Unconfirmed: Insights And Analysis From The Top Minds In Crypto

In this special episode I hosted with CNBC Crypto Trader, Ran Neu Ner and I talk with Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of crypto hedge fund Polychain Capital. We discuss his early career, what sets this crypto downturn apart from previous ones and why we see hardcore tribalism in the crypto space. He also explains what types of investments and technologies he looks for, why we won't see one dominant breakthrough and why "no one cares about incrementally faster bank settlement but paradigm shifts." Thank you to our sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com  Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com  Polychain Capital: http://polychain.capital CNBC Crypto Trader: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN9Nj4tjXbVTLYWN0EKly_Q

Independent crypto analyst Willy Woo, who blogs at Woobull.com, talks about where he sees the price of Bitcoin going over the next six months. (Hint: He uses the word "sideways.") He also describes his concept of NVT Ratio, the Bitcoin equivalent of price-to-earnings ratio, and how that helps determine whether bitcoin and certain other coins are over- or undervalued. We also discuss his 10,000-year view of cryptocurrency, and why he believes we're only nine years away from half of the world using Bitcoin. Thank you to our sponsors! Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Links for this episode: https://woobull.com https://twitter.com/woonomic Willy's recent tweets on the short-term future price of Bitcoin: https://twitter.com/woonomic/status/1000223528803762176 The Unconfirmed episode in which Coinbase's Adam White estimates conservatively, that $10 billion of institutional money is waiting to come into crypto: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/coinbases-adam-white-on-a-momentou

Demian Brener, the cofounder and CEO of Zeppelin discusses a dilemma he's seeing investors be concerned about: whether blockchains should be immutable forever or whether it should be possible to upgrade smart contracts over time. He explains why he doesn't see it as a dilemma, how it could be possible to have an upgradeable, immutable blockchain. We also cover another trend he's seeing: would-be ICO issuers instead turning to airdrops as a way to avoid some regulatory issues. Now that Tezos Betanet has launched (plus EOS and Dfinity are in the race), we talk about what factors will determine which smart contract platforms come out on top, plus Brener describes how the libraries he's building at Zeppelin OS could factor in. Thank you to our sponsors! Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Links for the show: Zeppelin OS: https://zeppelinos.org Tezos Betanet: https://tezos.com/betanet/ Dfinity airdrop: https://medium.com/dfinity/liftoff-the-dfinity-community-airdrop-is-here-5a1

Kyle Samani, managing partner of Multicoin Capital, talks about what got him really excited at this week's Zcon0 conference for Zcash -- primarily, technologies that could make possible a future of massively scalable blockchains featuring default private transactions that would still make possible selective viewing to, say, auditors. He also recaps the major incidents around EOS's launch and how the community plans to change its governance, by trying out a new ethos of "intent of code" is law. We also discuss whether or not it's even possible to enforce that and how EOS's governance system compares to the one in Bitcoin. Finally, we also touch on some of the news around VCs investing in crypto, starting with some of the biggest news this week -- Kathryn Haun's appointment as the new GP of Andreessen Horowitz, where she will be co-managing its new crypto fund -- and the various strategies that VC firms are using to invest in crypto. Thank you to our sponsors! Clarity PR: http://clarity.pr Onramp: http://www

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, a contributing writer at Wired, came out with a cover story in the magazine earlier this week that investigated the actions of both sides in the Tezos boardroom battle. Lewis-Kraus walks us through the accusations on both sides and explains how the balance of the blame seems to lie with foundation head, Johann Gevers, who had numerous conflicts of interest, proposed an unjustified payment for himself and appears to have tried to revive his faltering company Monetas by riding on the coattails of Tezos's success with the ICO. Lewis-Kraus also tells us what he thinks are the big takeaways from the Tezos fight for other crypto entrepreneurs. Gideon Lewis-Kraus: http://www.gideonlk.com His Wired cover story: Inside the Crypto World's Biggest Scandal: https://www.wired.com/story/tezos-blockchain-love-story-horror-story/ Tezos: https://tezos.com Thank you to our sponsor! Onramp: http://thinkonramp.com

