Unconfirmed: Insights And Analysis From The Top Minds In Crypto

Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin and the website Are We Decentralized Yet, explains why he thinks the markets suddenly took a nosedive, why it's hard for him to get data on these crypto assets for the Are We Decentralized Yet website -- unless there's a centralized company behind them -- and how Ripple and Initiative Q are somewhat similar. We also covered the perpetual question of how much of Ripple's social media support is real vs. bots, what "fair distribution" of coins means, why mining isn't for "anybody" but for the privileged, and whether or not proof of stake coins could be secure or whether they'll also be susceptible to centralization. Thank you to our advertisers! CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unconfirmed WeTrust: https://wetrust.io/unconfirmed  Episode links: Jackson Palmer: https://twitter.com/ummjackson Jackson Palmer's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/JacksonPalmer Jackson Palmer's website: https://ummjackson.com Dogecoin: https://dogecoin.com Are We Decentralize

In lieu of a regular episode during this (U.S.) holiday, I'm releasing the audio from my TEDx San Francisco Talk. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unconfirmed Links: TEDx San Francisco: https://www.tedxsanfrancisco.com Video of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ew7PW4LCo My Unconfirmed episode with Bill Tai: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/how-crypto-will-give-you-more-flexibility-in-your-work-ep033

Bitcoin Magazine technical editor Aaron Van Wirdum breaks down what is going on with the Bitcoin Cash contentious hard fork: who is fighting, over what, and how this could play out, including the nuclear option of a proof of work algorithm change. We discuss whether the battle could deliver a verdict on the question of whether hash power follows price or vice versa, what this says about the strength of proof of work as an algorithm over proof of stake, and what Bitcoin Cash holders should do. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation matched by WeTrust through Giving Tuesday, November 27! http://wetrust.io/unconfirmed Episode links: Aaron Van Wirdum: https://twitter.com/AaronvanW Aaron's article on the Bitcoin Cash contentious hard fork: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/when-fork-forks-what-you-need-know-bitcoin-cash-goes-war/ Jordan Clifford of Scalar Capital explains the sp

Emin Gun Sirer, Cornell professor, co-director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts (IC3) and the founder of Ava, talks about the settlement the SEC reached with the founder of EtherDelta, and what that could mean for the coders of decentralized systems.  He also puts this action in the context of the history of peer-to-peer sharing and how the government used to prohibit encryption. We also discuss his main takeaway from DevCon4 last week -- hint, maximalism is probably not the future -- and he explains a new consensus algorithm called Avalanche, and how that differs from previous ways to achieve consensus. Then, he gives us a sneak preview of a new coin he is launching, Ava. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Episode links: Emin Gun Sirer: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/ IC3: https://www.initc3.org SEC/EtherDelta settlement press release: https://www.sec.gov

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the Bitcoin white paper, Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, asks how Bitcoin can go from a speculative asset to real money (hint: the Lightning Network plays a role) and explains what he thinks is the significance of Fidelity getting into crypto and Bakkt launching. He also tells the story of how Poker Black Friday, when the government shut down online poker sites, demonstrates the need for Bitcoin, which leads us to discuss whether or not Bitcoin is mostly good for criminal activities. We explore how Satoshi leaving Bitcoin has influenced its trajectory, and, looking to the next 10 years, Charlie wonders whether we'll find, via its market cap, that Bitcoin truly is a better store of value than gold -- plus, he gives us his vision for Litecoin. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com WeTrust: Donate in crypto and have your donation ma

Fidelity Digital Asset Services president Tom Jessop explains why its new crypto offering for institutional clients is focused on custody and trade execution, why it's decided not to launch its own exchange, and what kinds of trading capabilities from traditional financial services they plan to build out in the space. He also describes Fidelity's journey to this point -- how it started mining Bitcoin in 2015, had employees buy what must now be some of the world's most expensive bagels in the company cafeteria, and enabled Bitcoin donations in its donor advised funds. He also answers whether or not they plan to create a digital asset offering for retail customers, how custodying digital assets is different from custodying traditional assets and how he came to Fidelity after experience at Goldman Sachs and Chain. Thank you to our sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/ Episode links: Fidelity Digital Assets: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/overview

