Bits and Borders

Bits and Borders

By Aaron StanleyNewsTech News
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Bits and Borders episodes

  • #48 Onsite at Consensus 2023 with Guilherme Santana of Preservaland

    I had the chance to catch up with Guilherme Santana at Consensus 2023 in Austin. Guilherme is an engineer, biotech entrepreneur, crypto OG and the founder of Preservaland, which is a project that uses NFTs to incentivize landowners to protect their holdings from deforestation.

    We talk about how the Preservaland team identifies land in Brazil that is considered “preservable” and then pay the landowner to convert the land to a special legal status preventing it from being deforested or developed.

    The parcel of land is then represented by an NFT, as well as relevant metadata, which can be purchased by publicly-traded companies looking to keep carbon credits or biodiversity credits on their balance sheet.

    In addition, we discuss:

    • pain points inherent in carbon credit issuance and accounting, and how blockchain can help address these problems

    • why high quality and verifiable carbon assets are difficult to come by

    • how a publicly-traded bank in Brazil now holds a Preservaland NFT on its balance sheet

    • why US companies will need to look to solutions such as Preservaland when the SEC rules requiring carbon impact reporting go live in 2024

    • how Preservaland created a compliance platform to verify the land and quantify environmental impact pursuant to Brazilian law

      • Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

      42 min
    • Onsite no Criptorama Brasilia: Porque Custôdia Importa com Juliana Walenkamp do BitGo

      Nesse podcast gravado live no Criptorama Brasilia dia 7 de Junho, eu converso com Juliana Walenkamp do BitGo sobre a importância do custôdia na questão do regulaçåo do criptomoedas

      Juliana Walenkamp é chefe de vendas institucionais da Latam na BitGo no Brasil e passou um tempo representando outros nomes familiares da Web3 como Ripple, Gemini e Transfero na região.
      Nesta conversa, mergulhamos na evolução da BitGo como empresa desde a primeira oferta de produtos básicos multi-sig em 2013 para se tornar um custodiante qualificado de pleno direito que oferece uma infinidade de outros produtos, como liquidez, staking e acesso a portais financeiros descentralizados por meio de Metamask.
      Também falamos sobre:
      - os desafios que empresas internacionais como a BitGo enfrentam ao entrar no Brasil
      - por que a BitGo solicitará uma licença de provedor de serviços de ativos virtuais no Brasil
      - a importância de custodiar criptoativos com um custodiante regulamentado ou “qualificado” com responsabilidade fiduciária
      - como o interesse institucional em produtos criptográficos está crescendo no Brasil
      - a importância das práticas de segregação de ativos pós-FTX
      - O papel da BitGo no mercado latino-americano em relação a concorrentes como Fireblocks, Coinbase, Gemini, etc.
      Você pode se conectar com Juliana no Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-walenkamp/

      33 min
    • #47: Chainalysis's Jonathan Levin on Bringing Trust to Brazil's Crypto Economy

      Jonathan Levin is Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Chainalysis, a leading blockchain data and analytics company valued at US$8.6 billion in its most recent funding round.

      I had the chance to sit down with Jonathan this week at the Criptorama conference in Brasilia, hosted by ABCripto and Fenasbac. We met up in the lobby of the famous Royal Tulip Hotel to chat about how blockchain data services like Chainalysis can bring trust to Brazil’s emerging digital asset ecosystem.

      In this interview we discuss:

      • Takeaways from Jonathan’s recent visit to Brazil, in which he met with key industry and public sector stakeholders in São Paulo and Brasília

      • Chainalysis’s global presence and expansion into Latin American markets

      • The role that blockchain analytics firms play in creating a healthy regulatory and supervisory framework for Brazil’s cryptoeconomy, particularly once the Digital Real platform is live

      • How crypto adoption in Brazil differs from other regions of the world, namely the high demand for USD-pegged stablecoins

      • Best practices, common mistakes and lessons learned that Jonathan has gleaned from watching other governments wrestle with crypto regulation and supervision

        • Please follow and subscribe to ⁠Brazil Crypto Report⁠ on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews exploring the Brazil crypto ecosystem. ⁠


        • 39 min
      • #46: Tokenizing Real World Assets with Alex Nascimento

        For this episode I'm joined by Alex Nascimento, who is a professor at UCLA in the US and a partner at 7 Visions Digital, a São Paulo-based venture fund focused on tokenizing Real World Assets such as debt, precatories and environmental assets. He’s also the author of The STO Financial Revolution: How Security Tokens Change Businesses Forever.