Adam White, vice president and general manager of Coinbase, explains why he believes the SEC's statement Thursday that ether, in its current form, is not a security, is a historic moment in crypto. Also, from his vantage point of being steeped in the industry but interacting regularly with institutional investors and regulators, he describes where crypto is right now and why he believes it will be moving from an investment phase to a utility phase. He also discusses Coinbase's many recent announcements, from the fact that it will soon be a regulated broker dealer, to the establishment of services for institutional investors such as Coinbase Custody, Coinbase Markets and Coinbase Prime, to its acquisition of decentralized relay Paradex. He also explains why Coinbase decided to list Ethereum Classic, gives an answer to the Twitter people requesting Coinbase list XRP, and describes the main developments he believes are necessary to bring established financial institutions into crypto trading. Coinbase: https://

Joey Krug, cofounder of Augur and chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, talks about the upcoming Augur launch, and why we haven't yet seen a regular, non-deflationary, non-stablecoin cryptocurrency -- and how to create one. For instance, he says, an inflationary currency could distribute the inflation to particular groups. He also explains what the "impossible trinity" is and how an independent monetary policy in crypto might work. We also discuss new ways crypto projects are trying to solve the scalability problem  and he gives us his take on the polarizing EOS network. Joey Krug: https://twitter.com/joeykrug Augur: http://www.augur.net Pantera Capital: https://www.panteracapital.com   Basis: https://basis.io Celer: https://www.celer.network Counterfactual: https://counterfactual.com Oasis Labs: https://www.oasislabs.com Ankr: https://www.ankr.network EOS: https://eos.io Multicoin Capital on Unchained talking about tradeoffs: http://unchainedpodcast.co/multicoin-on-the-1-thing-crypto-teams-

Think Bitcoin and crypto assets are just vehicles for speculation? They're already having both a positive impact and negative impact when it comes to human rights, says Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation. Gladstein talks about how he first became enamored with Bitcoin because of its potential to solve hyperinflation, and why he believes Venezuela is the site of the world's first crypto war. He also covers why repressive governments are excited by centralized cryptocurrencies, why impact investing focused on the UN sustainable goals will not address human rights issues, and why blockchain-based elections, which many believe could be fair and transparent, could instead be terribly corrupt. https://twitter.com/gladstein https://oslofreedomforum.com/ https://www.hrf.org Blockstack on Unchained: http://unchainedpodcast.co/blockstack-on-getting-independence-from-google-facebook-and-amazon Stablecoins and MakerDAO on Unchained: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-its-so-hard-to-

Blockchain consultant, Jill Carlson, who has worked with 0x, dydx, Algorand, Tezos, O1 Labs, and the IMF, discusses why Blockchain Week to her seemed to be too much about Lambos and how crypto has reached its "illogical conclusion" and is replicating Wall Street's misbehaviors. Hence, the Department of Justice's investigation into the price manipulation of Bitcoin. However, she sees a bright spot in decentralized exchange, but believes blockchain-based credit is an area that needs further development -- and that relies on decentralized credit scoring. Jill Carlson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_jillruth On Medium: https://medium.com/@jillcarlson Jill on how crypto looks a lot like Wall Street: https://www.coindesk.com/growing-greed-crypto-looks-lot-like-wall-street/ DOJ investigation into possible price manipulation of Bitcoin: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-24/bitcoin-manipulation-is-said-to-be-focus-of-u-s-criminal-probe Jill on blockchain-based credit:   https://medium.com/@jill

