Unchained

In the SEC’s push to rein in the crypto sector, one question looms large: Is ETH a security? Dan Berkovitz, a former CFTC commissioner and SEC general counsel, and Colin Lloyd, a partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, assess the current state of the regulatory turf war in the U.S., shedding light on some of Washington’s unanswered questions.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how an asset can be both a commodity and a security what it means that bitcoin and ether were listed as non-security futures whether The Merge may have changed regulators’ views on the classification of ETH who would be responsible for determining that ETH is a security what Colin and Dan say about ETH being a security or not what would happen if any regulator, be it the CFTC or SEC, determined that ETH is a security how and whether DeFi applications should be regulated why it is important to consider the “human initiative” behind DeFi platforms the implications of having a technology that allows for the sale of securities without an intermediary the implications of the SEC’s proposal to change the definition of an exchange how new technologies were integrated with the regulatory system in the past and how that differs from the current approach of the SEC the problems of trying to regulate a technology that’s changing so fast how other jurisdictions have been taking a more proactive approach to regulating digital assets Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Guests: Dan Berkovitz, former General Counsel at the SEC and former Commissioner at the CFTC. Previous appearance on Unchained: Can a DeFi Smart Contract Be Regulated? Two CFTC Commissioners Discuss Colin Lloyd, partner at Sullivan & Cromwell Previous coverage of Unchained on crypto regulation:  ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer Coinbase's Legal Action Against the SEC: How It Will Likely Unfold Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’ Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US? Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ Links CoinDesk:  U.S. SEC Moves Toward DeFi Oversight as It Reopens Proposed Regulations SEC Chair Gensler Declines to Say if Ether Is a Security in Contentious Congressional Hearing Bloomberg: CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam on the Fight to Regulate Crypto Unchained:  SEC Chair Gary Gensler Avoids Question: ‘Is Ethereum a Security?’ SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’ Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition SEC Asks Court to Deny Coinbase Demand for Crypto Rules Financial Institutions Hub: SEC Proposal Targets Crypto Exchanges, Trading Platforms, and Brokers Emmer and Soto Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Provide Regulatory Clarity for Digital Assets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Maj 20231h 22min

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, Taproot Wizards instigator Eric Wall joins the show to discuss the rise of Ordinals and what it means for the future of Bitcoin. Will inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens bring a slew of Ethereum-style problems to the original blockchain?  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  how Eric has set up a “war” between the “laser-eye tribe” and the “magicians” how the Bitcoin maxi community is different from the normal Bitcoin user base whether Ordinals fixes the lack of demand for Bitcoin block space what Taproot is and what it enabled on the Bitcoin network the MEV problem that could arise in Bitcoin now that demand for block space is going up whether Bitcoin’s values resemble a religion whether the increased demand for Bitcoin block space is good for the network, even if it’s fueled by JPEGs and “shitcoins” why so many people got worried about Ledger Recover why Robert thinks that Ledger’s new service is “terrifying” and why Haseeb is not so concerned whether Bitcoin is becoming a unit of account once again Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly  Guest Eric Wall, cofounder of Taproot Wizards Previous appearances on Unchained:  Eric Wall and Udi Wertheimer on Why Bitcoin Maximalism Is 'Like a Shitcoin Community' Is Bitcoin Doomed to Fail? Eric Wall and Justin Bons Face Off Why Terra Collapsed and Whether an Algo Stablecoin Can Ever Succeed Disclosures Links CoinDesk:  Ledger Bats Back Criticism of New Wallet Recovery Service The Blocksize Wars Revisited: How Bitcoin's Civil War Still Resonates Today Nic Carter: There's No Such Thing as High Fees on Bitcoin Unchained:  ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users ​​‘Technically’ Possible to Extract User Keys? Ledger Addresses Deleted Tweet Haseeb Qureshi’s thread on Ledger Recover Previous coverage of Unchained on Ordinals and BRC-20s: Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable? Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Maj 20231h 17min

Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices Head of Content “Seth For Privacy.” He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream adoption. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how Ledger Recover works and why it caused an outrage in the crypto community why the fact that Ledger’s code is not open-source could be considered a problem what the concerns are about handing over additional data to Ledger how darknet markets have always existed for fake ID verifications and how it relates to Ledger’s new feature some of Ledger’s previous security lapses  why introducing a trusted third party undermines one of Bitcoin’s most central tenets whether Ledger’s move is a “net good for society,” and whether people actually want a service like this in a hardware wallet whether something will go wrong with Ledger in the future Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Railgun DAO  Stader Labs Guest Seth for Privacy, blogger and head of content at Foundation Devices Blog Foundation Devices Twitter thread on the logistics and risks of the Ledger recovery process Links Ledger CTO Twitter thread on Ledger Recover  CoinDesk: Ledger Bats Back Criticism of New Wallet Recovery Service, CoinDesk  Unchained: ‘Backdoor’ for Seed Phrases? Ledger’s New Recovery Feature Spooks Users Ledger Recover webpage Haseeb Qureshi’s thread on the Ledger controversy Past Ledger security issues CoinDesk: Crypto Wallet Maker Ledger Loses 1M Email Addresses in Data Theft Cointelegraph: Ledger data leak: A ‘simple mistake’ exposed 270K crypto wallet buyers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Maj 202340min

Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: what ordinal theory is and how it enabled Bitcoin “NFTs” how the Ordinals Protocol differs from the ERC-721 token standard used by many Ethereum NFTs how BRC-20s work by relying on some off-chain mechanisms why Bitcoin is not a “dinosaur chain,” according to Dan why Trevor says BRC-20 memecoins are superior to those on Ethereum what the practical utilities of BRC-20s are, if any why transaction fees in Bitcoin rose so much and why it’s healthy for the network  whether innovation is coming back to Bitcoin whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have approved of Bitcoin NFTs the role of speculation in fueling bitcoin adoption  the current and future state of layer 2s on Bitcoin why Dan says BRC-20s “absolutely” solve the problem with Bitcoin’s security budget why it’s hard to determine an “appropriate” amount for the security budget of Bitcoin how the NFT market could be shaped after the rise of Ordinals and BRC-20s what needs to be developed so that BRC-20s can flourish Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Guests: Dan Held, Bitcoin educator and marketing advisor at Trust Machines  Trevor Owens, managing partner at Bitcoin Frontier Fund Previous coverage of Unchained on Ordinals: Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About? - NFT Crypto Links Unchained:  How to Create a Bitcoin Ordinal Bitcoin Core Developers Mull Getting Rid of BRC-20 Transactions Binance Briefly Halted Bitcoin Withdrawals Amid Network Congestion Domo’s thread on BRC-20s  Anita Posch’s comments.on the high fees Nic Carter: There's No Such Thing as High Fees on Bitcoin Nic Carter’s MIT presentation: MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 - 10 years of Bitcoin: Evaluating its Performance as a Monetary System Decrypt: Michael Saylor: Bitcoin Ordinals Are a ‘Catalyst’ for Adoption [bitcoin-dev] [Mempool spam] Should we as developers reject non-standard Taproot transactions from full nodes? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Maj 20231h 7min

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they talk about the recent issues surrounding the Aragon Foundation, the likelihood of Montenegro becoming an ETH hub, the BRC-20s mania, and much more! Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  why Zuzalu is “Burning Man in the daytime” whether Montenegro could become the “ETH El Salvador doppelganger” why the Aragon Foundation alleged that they were under attack why Aragon has “missed the boat on a lot of everything that’s happened in DAOs” whether the Aragon Foundation is “suckling on the teat of the DAO for a fat salary” whether Arca was right about wanting the Aragon treasury to be part of the on-chain governance how on-chain governance can do even more than many of the investment banking functions that exist currently why some Bitcoin developers want to censor BRC-20 transactions why the way XEN works gives Haseeb a headache whether Binance CEO CZ invented the memecoin PEPE what the impact of Jump and Jane Street decreasing their market making activity is where the next market makers will come from Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound  Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly  Disclosures Links Unchained:  Coinbase Apologizes After Calling PEPE a ‘Hate Symbol’ Market Makers Jump and Jane Street Withdraw From U.S. Crypto Trading: Report CoinDesk: Aragon Cancels Planned Community Control of $200M Treasury Amid Battle With Activist Investors The Block: Coinbase cuddles up to UAE policymakers as US outlook sours Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Maj 202355min