        I was also joined by Antonio Neto as a guest co-host. You may recall was my first-ever interviewee for this show last year when he was the head of Brazil and Latam at FTX.
        In this episode, Alex discusses his experiences teaching crypto and blockchain at the university level and how demand for these courses have ebbed and flowed with the crypto markets. We also discuss:
        - the challenges inherent in sourcing qualified talent in the blockchain industry
        - the value proposition of security tokens and how these assets fit into crypto cycles dating back to 2017
        - how Brazil’s financial regulators have been forward thinking on questions of tokens
        - the problem of fragmentation in securities regulation regimes worldwide
        - the investment proposition of regulated real world asset tokens vis-a-vis more volatile crypto-native assets
        - the challenges inherent to fully registering the full lifecycle of an RWA token on chain
        - the lack of quality yield-generating products currently available to the Brazilian populationhow asset tokenization can offer high-yield investment opportunities to retail investors that would be otherwise unavailable
        - the role and effectiveness of regulatory sandboxes such as the one operated by Brazil’s CVM
        - how institutional finance in Brazil can participate in decentralized finance using zero knowledge proofs and other tools
        - how 7 Visions Digital is exploring novel tokenization products like carbon credits, precatories and receivables
        I really enjoyed this conversation with Alex and Antonio and I hope you do as well.
        Please follow and subscribe to ⁠Brazil Crypto Report⁠ on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.
        https://brazilcrypto.substack.com/
        Follow Alex on Linkedin

        1 hr 2 min
      • #45 Inside TC Cripto with Jorge Souto and Paulo Boghosian of Traders Club

        For this most recent podcast I had the chance to sit down with Jorge Souto and Paulo Boghosian who run the TC Cripto program at Traders Club. Traders Club is a premium community that provides education, tools and research for primarily sophisticated traders across equities, derivatives and commodities.

        Paulo and Jorge are both career TradFi professionals who pivoted into crypto in the mid-2010s. In early 2021 they spun up TC Cripto, which is a division of Traders Club focused specifically on digital assets.

        In this episode we discuss:

        • The “arranged marriage” that brought Jorge and Paulo together to form TC Cripto

        • The makeup of retail versus professional traders in Brazil across different asset classes

        • Why the institutional investor community in Brazil has been slow to embrace crypto and digital assets

        • How membership in TC Cripto has continued to expand despite the bear market

        • The importance of macro conditions and indicators on crypto markets, particularly movements in the US, Europe, Japan and China

          • Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

          59 min
        • BTG Pactual's Stablecoin Play with Andre Portilho

          Andre Portilho is head of digital assets at BTG Pactual, which is one of the largest banks in Brazil and the largest investment bank in Latin America. He previously ran the options desk at BTG when bitcoin came onto his radar in 2017. Since then, BTG has been a leader among financial institutions globally in embracing and utilizing blockchain technology as well as offering crypto products to its clients.

          Last year, BTG launched its Mynt crypto platform, which offers more than 20 cryptocurrencies to customers through its application. In April 2023, BTG launched its own dollar-backed BTG Dol stablecoin, becoming what appears to be the first financial institution in the world to issue a stablecoin intended for use by retail investors.