Mike Novogratz, the founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital Capital Management, talks about the recently announced Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, why it's limited to just 12 cryptos, how traditional financial players know more about crypto than people believe they do, and how "the herd" is coming. He discusses the biggest obstacles to institutional money entering the space, how their entry will affect trading opportunities and and which types of stablecoins he believes are most promising. He also talks about why he's not very sanguine about custody solutions from Coinbase, why the market might go sideways for a while and why he wishes he'd invested in Telegram. Mike Novogratz: https://twitter.com/novogratz Listen to the Unchained episode with Wences Casares, the CEO of Xapo, which Novogratz mentions in the episode: http://unchainedpodcast.co/xapos-wences-casares-on-how-bitcoin-makes-a-fairer-world Listen to the Unchained episode on BitGo, which Novogratz also mentions: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on

Many government officials have noted the potential blockchain technology has to fight fraud, waste and abuse. Tomicah Tillemann, cofounder of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator, assembled an intimate group of 18 people at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center to discuss the ways in which blockchains can be designed in a way that fulfills the technology's most idealistic potential to combat corruption and democratize access, whether to the financial system, the ability to vote or to a self-sovereign identity. He discusses the Blockchain Trust Accelerator's work with a blockchain-based voting system in West Virginia, and with enforcing labor rights via blockchain-based contracts in a pilot with Coca-Cola and the State Department. Tomicah Tillemann: https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/tomicah-tillemann/ Blockchain Trust Accelerator: https://www.newamerica.org/bretton-woods-ii/blockchain-trust-accelerator/ The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center: https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/bell

Robert Opp, director of innovation and change management at the United Nations World Food Programme, discusses the Ethereum-based food voucher program for Syrian refugees. He describes how the refugees are identified, what they receive with their voucher, and how the system has allowed the program to save a half million dollars a year. He also gives a hint at how the program will be built on for other initiatives. Robert Opp: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/AI/Pages/opp.aspx UN World Food Programme: http://it1.wfp.org/ Episode of Unchained with Vitalik Buterin, where he discusses the food voucher program for Syrian refugees: http://unchainedpodcast.co/vitalik-buterin-creator-of-ethereum-on-the-big-guy-vs-the-little-guy Thank you to our sponsors! Element Group: http://elementgroup.com/unconfirmed Token Agency: http://tokenagency.com/

Who sets up the rules of a blockchain? And how does that impact its users? Could there be unintended consequences? Might the design not account for the potential that bad actors will abuse it? These are questions that Cara LaPointe, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, is about to release a framework for blockchain ethics. She and her team came up with six main areas of focus that blockchain designers should be considering from the outset, starting with governance, identity, data ownership and other factors. As Ethereum is facing the question of how the community should decide what to do with frozen funds or a potential cap on the money supply, LaPointe has some suggestions for how the major players should proceed. She also talks about the dangers of artificial intelligence combined with blockchains. We spoke at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy, at the Blockchain Summit hosted by New America's Blockchain Trust Accelerator. Cara LaPo

Ryan Selkis of blockchain standards organization Messari explains why he jumped into a public debate between CoinDesk editor Pete Rizzo and Vitalik and Ethereum, in which Vitalik criticized CoinDesk for charging high prices for its Consensus conference. He also names some blockchain-based media efforts that can bring new solutions to the media industry and discussion how token-curated registries play a role. Messari: https://messari.io/ Vitalik's tweets about skipping Consensus: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/989525778424451072 The Washington Post tweet storm and article that Ryan and I discuss: https://twitter.com/asymmetricinfo/status/989609519465553920 https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/04/26/a-farewell-to-free-journalism/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ee18b4c8938c Thank you to our sponsor, Token Agency! http://tokenagency.com/

Vinny Lingham, the founder and CEO of blockchain-based identity service Civic, talks about how he hasn't seen token projects find good product-market fit yet, and gives us a sneak preview of how Civic is trying to solve that problem for itself. (Apparently, an announcement is in the works.) He also discusses how Multicoin Capital, where he is a general partner, takes this view into account when investing and why the firm is a proponent of EOS, set to launch in June. We also dive into why he is bullish on EOS, which is fairly centralized, even though he also supports Bitcoin for its censorship-resistant qualities. Civic: https://www.civic.com/ Multicoin: https://multicoin.capital/ Multicoin's EOS analysis and valuation: https://multicoin.capital/2018/04/24/eos-analysis-and-valuation/ Thank you to our sponsor, Quantstamp! https://quantstamp.com/

