The Chopping Block: Robinhood’s Tokenized-Stock Gambit, Solana’s ETF Splash & the Proof-of-Stake Reality Check - Ep. 862

Nadav, founder of Dharma protocol, explains how it enables the borrowing and lending of crypto assets, what would happen in the case of default, and why it would make sense to do it in a decentralized fashion rather than using one of the many fintech companies in the lending space. He talks about what effect he thinks decentralized credit markets could have on the market capitalization of all debt, why it will likely enable forms of debt currently unimaginable, and who could benefit most from this protocol. He also dives into why Dharma doesn't currently have a token, how or whether it could work on a non-Ethereum blockchain and ways the for-profit company could someday make money. Thank you to our sponsors! StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com Episode links: Nadav Hollander: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander Dharma protocol: https://dharma.io The Dharma white paper: https://github.com/dharmaprotocol/WhitePaper/blob/master/DharmaWhitepaper.pdf To understand the similarities with Dharma, check out the 0x interview with Will Warren: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future New types of debt possible with Dharma: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1032754247341756416 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4 Sep 201858min

Joey Krug, cofounder of Augur and co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, talks about what Augur is and is not, why it’s difficult to create new financial markets today and whether or not Augur markets could curb fake news. He explains why the teams burned its escape hatch key and whether he’s worried that Augur’s crowdsale would be considered an unregistered securities offering, plus answers whether he would benefit financially if assassination markets pop up on Augur. We also discuss what he sees happening in the market in his role as co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, what problems he think need to be resolved before Augur and dapps can take off, and which projects he believes have the greatest potential to democratize finance. Thank you to our sponsors! Start Engine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com/ Episode Links: Joey Krug: https://twitter.com/joeykrug?lang=en Augur: https://www.augur.net/ Pantera: https://www.panteracapital.com/ Joey on Unconfirmed: https://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/joey-krug-on-how-to-create-a-regular-cryptocurrency-ep022 Augur FAQ: https://www.augur.net/faq/ Predictions Global: https://predictions.global/ Assassination markets on Augur: https://www.coindesk.com/the-first-augur-assassination-markets-have-arrived/ SEC action against Sand Hill Exchange: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-123.html Listen to the Unchained interview with 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 Aug 201852min

Dfinity's Dominic Williams talks about how Dfinity is an internet computer that can host our software and data, instead of it being held by centralized services. He describes the consensus algorithm, threshold relay, and why he believes Dfinity will be much more secure than Bitcoin. We also dive into Dfinity's governance mechanism, the "blockchain nervous system." Williams, who has written about the "AI-managed environment provided by the blockchain nervous system" and talked about how Dfinity upgrades the "code is law paradigm" to "the AI is law paradigm," explains on the show that the blockchain nervous system is not an AI and is manually controlled by users. Thank you to our sponsors! StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com Episode links: Dfinity: https://www.dfinity.org Dominic: https://twitter.com/dominic_w?lang=en Dfinity as decentralized cloud: https://medium.com/dfinity/the-decentralized-cloud-vision-of-the-dfinity-blockchain-f68449c49be2 Dfinity consensus algorithm: https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-white-paper-our-consensus-algorithm-a11adc0a054c Threshold relay: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/threshold-relay-blockchain-stanford.pdf Posts where Dominic has described Dfinity's governance system as an AI: https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-in-a-nutshell-a-non-technical-introduction-ec45ec5967c1 https://medium.com/dfinity/the-dfinity-blockchain-nervous-system-a5dd1783288e Phi: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/phi-dfinity-extended-v2.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

21 Aug 20181h 5min

Josh Stein, CEO of Harbor, and Danny An, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, talk about security tokens and tokens backed by real-world assets, often called an unsexy area of crypto. They explain the strategies their teams are using to tackle the tokenization of what currently constitute $250 trillion in assets, what kinds of new behaviors and business opportunities "faster, cheaper, more liquid" assets could open up, and how they'll comply with regulations across all jurisdictions for markets that are global and trade 24/7/365. Thank you to our sponsors! StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com Episode links: Harbor: https://harbor.com Trust Token: https://www.trusttoken.com True USD: https://www.trusttoken.com/trueusd/ An overview of security tokens: https://medium.com/@apompliano/the-official-guide-to-tokenized-securities-44e8342bb24f More on Harbor and security tokens: http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/security-token-harbor-ce More on True USD: https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/18/trusttoken-readies-sale-of-more-trueusd-asset-based-tokens/ The PICO: https://medium.com/harborhq/introducing-the-private-ico-pico-3e8b782924c1 Episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Aug 20181h