News emerged this week that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) placed $44 billion in claims on the FTX bankruptcy estate. Now creditors of the defunct crypto exchange are worried that the taxman is going to gobble up funds that would otherwise be used to make users partially whole. Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency, joins the show to explain what’s going on, how that huge number is even possible, and why the so-called “trust argument” is not going to be the silver bullet that some FTX customers are dreaming of. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: whether the numbers of the IRS claim are even correct how these claims may affect all customers and unsecured creditors of FTX whether FTX CEO John Ray will fight the claims  what the trust argument is and how it could potentially save (or not) FTX’s creditors in what currency the investments made by creditors would be returned why the Three Arrows Capital case differs from FTX and Mt. Gox why what FTX allegedly did is similar, but different, from what Celsius or Voyager did Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Railgun DAO  Stader Labs Guest Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency Previous appearances on Unchained:  Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack Why the Messy 3AC, Celsius, and Voyager Bankruptcies Will Drag on for Years  Three Crypto Bankruptcies: 3AC, Celsius and Voyager. What Happens Now? Links CoinDesk: U.S. Internal Revenue Service Files Claims Worth $44 Billion Against FTX Bankruptcy MeatTC’s Twitter thread Wassie’s Twitter thread Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Maj 202341min

Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall of the one-time crypto wunderkind. “It became clear to me that Sam got really addicted to fame,” said Dale. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: Brady’s background and how he came to cover crypto how covering the space for a crypto outlet is different from a more mainstream publication how Brady was able to finalize his book so fast  what Brady’s favorite parts of the book are who was really responsible for the collapse of the FTX empire whether Sam Bankman-Fried will plead guilty  whether FTX will make a comeback how SBF thinks differently from other people, and how it led to his downfall why Brady thinks the “dot-com bust” for crypto has yet to arrive whether crypto has betrayed its cypherpunk ideals Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Guests: Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios, and author of “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy” Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX: The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning?  How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing?  Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He? Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting? Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX? The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater  Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto? Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Maj 20231h 1min

The Genesis bankruptcy is about to take a high-stakes turn with a $630 million payment from Digital Currency Group (DCG) due by May 11. Barry Silbert’s DCG, the parent company of Genesis, is on the hook for the massive payment, but doubts are swirling as to whether the crypto conglomerate can cover it. Lumida Wealth CEO Ram Ahluwalia joins the show to unpack what could happen to Genesis creditors, Gemini Earn users, and the markets should DCG fail to cover its debt obligations. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: whether DCG will be able to pay its debt to the Genesis bankruptcy estate the ways DCG can “plug the hole” what the likelihood of DCG filing for bankruptcy is how FTX’s intent to claw back $3.9 billion from Genesis would affect DCG whether Gemini Earn customers will be made whole why Ram says that asymmetric information has plagued the bankruptcy process whether the creditors should accept the latest term sheet how the Grayscale lawsuit against the SEC could impact DCG’s cash flow Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Railgun DAO  Stader Labs Guest Ram Ahluwalia, CEO & Founder of Lumida Wealth Previous appearances on Unchained:  ​​Genesis May Be Facing Bankruptcy. Could It Take DCG Down With It? Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy? How Will the FTX Collapse Affect Silvergate? A Bear and a Bull Debate How Is the Fed Going to Respond to the Banking Crisis? Links Unchained: FTX Moves to Claw Back $3.9 Billion From Genesis Reuters: Crypto group DCG says bankrupt unit Genesis' creditors renege on deal CoinDesk:  Genesis Files for Mediator Assistance Over Amount of DCG Contribution to Reorganization DCG's CFO Steps Down as Crypto Conglomerate Repays $350M Loan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Maj 202345min