes over digital objects could be adjudicated in a global marketplace how NFTs enable fractionalized ownership how NFTs can be used as collateral to manage risk how NFTs are combining with DeFi to create NFTFi how NFTs and NFTFi bring non-crypto people in to the space and expose them to finance why the NFT space is much bigger than people probably expect, and how it's dr

David Kinitsky, CEO of Kraken Financial, talks about Kraken's news that it is launching a bank, after receiving approval to form a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) from the state of Wyoming. He discusses: why Kraken decided to become a crypto bank, and what it will be able to do with this status how this status will affect the consumer experience for crypto users  what kinds of crypto assets it will be able to deal with  how quickly it will list coins, such as those DeFi coins that quickly balloon to billion-dollar market caps what its designation, special purpose depository institution (SPDI) means, and why that has special meaning for crypto users what "bailment" means, and why that's significant for crypto users interested in using a crypto bank and how that would affect users in the event any coins were stolen or lost how Kraken Financial's status as a crypto bank will affect the longstanding problem in the industry of obtaining and maintaining bank relationships how this overlaps an

0xMaki, a cofounder of SushiSwap explains how and why he got involved in this project forked from SushiSwap, why he thinks his view of decentralization differs from that of many centralized teams that being such projects, and what the benefits of the SushiSwap vampire mining scheme have been. He discusses:  how and why he got involved in SushiSwap why he feels his view of decentralization differs from that of teams such as Uniswap who he believes the other cofounders are, demographically why cofounder Chef Nomi cashed out to take $13 million after a week's worth of work on the project  how it was decided to hand the admin key to SushiSwap over to Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX and Alameda Research how SushiSwap proved that liquidity is not a moat, although trading volume might be why he doesn't own $SUSHI how he feels about taking code from Uniswap the vision for SushiSwap going forward whether or not SushiSwap will be built on another blockchain where he got his $YFI sweatshirt and $YAM pants

Nadav Hollander, cofounder and CEO of Dharma, discusses the war currently being waged between Uniswap and SushiSwap, how this is driving up fees on Ethereum, and how Dharma's product can get around them. In this episode we discuss: why he conceptually supports SushiSwap and fair launch coins whether or not fair launch coins really are fair why SushiSwap makes him nervous why the battle between SushiSwap and Uniswap is a so-called "vampire attack," which is actually driving up the total value locked on Uniswap  how the SushiSwap yield farming works whether or not Uniswap will release Uniswap v3 in time to compete with SushiSwap whether he thinks Uniswap or SushiSwap will win what factors matter when it comes to which will win out between two nearly identical protocols how Dharma's product enables users to yield farm without paying the high gas fees on Ethereum, but what fee users will pay instead   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: http://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode l

Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys and cofounder of Ethereum, discusses ConsenSys's acquisition this week of JPMorgan's blockchain solution, Quorum. In this episode, he talks about: why JPMorgan sold Quorum to ConsenSys, and how that fits into ConsenSys's larger enterprise offerings who Quorum's clients are and what it is used for whether or not ConsenSys is also acquiring the Quorum team  how the acquisition fits in with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and its standards-based approach to blockchain enterprise development how much JPMorgan invested into ConsenSys how much ConsenSys is raising  how the Quorum acquisition fits into ConsenSys's larger restructuring into two main arms focused on software development and venture activity how the pandemic has affected ConsenSys's business the recent outcry over MetaMask's changes to its licensing structure and how it may eventually monetize with a token his thoughts on Ethereum's five-year anniversary and where it is headed with Ethereum 2.0   Thank

In this episode, I answer some questions submitted to me via Twitter. I take the audience behind the scenes at Unconfirmed and Unchained to discuss: how I started learning about crypto my pre-interview ritual and how I prepare for interviews the toughest interview I have done so far what I dislike about being a crypto journalist my interests outside of crypto what my recording setup and environment are like the storyline to my upcoming book who I consider to be the top five leaders in crypto  what the layer 1 blockchain future looks like whether my conviction in the crypto industry has grown over the years what I believe the next tech revolution will be what I think of the trends in dapps, alts and DeFi  how relevant fundamentals will be in the upcoming bull cycle whether I find time to reflect on how fast things are moving in the space   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io   Episode links:  Laura Shin: https://twitter.com/laurashin Unc