          In this episode we discuss:

          • How the BTG Dol idea originated earlier this year

          • The current demand for US dollar exposure among Brazilian investors and BTG customers

          • BTG’s experience issuing a real estate-backed security token in 2018

          • How recent banking and stablecoin crises impacted the BTG Dol’s design

          • The value proposition of a stablecoin issued by heavily regulated TradFi institution such as BTG Pactual

          • The uptake of the Mynt platform among retail investors since late 2022

            • Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

            You can follow Andre on Linkedin and Twitter

            56 min
          • Fortune's Leo Schwartz on Brazil's Unlikely Bid to Become a Global Crypto Hub

            Leo Schwartz is a crypto reporter at Fortune covering focusing on policy and regulation. Leo has prior experience covering technology in Spanish-speaking Latin America, but he recently made his first trip to Brazil to host several crypto panels at Web Summit Rio and meet several of the key players from the local industry. In this episode, we talk about how the conference opened his eyes to Brazil's bustling crypto ecosystem, how Brazil's emerging crypto regulatory framework stacks vis-a-vis others around the world and how Brazilian crown jewel companies like Hashdex and Parfin can compete in the global marketplace.

            Leo also authored a great column post-event called "Brazil's unlikely bid to become a global crypto hub" which generated a lot of interest.

            You can follow Leo on Linkedin, Twitter and through his Fortune author page

            Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  



            36 min
          • Hashdex's Master Plan with Bruno Ramos de Sousa

            Hashdex has established itself as a global pioneer in crypto asset management since being founded in 2018. It is also one of the crown jewels of Brazil’s crypto ecosystem, with more than US$400 million in AUM.

            But the firm’s vision expands far beyond just Brazil and Latam. For this latest podcast I spoke with Bruno Ramos de Sousa, Partner and Head of US and Europe, about Hashdex’s rise to prominence in Brazil and its growth efforts worldwide.

            We discuss how Hashdex blazed a trail for bringing exchange-traded crypto products to market in Brazil and abroad, its strategy for penetrating the US and European markets, the value proposition of exchange-traded crypto products and the outlook for growth as institutional adoption increases.

            Bruno has been with Hashdex since its beginning and has played an instrumental role in the company’s formation and expansion, so it was great getting his inside perspective.

            Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  


            1 hr 19 min
          • Binance Under Fire in Brazil with Cláudio Rabin

            News broke last week that the CVM, the Brazilian SEC, referred Binance to federal prosecutors for allegedly offering crypto derivatives products to Brazilian customers in defiance of a cease and desist order.

            Further reporting this week has revealed that the CVM’s inquiry began in June 2022 after a Binance customer service representative told a Portal do Bitcoin reporter, posing as a trader, that he could access the derivatives products by simply changing the language on the Binance interface from Brazilian Portuguese to Portuguese from Portugal.

            In December 2022, the CVM referred the matter to federal prosecutors in São Paulo for further investigation asserting that there appears to be evidence of criminal activity.

            I asked Cláudio Rabin, editor-in chief of Portal do Bitcoin, to come on and discuss what his team has learned about these investigations over the last week.

            Cláudio also discusses his team's extensive reporting into Binance's opaque operating structure in Brazil, which is centered around a shell entity called B Fintech.

            Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  


            40 min
          • Onsite at Ethereum Rio with Jorge Borges of Fireblocks

            Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  


            In today’s episode I talk with Jorge Borges who heads up Fireblocks’ sales operations for Brazil and Latin America. We talk about Jorge’s background in finance and tech before jumping into crypto and digital assets. Fireblocks provides blockchain infrastructure services to digital native and traditional finance customers - ranging from small Web3 gaming startups to the world’s largest custodians and banks like Bank of New York Mellon.

            In this episode we discuss:

            • Fireblocks’ ethos as a cybersecurity provider that offers a tech stack that enable clients to build their own solutions

            • How Fireblocks differs from other institutional infrastructure firms operating in the space

            • Jorge’s experience one year into the job

            • How Brazil’s TradFi banking sector is approach the Digital Real and asset tokenization, and the role Fireblocks plays as an infrastructure provider for these use cases

            • Fireblocks’ pilot project with Aave in the Brazilian Central Bank’s Digital Real Lift lab cohort





              • 31 min

            About Bits and Borders

            From the publisher's feed

            From digital assets to tokenization to artificial intelligence, Bits and Borders explores the growth of frontier technology in frontier markets