In July in San Francisco, I moderated a panel at "Distributed 2018: Unlocking the Global Power of Decentralized Business." The title of our discussion was "Innovate or Reinvent?" and the panelists were Amber Baldet, cofounder and CEO of Clovyr, Matt Roszak, cofounder and chairman of Bloq, and Lily Liu, cofounder of Earn.com. We had a wide-ranging discussion, which included topics such as how the "Crypto 50" combined have more budget for blockchain development services than Fortune 50 companies,  how developing in the blockchain space and revolutionize an existing market requires that the new offering be many times better than existing options, and why enterprise needs to wait to get permission rather than ask for forgiveness, which doesn't hinder new projects. We also discussed how government is also a competitor in the space, that building entities don't include only decentralized projects and corporations, and how regulation could affect the development of the space. Thank you to our sponsors! DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com Quantstamp: https://www.quantstamp.com The Sun Exchange:  https://www.thesunexchange.com Episode links: Distributed conference: https://2018.distributed.com Amber Baldet: https://twitter.com/AmberBaldet Clovyr: https://clovyr.io Matt Roszak: https://twitter.com/MatthewRoszak Bloq: https://www.bloq.com Lily Liu: https://twitter.com/calilyliu Earn.com: https://earn.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Aug 201830min

Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties, and Benny Giang, Dapper Labs’ head of Asia, describe how employees at venture studio AxiomZen came up with the idea for CryptoKitties, what problems it exposed in crypto (beyond scaling!), and how CryptoKitties can teach people the value of decentralization. They also defend the $140,000 price tag on one kitty, explain how they plan to grow from the current 300 users per day that the blockchain is logging, and surmise that if it weren't for user experience issues, CryptoKitties could have been 100 times bigger. Plus, they talk about the Kittyverse. Thank you to our sponsors! DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com Episode links: CryptoKitties: https://www.cryptokitties.co AxiomZen/Dapper Labs: https://www.axiomzen.co Roham Gharegozlou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roham Benny Giang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennygiang/ The $140,000 CryptoKitty: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/cryptokitty-auction.html Fundraising news: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/cryptokitties-raises-12m-from-andreessen-horowitz-and-union-square-ventures/ CryptoKitties on HTC's new phone: http://fortune.com/2018/07/11/cryptokitties-app-htc/ Listen to previous episodes of Unchained with these CryptoKitties investors: Chris Dixon: http://unchainedpodcast.co/chris-dixon-on-how-trust-is-the-best-lego-block-ep70 Naval Ravikant: http://unchainedpodcast.co/naval-ravikant-on-how-crypto-is-squeezing-vcs-hindering-regulators-and-bringing-users-choice Bill Tai: http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology William Mougayar: http://unchainedpodcast.co/icos-why-people-are-investing-in-this-380-million-phenomenon "Developers all the way down" -- Unchained episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74 Listen to my previous interview with Arianna Simpson on Unconfirmed about CryptoKitties: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/arianna-simpson-of-autonomous-partners-on-privacy-cryptokitties-and-crypto-regulation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Aug 20181h 5min

In this hilarious skeptics' episode, Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, and Jill Carlson, an independent consultant, explain why they think crypto needs fewer moral arguments and more empirical evidence, and how there's too much focus on financial engineering, but not enough focus on winning hearts and minds. They also explain why people are not machines where "you put in a token and get out an action," what the "sh*tcoin waterfall" is, and why cryptoeconomics isn't anything new. Plus, they give their tips for working in the space. Thank you to our sponsors! DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/ Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com Episode links: Meltem on Twitter: https://twitter.com/melt_dem On Medium: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem Jill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_jillruth AirTM: https://www.airtm.io Fat protocols thesis: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols Amber Baldet's tweet about the finger guns guy: https://twitter.com/amberbaldet/status/1006286345122275331 Meltem's tips on working in crypto: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/so-you-want-to-work-in-crypto-57961ca074c4 Jill's tips on working for yourself: https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/working-alone-165ababeafc2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 Juli 20181h 6min

Kathleen Breitman, CEO of Dynamic Ledger Solutions, the company behind the Tezos protocol, and Ryan Jesperson, president of the foundation, discuss the Tezos initial coin offering, which was the largest ICO at the time of sale. Kathleen explains why she wouldn't do anything differently, except for the choice of foundation head, Johann Gevers, with whom Kathleen and her co-creator and husband, Arthur Breitman, ended up in multiple disputes. She muses as to why many people initially praised Gevers and then later revealed that he was not liked or that he'd defrauded them when they'd worked for him. Ryan and Kathleen also explain how they will attempt to help Tezos compete in the competitive smart contract platform space, despite the fact that Tezos is built in less well-known computer languages, and they explain why they've chosen delegated proof of stake as their consensus protocol, despite the criticism that it could create a plutocracy. Tezos: https://tezos.com Kathleen Breitman: https://twitter.com/breitwoman Ryan Jesperson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-jesperson-23b0053a/ Thank you to our sponsors! Preciate: https://preciate.org Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com The Sun Exchange: https://www.thesunexchange.com Podcast links: Wired story on Tezos: https://www.wired.com/story/tezos-blockchain-love-story-horror-story/ Unconfirmed episode with Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of the Wired cover story: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/behind-the-tezos-scandal-conflicts-of-interest-self-dealing-and-bullying-ep024 Unconfirmed with Caitlin Long on Wyoming blockchain laws: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/behind-the-tezos-scandal-conflicts-of-interest-self-dealing-and-bullying-ep024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Juli 20181h 5min