Dan McArdle, cofounder of Messari and the creator of OnChainFX, discusses why tether lost its dollar peg, how the Gemini USD traded at above $1, and how this was similar to the time before Mt. Gox imploded. We also discuss the significance of the Fidelity news, plus McArdle's thesis on how Bitcoin would behave in a recession -- which isn't the conventional wisdom. Thank you to our sponsors! Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/ OnRamp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Episode links: Dan McArdle: https://twitter.com/robustus Messari: https://messari.io OnChainFX: https://onchainfx.com Tether falls in price: https://www.coindesk.com/price-of-tether-stablecoin-tanks-to-18-month-low/ Gemini trades as high as $1.09: https://www.coindesk.com/gemini-stablecoin-volume-doubles-top-10-exchange-bibox-tether-turmoil/ Bitfinex's banking situation: https://theblockcrypto.com/2018/10/16/tether-has-found-a-new-bank-in-the-caribbean/ https://theblockcrypto.com/2018/10/16/bitfinex-appears-to-have-moved-its-bu

Soona Amhaz of Token Daily talks about how we've misused the word decentralization and stretched it to the point of meaninglessness. She discusses how certain companies misrepresent being decentralized and walks us through some misleading graphs put out by Ripple and EOS. She also explains why, when a good metric becomes a target, people will then game it, and why we should be open to projects becoming decentralized over time. We also talk about tribalism, and why it's bad in only some instances -- like for investors -- but good for other groups of people in the crypto space. Plus, we dish about Nouriel Roubini's and Peter Van Valkenburgh's testimony to the Senate on cryptocurrencies. Thank you to our sponsors! Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/ Interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed? Contact Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com. Episode links: Soona Amhaz: https://twitter.com/soonaorlater Token Daily: https://www.tokendaily.co Crypto Springs: http://www.cryptosprings.org Unch

Bill Barhydt, founder and CEO of Abra, describes its new product, the BIT10, which it created in partnership with Bitwise Asset Management (full disclosure: Bitwise previously sponsored my podcasts). He outlines the way the token is similar to an ETF -- for instance, it rebalances monthly -- and the ways in which it differs. We also compare and contrast it to similar offerings announced by Coinbase and Circle. Bill also explains Abra's overall strategy and recent pivot, why it is built on Bitcoin and its future plans. Thank you to our sponsor! Blockdaemon: http://blockdaemon.com/unchained/ If you're interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed, reach out to Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com. Episode links: Abra: https://www.abra.com/ Bill Barhydt: https://twitter.com/billbarhydt BIT10: https://www.abra.com/index/bit10/ Bitwise: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com Singularity episode: http://unchainedpodcast.co/singularity-university-global-summit-how-do-we-get-consumer-adoption-ep83

Rune Christensen, founder and CEO of MakerDao, explains what Andreessen Horowitz's $15 million investment in its Maker token means for the ecosystem and why they chose to work with a16z and its general partner Kathryn Haun. He also responds to criticism that the process took place behind closed doors despite the fact that MakerDao has a notably open, transparent system otherwise, and concerns about the seeming discount of 40% that the a16z team got. He also talks about whether or not MakerDao could amass too much power in the Ethereum ecosystem, thereby centralizing power around the Dai stablecoin. If you're interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed, reach out to Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com! Episode links: Rune Christensen: https://twitter.com/runekek MakerDao: https://makerdao.com Announcement about investment from a16z: https://medium.com/makerdao/a16z-crypto-purchases-6-of-mkr-backing-stablecoin-vanguard-makerdao-ff410a692393 Rune's comments about why MakerDao wants to work with a1