Formerly head of emerging technology at State Street, Hu Liang is now launching Omniex, which offers tools for institutional investors in crypto. He talks at the Time Summit in Greenwich, Connecticut, about the four quadrants of activity he sees in the crypto space, why he thinks private blockchains will still be disruptive, and what institutional players are planning to do in crypto in 2018. He also discusses what concerns they have about getting involved and what Omniex is building to serve them. Omniex: https://omniex.io Hu’s CoinDesk article on how he categorized the activity in the crypto space: https://www.coindesk.com/four-quadrants-dividing-conquering-crypto-universe/amp/ We spoke at the Time Summit by Bridge Alternatives:  https://timesummit.org/ https://www.bridgealternatives.com/ Thank you to today’s sponsors! Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Quantstamp: http://quantstamp.com

At the CoinAlts Fund Symposium in New York City on Thursday, Don Wilson, CEO of DRW Holdings, discussed what hopeful signs he's seeing amid greater regulatory uncertainty, what crypto regulations in other jurisdictions he finds smart, and how the regulatory cloud is affecting the decisions of institutional investors. He also described how DRW's customers changed over 2017, and why the market has dropped in 2018. DRW: https://drw.com SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's recent statements on tokens evolving toward and away from a security: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-chief-not-icos-bad/ More on BitGo's acquisition of Kingdom Trust: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future CoinAlts Fund Symposium: https://www.coinaltsfundsymposium.com Thank you to our sponsors, Onramp and Quantstamp: http://www.thinkonramp.com https://quantstamp.com

Meltem Demirors of Athena Capital and recently of Digital Currency Group explains how the crypto world is creating artificial scarcity and how investors can uncover the true scarcity (or lack thereof). She describes why many projects have not yet able to create natural demand and how the downturn has affected many of their balance sheets. She also talks about how she's looking for investments and businesses that aren't necessarily sexy but will make money in both bull and bear markets -- and reveals what types of businesses fit that description. Some recent writing and presentations in which Meltem elaborated on these thoughts: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/drowning-in-tokens-184ccfa1641a https://www.slideshare.net/DCGCo/playing-the-game-the-nature-of-competition-among-blockchain-networks The Carlota Perez book we mention: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/technological-revolutions-and-financial-capital OnChainFX: https://onchainfx.com/  Thank you to our sponsors! Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com/ Onram

Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder and author of Cryptoassets, discusses why he thinks initial coin offerings may not always be the best token distribution model, why he's more interested in projects that enable users to earn tokens through contributing to the network, and how token distribution models can be designed to take advantage of the democratizing potential of blockchains. We also discuss why Placeholder uses a ten-year time horizon as it invests in these liquid markets and why regulators may someday have to buy tokens. Placeholder: https://www.placeholder.vc/ TPL: https://blog.zeppelin.solutions/tpl-a-framework-for-secure-peer-to-peer-exchange-7c69fd0aebc9 Messari: https://messari.io/ Harbor/R-token standard: https://harbor.com/ R-token white paper: https://harbor.com/rtokenwhitepaper.pdf

Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, discusses the slump in crypto prices, and how infrastructure rolling out over the rest of the year could have a positive effect on the market. He also describes how BlockTower Capital thinks about security for its assets and what risks they consider. Additionally, we discuss the movement in some parts of the crypto community to build coins to be ASIC-resistant and whether or not that could adversely affect the security of those tokens. BlockTower Capital: https://blocktower.com/ More info on custody solutions and how they could affect the development of the space: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future  Coins sorted by percent down from all-time high: https://onchainfx.com/v/aiTLnb The Carlota Perez book, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/technological-revolutions-and-financial-capital  Movements toward ASIC resistance: Mon