Andreas Antonopoulos, speaker, educator and author of "Mastering Bitcoin" and "Mastering Ethereum," dives into the ETH supply debate that raged over the last week. In this episode, he talks about: why the question about the ETH supply is a "silly gotcha" what technical features of the Ethereum blockchain make it less straightforward to calculate the supply of ether how the shift to Ethereum 2.0 and a proof of stake system will affect the value of ETH as money why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not natural competitors and will continue to coexist how macro forces will affect Bitcoin, and whether it will ever be used as a medium of exchange in addition to a store of value whether the full Ethereum 2.0 transition will happen in time to meet DeFi demand why Bitcoin gives Ethereum the freedom to experiment why Bitcoin Cash shows that offering scaling with no community isn't enough to take market share why he supports diversity and inclusion efforts in the space   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: htt

Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments, talks about the strong growth in investment in its products, with inflows in Q2 totaling more than $900 million, bringing assets under management to over $5 billion. He discusses how Grayscale: saw more than $900 million in investment in Q2, up from $500 million in Q1 why the macro environment is causing investors to focus on crypto why investors are expressing growing interest in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust how 80% of Grayscale investors have exposure to more than one asset which types of investors are coming in what developments within the crypto space are also leading to the increased inflows into Grayscale products Grayscale's filing of a Form 10 for the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which will enable it to become an SEC-reporting company why it is doing so for the Ethereum Trust as opposed to Ethereum Classic how the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin Trusts will soon by publicly trading what metrics they use to determine whether t

Dmitry Buterin, father of Vitalik Buterin and cofounder of BlockGeeks, discusses Ethereum at 5 years old. In this episode, he talks about: how he feels upon Ethereum's 5th birthday how he introduced Vitalik to Bitcoin what he thought when Vitalik dropped out of college to explore Bitcoin more his thoughts on Vitalik's initial idea and white paper for Ethereum what he thought of the ICO craze whether or not he worried about the SEC charging Ethereum or Vitalik with securities violations how Steven Nerayoff told Vitalik he should be worried about the SEC coming after him whether he tried to help Vitalik with the social challenges in growing Ethereum how Vitalik has changed through his work with Ethereum what he looks forward to as Ethereum shifts to 2.0 what he thinks should happen with ether's monetary policy under Ethereum 2.0 Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum.com/   Episode links:  Dmitry Buterin: https://twitt

Haseeb Awan, CEO of Efani, a secure and private cell phone service, talks about how he became acquainted with hackers who took over prominent accounts on Twitter last week. He describes: the underground industry that steals cell phone numbers and why who the main players, Kirk, lol and "ever so anxious" are what the hackers did when they took hold of prominent accounts, such as those of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and those of crypto companies such as Binance and Coinbase what the hackers could do with the information that they obtained with the accounts they took over why this was likely not a pre-planned attack what happened to the security of the Twitter accounts, and why their second-factor authentication protections did not keep their accounts from being hacked what lessons crypto people can take away from the Twitter hack and how they can protect themselves   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://www.nexo.io Tezos: https://tquorum

Nate Maddrey, senior research analyst at Coin Metrics, discusses a report on the rise of stablecoins over the last few months that Coin Metrics published in conjunction with Bitstamp. He covers:  why a stablecoin supply that grew over five years has doubled in the last four months  why demand has grown, specifically for Tether, especially after Black Thursday why that demand caused Tether's price to rise above $1 post-Black Thursday why Tether is the most dominant stablecoin how traders were making money off that arbitrage opportunity and why the arbitrage stayed in place so long where Tether is popular why Tether's price goes up when the free float supply is high and why it goes down when the free float supply is low why the stablecoins have varied in their ability to stay stable and how individual stablecoins have reacted which types of users are holding stablecoins and various types of users are doing with it why it is that stablecoins appear to have different median exchange values and why sta

Jeff Roberts, senior reporter at Fortune and author of "King of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street" talks about the news this week that Coinbase may go public later this year. We talk about: how Coinbase may offer an additional token offering in addition to a traditional listing how the firm has been laying the legal groundwork for an innovative offering Coinbase's new chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, who is a former federal judge who has ruled over the Google-Oracle and Apple-Samsung trials and who was the deputy general counsel at Facebook what a direct listing, as opposed to a traditional IPO, could mean for Coinbase's investors what a Coinbase IPO would generally mean for the crypto industry why Coinbase's $8 billion valuation would likely go up in an IPO how the fact that overall interest in Bitcoin and crypto are down compared to the highs of 2017/2018 will affect a Coinbase listing   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://