Linda Xie, cofounder at Scalar Capital, talks about what she saw at ETHBerlin, why it made her think Ethereum's first-mover advantage may be hard for other smart contract platforms to overcome and how the crypto community in Berlin differed from that of Silicon Valley. She also talked about why Scalar Capital is focused on privacy coins, how her experience at Coinbase informed that, and what impact it would have on her investments if a more widely used coin like Bitcoin adopted privacy features. Finally, she talked about common mistakes crypto teams are making and what advice she finds herself commonly giving nowadays. If you're interested in sponsoring Unchained or Unconfirmed: Email Raelene at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com. Episode links: Linda Xie: https://twitter.com/ljxie Scalar Capital: https://scalar.capital Linda's thoughts on the Ethereum hackathons she's attended over the last year, including ETHBerlin: https://medium.com/@linda.xie/building-a-developer-community-66e6a47674d7 Unchained intervie

Alex Sunnarborg, founding partner of Tetras Capital, describes the three core buckets his fund is investing in, how they're investing during this bear market, and why the firm has decided to short ether. He also describes why he thinks dapps could take off, but the value of ether may not rise anyway, and gives us some insight into how he thinks psychology plays into market rhythms. Plus, he explains why he's long Ethereum but short ETH. Alex Sunnarborg: https://twitter.com/alexsunnarborg Tetras Capital: http://tetras.capital Tetras's bearish thesis: https://medium.com/@tetrascapital/ether-eth-bearish-thesis-the-flippening-of-market-irrationality-8633e70ab498 Tetras's other writing: http://tetras.capital/partners/ Unchained episode with Joey Krug: http://unchainedpodcast.co/joey-krug-on-how-augur-is-like-any-other-tool-ep79 Unchained episode on CryptoKitties: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-makes-a-cryptokitty-worth-140000-ep75 Unconfirmed episode on Joe Lubin's and Jimmy Song's bet on adoption of da

Katherine Wu, director of business development and community at Messari, talks about the news that everyone on crypto Twitter was discussing this week: Shapeshift's decision to require customer accounts. The well-known crypto-to-crypto exchange has long been known for enabling anonymous transactions, and CEO Erik Voorhees is a noted libertarian who prefers less rather than more regulation, so the reversal was surprising to many in the crypto community. Katherine explains her theory as to why Shapeshift will be instituting customer accounts now after so many years of not requiring them, why this wasn't an easy decision for Erik to make and how Erik's personal history of run-ins with the law may have influenced this decision. Potential sponsors! This ad spot could be yours! Reach out to Raelene Gullapalli at laurashinpodcast@gmail.com to find out about sponsorship opportunities on Unconfirmed and Unchained. Episode links: Katherine Wu: https://twitter.com/katherineykwu Messari: https://messari.io https:/

Pamela Morgan, a lawyer in the blockchain space and the author of Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning, explains how you can pass on your crypto assets to your heirs without them or anyone else getting ahold of them beforehand. Surprisingly, the first step begins with a letter. She explains what information to put in that letter, how to choose helpers, and how to protect your private keys. We also discuss  what you should do legally to help the process along and what kind of tax prep you should follow. Pamela has graciously given Unconfirmed a complimentary copy of Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning, which we’ll be giving away. To win the book, tweet about it and tag me, @laurashin and @PamelawJD, and next Friday I will pick a name out of a hat and announce it on next week’s episode. Announcement: On October 26, Pamela will be in Chicago, where she's teaching a 1/2 day legal workshop: Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Smart Contact Essentials. It's open to lawyers, law students, and law curious. Learn more at empoweredlaw

Joe Lubin, cofounder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys, and Jimmy Song, partner at Blockchain Capital and founder of Programming Blockchain, pick up the bet they started at the Consensus conference in May. The challenge was on whether or not we would see several decentralized apps with real user traction five years from now, with Joe taking the yes side of the bet and Jimmy taking the no side. However, the terms of the agreement were still to be worked out. On Unchained, Jimmy proposed that Joe wins and he loses if five dapps have 10,000 daily active users and 100,000 monthly active users over a six-month period. Joe, who isn’t quite certain about what terms exactly he’d be willing to agree to, proposes a cry-uncle escape clause, Jimmy expresses his concern that Joe goes to jail and can’t deliver on any payout, and multi billionaire Joe scoffs at Jimmy’s offer to put 100 BTC on the line. Thank you to our sponsor! Digital Asset Custody Company: https://digitalassetcustody.com/ Episode links: Jimmy Song

Silicon Valley capitalist and longtime crypto investor Bill Tai discusses some interesting theories about how crypto is changing money and work. He starts by talking about the shift from oil- to electron-based currencies. He also describes how people have worked flexibly, as individuals, for most of human history and only recently have they become cogs in a wheel, beholden to one employer. Crypto, he believes, will shift us back to more flexible work models.  We also talked about a new project he's launched with CryptoKitties to try to fund endangered species -- the Honu Kitty -- which raised $25,000 to support turtle conservation, marine protection and other conservation projects. He'a also got more ideas for how crypto collectibles could help endangered species. Thank you to our sponsor! Digital Asset Custody: https://digitalassetcustody.com Episode links: Bill Tai: https://twitter.com/KiteVC Actai Global: http://actai.global Bill on how electricity has replaced oil as the basis for productivity: htt

Caitlin Long, who’s working on a book about Wall Street and crypto assets and is the cofounder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, discusses the significance of the creation of Bakkt, a new federally regulated market for Bitcoin, by ICE, Microsoft, Starbucks and investment firms Fortress Investment Group, Eagle Seven, and Susquehanna International Group. She explains why she thinks the price of bitcoin didn't jump after the news, what this move could mean for institutional players getting into crypto and why it could lead to systemic risks. We also discuss some remarks by ICE founder, chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher about how the enterprise would bring "transparency and trust" to crypto. Thank you to our sponsor! Digital Asset Custody Company: https://digitalassetcustody.com Episode links: Caitlin's articles on the announcement: https://www.forbes.com/sites/caitlinlong/2018/08/03/ice-creating-new-cryptocurrency-market-a-double-edged-sword/#50803d791015 Tweet from SEC commissioner Hester Peirce regard

Tricia Martinez, director of the Dala Foundation and founder and CEO of Wala, describes how cryptocurrency Dala is being used in Africa and how it hit 100,000 new wallets and 2.5 million in transactions in two months, with an average transaction size of around $0.27. She talks about how 94% of transactions in Africa are still being done in cash, why the problem she's trying to solve needs its own cryptocurrency and can't use bitcoin or ether, and how Wala's users are using Dala. Plus, she explains why she's focusing her entrepreneurial efforts in Africa and other emerging markets. Thank you to our sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com/ Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com/ Show links: Dala Foundation: https://dala.org/ Wala: https://getwala.com/ Tricia: https://twitter.com/TriciaTita

CoinList founder and president Andy Bromberg talks about why the ICO services firm has worked with only five out of 2,500 token projects, how tokenomic models are changing to ensure the viability of the network and also avoid incurring regulatory action, and why one of the biggest regulatory questions remaining is when a token shifts from being a security to a non-security. We also discuss why there's such a race in the stablecoin space, why there's been a shift toward building infrastructure, and what that infrastructure looks like. Thank you to our sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com Episode links: CoinList: https://coinlist.co Andy Bromberg: https://twitter.com/andy_bromberg?lang=en Unchained episode on stablecoins: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-keep-stablecoins-stable Unchained episode on the main regulatory issues regarding crypto: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-chamber-of-digital-commerces-perianne-boring-and-amy-kim-on-why-us-crypto-

In this wide-ranging conversation, the Token Economy newsletter coauthor Stefano Bernardi talks about fully digital security tokens -- security tokens with no relation to real world securities like companies and real estate, but that represent securities from DAOs and other purely crypto entities. He also discusses a new evolution in cryptoeconomics -- multiple-token economies that utilize different tokens to incentivize various behaviors on a network. For instance, one system might have a security token for accredited investors and a utility token for users. Stefano also explains why he thinks personal data monetization projects won't take off, and at the end, we dive into the question of how DAOs and blockchain technology might lead to a less capitalist world. Thank you to our sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com Links from the show: Stefano: https://twitter.com/stefanobernardi Token Economy: https://tokeneconomy.co/ World After Capital: http://worldaftercap