Ben Celermajer, index manager at Coin Metrics, talks about a new metric Coin Metrics introduced this week, called free float supply. In this episode, he explains:   what problems in general Coin Metrics is trying to resolve with its various new metrics when it comes to blockchain-based tokens what other new metrics it has introduced what free float supply is what types of tokens and token holders it excludes from the free float how market caps change for some of the biggest coins when compared to the traditionally reported supply how using free float changes other valuation methods such as NVT and MVRV what other products Coin Metrics plans to build on these metrics   Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io   Episode links:  Benjamin Celermajer: https://twitter.com/CelermajerB Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.io Coin Metrics blog post on free float supply: https://coinmetrics.io/introducing-free-float-supply/ Coin Desk on the new metric: htt

Angel investor and writer Tony Sheng explains what yield farming is, why it's been such a craze, and whether or not the trend is sustainable. We discuss: how yield farming works how people could potentially earn 100% in annual percentage yields from it why people can earn more from lending or borrowing certain tokens vs. others how people can earn from borrowing at all how much leverage people are playing with the three ways people can lose their money while trying to yield farm and what the long-term significance is of yield farming for crypto Unchained is hiring!  Check out our job listing for a remote editorial assistant here! Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Tony Sheng: https://twitter.com/tonysheng Tony's newsletter: https://www.tonysheng.com Beware illiquid markets: https://tonysheng.substack.com/p/beware-illiquid-markets-lessons-from Yield farming is the new GPU mining: https://tony

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, discusses the launch of the COMP token this week, including: why the price of COMP tokens popped how this now meant that the governance of the Compound protocol was now in the hands of the community whether liquidity mining in DeFi is similar to or different from transaction mining on centralized exchanges what the price jump in COMP on day 1 means for a future DeFi bull market why Kain believes he is already seeing Bitcoin flowing into alts and DeFi tokens what this means for VCs who invested in layer 1 projects Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Kain Warwick: https://twitter.com/kaiynne Synthetix: https://www.synthetix.io Tweet storm on what he got wrong about COMP: https://twitter.com/kaiynne/status/1272875213319856129 Governance of Compound now in hands of the community: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-community-ownership-ee0ed1252cc3 Tushar

Robby Greenfield, the CEO of Emerging Impact and the former head of social impact and diversity programming at ConsenSys, talks about how the crypto community handles issues of diversity and inclusion. We discuss: why he thinks many in the community want to change everything but systemic racism why many in the community turned a blind eye to racist posts retweeted by cryptographer Nick Szabo how people in the crypto community responded to his recent essay on racism why cryptocurrency would not exist without black people his social impact work at ConsenSys how blockchain technology and crypto can help address issues of racism why blacks are underrepresented in crypto despite expressing more interested in it than other demographics Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Nexo: https://nexo.io DeversiFi: https://deversifi.com Episode links:  Robby Greenfield: https://twitter.com/RobTG4 Emerging Impact: http://emergingimpact.com  Robby’s essay in CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk

Steven McKie, CEO and founding partner at Amentum Capital, discusses the incidents involving Amy Cooper and George Floyd and the resulting protests, and how systemic racism affects black entrepreneurs in crypto. In this episode we discuss: His personal story from a childhood in poverty to running a crypto hedge fund How companies that want to hire from underrepresented groups have to change their habits to reach out to those communities Why underrepresented communities can be easily left behind at the time of technological revolutions Why Black Americans express more interest in crypto than white Americans and yet are still underrepresented What he says when people say that underrepresented groups choose not to be involved in crypto since there are no barriers Take our survey! Tell us what would you like to see from Unchained! Please take a moment to fill out the survey to let us know what you’d like from the show: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a cha

Sergio Lerner, the head of innovation of IOV Labs and the creator of the Rootstock side chain, describes a pattern he discovered in early Bitcoin mining that he called Patoshi and why people are talking about it now. In this episode he explains: what the Patoshi pattern is what connection it has to Satoshi why the pattern exists how the pattern is being used now in a current court case in which Craig Wright is claiming he is Satoshi Nakamoto how the Patoshi pattern was used this week to evaluate a set of transactions involving early bitcoins signed with the statement, "Craig Steven Wright is a liar and fraud" how it can be determined whether or not recent transactions were mined under the Patoshi pattern Take our survey! Tell us what would you like to see from Unchained! Please take a moment to fill out the survey to let us know what you’d like from the show: surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020. Crypto.com has offered our survey respondents a chance to win a metal MCO Visa card — and Crypto.com will s